MBABANE – Eswatini creativity is golden!!
This was proven on Saturday evening as emaSwati gathered with Their Majesties for the Royal Theatre Night dinner held at Ezulwini Palazzo ICC.
The evening began with a dinner at the convention centre’s dining area and later concluded at the venue’s theatre.
The theatre night’s host Phila ‘PHD’ Dlamini held down the MC duties with poise and executed the programme well. For the first act, PHD introduced onto the stage Sifundzani Primary School Marimba and Dance group, which gave an amazing performance of their Marimba instruments, playing award-winning songs.
The pupils also delivered a short skit titled ‘A Nation that honours its King honors its future’. The skit depicted characters from the Bible including Moses and Jesus.
Locals who also gave the night more meaning included Gcayi Umkhaphelwana, who rendered a beautiful piece of poetry that praised His Majesty’s reign and his ability to maintain proper peace in the country.
Sound Kitchen group blessed the stage with a traditional ensemble and the trio sat on a traditional mat with firewood and a pot before them throughout their rendition. Bheki and Ncaba also told ancient stories from our forefathers, giving attendees more knowledge on the traditional Swati stories, ‘Tinganekwane’.
The next ensembles were musical showcases from the country’s cream of the crop artists. Local traditional musician, Thobile Makhoyane stunned with her rendition as the chants she made on the stage captured everyone’s attention, till her last song. Eswatini’s Golden exports, Sands and Qibho rendered some beautiful piece of music with Sands turning up the heat with his fan-favourite ‘Tigi’ which had all attendees on their feet.
Local trio, Siyinqaba, also re-united for that moment as they beautifully took the audience back to days with their anthem ‘Gwayimane’ which received incredible love from the attendees, with most capturing videos with their mobile phones. A local ensemble from Floewe, Michelle, Zamo, Linda Dlamini, KrTC and Bholoja shut down the musicals with its 40th anniversary ensemble.
After the showcases, a play that also had poetry from Qibho, Beezae and South African musician, Nokwazi’s vocals, took centre stage. Their ensemble shared His Majesty’s journey from birth until the King took to the throne. They highlighted some of the impressive developments that His Majesty has made in his 40 years on the throne.
After the 40 years journey ensemble, comedians Gogo and S’lwane almost had everyone in tears from the jokes that they shared on the stage. Gogo shared how hilarious it would be for the GPS to have an assistant in siSwati.
The two also made a joke about the ICC menu having possible language barriers when communicating with waiters and they depicted his Majesty’s ‘Chicken, ‘kwek kwek’ sound that he made at the recent UNESWA graduation ceremony. The beautiful cats ended with international musicians imitators including Michael Jackson and Beyoncé.
When the great evening came to an end, His Majesty took an opportunity to take pictures with all the creatives who took to the stage. His Majesty who slight conversations with each of them after taking pictures and jokingly attempted to do the ‘Ibambe’ routine dance from the international dancers.
