Umshadoo: The Marriage of Heritage

Umshadoo: The Marriage of Heritage is a musical by Bogosi Bolokwe with music by Mthandeni Mvelase.

Also written as Umshado or Umshado Marriage of Heritage.

"Umshado", meaning "the wedding".

Original text

The musical explores a young man’s physical and mental journey from his rural roots to the sprawling shanty town of Mamelodi in Pretoria. The narrative follows his rites of passage – from initiation to marriage – through the music and dance forms that make up such an important part of Nguni, Sesotho and Tswana heritage. The result is a rich tapestry of sonic and performance styles associated with various cultures: from the marabi-influenced indunduma urban dance form through to thula ndivile and isikhuze.

Performance history in South Africa

2010: Presented at Windybrow Centre for the Arts. With celebrated Standard Bank Young Artist winner, Zenzi Mbuli, mentoring writer/director Bolokwe, and featuring a large cast and band, under the expert guidance of musical director, Eddie Mathiba and choreographer, Lennox Thulani Sibisi.

It subsequently played at the State Theatre and Soweto Theatre, to critical acclaim, and toured the UK in 2015.

The musical was invited to Rave Festival on Broadway in 2019 and 2020 (the 2020 invitation was canceled due to Covid-19 travel ban) and to the Brighton Digital Arts Festival in 2020, an online event that had given an opportunity to the production to live stream on their platform due to Covid-19.