Rewriting Narratives, Challenging Classics: African Writings in Dada Masilo's The Sacrifice

The article examines how Black artists from the Global South reconfigure Western canonical works through artistic practice. Focusing on Dada Masilo's The Sacrifice (2021), her reinterpretation of The Rite of Spring, it explores how the piece challenges canonical hierarchies by centering Southern African cosmologies. Drawing on postcolonial theory, African philosophy and performance studies, the article argues that Masilo's choreography operates as a practice of self-writing, constituting African subjects ontologically rather than merely responding to colonial frameworks. The analysis identifies three philosophical principles – communalism, ritual and ancestrality – that shape the work's structure, generating a performative third space where contemporary African identities emerge beyond Western onto-epistemological constraints.