Botswana-born international actor and writer Donald Molosi has been awarded the Santu Mofokeng Fellowship 2024. The award will enable a partnership between the Market Theatre Photo Lab and Molosi where Molosi will curate an exhibition and performance to re-introduce the story of 1976 Soweto Uprisings to younger generations of South Africans. The fellowship comes with a cool R3.5 million for Molosi.
“It is an honor to curate for South Africa a story that is so quintessentially South African. Even without being South African myself I have been invited to lend my expertise as a consultant and an international theatre practitioner and I think that speaks to the caliber of my work,” Molosi says from London where he is currently curating a solo theatre festival on London’s famous West End.
As a Santu Mofokeng Fellow, Molosi will be given access to archives and key people that he may need for the research. He will also be awarded a budget of about R3.5 million in order for him to create the exhibition.
The Santu Mofokeng Fellowship annually attracts world-renowned artists to South Africa to assist in curating the history of South Africa for generations to come. The fellowship was inspired by the legacy of pan-African South African photographer Santu Mofokeng.
“I am a storyteller, performer and historian. These skills combine to make me an effective consultant and curator. I am excited that my work will ensure that South African children and the world will know the story of 1976 from newer perspectives,” says Molosi.
Previously, Molosi helped curate similar events around the globe when countries marked their milestones. “Through the Upright African Movement, I helped curate some of the events around Uganda’s 50th anniversary and also Taiwan’s 100th. I also curated at the European Development Days 2021 that were scheduled for Belgium but ended up being virtual because of COVID. Countries realize that without a sensitively and properly curated story, they will not exist in the future. They need storytellers to save them from extinction.”
As to whether we can expect to see Molosi do the same curation of the Botswana story he says, “The present Botswana government shakes in the boots at the thought of inviting a Motswana expert who is non-partisan like myself as a consultant. Let’s hope that one day we tire of propaganda in Botswana.”
Donald Molosi this year marks 20 years in professional theatre performance that saw him having a decade-long career off-Broadway. In 2010 Molosi became the first Motswana to perform on Broadway and he has since won several awards off-Broadway for his performances in “Blue, Black and White,” “Motswana,” “Today It’s Me,” and “Black Man Samurai” among others all of which he wrote and executive-produced. As a Santu Mofokeng fellow, Molosi establishes himself as one of the emerging players in South Africa’s competitive curating industry.