Pot of Gold

By: Hi!jACK Collective

“From the darkness, an alien wakes to find conflicting images of a rainbow nation. Seeing lots of colours representing this rainbow, sans a pot of gold, he at once decides to go in search of the treasures."

This performance piece was conceptualised around the poem Pot of Gold, written by Thabiso “Wordsmith” Nkoana.

The 16th of June, Youth Day, becomes an important date for young scholars to take another look at the meaning of “rainbows” in nations, especially in the wake of recent student protests and calls for transformation. Pot of Gold asks: has the rainbow nation ideology (intended to bind a fractured society post apartheid) been Hi!jACKed? Used and promoted, particularly in theWestern Cape, as a veil - strategically blinding and silencing the poor? Is this colourful cloth laid down only to serve the few?

Concept and performance by: Lesiba Mabitsela and Thabiso Nkoana; costume: Lesiba Mabitsela; cinematography: Mandlatixo Shonhiwa (Taunyane Productions); photography: Neo Mokgosi.