“At times, she wields the mat as if it were a gun, pointing it toward the audience; at others, she unfolds it on the floor beneath her feet, the act itself a meditation on claiming space”. Photograph by Val Adamson.

From Soil to Soul: KEMET and the Ritual of Wholeness

By Amahle Radebe

PHAKAMISA Dance Commission and Jomba! presented the 2025 Standard Bank Award winner, Asanda Ruda, in KEMET–Black Lands, alongside Alkamal Walkamal Almutlaq — Completeness and Absolute Wholeness, at the Elizabeth Sneddon Theatre on 6 September 2025.

KEMET–Black Lands, a solo work choreographed and performed by Ruda, traverses generational alienation, political defiance, and personal emancipation. The stage is simple yet loaded with symbolism: a grass mat at its center and a curtain made from paper drapings. As music fills the theatre, Ruda begins her movement on the floor under a blue spotlight, smoke curling around her, the grass mat in hand — a tactile embodiment of ancestral and cultural memory. At times, she wields the mat as if it were a gun, pointing it toward the audience; at others, she unfolds it on the floor beneath her feet, the act itself a meditation on claiming space.

With a green soldier hat atop her head, Ruda evokes the political systems that sought to govern and suppress Black lives and Black lands. Dancing on the mat, she enacts the stripping of KEMET from its people, simultaneously tracing her stomach as a metaphorical womb — the fertile “garden” of KEMET’s rich, dark soil. Her screams, coupled with self-imposed suffocation, embody the violence of dispossession and erasure. Through each movement, Ruda channels ancestral struggle, echoing histories often silenced, while reclaiming presence in a world that frequently marginalizes difference. When the gospel refrain “Amen” rises, she folds the grass mat around the soldier hat — a quiet yet profound act of reclamation, signaling self-possession and resilience.

Following a brief pause — more a reflective interval than a full break, during which audiences remained in the theatre — Alkamal Walkamal Almutlaq — Completeness and Absolute Wholeness, a trio choreographed and performed by Ruda, Thandiwe Mqokeli, and Sinazo Bokolo, unfolds. While the works carry different titles, they are deeply interconnected, offering a continuous thread through Ruda’s exploration and experimentation with body, memory, and ritual.

Under tense lighting and the intermittent sound of sneezing, Thandiwe and Sinazo enter in long dresses patterned with leopard and ‘isishweshwe’ prints, a sartorial homage to African heritage. As they lie beneath the spotlight, Ruda appears behind the paper curtain, setting the stage for a ritualistic exploration of wholeness.

Movement is steeped in connection: the dancers circle the curtain, hands clap in unison, and feet touch repeatedly, forming a choreography that feels both ceremonial and intimate. As they pull the paper drapings across the stage, aligning them carefully before moving on them, the soundscape — a mix of drumming and birdcalls — heightens the sense of communion. The work meditates on the eternal bond between spirit and body, illustrating how these elements interweave to heal, revive, and anchor the self.

Both KEMET–Black Lands and Alkamal Walkamal Almutlaq foreground the body as a vessel of memory, ancestry, and wholeness. Through Afro-contemporary expression, Ruda’s performances invite reflection on the body as both temple and site of resistance — a political and spiritual terrain where historical, societal, and personal narratives converge. The works linger in the mind long after the lights fade, leaving audiences to reconsider how embodiment, heritage, and ritual intersect in the pursuit of renewal.