Then came The Storming, in September 2015, and a book/cd published in 2017.
Ari Sitas described it as being about ‘the unresolved questions of home and
identity; of forced migrations and belonging; of finding a confluence between a
musical and a poetic craft that speaks to our predicament’. Looking back, he
reflects, ‘Perhaps, it is no longer sugar, spices and spikes that bring us together in
the Indian Ocean but a hope that we can find a homing despite the wreckage’.
Aditi Humna recalls the performances as follows: ‘The ship was rocking, the wooden
floor was creaking and the audience could sense the trepidation. An adaption of
Aime Cesaire’s Une Tempete, itself an adaptation of Shakespeare’s The
Tempest, The Storming finally unveiled its creative genius at the District Six
Homecoming Centre in Cape Town, after months of transcontinental
conversations. It brought together an ensemble of poets, musicians from India
and South Africa, with artistic influences from the Caribbean and Mauritius, such
as Dev Virahsawmy’s Toofan, to articulate the postcolonial angst across the Indian
Ocean.’
All compositions by Ahsan Ali, Brydon Bolton, Jurgen Brauninger, Sumangala Damodaran, Sazi Dlamini, Pritam Ghosal, Reza Khota, Ncebakazi Mnukwana, Vivek Narayanan, Michael Nixon, Malika Ndlovu, Sabitha TP, Tina Schouw, and Ari Sitas.
