The Kaza Kamba Pan African Theatre Festival Presents Marikana Still…fontein

iPhupho L’ka Biko brings MARIKANA STILL…FONTEIN to the Kaza Kamba Pan African Theatre Festival

The Kaza Kamba Pan African Theatre Festival returns from 20 – 23 August 2026. This partnership between mehlo-maya (eye-to-the-sun) and The Market Theatre is in its third year and is quickly growing into being “one of the most defining and deserving festivals of our time with a slant on Pan Africanism”, according to Daves Guzha, well-known Zimbabwean theatre producer.

The theme for this third iteration is Memory Against Forgetting, and is based on the Milan Kundera quotation – “struggle of memory against forgetting” – from his novel, The Book of Laughter and Forgetting.

iPhupho L’ka Biko bring a brand-new piece to the Kaza Kamba Pan African Theatre Festival MARIKANA STILL…FONTEIN inspired by the spirit of the Marikana Miners, this production revisits the Marikana massacre as both memory and mirror. Directed by Nhlanhla Ngqaqu.

iPhupho L’ka Biko is an Africanist band based in Johannesburg. The collective was formed in 2015 by bassist and composer Nhlanhla Ngqaqu. Nhlanhla met the band members in Braamfontein, where they frequently interacted in creative, social and academic spaces.

MARIKANA STILL…FONTEIN speaks to how the Marikana massacre reminded us of the fungibility of black lives, through which capital seeks to reproduce itself. For many in this so-called democratic era, systemic violence has assumed quieter forms, economic, social and spiritual. Yet the indignity and devastation of the Marikana massacre exposed the enduring reality of systemic violence continuously committed against black people.

Bra Hugh’s ‘Stimela’ and Mam Miriam Makeba’s ‘Hauteng‘ echo these historical tragedies and the enduring remnants of migrant labour. Through music, poetry, movement and theatre skits, the show traces the long history of migrant labour, displacement and extraction that continues to shape South Africa today. At the centre of the work is a confrontation with the crises facing the Black working class: deepening youth unemployment, economic exclusion and the rise of Afrophobia among the oppressed. The production asks urgent questions about what happens when poverty, hopelessness and inequality turn communities against one another instead of against the systems that sustain injustice. This is a lament for the fallen, for the living, a reflection on fractured solidarities and a call to reclaim a Pan-African imagination rooted in dignity, memory and collective liberation.

Don’t miss this dynamic group that uses the platform of multi-instrumentalism, movement, visual art and poetry to create spaces that challenge not only our thinking but the genres which it presents in its performances.

The dynamic Kaza Kamba Pan African Theatre Festival programme brings a range of Theatre, Music, Film, Workshops and a Colloquium, as well as tables of goodies to buy.

Affordable, safe and secure underground parking is available at the Newtown Junction.

The Market Theatre is a division of The Market Theatre Foundation, an agency of the Department of Sport, Arts and Culture.

Show Information:
iPhupho L’ka Biko MARIKANA STILL…FONTEIN

Venue:
John Kani at The Market Theatre

Date & Time:
Saturday, 22 August 2026 at 19h30

Ticket Prices:
R200 – R275 (including VAT)

Bookings:
Bookings available via Webtickets

Age Restriction:
PG