BUYISWA'S "LEVÁNTENSE" WAS A CRY
FOR WOMEN TO RISE TO THE OCCASION

She gave a new meaning to the expression “LEVANTESE” in the Rosa Parks scene
of  the theatre show, The Labyrinth of the Butterfly, presented to the women and children
in the INDLOVU township community in Cape Town, South Africa on November 17, 2008.

Buyiswa - a leader in the INDLOVU community – speaks a South African language Xhosa but she understood the show in Spanish when a bus driver yelled “levántese” ("get up!) to African Costa Rica Doris Campbell sitting on a chair in a bus.

The selected part of the Costa Rican produced show, The Labyrinth of the Butterflies, was Rosa Parks’ episode regarding her resistance to abandon her seat in the bus during the Unites States segregationist South in the middle of the 1950s.

The newly constructed community center was used for the first and last time for the theatre show. It was built by the community with support from the Shaster Foundation. The centre was alongside a collective kitchen, a children´s center and a clinic and a guest house that was meant to be a key means of income generation for the community).  The entire project was built through local community volunteer work as well as contributions of other people and organizations in and outside South Africa. For example, many young students have been coming to INDLOVU from Worcestor Polytechnic Institute, Massachusetts, USA as part of their internship program.  The guest house for the volunteer supporters was completed in 2006 and could sleep 10 people in simple dormitory style. It was built with sandbags and eco-beam technologies using all locally available materials.

The artists, director and producer of the Labyrinth of the Butterflies show and some staff and board members of Wings of the Butterfly project had a memorable afternoon that day. A highlight of the cultural exchange took place when, after the presentation of the show, Buyiswa put on the bus driver's hat, occupied her place in the dramatization, and proceeded to yell in perfect Spanish “¡Levántense, levántense!”

The 40 people in the audience, including the original actresses laughed and cried with the special connection that was established right then and there. Xhosa and Spanish are quite different languages, but art, plus the common experience which women and people share the world round, provides a source of understanding that has few or no boundaries.

Shared experiences that are powerful can often become a vehicle infusing new meaning and creating new bonds, becoming a source of inspiration to draw strength, especially during times of crisis transcending language barriers.

And that is precisely what happened when two weeks later the community center and other buildings in which we shared our experience were burnt to the ground.

The shock brought back the memories of the connections we wove through the shared meaning of the exchange, expressed in the music, the dramatization, the games with the children and the joyful tour by the women who proudly showed us those communal buildings.

When the news of the tragedy reached us back in Costa Rica we also heard that once again, Buyiswa had used the “levántense” slogan, but this time calling the phrase from house to house to lift women´s spirits and motivate them to rise up to the occasion … which is another meaning of levántense in Spanish.

But this time around, it is we in Costa Rica who are following the footsteps of the INDLOVU women in the re-construction of their community compound. It's an experience of coming full circle, in a powerful exchange that transcends language, culture, class and other boundaries that divide us. This time around we hope Levántese will be the slogan to assist us to come together, others can join us. So we support the folks at INDLOVU to begin the reconstruction process, building their collective new space with renewed strength and courage.

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