As part of the Lecture series at UKZN, The CIHA Blog announces the upcoming 2015 Annual John Langalibalele Dube Memorial Lecture that will take place on Thursday, September 10th, 2015 under the theme “Reconscientising South African communities towards self-reliance and self-respect: A ‘ghost dance’ with John Langalibalele Dube and Steve Bantu Biko”.The Keynote Speaker will be Dr Duma Ndlovu – South African writer and producer.
Professor Cheryl Potgieter, the Deputy Vice-Chancellor
and Head of College of Humanities
cordially invites you to attend
The 2015 Annual John Langalibalele Dube Memorial Lecture
Guest Speaker – Mr Duma Ndlovu
Title: Reconscientising South African communities towards self-reliance and self respect:
A ‘ghost dance’ with John Langalibalele Dube and Steve Bantu Biko
Date: Thursday, 10 September 2015
Time: 5h30 for 6 pm
Venue: New Conference Centre, University of KwaZulu-Natal, Edgewood campus
RSVP: Kindly RSVP by 4 September 2015
Prof Simangaliso Kumalo at kumalor@ukzn.ac.za or
Prof Relebohile Moletsane at Moletsane@ukzn.ac.za
Refreshments will be served after the lecture
Biography: Duma Ndlovu
Duma Ndlovu is a South African writer and producer whose career has spanned three decades in the creative arts. A graduate of Hunter College in New York, he cut his teeth in the literary world with his theatrical contributions, concentrating largely on writing plays with a social message. This was inspired by the fact that he came of age during the turbulent years when Agitprop, (agitation propaganda theatre) was the order of the day. He was hugely influenced by the theatre of Gibson Kente and the teachings of Steven Bantu Biko and made it his challenge to fuse the work of these two giants into his literature and dramatic work.
His first professional play, SHEILA’S DAY a tribute to his domestic worker mother, profiled the lives of two women, from both the US and South Africa, who meet to compare notes on their experiences as domestic workers from both continents. Their similar journeys take both women through struggles as domestic workers who are caught up in human rights protests in both countries. The United States character, Ruby Lee Thomas Johnson, ends up in a bus sitting next to Rosa Parks during that fateful ride when she refused to give up her seat to a white man, and her South African counterpart, Qedusizi Buthelezi, moves to Johannesburg in search of a passbook and a job but runs into a march by 20 000 women, (August 1956), on their way to Pretoria to burn their pass books.
He has to his credit a list of other plays and musicals including; BERGVILLE STORIES, THE GAME, THE RITUAL, THE DOOR, THE JOURNEY (A musical) MEMEZA (A musical on the life of Pop Queen, Brenda Fassie) and THE PHOTOGRAPH. He is currently working on a play; I SAY WHAT I LIKE (a play about a fictitious meeting between Dr. Nelson Mandela and Steven Biko when the latter visits Mandela on Robben Island). His collection of South African plays; WOZA AFRIKA, was published in New York by GEORGE BRAZILLER publishers in 1987 and is currently working on another anthology of South African theatre that includes interviews with some of the luminaries of the theatre.
But his most influential work has been the South African Venda soapie, MUVHANGO, which has influenced how society looks and views one particular society, the previously marginalized group, the VhaVenda people. Through this television drama, which was written and produced by Mr. Ndlovu, societal perception of the Venda language has changed and his work has placed the previously marginalized group at the centre of discussions about South African cultures and her people. Muvhango is a daily soapie that runs on SABC 2 from Monday to Thursday. As though that was not enough, he has recently added another feather in his cap, the highly popular and successful new entrant into the soapie world, UZALO, the SABC -1 soapie that is now the most watched program on television, shot entirely on location in KwaMashu in Durban.
Mr. Ndlovu’s dramas have always spoken of the experiences of the marginalized and the underdog, and through his writings he has sought to inspire and challenge. He has to his credit a large body of work that has made the artistic fraternity the more richer. In May 2011, the University of Venda conferred upon him an honorary PhD in English.