WE WHO DO NOT BELONG

The stage is cordoned off with barricade tape –a fragile, tangible border. Inside it, the detritus of lives: suitcases burst open, clothing scattered, abandoned. Video projections show migrants on crowded boats; others walk days over barren land.
SoKo Jena journeys with them. He moves solemnly on stage, suspended in viscous air as though swimming, or sinking. A turbulent soundscape fractures from classical music into news reports and political rhetoric, all layered under a harrowing, human wail. A sea of mylar blankets on African bodies –some warm, others long cold– “we make it or we die”. Weaving traditional Zimbabwean performance and contemporary dance, Jena’s work stages an indomitable migrant attitude: unapologetic about interrupting the status quo and insisting on the dignity of migrants. WE WHO DO NOT BELONG stands out in its framing of migration not as a Western crisis, but as a human condition created by centuries of colonial entanglement and global inequality. This immersive experience implicates us all and, in the words of Mwenya B. Kabwe, takes us to “the limits of verbal language in depicting the narratives of migration, and as a result, highlights the unspeakable”. At the shore where the waves of grief break, hope sets foot on a new world.

Text: Balindile ka Ngcobo for FAVORITEN Festival