African Masala
Masala describes a combination of or mixture of things and thus works perfectly as a name for a musical theatre piece featuring many of Africa and South Africa’s vast range of cultural musical and dance styles.
The show features a fantastic band, the embodiment of true South African entertainment! With a repertoire representing a cross section of African and South African Popular music, they are a culture crossing, highly entertaining band with an energy that is infectious. Lead by the hugely talented Fancy Galada, this band is truly an aural and visual treat.
The audience will also be treated to traditional Gumboot and Zulu dance pieces, very rhythmic, very exciting and very South African!
Gumboot dancing was born in the gold mines of South Africa at the height of the migrant labour system and during the oppressive Apartheid system. The mine workers were not free to move around at will and were separated from their families for long periods of time. At best, working in the mines was a long, hard, repetitive toil. At worst, the men would be taken chained into the mines and shackled at their work stations in almost total darkness. The floors of the mines were often flooded, with poor or non-existent drainage. For the miners, hours of standing up to their knees in infected waters brought on skin ulcers, foot problems and consequent lost work time. The bosses discovered that providing gumboots (Wellington boots) to the workers was cheaper than attempting to drain the mines. This created the miners uniform consisting of heavy black Wellington boots, jeans, bare chest, and bandannas to absorb eye-stinging sweat. The workers were forbidden to speak, and as a result created a means of communication, essentially their own unique form of Morse code. By slapping their gumboots and rattling their ankle chains, the enslaved workers sent messages to each other in the darkness. From this came an entertainment, as the miners evolved their percussive sounds and movements into a unique dance form and used it to entertain each other during their free time.
The Zulu dance is a sign of happiness it's done when there is a Zulu wedding, inauguration of a king, when a child is born and when a war is won. The men have their way of singing and dancing, called Indlamu in Zulu, what they do is lift up one leg in the air, bringing it down together with the hands following the other leg then doing it over and over changing the legs, and while doing that they lift one leg in the air and fall purposely on the ground with their backs. The boys also do the same as the men.
The show is approximately 45 minutes long and has been performed onboard cruise ships for Princess Cruises, P&O, Askura, Cunard and others with much success.