The Eye of Rre Mutwa synopsis

 The Eye of Rre Mutwa, An Afrocyborg Homage to Credo Vasamazulu Mutwa 1921-2020,  draws inspiration from the writing of Credo Mutwa and his African cyborg visions of mythic beings who animate Zulu mythology in Indaba My Children (1965). Ironically, Mutwa, the medicine man, sculptor, painter, prophet and cultural custodian of African orality, passed away just shy of 100 years old when the world went into global lockdown due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The film attempts to mitigate the fact that he was denied a state funeral considering his enormous contribution to Zulu cultural stewardship outlined in his writing and timeless knowledge of indigenous medicine.

 

The Eye of Rre Mutwa explores the interconnectedness of human suffering and technological “development”, which equates to the price Africa has had to pay for “progress”.  The Afrocyborg characters portrayed by Albert Ibokwe Khoza and Patricia Boyer apply Professor Tshilidzi Marwala’s injunction to analyse 4IR concerning the historic socio-political and economic inequalities embedded in the First (1IR), Second (2IR) and Third (3IR) Industrial Revolutions, as outlined in Closing the Gap – The Fourth Industrial Revolution in Africa (Marwala 2020). Building on the work of Robin DiAngelo, I examine my culpability in the process of techno-cultural imperialism via an exploration of “White Fragility (DiAngelo 2018).” This reflexive contemplation examines what it means to be a white South African, in the twenty-first century by learning to see the historical patterns of oppression built into Western wealth accumulation strategies endemic to 1IR, 2IR, 3IR and 4IR. In this context, slave-cyborgs and wo-man-machines are interpreted through an intergalactic, postmodern lens to become proto-African-cyborgs. The Eye of Rre Mutwa is an exploration of how an African female gaze in VR might be leveraged to disavow the techno-cultural imperialism that privileges the Western male gaze of Silicon Valley.