Gerard Sekoto • George Hallett

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

‘They can destroy our houses but they can’t destroy our stories’ -A case study from Cape Town, South Africa The District Six story ATD Fourth World Symposium June 2017 ATD Fourth World Symposium June 2017 ATD Fourth World Symposium District Six Museum: Junemethodologies 2017 for change Voices on the landscape a project of the District Six Museum AHDA FellowsATD Fourth Conference, World SymposiumColumbia University 13 DecemberJune 2017 2016 ATD Fourth World Symposium June 2017 Voices on the landscape a project of the District Six Museum AHDA FellowsATD Fourth Conference, World SymposiumColumbia University 13 DecemberJune 2017 2016 ATD Fourth World Symposium District Six Museum: Junemethodologies 2017 for change The memory of homes lost was a strong force of cohesion to the former residents of District Six, even as they were dispersed It served as a source of inspiration to many artists: • Hugh Masekela • Abdullah Ibrahim (Dollar Brand) • Richard Rive • Alex la Guma • Gerard Sekoto • George Hallett ATD Fourth World Symposium June 2017 ATD Fourth World Symposium District Six Museum: Junemethodologies 2017 for change ATD Fourth World Symposium District Six Museum: Junemethodologies 2017 for change ATD Fourth World Symposium District Six Museum: Junemethodologies 2017 for change ATD Fourth World Symposium District Six Museum: Junemethodologies 2017 for change ATD Fourth World Symposium June 2017 ATD Fourth World Symposium June 2017 ATD Fourth World Symposium June 2017 ATD Fourth World Symposium June 2017 ATD Fourth World Symposium June 2017 ATD Fourth World Symposium District Six Museum: Junemethodologies 2017 for change ATD Fourth World Symposium June 2017 ATD Fourth World Symposium District Six Museum:June methodologies 2017 for change ATD Fourth World Symposium District Six Museum: Junemethodologies 2017 for change ATD Fourth World Symposium June 2017 Thank you! Bonita Bennett 7 June 2017 District Six Museum: methodologies for change .

