Bending over backwards ...

Somalian acrobat Ali Mswabi trains hard to perfect his performances with Hakuna Matata, says Richard Fitzpatrick

LAST year, the Street Performance World Championship attracted 240,000 visitors, in Cork and Dublin, second only to St Patrick’s Day as the nation’s largest, free family festival.

It returns this year — to Fitzgerald Park in Cork next weekend, and to Dublin’s Merrion Square the following week with 16 acts, including a human ‘cannonball’ and a human ‘pretzel’ — the latter is the American contortionist Jonathan Burns, who told his parents he would make a living by squeezing himself through toilet seats.

The festival’s acrobats include the Cork troupe, Hakuna Matata. Its performers are Ali Mswabi, Aziz Toffi and Michaela Heyer. The name ‘Hakuna Matata’ is from the Swahili expression made famous in the Disney film, The Lion King — “There are no worries”. Mswabi, who founded the company in 2007 with Heyer, is chatty and stoical despite difficult family circumstances. He was born in Somalia in 1978, but partly grew up in Kenya. He came to Ireland in 2002 as a refugee. He has two brothers and a sister in Kenya, while his wife and one-year-old daughter hope to join him in Ireland soon. Mswabi’s mother died when he was a week old. His father died during the war in Somalia in 1994. “My father was a fisherman along the coast,” he says. “He was fishing one day and disappeared. The war was going on. There was killing. We don’t know exactly what happened. He was missing for four weeks. There were more problems. We decided to leave Somalia and to escape to Kenya to live.”

Mswabi took up acrobatics as an eight-year-old, to make a living. “I used to see people training on the beach, near to the sea,” he says. “It was an easy way for a poor person to get work, to look for bread, you know. We used to do entertainment in the hotels. I used to perform for tourists,” he says.

Mswabi trains every day, in two shifts — a few hours in the morning and three hours in the afternoon. Hakuna Matata’s manoeuvres include hat juggling; hoop diving; a flaming limbo bar (a real crowd-pleaser); and human pyramids — German woman Heyer often acts as the base point for the trio.

Mswabi says the bench balance — he stands upside down while supporting himself on pieces of wood — is the most difficult to master. It’s no surprise that he mentions the Shaolin Monks (and film star Jackie Chan) as influences. Hakuna Matata’s performances are humorous; they cajole the crowds on the street. Small-chair comedy is one of their acts.

Mswabi says audiences could be forbidding in the early days. “When we started, one day some people threw tea and coffee at us on the street, shouting, ‘Oi, you go away’. But, afterwards, they understand that we are good and they don’t act like this anymore. They know better. Now they are hakuna matata. Everyone’s happy.

“I like this job, because I do it as a prayer for myself. If I see people are happy, then I’m happy myself. It’s a blessing for everyone. It’s not about the money. Sometimes, a person who is disabled will say, ‘I don’t have any money for you guys but I was lonely and sad and now I feel happy and I want to shake your hand’.”

Hakuna Matata has appeared in festivals around Europe, including Holland and Spain. Mswabi was flown to Barcelona a few years back to film as one of the skippers in a Club Orange TV advert. He has a grá for the Irish public, though. “I like Irish audiences,” he says. “They’re very good. They give you energy on the stage. They’re not boring. If you call a volunteer, they’re very quick. They’re ready to come. They’re not shy.”

The organisers of the Street Performance World Championship are hopeful for good weather this year. Mswabi is unperturbed. “Weather is always a problem, but I’m living here 10 years. I know how it is. If the weather is bad, Hakuna Matata is there for the Irish. Don’t worry about it.”

* Hakuna Matata performs in the Street Performance World Championship at Fitzgerald Park, Cork, Saturday, Jul 14 — Sunday, Jul 15, and at Merrion Square, Dublin 2, Thursday, Jul 19 — Sunday, Jul 22. www.spwc.ie