Gift Uzera – Art as Exploration: Movement, Memory, and Identity

Gift Uzera grew up near Grootfontein where he also attended school and first encountered art through a theatre production, which sparked his early interest. “While the other kids were doing sports, I was busy doing the arts”, he says laughingly. After school, Gift moved to Windhoek, where he studied Psychology and Performing Arts at the University of Namibia (UNAM). Alongside his first professional appearances as an actor and dancer, he also developed a deep awareness of the lack of knowledge about his own culture.

His passion for his culture was sparked by Jarimbovandu Kaputu, the well-known radio journalist, historian, poet, and passionate activist for Ovaherero culture, who passed away in 2019. At the NBC Sound Archive in Windhoek, Gift discovered Kaputu’s praise poems, which had a profound influence on him. In recent projects, Gift began exploring culture more deeply in his work. Especially in the field of dance, whereby he started combining contemporary dance styles with the traditional dances he grew up with. However, he doesn’t see his art as a means of cultural preservation, but rather as a celebration of his own culture. You can see a glimpse of Gift Uzera’s dance performances here:
 

Gift Uzera is putting Namibia on the map

Recently, Gift was able to showcase his work on an international stage. As a fellow at the International Forum in Berlin, he had th opportunity to exchange ideas for two weeks with artists from around the world during the Theatertreffen. He also demonstrated his talent with a widely acclaimed dance performance at the “Forum’s Forum.” Afterwards, during a short residency at the Academy for Theatre and Digitality in Dortmund, he explored the combination of dance and motion capture technology. This resulted in a human-animal depiction called “Animorphic”, featuring the cow as an important part of Herero culture – with a cattle's head and Gift’s dancing body. Afterwards, during a short residency at the Academy for Theatre and Digitality in Dortmund, he explored the combination of dance and motion capture technology. This resulted in a human-animal depiction called “Animorphic”, featuring the cow as an important part of Herero culture – with a cattle head and Gift’s dancing body.

He then spent two weeks at the European Centre for the Arts in Dresden, Hellerau. There, as part of the project “Rhythm Reborn”, he celebrates traditional dance practices, which were suppressed through colonial education. Gift uses existing recordings of praise poetry and songs in Otjiherero as a platform to complement them with his very own mix of traditional Herero inspired movements and contemporary dance. This project was initially inspired by his participation in the Otjomuise Live Arts Festival (OLAF), co-produced by Goethe-Institut Namibia.

Gift considers this recent engagement with colonial heritage as both a professional and personal development. He describes his first encounters with the Herero and Nama genocide by German colonial troops in the early 20th century, which arose during his research, as traumatizing: “It doesn’t really affect you until you start to reflect more deeply,” he claims.

An interdisciplinary multi-talent

However, post-colonialism is not the only artistic influence for Gift. His work also addresses themes such as queerness and societal norms. Gift’s practice continues to expand beyond culture, drawing from personal experience and cross disciplinary interest in dance, sound, and technology. He also hopes to bring about new structural impulses, especially in the field of dance. “Dancers are always just supporting characters in the Namibian art scene,” he laments. He especially hopes to bring contemporary dance out of its niche — one performance at a time. Whether in Germany or Namibia, for example through a unique collaboration with Japanese jazz pianist Yukako Yamano as part of the concert “Resonant Bodies – In Motion, In Sound” at the Goethe-Institut Windhoek. Gift is looking to bring on more collaborations in the future. He views the Namibian art scene as still too scattered into different disciplines and wishes for more interaction between different art forms. As an interdisciplinary artist, he is setting a good example with his recent successes both at home and abroad.