IT has been the best of weeks and the worst of weeks for South African culture. While thugs were meting out their own special breed of cultural elitism at the Klein Karoo National Arts Festival in Oudtshoorn, another group of quietly dedicated cultural workers was busy launching the most important arts body yet established in post-apartheid South Africa.
What happened in the Karoo cannot and should not be dismissed, as it has been by the festival organisers, as the work of eight irresponsible individuals. Those present witnessed a far larger group hurling beer cans and political abuse at the likes of Miriam Makeba, Amanda Strydom and Johannes Kerkorrel.
Amid calls for tolerance from Makeba – during what was only her second live performance since returning from exile – beer can missiles continued to fly.
They were to become the theme of the week. Later, at a stand-up comedy performance by Johnny Campher, three men in the audience called him an unamusing “bloody Hotnot” and threatened more beer cans.
It gave the term “lager mentality” a whole new meaning. This was supposed to be the festival that placed the “new Afrikaner” in the spotlight. It succeeded, but not in the way expected. It held up the Afrikaner, warts and all, to scrutiny and analysis. But how else will things ever change?
The racist antics of a portion of the crowd forced those who opposed them to take a stand. The streets of Oudtshoorn became the real stage, with placards and politics flying – and a whole new breed of Afrikaner activists emerging, anxious to show that they cannot be defined by their racist brothers. The racial incidents were undeniably ugly, but they showed why festivals like the Klein Karoo are imperative to the future of arts and culture in South Africa.
There is something enormously exciting about the state of the arts in South Africa at the moment; a sense that we are at a turning point.
A recent impact study done on the effects of the Grahamstown Arts Festival showed that the university town is walking away with a R25-million annual profit from the event. The festival is now planning a huge conference in June on the subject of the arts as a viable business – taking the lead from countries like Australia where the arts fall within the top 10 national money spinners and are not just the subjects of charitable handouts.
This week’s launch of the National Arts Council – the first fruits of the arts and culture white paper – is, therefore, of potentially major significance.
It is the first step towards the building of an industry that will not only garner income, but also help expose, analyse and treat the national psyche. That is what happened in Oudtshoorn this week. That is part what the arts should be about.