A Soweto shebeen might not appear to be to the natural place for Barack Obama’s first year in office to be placed under scrutiny. But on January 20 — exactly a year after Obama’s inauguration — a Pimville shebeen called Kwa-Thabeng hosted columnist and black consciousness activist Andile Mngxitama. The debate he led was about the United States’s first black president.
Perched on the edge of a hill, Kwa-Thabeng (Sesotho for “At the mountain”) is the kind of venue you would take a friend visiting from, say, Sweden for the clichéd “authentic” African experience. The spot has tried to recreate the idyllic Africa, complete with West African ancestral masks and fly whisks, thatch, clay pots and scenic paintings.
It feels like a modern shebeen, to be sure, with couches, high stools and the obligatory portrait of former president Nelson Mandela. In fact, there’s an overdose of Madiba; across the road, slightly up the mountain, on a rock face is a painting of Mandela, looking down benevolently on the revellers.
Kwa-Thabeng is located in Bester, the more affluent part of Pimville. It’s the kind of place frequented by doctors, lawyers and other professionals. On the day I visited I saw a gaggle of cultural entrepreneurs. In the audience was a lady from a Soweto tourism company and a few idealistic young men busy on a postcard project that celebrates the township.
The evening began with a few songs by Trio, an aspirant pop group of female singers backed by an acoustic guitar. Their melodic angst rang out into the night, echoing in the hills above.
But what followed was a rather depressing discussion, quite damning of Obama’s first year as leader of the US. It was a discussion in which an earthquake-ravaged Haiti, the world’s earliest black republic, came up for scrutiny.
“The black condition is very hopeless,” Mngxitama offered. “Obama is dangerous for black people. He will do damage.”
He explained that the policies of Bill Clinton and George W Bush were still being implemented. The discussion, which included the likes of social activist Trevor Ngwane, was never really resolved.
In an email interview Dumisani Ntshangase, who runs the tavern and also works in the tourism department of Gauteng’s provincial government, said he intends to shift the image of shebeens in the public imagination. “The purpose of these discussions is that we do not want the shebeens or taverns to be seen only as places where people come, drink and get drunk,” he said. “They are social spaces where locals come and discuss a variety of issues while, of course, drinking and getting drunk.”
It’s not a concept far removed from the shebeen’s mythical origins, captured in Lionel Rogosin’s classic township movie Come Back, Africa. There, the white public first saw the humble township watering hole as a hotbed for political rhetoric.
“Community dialogue requires that speakers on topical issues present talks and a discussion is held with the audience,” Ntshangase said. He compared his initiative with that of the Funda Centre, a 1980s Soweto dialogue project run by the late writer Es’kia Mphahlele and scholar Peter Thuynsma. “This programme created dialogue, not sloganeering and shouting, but well-constructed and well-presented arguments.”
Ntshangase, who has been a lecturer in African languages and was formerly the head of a tourism company, is keen to “demonstrate that there’s a high degree of intellectual discourse and interest in matters intellectual in the township”.
The review of Obama’s first year in office will be followed by a launch and discussion next month of Black Jerusalem, Happy Ntshingila’s memoir as a marketer in a white-dominated field.
In March there will be a discussion titled “Is the black middle class buying themselves out of blackness?”
Before the World Cup there will be a discussion on whether the poor will benefit from the football extravaganza.
The dialogue sessions, Ntshangase said, may also be presented at other township venues. Talking to him you get a sense of a man treading a fine line — on one hand he is wary of discussions descending into “beer talks”, but at the same time he does not want the discussions to be so lofty that they lose what he calls “the shebeen effect”.
To get to Kwa-Thabeng go along Old Potchefstroom Road and turn left at the Shell garage next to the old Soweto College of Education. Turn left again and go up the hill for about 200m. To your left you will see a rock face with an image of Nelson Mandela. The restaurant is the thatched building on your right. For more information go to www.kwa-thabeng.co.za, phone 011 938 3337 or email shaman@vodamail.co.za