We Wear Our Wheels with Pride: A Monument to South Africa’s Rickshaw Heroes
Images Credit: Jérôme Séron
A symphony of movement, sound and storytelling collides on stage in Robyn Orlin’s latest masterpiece, We wear our wheels with pride and slap your streets with color… We said ‘bonjour’ to satan in 1820. This explosive production is more than a dance performance; it is an homage to South Africa’s history, an urgent act of remembrance and a visually arresting spectacle that challenges the way we perceive culture, resistance and power.
A Tribute to the Unsung Heroes
Orlin, an internationally celebrated South African choreographer, has long been recognized for her fearless approach to storytelling through dance. Her latest work focuses on the Zulu rickshaw drivers of the 1970s, whose endurance and artistry transformed an exploitative colonial-era practice into an unspoken act of defiance. During apartheid, these men transported white masters through the streets of Durban, clad in extravagant, self-fashioned costumes adorned with beads, feathers, and towering horns. While their bodies labored under the weight of injustice, their spirit remained unbroken—expressed through movement, colour, and an irrepressible dignity. Orlin’s work resurrects their legacy, giving them a voice in a world that sought to render them invisible.
Artistry Rooted in Resistance
Blending dance, music and theatricality, We wear our wheels with pride is a collaborative triumph between Orlin and Moving Into Dance Mophatong, a Johannesburg-based company renowned for its fusion of contemporary and African dance traditions. The production, featuring dancers Sunnyboy Motau, Oscar Buthelezi, Eugene Mashiane, Lesego Dihemo, Sbusiso Gumede and Masego Moloto; captures the raw power and fluid dynamism of bodies in motion—an echo of the rickshaw drivers’ grace and physical resilience.
The musical landscape is just as evocative. The breath-taking voice of Anelisa Stuurman, paired with the inventive compositions of Yogin Sullaphen, infuses the performance with a sonic depth that bridges past and present. A collaboration with the indigenous-electro duo uKhoiKhoi, that draws on Khoisan traditions, slam poetry and contemporary rhythms to craft a soundscape that is at once ancestral and futuristic, visceral and transcendent.
A Monument of Memory and Movement
It is not just a tribute but a reckoning—one that acknowledges both the painful realities of South Africa’s past and the resilience of its people.
At the heart of We wear our wheels with pride is the notion of reclamation. The rickshaw drivers, once mere laborers in the eyes of the colonial system, emerge as artists, performers and symbols of resistance. Orlin’s choreography captures their vibrancy and agency, reimagining their steps not as acts of servitude, but as defiant dances of survival.
Shaping the Future Through the Past
As audiences witness this vibrant tapestry of movement, costume and sound, they are invited to reflect on the stories that history often erases. The performance is both a celebration and an indictment—of beauty, resilience and the systems that seek to suppress them.
Robyn Orlin has been described as a “permanent irritation” in the South African arts scene for her relentless questioning of power structures. In We wear our wheels with pride, she disrupts. She forces us to see, to listen and to remember.
Orlin’s work dances between joy and struggle, between performance and protest. It is a monument, not of stone or steel, but of movement—one that will not stand still, nor be forgotten.
We wear our wheels with pride and slap your streets with color… We said ‘bonjour’ to satan in 1820, arrives at London’s Southbank Centre for an exclusive run on March 21 and 22, 2025. Set against the backdrop of Queen Elizabeth Hall, this electrifying performance promises to be a thought-provoking encounter with South Africa’s past and present.
Tickets and more info on We wear our wheels with pride are available through the Southbank Centre’s official website - visit here.
