TELEVISION: Bafana Khumalo
IF you’re ever up beyond 11pm on Sunday you=20 have probably been through the arty fare at=20 varying degrees of taking itself far too=20 seriously on SABC3. At this time you might =20 have had an experience called Our Voices.=20 This is a talk show in true talking-head=20 fashion. It is no way similar to the=20 tabloidy Oprah Winfrey show or the other=20 any of the local versions.
Our Voices, presented by Bev Smith, is a=20 sober, intelligent discussion by black=20 people. Here every black person has a voice=20 – from the conservative senator to the the=20 dreadlocked community activist. The show is=20 culled from Black Entertainment Television=20 and has an unapologetically black feel=20 about it. The presenter doesn’t feel any=20 qualms referring to a guest as a brother or=20 a sister.=20
If Bev Smith’s counterpart Oprah used those=20 words she would probably be using them to=20 say to white America: “Ain’t I cool and=20 don’t you find me exotic going around=20 calling people I don’t know from a bar of=20 soap my kin?” On Our Voices there is a=20 degree of sincerity about the label, a=20 sincerity that carries with it that=20 political and emotional legacy of brother=20 or sister in African-America.=20
This is, I suspect, one of the very few=20 programmes that, when Louis Farrakhan=20 organised the Million Man March – instead=20 of digging all the dirt on the Nation of=20 Islam leader – looked at both the positive=20 and negative aspects of the march.=20
With Farrakhan in mind, this week’s=20 programme looked at slavery and the recent=20 revelations that slavery is still being=20 practised in certain areas of the Sudan.=20 Farrakhan’s had categorically stated that=20 this does not happen in Africa. The=20 discussion was pretty vigorous, extending=20 to the way that African-Americans tend to=20 see continent of Africa. Very telling =20 indeed was the honesty that said they tend=20 to see it as a monolithic entity. This, for=20 me, is a good programme because here black=20 folk are seen talking seriously about=20 issues that affect them, and they try to=20 arrive at solutions.=20
Another good programme on television is the=20 Truth and Reconciliation Special Report on=20 SABC1 at 8pm and presented by Max du Preez.=20 Although it has moments of good journalism=20 I can’t help noting that not a single=20 person making up the team of reporters is=20 “African”.=20
Since Thabo Mbeki’s “I am an African”=20 speech (followed by the entire=20 multicultural corps of rainbow nation=20 politicians declaring their Africanness) I=20 need to explain that by “African” I refer=20 to those who were formerly called natives,=20 bantus, plurals and blacks … Not the=20 other Africans – the coloureds, Indians,=20 whites, Chinese or any other group that was=20 not an untouchable in the apartheid caste=20 system.=20
I see not one representative of these=20 people in the TRC Special Report team.=20 Isn’t it particularly important that they,=20 too, cover the story that looks at the=20 darkest period of our past? Although some=20 of our experiences of the atrocities of=20 apartheid might be similar, most of them=20 are not going to be the same.
The picture painted by an African would be=20 slightly different from that painted by the=20 “Other Africans”. Why aren’t there any such=20 reporters on this team? Perhaps most of the=20 Africans in the SABC are only interested in=20 the glamorous jobs, and the TRC Special=20 Report is not one of those.