Gabriel Seeber
SOUTH African history has for decades been viewed through a peephole, the only visible aspect being the Great Trek. The history workshop and cultural day at Wits University next weekend will open the door on South African history, and present its working face in a feast of popular culture.
With the theme Democracy: Popular precedents, popular practice and popular culture, the cultural day, on Saturday July 16, will form an extension of the closed history workshop, providing a platform for a wide range of events encompassing the notions of popular history and culture.
The fourth such event _ it’s a triennial affair _ this year’s cultural day will be bigger than ever. Political change has allowed the true face of South African history to be shown without the threat of reaction from Big Brother.
Events will include drama and dance, music, poetry and literature readings, films, art and photography exhibitions, and seminars, focusing on issues from education and the elections to street children, violence and satires on the “new” South Africa.
As an example: we made the cross and bought the change offered by the political marketplace and their advertising brokers (during the elections). An illustrated retrospective of this process, Selling Change: Adverts for the 1994 South African Elections, will be presented by University of Cape Town academic Eve Bertleson, while the process of reconstruction will be debated in Challenges to Democracy, chaired by Frederik van Zyl Slabbert.
Other seminars include an analysis of the Children’s Charter, exploring its impact from a youth perspective, and a slide show, presented by historian Luli Calinicos and unionist Hassen Lorgat, looking at the development of a workers’ museum.
Challenging press clampdowns and delivering the real news has been the mission statement of the alternative press. Editors from leading publications will discuss how changed conditions will affect their ability to survive.
Women’s issues feature prominently in theatre productions. Voices of Rage and Sisters of the Calabash will offer a look at the resilience, sacrifices and role of women in the liberation movement, told through dance, song, music and drama. A highlight will be Athol Fugard’s new play, My Life, a production which attempts to “reflect the cultural diversity and contrasts of our South African reality”.
Also on the theatre agenda are the effects of township violence on youths (Divide and Rule), and the plight of street children in Oh, The City.
The lives of Nelson Mandela and Chris Hani and the history of the ANC are comprehensively covered in various films. Ulibambe Lingashone is a five-part documentary on the ANC and contains archival material as well as first-hand accounts by Mandela, Walter Sisulu and the late Oliver Tambo of their participation in the liberation movement.
Documentaries on the histories of Zimbabwe, Angola and Namibia are also to be shown.
Not to be missed is Writers in Conversation, a four-part series featuring discussions by authors Chinua Achebe, Wole Soyinka, Ellen Kuzwayo and Ngugi Wa Thiongo.
For a bit of a gas and some scathing satire, see Walking Angel, about a dog who dies in township violence and goes to heaven, but misses aspects of the old South Africa _ or Desiring Souls, in which two garbage collectors cleaning the Union Buildings after the inauguration bare their souls on the subject of the “new” South Africa. (Desiring Souls won the 1994 Pick of the Windybrow award.)
Education comes under the spotlight in Colouring in Our Classrooms, about children’s perception of prejudice in our society, and the self-explanatory Education: A Basic Human Right.
Also on the programme are eight fine art and photographic exhibitions, to be spread over four venues.
Most events will take place in the Wits Theatre complex, Nunnery, Great Hall, Gertrude Posel Gallery and William Cullen Library. A detailed programme can be obtained by phoning 716-2818 or 716-2296.