ComUnity: Our Heritage is Groove

Have you ever attended an event and suddenly, out of nowhere, you are gripped by a “I should be married, at home, sitting in front of the heater, moaning about the neighbour’s yapping dog instead!” feeling? No? Okay, maybe it’s just me because this is how I felt during a beautiful ComUnity Heritage Day event held on September 23. Sorry for the delay. Blame that feeling of being old.

The commemorative ComUnity inner-city festival is put together by Cape Town’s dynamic entertainment duo, Vincent Manzini and Loyiso Mdebuka. Both born in Khayelitsha, they have managed to open up their own home-away-from-home restaurant in Gardens, called Therapy.

My first encounter with Sir Vincent and DJ Lloyd was way back in 2010 when they were kickstarting a concept called iKasi Experience which sought to bring a market and music festival to Khayelitsha’s Look Out Hill. iKasi Experience became an instant hit and went on to be hosted in Soweto, Durban and even East London.

This duo have hosted Live Better Talks, Lloyd Sessions, The House Connect on 5FM, Sir Vincent’s House and more.

I am older than these two and have watched them with pride as they’ve planned, formed partnerships and executed most of their events successfully.

So, it was no surprise that I felt quite old during last month’s ComUnity event. The audience was young, hip and above-all diverse. Their following has surpassed colour.

“ComUnity is a festival that seeks to unite Capetonians around annual commemorative themes. We create platforms for people to showcase their culinary prowess, fashion design skills, dancing abilities and djing expertise,” says Manzini.

“We might come from different walks in life but we have more things in common that can unite us, than tear us apart. For ComUnity we pick commemorative public holidays to host these varied events. In April, for Freedom Day, the festival was centred around dialogues and debate. For June 16 we went with a ‘Youth Day Reunion’at the Old Biscuit Mill and recently, for Heritage Day, we went with a fashion show at the Wonderland Studios to showcase various cultural designs from up-and-coming Cape Town designers.”

Some of the Cape Town designers on show were: Frederick Osemene & Ope da Costa Sol Sol for FLUX, Rosemary Oboh for Rvger, Salem Jedidias Kumbi Kasi for Shlem, Flavour, Spaza Luxury, BackYard and Whyte Wears.

For the organisers, the festival is more a social entrepreneurship exercise that platforms food vendors and creatives.

There is an entry fee and a growing number sponsors. Food stalls ranged from a “private school tshisa-nyama” called Um-lilo, to Italian dishes and an array of other mouthwatering home-made cakes and dishes.

Yes, there was a bar, DJ booth and dancefloor. For those who have read my arts articles, you might know I enjoy a bit of Jack Daniels. So imagine my shock and scorn when I was offered the new Jack & Coke in a can at this event. I had two cans at the very most and I need to talk to whoever dashed this new ‘spirit cooler’– way too much coke and zero kick.

I didn’t stay long. Old-age. But, I was quite proud to see the diversity of those young fashionistas in attendance. I couldn’t help but wonder if our heritage is groove? If it isn’t sport, it’s on the dancefloor where you will see people let go of their prejudices and having fun together as South Africans.

That said: Happy belated Heritage Day.

The ComUnity inner-city festival started two years ago and has plans to keep going. The 12th one will be held on December 14 to commemorate Reconciliation Day which falls on the 16th of that month.

Cape Times