The stage pulsed with heartbeat of drums with each rhythm carrying echoes of ancestral memory at the Keorapetse William Kgositsile Theatre at the University of Johannesburg (UJ’s) Arts Centre. This is where the Jamaican L’Acadco: A United Caribbean Dance Force titled 1 Luv performed a series of contemporary dances at the UJ Arts Centre on 08 September 2026.
UJ and the Jamaican High Commission, Pretoria collaboration celebrated the 64th anniversary of Jamaica’s independence through a cultural production aimed at strengthening Jamaican- South African relations.
Her Excellency Joan Thomas Edwards High Commissioner of Jamaica to the Republic of South Africa in her opening address said that the spirit of partnership is particularly meaningful under the theme United in Celebrating Resilience. She further added that, “we are resilient people, and you will see that displayed tonight. This theme speaks to a quality deeply embedded in the Jamaican experience, but which I believe resonates strongly with the people of South Africa. The ability to face adversity, draw strength from one another, and continue moving forward with determination and hope”.
Jamaican-based, L’Acadco was originally founded in Miami in 1978 by Jamaican dancer, choreographer and scholar Dr L’Antoinette Stines, and relocated to Jamaica in 1982. “What Dr Stines has built over more than four decades is a body of knowledge codified, taught, transmitted, theorized, and defended through scholarship”, said Prof Refilwe Phaswana-Mafuya Deputy Vice-Chancellor Research and Innovation in her welcoming address.
L’Acadco’s performance was an exchange of rhythm and memory. The audience clapped, sang, and echoed the refrain, “Out of Many, One Beat is One People,” becoming part of the story. Contemporary dance movements reflected Jamaica’s layered heritage of European, Chinese, and Indian influences woven into local tradition. The choreography carried ancestral weight, while drums and voices bound performers and spectators in a shared rhythm.
The dancers paid tribute to Jamaican struggle heroes and global icons of liberation. Names like, Marcus Garvey, Bob Marley, Nelson Mandela, Harriet Tubman, Desmond Tutu, Malcolm X, and Madam C.J. Walker were invoked, and each step was a gesture of remembrance. The choreography honoured not only Jamaican resilience but also the broader Black struggle, embracing a collective identity rooted in resistance and pride.
“These are movement traditions cross the ocean under some of the most brutal conditions human beings have ever devised, and yet they have survived. They took root in new soil. They evolved. They became something new. The body remembered what the archive was never permitted to record” said Prof Refilwe Phaswana-Mafuya.
In the closing remarks, Nkhumeleni Victor Vele Director-General of the South African Department of Tourism highlighted the deep historical and cultural connectedness between South Africa and Jamaica, noting shared African heritage and similar national mottos regarding unity and diversity. He reminded the audience about the enduring South African- Jamaican friendship exemplified by the historic 1991 visit of Nelson Mandela to Jamaica, which resulted in landmarks such as the Nelson Mandela Highway, Nelson Mandela Park, and Nelson Mandela Street in Kingston. He concluded by saying, “we may be separated by minds and lives, but we are connected as a people in spirit, in history, in culture, in our common African heritage we are connected”.
