Siemens Mobiles brings more of Africa to Dubai
GUMBOOTS are seldom needed in Dubai, but the city will soon reverberate to their rhythm when a team of South African traditional dancers arrives to present a series of breathtaking performances.
The strong team will do shows at Aussie Legends, Cactus Cantina, The Bunker, Barasti Bar, HJB, Long’s Bar and Jimmy Dix during the last week of September. (A schedule of the band’s performing nights mentioned below).
They will then support South African cross-over legend Johnny Clegg at his debut Middle East concert being staged at Le Meridien Mina Siyahi on October 3. The gumboot dancers are being presented by Siemens mobile, which is also backing the Clegg concert.
The Siemens mobile partnership comes as the company extends its sponsorship of live entertainment events in the region. The My-Siemens themed parties have become a significant part of Dubai’s entertainment scene and earlier in September, Siemens mobile backed the sell-out concert by British group, Simply Red.
Gumboot dancing, or isicathulo as it is known in Zulu, is quintessentially South African and has its origins as a response by mineworkers to their racial oppression under apartheid.
Isicathulo was born in the South African gold mines that opened in the 1880s. It was a way for workers to survive the isolation they felt under the weight of the migrant labour system and oppressive pass laws.
Working in the mines was long, hard, repetitive toil. Talking was forbidden. Hundreds of workers were (and continue to be) killed every year in accidents. The floors of the mines often flooded due to poor or non-existent drainage. Hours of standing in the fetid water caused skin problems and ulcers and resulted in lost productivity. Rather than spend the money needed to properly drain the shafts, white mine bosses issued rubber gumboots to the workers.
Thus the `miners' uniform' was born – heavy black wellington boots to protect the feet, jeans or overalls, bare chests (temperatures underground often top 40° C), hard hats, and bandannas to absorb eye-stinging sweat. In the dank, dark shafts, workers learned to send messages to each other by slapping on their boots.
Back on the surface and in their overcrowded living quarters, their bosses refused to allow the workers to wear their traditional dress while not working. They made all workers of the same ethnic or tribal background live together, so as to perpetuate the divisions between different groups of African workers.
Faced with this repressive regime, workers adapted traditional dances and rhythms to the only instruments available – their boots and bodies. The songs that were sung to go with the frenetic movements dealt with working-class life – drinking, love, family, low wages and mean bosses.
Some ‘enlightened’ employers eventually allowed the best dancers to form troupes to represent the company, to entertain visitors and for PR. It was not unusual for these performers' songs to openly mock their bosses and criticise wages and conditions, while the bosses were blissfully ignorant of the content, sung in Xhosa, Sotho, or Zulu.
Dance historian Jane Osborne has explained that isicathulo developed from traditional African roots to become part of urban South African working-class culture, and a southern African art form with universal popular appeal. It is not unlike tap dance, which sprang from oppressed Afro-Americans to be embraced by the whole US population – even though few would be aware of its origins.
The Siemens mobile dancers offer a mixture of township styles and infectious isicathulo rhythms, an experience that is much visual as aural, featuring much stamping, slapping and shouting.
Dancers mix it up with a range of township jive styles, singing about drinking, Soweto in the morning, work, the hopes working people held as they arrived in eGoli (‘gold city’ Johannesburg), partying, relationships gone sour, against ethnic violence, for African unity, and more drinking.
“This is the authentic musical and rhythmic voice of South Africa’s black townships,” says Asim Sukhera, head of Siemens Mobile Phones in the Middle East and Africa. “Gumboot dancing has become an international entertainment phenomenon and Dubai audiences are in for an unforgettable experience.”
Program for Gum Boot Dancing:
Location Date Time
Aussie Legends 22 September 9.00pm
Cactus Cantina 25 September 6.30pm
Bunker 25 September 7.30pm
Barasti Bar 26 September 7.00pm
HJB 27 September 5.40pm
Longs Bar 30 September 9.30pm
Jimmy Dix September To be confirmed
-Ends-
For more information, kindly contact
Rana Mouawad,
Fortune Promoseven
Tel: +971 4 321 00 77,
Fax: +971 4 321 17 11,
E-Mail: rana.mouawad@promoseven.com
© Press Release 2003
