Boy's Khaya

Powerfully moving and beautifully staged, BOY’S KHAYA tells the story of choreographer Bawren Tavaziva’s early life in Zimbabwe through a mesmerising combination of contemporary, ballet and African dance, with a spoken-word soundtrack and music.

BOY’S KHAYA or ‘servants house’ is a colonial legacy that still exists in Zimbabwe. It refers to living quarters used for Black servants, in stark contrast to the luxurious suburban dwellings of the white families.

From this little house hidden behind the white master’s mansion, a young man struggles to comprehend where we are now… and why?

“I always say that no dog would even want to live there. It was never maintained; it was one room with a toilet and a little bed where my mother and my father would sleep. But I was young, and my mother and my father could not leave me back home, they had to bring me to that little house. It was the most horrible experience I have ever encountered. I was not allowed to go outside because I am Black and I was not allowed to go out and play with the children of my age, the children who were from that white family. They used to have these massive dogs and I could hear them barking all the time and it was scary. My parents used to lock me in that house from nine o’clock in the morning until ten o’clock in the evening.

“I decided to take that experience and see how I could develop it for the stage to reflect the world we live in today. If I look at myself as a Black person, I’m grown up now and I’m still in the same situation. Why did my father and my mother die poor? Why were my family back home poor? Why am I poor?

“These are the themes I want to explore, separation and segregation and the fact that I never want anyone to experience that in today’s life. My company is a mixture of white people, Black people, or whoever wants to be in my company. If you have the talent to be a wicked dancer, it doesn’t matter your skin colour. Everyone is welcome. We are one people. Just like Martin Luther King said, one day Black people and white people will be dancing together and playing together on the streets.”

Bawren Tavaziva