His name is Klemente Tsamba, a Mozambican living in Portugal. He arrived there in search of new opportunities and sees theater as a way of life. He embodies various characters, almost all related to Mozambique, his homeland.
It was in this context that the show "In the Times of Gungunhana" was born in 2014, inspired by the novel "Ualalapi" by the writer Ungulani Ba Ka Khosa. It is one of his most significant works, and with it, he has raised the country's flag in various places such as Brazil, Angola, Cape Verde, and Portugal.
"In the Times of Gungunhana" is a monologue based on the oral tradition of African storytellers, where a single element unfolds into various characters to, with the audience's complicity, portray some magical episodes parallel to the life of Gungunhana, the last king of the Gaza Empire, one of the largest in African history.
The show results from the adaptation of the award-winning book "Ualalapi" by the Mozambican writer Ungulani Ba Ka Khosa. All elements representative of the culture, such as music, dance, rhythms, and proverbs, are creatively directed to play specific roles within the narrative, creating magical effects on the audience, an integral part of the play.
Klemente Tsamba was born in Malhangalene, Maputo city, and from an early age participated in projects related to performing arts. He joined urban dance groups, traditional music bands, and street theater groups. He is also a musician and craftsman, and a master's student in Theater and Community at the Higher School of Theater and Cinema in Lisbon.
(By Lucas Muaga)
