Threading Intsomi Elements in Kgafela oa Magogodi’s Chilahaebolae

Abstract

The series of events in Kgafela oa Magogodi’s Chilahaebolae, wherein animal characters are in contention with humans, has often been read through Western genre conceptions, while negating features that are unequivocally reminiscent of African oral storytelling traditions. This work intervenes by evaluating elements of intsomi and the supernatural in Magogodi’s theatre play, noting how the play is intelligible when Blackness is a lens of focus. Blackness provides a critique of symbolic notions of humanism, civil society, and the political landscape that is predominantly anti-Black. Intsomi is evoked as a genre in contrast to realism that is premised on the exclusion of the supernatural and Blackness; thus, each tenet is discussed in relation to how the traditional intsomi unfolds, and how Magogodi maintains its historicity. Intsomi epitomises Black Optimism, articulating a refusal of fungibility and offering African knowledge systems as a deviation from Western genre concepts premised on the exclusion of Blackness. The (un)critical overreliance in Western genre forms in reading Chilahaebolae, as some critics have argued, is perceived as repurposing Western systems in reading African artistic works, which presupposes a Western reader, thus failing to meet the objectives of this play. This work threads elements of intsomi, providing a novel interpretation of Magogodi’s play.