Worlds beyond our own

In 2008, the two stars of South Africa’s first Academy-award winning film Tsotsi were part of a corporate social investment project which donated a soccer field to the community. Here is an example of two of the country’s youngest actors — who have achieved remarkable feats for the cultural community — and their contribution to Soweto was a soccer field.

I must say that I was disappointed with this act of giving back, noble as it might be. Could the two of them not have convinced the corporate world to support the arts, such as Soweto’s Funda Centre — a monument of triumph and artistic excellence led by some of South Africa’s prominent arts practitioners like the late Matsemela Manaka, Sibongile Khumalo, Eddie Mbalo, Mhlanganisi Masoga, Santu Mofokeng, to name a few.

The Funda Community College, opened in 1984, was chaired by the late great Es’kia Mphahlele, who said at its opening, ‘We are looking at a landscape that is marred by huge craters, ruins and vast stretches of barren, eroded soil.”

Funda achieved great milestones as a college dedicated to the soul and wellbeing of Sowetans after the 1976 uprising.

Couldn’t the two actors, who honed their skills through community art centres (such as the Mmabana Cultural Centre in the North West), have given back to the arts in as much as the arts have provided them with this international recognition and aplomb?

Their achievements attest to the state of recognition (or lack of recognition) of the arts in South African society. The role that community arts centres have played in South Africa in developing creative talent and providing venues for artists to freely shape and refine their works, have become such rare commodities in a country where bread and butter issues take centre stage.

Rightly so, they should, but not at the expense of cultural growth and freedom of cultural expression.
The way in which South Africa views community art centres says a lot about the worth it places on the arts in general. This is one of the topics to be discussed at the summit — whether culture is integral to development.

In this context one has to ask, ‘what development, and whose culture?”

A developing nation like South Africa should embrace and support cultural spaces in rural, urban and peri-urban areas. The question should be answered in the context of a country grappling with the healing of wounds. We should be discussing this more regularly. How can the arts move South Africa along the continuum of acceptance and healing, acknowledging that we have deep wounds that will take generations to heal?

I’m a strong advocate for the arts and what the arts can achieve in changing mindsets and raising balanced future generations, accepting that we are a diverse society which will continue to become heterogeneous in every respect. The arts, to a great extent, can produce the social consciousness that engages dialogue and provides opportunities to question ingrained viewpoints, behaviours, mindsets and desires.

I am fortunate that I am challenged every day by realities that a young, black, female, South African below the age of 35 could easily take for granted.

My world view is questioned, constantly.

I am awed by the fact that too few South Africans are culturally conscientised, giving rise to the popularity of the pseudo-lifestyle trappings of bling — a cultural expression so Westernised that we have become a colony of the US (not that we were invited).

I am reminded every day that I don’t know enough of South African culture or my Tswana culture, purely because my parents were born and raised in Soweto. Along with my siblings, I followed a similar pattern, where exposure to Tswana culture and tradition was limited to family celebrations on those rare occasions when it did happen.

The onus, therefore, is on me to change my perceptions, lifestyle and behavior in response to the questions of cultural diversity that will be highlighted at the summit. More importantly, it’s for society to participate in this and other similar platforms that open us to worlds beyond our own.

I am a strong advocate for the arts and I believe the the creative industries can achieve the desired growth SA is aiming for. The arts can reduce unemployment, alleviate poverty and bring about social cohesion. The summit will engage these issues on a global scale and share best practice models that will critically review the role of community art centres, the arts in a developing state, cultural capitals and how the arts can be used effectively to re-energise urban centres.