Molo Fish! is the most hyped SA TV drama of 1997. MARIAMcCLOY reports on the h ighs, lows and political breakthroughs of the production
AT a time when some people are trying to bury South Africa’s murky past and op t for rainbow nation escapism, Molo Fish!, a 13-part series that debuted this week on SABC1, demands that people face up to the past and start dealing with the effects of what director and writer Clarence Hamilton describes as “the po isoned chalice of apartheid” from which everyone drank.
Molo Fish! is so named, says co-director Seipati Bulane-Hopa, because it refer s to a phrase that parents use when avoiding giving their children a truthful answer to a question. The series is a semi-autobiographical tale written by on e of the directors, Clarence Hamilton, and is set in South Africa and Canada b etween 1969 and 1989. By focusing on the coloured community, it examines the c omplex iss ue of identity in a racist system.
Kurira Films International was established in 1992 and comprises Hamilton, Bul ane-Hopa and Horace Rayners. Their incentive was that they were not seeing sto ries by black people about black people on TV. While Hamilton acknowledges tha t works like Homeland and The Line were breakthrough dramas, he adds they were flawed in that they offered a white leftie perspective of the black experienc
e. Not so with Molo Fish!
In a first on South African screens, Molo Fish! is a co-production between Can ada and South Africa. Hamilton says he and Canadian co-producers Amos and Alfo ns Adetuyi of the black Canadian Inner City Films decided to work together on the project before he left Canada, where he was in exile. The show premiered i n Canada, where Kurira says it is popular. Canadian press cuttings bear this o ut.
While one local critic this week said that Molo Fish! and its issues are dated , offering nothing new and that it would appeal to overseas audiences as it is the “same old exotica of apartheid”, Hamilton believes the series is topical
because “there are so many truths we still refuse to face …”. Bulane-Hopa th inks it’s convenient for people to forget … apartheid still exists today. Ha milton add s the drama is popular in Canada and would be in America where racism within t he black community is also part of their reality.
In a way, the uprisings in Gauteng’s coloured townships two weeks ago provide the perfect backdrop to justify the focus of Molo Fish! In the 13-part series we see Darryl Malgas growing up and dealing with a colour hierarchy that not o nly caused division between black and white, but also with what Hamilton descr ibed in one interview as “the genius of apartheid … it makes all groups of o ppressed p eople hate each other”. He emphasises the “frustrations and lack of clarity as to who the coloured people are and what their relation is to the rest of Sout
h Africa … “
Having a focus that looks at racism between black, coloured and Indian, as opp osed to white against black, is a factor Hamilton sees as unique. He believes this focus makes the series original, instead of creating a drama with stereot ypical figures – the innocent black victim and evil white oppressor. To him a lot of stories have not been told because of an insistence on portraying peopl e as victi ms who are not “active participants in their own destiny”.
The story of Darryl Malgas draws on Hamilton’s experiences in Noordgesig as a boy who had Swazi and SePedi grandparents, yet grew up classified as coloured. The first episode sees black and coloured boys fighting each other, with blac
k boys being called “kaffirs”. Hamilton says his intention was to show the div isions between the groups without having, say, a policeman as apartheid figure ; how apar theid had succeeded if “kids would voluntarily go to war on the basis of skin colour and hair texture”. Where some coloured families would not acknowledge t heir African roots or even their families who lived a few streets away …
Darryl’s journey of consciousness begins when his coloured teacher calls him ” a kaffir”, taking us on a trip through three decades of apartheid; from schola rships to inter-racial love and friendship; from being a member of Steve Biko’ s Saso and, at 18, the youngest political prisoner in SA’s history to his exil e and return in 1989.
In a modern day context, Bulane-Hopa sees the language issue as pertinent, whe re some black parents encourage their children to loose their language in favo ur of English. In the series Darryl’s black grandmother asks his mother why he r son does not know his African name. When Sophiatown was demolished, part of Hamilton’s family “changed their identity and were raised as coloureds”. Paren ts, he say s, generally thought they were making the right decision by reclassifying them selves in the hope of a better future. He feels they should start reassessing those decisions.
Depending on who you believe, the SABC iwas at first scared of the content of Molo Fish! Hamilton says the script was rejected by SABC readers, who regarde
d it as contrary to the spirit of reconciliation. He took all the readers’ rep orts to Zwelakhe Sisulu. One Cor Nortje did an independent assessment of the w ork and “loved it” and the series was commissioned. It is rumoured to have rec eived a R9 -million budget.
An industry insider who refused to be named countered that the script was reje cted on grounds of its quality – and to get round this Hamilton “screamed raci sm”. They went on to say that the project had employed unqualified people and was chaotic – and that Kurira had bitten off more than they could chew, referr ing particularly to budget constraints that resulted in the production closing down for
three weeks. Now Kurira are suing the actor originally cast to play Darryl Mal gas – and are in turn being sued by Performing Arts Workers Equity (Pawe) lawy ers representing 11 technicians who are demanding R90 000. Pawe is also repres enting the actor in question, who left the set after the delay.
Pawe Secretary General, Japan Mthembu, says the dispute came about because the delay put the actor off schedule for other work, infringing his next project.
He asserts, “We stand firmly behind him, if Kurira want to take it to the cou
rt they can … they don’t have a case … “
National organiser of the technicians sub-committe of Pawe, Norma Craven, says the technicians were instructed not to seek other work over the delay, and cl
aims they were not payed over this period – hence the R90 000 claim. Pawe says they have tried to negotiate to no avail.
Added to this, at the beginning of production there was a case of two technici ans allegedly being unfairly dismissed. Mthembu says one technician was reinst ated and Pawe is now trying to reach a settlement for the other. Kurira say th ey will not comment while the case is sub judice.
Despite this, actors’ agents the M&G spoke to said they had not received compl aints along the lines of disorganisation from their actors. One agent said tha t some actors had been promised scenes that had never materialised, but that s he hadn’t heard any real horror stories.
Eric Miyeni, who plays the older Darryl Malgas, referred this week to Kuriras’ s aim of hiring a majority black crew and making sure the drama was true to bl ack experiences. He added that there may have been difficulties in the beginni ng because Kuriras set out to give new people breaks, but by the time “I got o n set, a lot of people knew what they had to do”. He described it as the best work he’s been involved in, but complained that the Canadian production was unprofession al – saying he had not yet received full payment for the Canadian work.
Rayners says problems were inevitable because Kurira had originally asked the SABC for R12 000 a minute but had to settle for R8 000. He says the series was already at a disadvantage because it was “running a deficit from the beginnin
g”. Hamilton adds the way the SABC used to work was that funds were provided o ver a three-phase period – which he said worked for established white producer s who have “bank credits and all those facilities … that system further disadvantaged
us”. After July, Kurira and the SABC had to create a more manageable system. T he Canadian producers also raised further funds.
SABC1’s Molefe Mokgatle confirmed that Molo Fish! “had been the most difficult co-production ever,” adding that this was “the most money that had ever been
put in a local production” but that he believed the money was well spent in th e light of planned international sales.
While – predominantly white – critics approached by M&G this week accused Molo Fish! of being “politically correct bullshit” and it of not being “a new stor
y”, other critics praised the politics and the story. Technically most were in agreement that the direction needed tightening. Average viewers saw it as an
authentic, previously untold South African story.
Either way, few can deny that the turbulent path that Molo Fish! has travelled cannot help but break new ground in laying down a foundation for future drama
work in South Africa – even if it won’t always be easy.
Molo Fish! is on SABC1 on Tuesdays at 9pm