When the story of Job Maseko, a black soldier who served in the Native Military Corps in World War II, landed on Vincent Moloi’s lap, he was a teenager living in his grandfather’s house in Qwa-Qwa. When he heard the two radio presenters relay it over the airwaves, the tale of the late soldier’s bravery remained lodged in his brain until he was finally able to pay tribute to the man in a fitting manner.
A Pair of Boots and a Bicycle is a documentary about Maseko, a miner and one of 128 000 black soldiers who enlisted to serve in the Allied Forces against the Germans in North Africa. These men were there to provide supplementary services and were not meant to participate in combat, which explains why they were trained with spears, unlike their white counterparts.
When 32 000 members of the Allied Forces surrendered to the Germans in the Libyan port of Tobruk in 1942, Maseko, along with about 1 200 corpsmen, found himself a prisoner of war. It was then that he single-handedly orchestrated a pivotal strike on a German ship carrying supplies, striking a further blow at the Germans’ campaign in Africa that ended in defeat.
Maseko was cheated out of his Victoria Cross (the highest award for valour in the Commonwealth forces), receiving a comparatively paltry military medal instead. In return for a better life, Maseko probably received a pair of boots, a coat and a bicycle, while his white counterparts reportedly received houses and farms.
”I think it’s an obligation for all of us to reinterpret history. Not just struggle heroes, but ordinary people, who knowingly or unknowingly fought for freedom. Personal freedom, South African freedom or world freedom,” says Moloi of his decision to make the film. Maseko’s hit, while a desperate act of self-preservation, was pretty much wasted on a war where the self-righteous defenders of freedom soon abandoned their own guiding document, the Atlantic Charter, reverting to the same evils they fought against.
”That’s the irony of the film,” explains Moloi. ”It is about the betrayal and unfairness of the war. These people fought for freedom against Nazism and fascism but the same strategy was being introduced through apartheid. They fought for freedom for the world at large, but when it was time for the world to stand up for them, the world betrayed them.”
Moloi’s documentary is his first feature documentary, and eighth overall, in an oeuvre that includes last year’s Encounters Audience Award winner Men of Gold and Nightsweepers, about female streetsweepers.
While many of the surviving war veterans deliver stinging polemics in the film about their lingering bitterness in the aftermath of the war, how Maseko would have lamented his treatment remains a subject of speculation. With history books in virtual denial about his existence, and his gallant deed, a fair deal of creative licence went into giving a compelling ”face to Maseko”.
Maseko is presented more as a force of nature than a human being. Even when Moloi sets out on a pilgrimage to Tobruk in Libya, to — in his own words — ”fulfil my dream of attempting to understand this man”, one can’t help but feel the director is grappling for ways to tell this difficult, but important, story.
In fact, one often feels that it is Moloi’s determination at work, rather than a steadfast adherence to formulas.
After dropping out of his media studies course at Boston Media House in 1997 (because of having to do two consecutive assignments on U2), he got involved in shooting inserts for Soweto Community Television. That led to a productive stint as an assistant for Italian documentary producer Alberto Iannuzzi where, before he knew it, he became a jack of all trades. ”Not many people gave me an opportunity to learn and when that happens, you have to teach yourself,” says Moloi. Besides the documentaries, Moloi has since directed a four-part drama series, Society, which is about to be bumped up to 26 episodes, and is working on turning A Pair of Boots and a Bicycle into a full-length feature.