Umkhangeli Ongenagama (The Nameless Seeker): An Afrikan Womanist Autoethnographic Encounter with Intsomi

Abstract

This dissertation explores the transformative potential of intsomi; Xhosa/Nguni oral storytelling conventions, as a decolonial tool for autoethnographic playmaking, initiating an Afrikan womanist dialogue that reclaims Xhosa and Nguni women’s agency in post-colonial South African theatre. Anchored by the research question, How did I deploy the conventions of intsomi towards autoethnographic playmaking to initiate an Afrikan womanist dialogue?, the study centres on the creation, performance, and analysis of Umkhangeli Ongenagama, staged on October 20, 2023, at the Mezzanine Theatre within Wits Theatre. This production serves as a living archive, where the mythological wilderness of endle becomes a potent metaphor for the liminal positionalities of Black women navigating the intersections of tradition and modernity, heritage and dislocation, life and death in a post-apartheid context. Drawing on Afroscenology (Ravengai, 2024) and Afrikan womanism (Ogunyemi, 1996), the play integrates seven intsomi conventions; isangqa (circle), impepho (ritual sage), Umakhulu (grandmother), ingoma (call-and-response song), umnombo (context), umlinganiso (embodiment), and isiko lokuvula/lokuvala (opening/closing formulas). These conventions weave a narrative that subverts Western theatrical norms, such as the proscenium arch, linear narratives, silent curtain-rises, and capitalist production etiquette. These conventions, rooted in African epistemologies, foster a centrifugal aesthetic that radiates communal truth, rejecting the hierarchical, commodified structures of Western theatre (Ravengai, 2020). For instance, isangqa transforms the audience into co-creators, as seen when spectators joined performers in chanting “Camagu” during the opening ritual, dissolving the fourth wall and embodying communal harmony (Ukala, 2001). The methodology unfolds across three phases: development, performance, and analysis. In development, workshops with cast members from Gauteng, Western Cape, KwaZulu-Natal, and the Eastern Cape shaped umnombo through authentic stories of loss, resilience, and gendered struggles, such as a performer’s narrative of her mother’s survival during apartheid’s forced removals, embedding collective narratives into the play’s fabric (Magoqwana & Adesina, 2020). Performance transformed the Mezzanine into a ritual space, with ingoma chants like “Ndawe” eliciting participatory responses, evidenced by spectators’ spontaneous ululations (Ajumeze, 2014). Analysis revealed umlinganiso’s embodied truths, such as Khazimla’s cry, “Mathongo am! Makukhanye!”, which fused performer and spirit, rejecting Western pretence for ancestral authenticity (Mutwa, 2016). Autoethnography interwove my Eastern Cape heritage, such as memories of my grandmother’s intsomi by firelight, with these communal stories, countering colonial erasure, while Afrikan womanism framed gender within race, culture, and socio-economic realities, promoting harmony in struggles against oppression (Ogunyemi, 1996). Findings demonstrate that Umkhangeli Ongenagama subverts Wits Theatre’s colonial constraints, restoring the agency of Xhosa and Nguni women through matriarchal knowledge and collective engagement. Despite challenges such as institutional scheduling imposing Western temporality and academic scepticism toward narrative research, the play advances Afrikan theatre aesthetics, contributing to Afroscenology by reimagining theatre as a site of communal truth and epistemic reclamation (Ravengai, 2024). This research offers a decolonial model for playmaking, amplifying Black women’s voices against patriarchal and colonial silencing, with implications for future community-based performances that extend beyond academia into the lived worlds of Afrikan communities, fostering dialogues that honour resilience and agency (Walker, 1983).