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Bakhutli: ancestors returning again, only this time as themselves

How can performance help us remember the past to imagine the future? This study is concerned with the recovery of historical knowledge through performance and the role of an audience in that process. Practice as Research (PaR) is used as a method to identify the role of ancestors in the world of the...

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Main Author: Molekoa, Morapeleng
Other Authors: Fleishman, Mark
Format: Thesis
Language:English
Published: School of Dance 2025
Subjects:
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access_status_str Open Access
author Molekoa, Morapeleng
author2 Fleishman, Mark
author_browse Fleishman, Mark
Molekoa, Morapeleng
author_facet Fleishman, Mark
Molekoa, Morapeleng
author_sort Molekoa, Morapeleng
collection Thesis
description How can performance help us remember the past to imagine the future? This study is concerned with the recovery of historical knowledge through performance and the role of an audience in that process. Practice as Research (PaR) is used as a method to identify the role of ancestors in the world of the living. Through autoethnography, I draw examples and insights from my personal experiences with bongaka and my ongoing relationship with my ancestors. In addition, I use performance to enable an engagement between ancestors and the living through ritual process/performance. The ideal of sankofa is employed to frame the research and determine how ancestors could help us remember the past so that we, together with them, could imagine the future. I propose the concept of Bohareng as an alternative consideration of what the future could be viewed as in relation to performance. Performance projects and autoethnographic experiences in the form of field notes are incorporated to arrive at the findings of this study
format Thesis
id oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/41064
institution University of Cape Town (South Africa)
language eng
last_indexed 2026-06-10T12:31:24.573Z
license_str Not specified — see source repository
provenance_str_mv Harvested via OAI-PMH from UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository
publishDate 2025
publishDateRange 2025
publishDateSort 2025
publisher School of Dance
publisherStr School of Dance
record_format dspace
source_str UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository
spelling oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/41064 Bakhutli: ancestors returning again, only this time as themselves Molekoa, Morapeleng Fleishman, Mark Seane Warona Performance How can performance help us remember the past to imagine the future? This study is concerned with the recovery of historical knowledge through performance and the role of an audience in that process. Practice as Research (PaR) is used as a method to identify the role of ancestors in the world of the living. Through autoethnography, I draw examples and insights from my personal experiences with bongaka and my ongoing relationship with my ancestors. In addition, I use performance to enable an engagement between ancestors and the living through ritual process/performance. The ideal of sankofa is employed to frame the research and determine how ancestors could help us remember the past so that we, together with them, could imagine the future. I propose the concept of Bohareng as an alternative consideration of what the future could be viewed as in relation to performance. Performance projects and autoethnographic experiences in the form of field notes are incorporated to arrive at the findings of this study 2025-02-28T12:38:20Z 2025-02-28T12:38:20Z 2024 2025-02-28T12:35:45Z Thesis / Dissertation Masters Masters http://hdl.handle.net/11427/41064 eng application/pdf School of Dance Faculty of Humanities University of Cape Town
spellingShingle Performance
Molekoa, Morapeleng
Bakhutli: ancestors returning again, only this time as themselves
thesis_degree_str Master's
title Bakhutli: ancestors returning again, only this time as themselves
title_full Bakhutli: ancestors returning again, only this time as themselves
title_fullStr Bakhutli: ancestors returning again, only this time as themselves
title_full_unstemmed Bakhutli: ancestors returning again, only this time as themselves
title_short Bakhutli: ancestors returning again, only this time as themselves
title_sort bakhutli ancestors returning again only this time as themselves
topic Performance
url http://hdl.handle.net/11427/41064
work_keys_str_mv AT molekoamorapeleng bakhutliancestorsreturningagainonlythistimeasthemselves