VILLA AT 90
edited by Karel Nel, Elizabeth Burroughs, Amalie von Maltitz
(Jonathan Ball/Shelf)
WILLEM BOSHOFF
by Ivan Vladislavic
(David Krut Taxi)
Two sculptors who couldn’t be more different: Eduardo Villa and Willem Boshoff. Yet, reading a book on each, looking at them together, casts fascinating light both ways.
Villa is an adoptive South African, an Italian who first came to this country as a prisoner of war. He stayed and in the late 1940s started his career as a sculptor, a career that grew and grew as the works themselves became ever more monumental. By the 1980s, when there seemed to be an imposing Villa in every corporate plaza, he was very ”establishment” and thus suspect.
Yet, looking back over his career as Karel Nel et al’s book celebrates his 90th birthday, it’s easier to see him historically and to appreciate the elementary power of his forms. The best of them, you might say, have a kind of playful grandiosity. And he was, after all, just doing his job, getting commissions that allowed him to strive harder, go bigger, in a way that is appropriate to the surging aspiration embodied in his work.
If that work seems to belong to another era, it is because Villa’s sculptures are a rigorous and energetic working out of a modernist aesthetic (with an African twist). Their thematic concerns now look residual; it’s the sheer form that has the impact. Villa at 90, with its essays ranging from memoir to the analytical, and its plethora of images, shows how he explored and continues to explore the options opened up by his own vision of modernism and his ceaseless wrestling with large amounts of metal.
If Villa is mad about metal, Boshoff is very taken with wood. Many of his best works are made from wood — or from its derivative, paper. But if Villa is the heroic modernist, Boshoff is very much the self-effacing post-modernist. Still, he retains a Villa-like engagement with his materials. His work is overridingly conceptual, but it has a firm base, so to speak, in sculpture. Take his Blind Alphabet, a huge number of smallish sculptures illustrating a long list of obscure words; as Vladislavic notes, it is ”readable wood”.
Boshoff’s interest in language, in taxonomies and typologies, gives his work a dimension beyond the formalist. Like Villa, he was a prisoner of war, but a different kind of prisoner of war — a conscript in the apartheid army. During that period, he began to produce striking graphic works that clearly lead into later ideas embodied sculpturally.
Like Villa’s, his work can be monu-mental, but in a sly way — perhaps it is better to say his work is archival in some way, but it’s often a very large archive. Or a vast dictionary.
Vladislavic’s monograph on Boshoff is a superb amalgam of critical cred and readability. A better introduction to Boshoff’s work could hardly be imagined — or a better introduction to the conceptual way of making art. People who claim not to understand conceptualism should be handed Willem Boshoff for their edification.
‘I am a beautiful young woman’
In this extract from Balancing Act, a book about gay and lesbian South African youth, one young woman tells her story: Nunu, a 25-year-old HIV/Aids activist, faces her fears
When I was 15, there was this woman at school and I wanted to spend all my time with her: lunchtime, after school. She thought we were best friends, and she had no problem. I felt happy to touch her, just to give her hugs, you know.
I was 16 when I decided I was a lesbian. It was when I was starting to play ladies’ soccer. I came out to myself and I told one of my friends, because she was a lesbian. But when I spoke to my mom, she sent me out of the house. After about six months my mom told me, ”Come home. If it’s what you want, then carry on. When you’re tired of it, you will come and tell me.” She was like, I’m going to quit being a lesbian when I grow up.
I never enjoyed my childhood that much. I was raped at the age of six. And it happened again when I was 13. I was sexually abused by my cousin. It took me years to talk about it. I couldn’t go anywhere; everything was holding me back. I couldn’t find the pieces of my life.
The year everything happened I was 19. I was writing matric, but I didn’t make it. I couldn’t make it because everything happened in the same year.
I was a volunteer worker at the hospital, and the cousin who had raped me came to find me there. I told him, ”I’m old enough now to decide what I want and to fight for myself.” And that’s when he said he was HIV-positive, and that whatever he had done to me, he had done on purpose.
I had no option but to go for the test. The feeling I had when I found out I was positive was like, ”Oh my God! I’m facing a life sentence, I’m going to die. But I’m still young. I want to become something. Now I don’t have a future.” I was thinking, all the time, ”Why is this thing happening to me? Why? Why?”
At the hospital, one of the other nurses saw that I wasn’t coping. She told me about an HIV counsellor there. I left a note under her door: ”My name is Nunu, I’m here, I need to speak to you, it’s an emergency.” She gave me a call and we made an appointment, and we talked. I spoke about everything. She helped me, and I also joined a support group.
I started using drugs that same year — mandrax and dagga. It’s popular in my community. You find that your neighbour is selling. The first time I took it I said, ”I just want to forget,” but it caused more problems. I stole my mom’s mugs, clothes, spoons from the house. I sold them, just to smoke. I told my HIV counsellor and she found a rehab place for me, but first I was supposed to tell my mother.
