The issue of the COVID pandemic is affecting the society at large. Everything is done in the pandemic, by the pandemic, with the pandemic and for the pandemic. We were introduced to the new command, the new rule of detaching from each other, abandoning our culture, especially within black society. This presentation explores the environmental habits that became a black society’s norm and the growing new culture of having to adapt what has always been used as an ‘unwelcoming gesture’ to a ‘welcoming gesture’ for the sake of safety. There is an oppressing of a culture that has been practised for years which is now being forced to take on these new ‘protocols’. I explore how greetings were and are in the now. I am looking at the forced awareness of maintaining a 1.5 metre distance, wearing a mask wherever we go, elbow greeting as opposed to the contact one which black South African society is used to. The notion of ‘touch my blood, feel my temperature’ kind of a greeting has changed to ‘what’s your temperature’. Face masks became the new and profitable business, a new fashion, it became our shopping passport – “No Mask, No Entry”. How do we preserve a dying culture of greeting? How has the pandemic detached us and introduced a forced awareness? Is it the return of the colony in a greeting form?
Lucky Karabo Moeketsi is a young passionate artist, with a degree in Acting, an NQF Certificate in Dance and development Training certificates in dance: Technique, Choreography, Performance and Facilitation. Having performed in many productions such as Strike Back by Kieron Jina and Ipi Zombie? by Brett Bailey, Lucky is now an executive member of 4play Theatre Productions (2019). In 2020, Lucky choreographed and directed a dance piece titled Ashamed, working alongside Gifter Ngobeni, the Dramaturg of the piece. He is currently working as a choreographer on the play Ingaphakathi, written and directed by Tumelo Mathebula and Siphelele Thungo.
Gifter Ngobeni obtained his B.A in Drama and Film at Tshwane University of Technology (TUT). Ngobeni has made television appearances on ‘Generation: the Legacy’, ‘Home Affairs’ and ‘Isibaya’. He is the founder of 4Play Theatre Productions, established in 2016. 4Play Theatre Productions has produced over 10 productions, one of its recent productions conceptualised by Gifter Ngobeni is De[Tach] and Tough Smile, which will premiered at the (virtual) National Arts Festival 2021. He ran and curated Mothogola Theatre Festival in 2019 which took place at the National School of the Arts in Braamfontein, Johannesburg and mounted two online festivals under 4Play Theatre Productions. He also works with Stage Fright, an Industrial Theatre Company. He is a voice over artist, who has worked with Thobela FM on several radio dramas. He is also the animated character called Basop, which is a campaign for Covid-19 under Bridge Visual Productions. Ngobeni is a Master’s Degree candidate doing his final year at TUT.