Mats Larsson Gothe's Poet and Prophetess at the Artscape

Powerful stories for a powerful African opera in Cape Town

Poet and Prophetess is based on a fictitious meeting between the 19-year-old Swedish poet Bengt Lidner (born in 1757), one of Sweden’s greatest pre-romantic poets, and Jula, a slave girl prophetess on board the Swedish East Indiaman Terra Nova, bound for Canton via the Cape of Good Hope.

This controversial poet was forced by his stepfather to be a deck hand on the Terra Nova. In the opera, Jula tells of her vision in which she says the ancestors will rise to free her people and drive their enemies into the sea if they kill all their cattle and burn their crops.

This cattle-killing episode is based on the real life prophecy by Nongqawuse, who encouraged the Xhosas to use this method to drive the hated whites from Xhosa land.

There were, however, other prophets who were stirring the anxieties and hatred of Xhosas against the settlers.

But what was it about this young girl Nongqawuse that made her words the most potent of all the prophets? How was this girl able to convince kings and elders to slaughter their cattle, which would bring about the ruin of the Xhosas?

Although fictitious, their story represents the thousands of fascinating initial interactions that took place between the European and the African in South Africa.

Mats Larsson Gothe’s Poet and Prophetess:

Date: 30 October – 8 November 2008
Venue: Artscape Theatre
Location: DF Malan Street | Foreshore | Cape Town

For more information contact: +27(0)21 410 9800

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