She called my mom in. It was me, her, my mom. I was looking at my mommy. I had to say something. And when I told her that I’m on drugs, she said she already realised, but she never knew how to confront me. I told my mom that I’m a lesbian and that I’m HIV positive and that my cousin raped me, all at the same time. And about the rape when I was six. I just felt everything at the same time.
Our parents, as black people, it’s difficult for them to talk about sex, about drugs. They feel very embarrassed. My mom asked me, ”Why didn’t you tell me all along?” But it was too difficult for me. I couldn’t talk about sex, because my mom didn’t tell me about sex.
Me and my mom, we used to fight for no reason. Like if she says something, I become angry. I used to blame her: ”Why didn’t you see that I was raped?” I didn’t understand why she didn’t notice. She also had to go to counselling. She also kept on blaming herself, until she accepted everything that happened is the past. We have to move on. Now she is happy. She supports me. It’s all about support; it’s all about communication.
I went to rehab in Boksburg. If I have time, I still go for aftercare on Wednesdays. I was very aggressive. I don’t know if it was anger or what. I was like, ”You say something to me? I don’t take shit!” I used to hit people. But in rehab I found I’m not the only one with problems. Other people have a lot of problems, and I never thought about that. In rehab you find yourself, you create yourself again. And my behaviour started to change. Because if you are aggressive with life, there’s nowhere you can go.
One day I told myself, ”I want to be quiet. I’m going to be quiet for just one day.” People said, ”Are you OK? Are you sick?” And they thought, ”She’s in a bad mood again.” But I said, ”I want to change who I was, and be what I am today.”
I’ve started speaking in public. I always tell them, during my talk, that I am a lesbian with HIV. I want people to understand me, not only that I’m living with HIV.
But people don’t want to understand. I don’t want to be a man; I don’t like to be a man at all. I am a woman for women, and I’m proud to be a woman. People are raping lesbians because they want to fix us. But that won’t change the fact that I’m a lesbian. The solution is to talk about it. And know your rights.
We have started a campaign now to empower people to fight for their rights. We want to teach people that if the police fail, they must take the thing further, not just leave it. You fight back! We are sick and tired now. We want to be recognised as lesbians and get the help we need. I don’t want to be like, ”Oh my God, it’s night now. What about those men? Are they going to rape me?” I want to walk free!
I look at myself in the mirror and say, ”I’m a beautiful young woman, I can’t give up at this stage.” I make sure I’m always happy, each and every day. If something brings me down, I challenge it. And I thank my community. I thank people who are around me for supporting me. I know I’ll survive with their help. And also with my own help. I’ve done so much for myself, to accept myself and forgive myself.
Balancing Act: South African Gay and Lesbian Youth Speak Out by Joanne Bloch and Karen Martin is published by New Africa Education, in conjunction with Gala, the Gay and Lesbian Archives
Indaba: Interviews with African Writers
by Stephen Gray
(Protea)
In these 23 conversations, Gray investigates the state of African literature and the thoughts of its practitioners. Among them are key South African writers such as Sipho Sepamla, Nadine Gordimer, Gcina Mhlophe and Dennis Brutus, as well as figures from further north, such as Nuruddin Farah, Luis Bernardo Homwana, Amadou Kourouma and Véronique Tadjo.
Secrets of the Code
by Daniel Burstein
(Weidenfeld & Nicolson)
If you haven’t yet had enough of Dan Brown’s mega-selling conspiracy thriller The Da Vinci Code, this provides the curious reader with authoritative explorations into the major themes of that book. Was Jesus actually married to Mary Magdalene? Did some great artists and scientists belong to secret societies that had the most compelling insider information in history?
White Gold
by Giles Milton
(Sceptre)
In the summer of 1716, a Cornish cabin boy named Thomas Pellow and 52 of his comrades were captured at sea by Islamic slave traders who had declared war on the whole of Christendom. Thousands of Europeans were snatched from their homes and sold in the slave markets of North Africa. Drawn from unpublished letters and manuscripts written by slaves and by the padres sent to free them, this shocking and extraordinary story reveals a forgotten chapter of history. From the author of Nathaniel’s Nutmeg.
The State of Africa
by Martin Meredith
(Jonathan Ball)
Africa’s bad-news stories outweigh the good: constant war, exploitation, corruption and the like contribute to an impression of a continent beyond hope. How did we get here? What, if anything, is to be done? Weaving together the key stories and characters of the past 50 years, Meredith has produced the definitive history of Europe’s impact on Africa and what Tony Blair described as a ”scar on the conscience of the world”.
Mapungubwe
by Sian Tiley
(Sunbird)
Mapungubwe was discovered 75 years ago and during that time has remained one of South Africa’s best kept secrets. The ”Hill of the Jackal” was the centre of a thriving civilisation around 800AD-1200AD, leaving a wealth of gold artefacts (3 000 to date), pottery and bead work. This book provides a feast of images together with a brief history of the civilisation.
