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"Broken Chord", South African choreographer Gregory Maqome brings back a forgotten history

"The Broken Chord", choreography by Gregory Maqoma, music by Thuthuka Sibisi. © lolo vasco/ Danza Itálica

Text by: Siegfried Forster Follow

6 min

It is a show that touches hearts and bodies, trying to bring together on stage and in the hall the descendants of the colonized and colonizers. The Broken Chord tells the story of the first African choir on tour in England at the end of the nineteenth century. Interview with Gregory Maqomba, brilliant South African dancer and choreographer, as well as co-director of this show on world tour, presented to sold-out audiences this weekend at the Cité de la musique in Paris.

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Gregory Maqoma, born in 1973 in Soweto, Johannesburg, is one of the greatest choreographers on the African continent. After studying at the Brussels school PARTS, directed by Anne Teresa de Keersmaeker, he created his own company, Vuyani Dance Theatre, in 1999. Her choreographic writing navigates between contemporary dance and her South African Xhosa culture. A few years ago, Maqoma stumbled upon an exhibition telling the incredible journey of a South African choir in 1891 to London, in the land of the colonizers. Carried away by the story and music reimagined by Thuthuka Sibisi, Maqoma dances spontaneously for half an hour in the middle of the installation and then creates this powerful show drawing its strength from the communion of the past with the present.

RFI: What is the story of The Broken Chord?

Gregorya Maqoma: The history of the show dates back to 1891, when a South African choir first toured the UK. When I first heard the story, I felt a very strong need to share their experiences, to try to feel what they were feeling at the time, but also to look at the experiences we are having right now. I am very curious to know how they looked when they arrived, with their traditions and cultures, in the country of the colonizers. How were they perceived and looked at?

This first African choir had toured America and the United Kingdom, suffered racism, but also met Queen Victoria. After this success, how could such a surprising story fall into oblivion for more than a century?

It's really a forgotten story. If it hadn't been for photographs, found in 2014 in some archives [the Hulton Archives, Editor's note], I would not have known this story. By chance, I visited the Apartheid Museum in Johannesburg, South Africa, where Thuthuka Sibisi had made an installation on this choir. I was immediately obsessed with music, with these sounds. That's how I wanted to create this work. And there is also this curiosity to want to know what it was like to leave South Africa in 1891, to travel by boat for weeks and arrive in the United Kingdom, in a different climate, in the country of your colonizer. What was the nature of the conversation? This is what prompted me to do more research and interest in the issues of migration and displacement and how these issues affect us today.

There are no recordings of performances given between 1891 and 1893. Alongside four South African musician-singers and accompanied by the singers of the Aedes ensemble, you dance this story on stage. How did you create the movements for The Broken Chord? What dance styles stood out for the choreography of this incredible story?

Yes, it's an incredible story. The singers themselves came from the Eastern Cape. Some of them were from the Western Cape. The fact that the artists belonged to the tradition and culture of my own roots, to the Xhosa culture, may have made it easier. The aesthetic chosen for the movements in the room comes from the Xhosa tradition. And it is intertwined throughout history through cultural connotations, traditional forms and also rituals.

This story of the first African choir in England, why is it for you not only a play about the history of colonization, but also about racism today?

It is clear that racism continues to exist today. Each of our faces is concerned. But, there are many movements that oppose racism. We can only amplify this message of humanity by affirming that humanity always prevails over everything else.

Gregory Maqome, the South African choreographer of the piece "Broken Chord ". © Siegfried Forster / RFI

By the time the first African choir arrived in the UK at the end of the twentieth century, there were also the first "human zoos" in Europe, exhibitions where blacks were paraded off as exotic animals. In this historical context, do you consider the adventure of the choir as a kind of Black Power movement before its time?

I think it was a reaction. A parallel event, many other things happened at that time. There was the story of Saartjie Baartman, a South African woman paraded as in a human zoo. This story carries within itself the ethics of that time. It reveals a world based on racism, with people viewing others as something else, not as their equals.

You tour with this piece in Spain, Italy, Austria, Germany, the United Kingdom, France, Canada, the United States... Are public reactions different in America, Africa or Europe?

Each country has its own history and people react based on their history and experiences. Honestly, yes, the reactions are different. In the UK, we had a darker audience. We have seen their reactions, confronted with the things we are fighting against. In a way, we have answered some of the questions they have. They also saw that we have the courage to be on this stage to bring this story to life in the place where these singers of 1891 performed! We bring this story as a reflection, as a mirror for the black community in the UK and around the world. This mirror allows them to find themselves in this story. And they realize that it is possible to talk about these things. And that we should be able to talk about it.

► The Broken Chord, choreography by Gregory Maqoma, music by Thuthuka Sibisi, with the ensemble Aedes, from March 24 to 26 at the Cité de la musique in Paris. One of the special features of the piece: at each stage of the world tour, a large local choir participates in the show.

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