‘THE MOIRAI’ – NAMIBIAN DANCERS AND ACTORS STANDING AGAINST GBV

The Ombetja Yehinga Organisation (OYO), a Namibian Trust aiming at creating social awareness using the Arts.

Gender-Based Violence has made the headlines lately, with the #shutitalldown movement. People from all walks of lives are protesting against the fact none of us feels safe anymore. Since the beginning of the COVID19 crisis, OYO has warned that lockdown, job losses and frustration will lead to increased violence. It is time to reverse the trend. It is time to stand up and work together towards creating a better Namibia for all.

OYO, therefore, launched on its social media platforms its new clip ‘the Moirai’ on Wednesday 28 October. This was made possible thanks to financial support from the Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany to Namibia.

Dr Talavera, who directed and choreographed the piece, explained ‘the Moirai is a piece we created years ago. Sadly, years later, it is still relevant. For this piece we invited OYO dancers, past and present, to work alongside dancers and actors. We were lucky many agreed to join us and stand up with us against GBV. In the clip, we have actors from our latest film ‘Kapana’ such as Simon Hanga (a policeman), Felicity Celento (the counsellor), Foreversun Haiduwah (clerk of court) and Lukas Paulus (magistrate) alongside well-known dancers Monray Garoeb, NSimba Faycal, Justina Andreas, Sydney Farao, West Uarije and Santos Mentos.’

The clip follows the journey of a young woman (El Juanita Philander) in an abusive relationship (Desmond Kamerika) until that critical moment when she has to make a decision. She knows at that point that she has two choices: staying, and probably dying or leaving. That point is materialized by the arrival of the Moirai, the Greek Goddesses of Fate. 

‘It was important for us to unite dancers and actors around this theme, to add our voices to the #shutitalldown movement doing what we do best: perform. We hope many people will watch the clip and enjoy it and we hope it will further the discussion around the need to end violence in Namibia. Nobody should feel threatened or scared any longer.’

Shoot in different locations around Windhoek, the clip version is 15 minutes long and was shot by Joshua Homateni, editing and visual effects by Vincent Mboku. It is available for free on OYO’s Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/OYOtrust) on Wednesday 28 October morning.