South Africa’s Nobel Laureates
edited by Kader Asmal, David Chidester and Wilmot James
(Jonathan Ball)
This book is a tribute to South Africa’s 10 recipients of the Nobel Prize. It brings together for the first time the powerful and inspiring Nobel lectures delivered by the four laureates who received the award for peace (Albert Luthuli, Desmond Tutu, FW de Klerk and Nelson Mandela), by the two laureates who received the literature prize (Nadine Gordimer and JM Coetzee), and by the four science laureates (Max Theiler, Allan M Cormack, Aaron Klug and Sydney Brenner).
THE DASSIE AND THE HUNTER: A SOUTH AFRICAN MEETING
by Jeff Opland
(Univeristy of KwaZulu-Natal Press)
This book chronicles the life, times and poetry of extraordinary Xhosa praise poet, the late David Yali-Manisi, and his growing friendship and fruitful working relationship with author Jeff Opland, is a renowned scholar recognised worldwide as an authority on Xhosa izibongo or praises. Opland gives insight not only into Manisi himself, but the complex art form of praise poetry, which embodies the ancestral culture, history and politics of the amaXhosa. Opland fuses impeccable scholarship and reflective autobiographical narrative. A celebration of the talent of a African poet, and the interaction of a black and a white South African reaching out to each other.
The End Of Poverty
by Jeffrey Sachs
(Penguin)
Hailed by The New York Times as ”probably the most important economist in the world”, Sachs is internationally renowned for his work around the globe advising economies in crisis. Now he draws on all he has learned from 25 years of work to offer a uniquely informed vision of the keys to economic success in the world today and the steps that are necessary to achieve prosperity for all.
THE FAIR WAY: THE SOUTH AFRICAN WOMAN’S GUIDE TO GOLF
by Ann Ellis Brown
(Oshun)
It’s the fastest-growing game in South Africa, and more and more women are taking to the greens. This book tells you how to play — and what to wear. With tips from women’s golf coach Lesley Copeman.
CLOSE THE DOOR SOFTLY BEHIND YOU
by Emmaleen Kriel
(Oshun)
In this memoir, a mother of seven recounts how, after her husband died, she was compelled to sell her caring skills in Britain — and found this late-life journey more rewarding than expected.
SOUTH AFRICA YEARBOOK 2004/5
(Pan Macmillan/STE)
In this comprehensive guide, information is provided government department by government department, giving background information and context, an assessment of achievements and progress, and details of policy developments. ”In these pages,” writes President Thabo Mbeki in his foreword, ”readers will gain insight into the practicalities of a nation that has got down to work in a people’s contract to build a better South Africa, a better Africa and a better world.”
Place of reeds
by Caitlin Davies
(Jonathan Ball)
Davies fell in love and moved to Botswana with her husband. Living in Maun, the Place of Reeds, she was eager to absorb all Setswana culture had to offer. But, in the 1990s, Botswana started to change: Aids, urbanisation and violence began to take their toll. Here she tells her story of 12 years in Botswana. ”Brave and beautiful,” said Christina Lamb.
DRUM: THE MAKING OF A MAGAZINE
by Anthony Sampson
(Jonathan Ball)
This is a welcome reissue of a work first published in 1956, but very relevant today as a historical document and an insight into a key period in South Africa’s history. Sampson edited Drum from 1951 to 1955, and gave it some of its original flavour. As a young Oxford graduate fresh from Britain, he didn’t have any editing experience when he arrived in this country, but acquired his skills on the job. His views of black people as passive and unsophisticated underwent revision after he met and began to work with such journalistic stars as Henry Nxumalo, at first Drum‘s sport editor, later an important investigative reporter. He spent time in the townships, where he saw the effects of apartheid — as well as the fun of the jazz and the shebeens. Under Sampson’s editorship, Drum became a ”mirror of the down-to-earth life and the exposé of injustices”. Despite the increasing apartheid repression, the magazine still managed to produce some of the most scintillating writers in the history of South Africa, among them Can Themba and Todd Matshikiza. Sampson narrates this story partly as a journey of personal transformation, partly as an adventure. It reads like fiction, an impression helped by the liberal use of dialogue. Drum: The Making of a Magazine will be a good companion to Zola Maseko’s movie, Drum, coming out in July.
Winning
by Jack Welch
(HarperCollins)
This is the ultimate business how-to book by the revered and respected icon of American business, Jack Welch, former CEO of General Electric. Winning explores the changes of recent times and the new economic realities. More than that, it identifies the central, immutable principles of doing business right and doing it well. Co-author Suzy Wetlaufer, Welch’s fiancée and former editor of the Harvard Business Review, brings expertise in management, writing talent, and a woman’s sensibility to articulating the components of Welch’s success.
Mashilo Mnisi