Copy Link

Recommended publications

The Sound Archive at the District Six Museum
THE SOUND ARCHIVES AT THE DISTRICT SIX MUSEUM: A WORK IN PROGRESS Valmont Layne South Africa is an anomaly among developing countries. It is both a developed country with good infrastructure and also a country with huge social and economic problems. There is a wide gulf between recipients of development aid on the one hand and skilled profes- sionals on the other. In this assumption lie both the challenges and opportunities for audiovisual preservation. In itemizing the issues, challenges, hurdles and obstacles, my chosen keywords are institu- tional growth, consciousness and expertise. The District Six Museum developed almost without evident design since its conception at a conference in 1988. Yet the sound archives, a new project conceived in 1997, had the luxury of being modelled on ethnographic and public sound archives in the USA and elsewhere. The key scholarly disciplines underpinning its work are History, Fine Arts, Social Science and Ethnomusicology. We need to build an appropriate archival model for this museum- based sound archives. There are a number of considerations. The museum has had a profound effect on heritage work. Our museum is a young institution and is in the grip of what some call the ‘Founder syndrome’. It has a very active board of trustees. It is still an institu- tional ‘baby’ being weaned by community-based activists, politicians and professional academics. In some cases, there is a direct political, emotional or professional interest in the work of the museum. This creates a wonderful non-bureaucratic atmosphere. But it also means 184 Archives for the Future that as we grow in our preservation capacities we will have to nego- t iate these realities.
[Show full text]
Between Colour Lines: Interrogating the Category 'Coloured' in Depictions Of
Between colour lines: Interrogating the category ‘coloured’ in depictions of District Six in the work of five South African artists Cameron Amelia Cupido Dissertation in fulfilment of Master’s in Visual Studies Visual Arts Department Stellenbosch University Supervisor: Prof. Lize Van Robbroeck March 2018 1 Stellenbosch University https://scholar.sun.ac.za Declaration By submitting this dissertation electronically, I declare that the entirety of the work contained therein is my own, original work, that I am the sole author thereof (save to the extent explicitly otherwise stated), that reproduction and publication thereof by Stellenbosch University will not infringe any third party rights and that I have not previously in its entirety or in part submitted it for obtaining any qualification. March 2018 Copyright © 2018 Stellenbosch University All rights reserved Stellenbosch University https://scholar.sun.ac.za Abstract The Group Areas Act of 1950 radically affected coloured artists of the time, since it resulted in forced removals and the demolition of traditionally ‘coloured’ suburbs, and forced coloured people into mono-cultural suburbs with imposed identities not of their own choosing. This thesis seeks to uncover the complexities and heterogeneity of coloured identity and the effects apartheid ideologies and practices had on the personal narratives and cultural praxis of Lionel Davis, Albert Adams, George Hallett, Gavin Jantjes and Peter Clarke, who all emphasized the significance of District Six in their own articulations of colouredness. I propose that this problematic ascribed identity was at the root of most artworks produced by these artists and that their art helped them deal with their experiences within (and about) the space of District Six during apartheid.
[Show full text]
Johaar Mosaval from District Six to the Royal Ballet
Johaar Mosaval From District Six to the Royal Ballet District Six like Harlem in New York also had its own “Harlem Renaissance” or cultural boom. Writers, composers, photographers, filmmakers, dramatists, poets, musicians, dancers, artists, socio-political activists flourished and exploded onto the world stage but were denied the opportunity for career advancement in their own homeland. Few other places can boast of such an explosion of talent and impact. It was nothing short of miraculous, given the adversity faced by the people. The District’s Hyman Lieberman and Marion Institutes were cultural centres of excellence. Down the road the Eoan Group was the launch-pad of many stars such as Johaar Mosaval who began his ballet career there. It was the start of a journey that led to the Royal Ballet Opera School in London and to him becoming a principle dancer with the Royal Ballet. Indeed, shamefully for the Apartheid government and the City authorities, and tragically for the people of the district, District Six, home of more than 60,000 people was demolished and its people forcibly removed under Apartheid’s ethnic cleansing programme for the City. The District’s names and achievements roll off the tongue: Abdullah Ibrahim, Basil Coetzee, Lennie Lee, Bea Benjamin, Zane Adams, Hotep Galeta, Alex la Guma, Richard Rive, Rozena Maart, Adam Small, Taliep Petersen, George Hallett, Gregoire Boonzaier, Sandra McGregor, James Matthews and Trevor Jones are just a few of those names. Johaar Mosaval was born in District Six in Cape Town on 8 January 1928 and was one of nine children in his family.
[Show full text]
INTRODUCTION 1. Though the Policies of Apartheid and Separate Development Sought to Preserve African Languages and Traditions, T
Notes INTRODUCTION 1. Though the policies of apartheid and separate development sought to preserve African languages and traditions, this was part of a wider programme to confine the 'Bantu' to their tribal cultures; it took no account of the degree of tribal integration that had taken place, and very little account of the natural linguistic developments within the black communities- developments which were never towards greater purity. The major liberation movements therefore view this official tampering with African cultures as part of the machinery of repression. 2. Recent work by Couzens and others demonstrates much more fully than has hitherto been shown, the operations of African tradition within the work of those early writers. See Daniel Kunene's new translation of Mofolo's Chaka and Tim Couzens' editions ofDhlomo. 3. A shebeen is a drinking place run, illegally, by African women, usually in their own homes. Thus while it serves the function of a bar, and is often the scene of wild drinking bouts, it has the character of a family living room. 4. See R. Kavanagh, Theatre and Cultural Struggle in South Africa (London: Zed Books, 1985) p. 33. CHAPTER 1 1. Mafika Gwala, No More Lullabies (Johannesburg: Ravan Press, 1982) p. 10. 2. Terry Eagleton, Literary Theory: An Introduction (Oxford: Basil Black well, 1983) p. 21. 3. Athol Fugard, John Kani & Winston Ntshona, 'The Island', Statements (London & Capetown: Oxford U.P., 1974) p. 62. 4. Eagleton, Criticism and Ideology: A Study in Marxist Literary Theory (London: Verso, 1978) p. 49. 5. Donald Woods, Biko (New York & London: Paddington Press, 1978) p.
[Show full text]
Add to Entry on ALEX LA GUMA: REFERENCES: Anthony Chennels
Add to entry on ALEX LA GUMA: REFERENCES: Anthony Chennels, "Pastoral and Anti-pastoral Elements in Alex La Guma's Later Novels," in Literature, Language and the Nation, ed. Emmanuel Ngara and Andrew Morrison (Harare: Atoll & Baobab Books, 1989): 39-49; Felix Mnthali, "Common Grounds in the Literatures of Black America and Southern Africa," in American Studies in Africa, ed. Andrew Horn and George E. Carter (Roma: University Press of lesotho and the Ford Foundation, 1984): 37-54; Richard Samin, "La Situation n'est pas eternelle," Europe, 708 (1988): 35-39; Add to entry on ALEX LA GUMA: BOOKS Memories of Home: The Writings of Alex La Guma, ed. Cecil Abrahams (Trenton, NJ: Africa World Press, 1991). REFERENCES S.O. Asein, Alex La Guma: The Man and His Work (Ibadan: New Horn Press and Heinemann Educational Books, 1987). Alex La Guma (20 February 1925-11 October 1985) Cecil A. Abrahams Bishop's University c-A?.lli-. ..----- --···-----. ······---- - .. ··--------- ------·--- BOOKS I I i A Walk in the Night (Ibadan: Mbari Publications, 1962); reprinted as A Walk in the Night and Other Stories (Evanston: Northwestern University Press, f Au.c."--l-ionJ Boo'-<S r~r,-co.-v., wr, +e rs s-e ('/es.) 3 fL 1967; London; Heinemann 1967)j 11 <Y l I , lrl ll+OwV\ ~c,YS (q~~)) And a Threefold Cord (Berlin: Seven Seas, 1964)1 l,oVl.d.Dn. V\ 1-r 1 V · Ci( Cd ,,,.,J The Stone Country (Berlin: Seven Seas, 1967; reprinted, London: He, nemann / L-- • · 1~ gook S 'A--fn '-~ v) r:ters $'"er; e~ Is 171Qj .
[Show full text]
The Transcription Centre
The Transcription Centre: An Inventory of Its Records at the Harry Ransom Center Descriptive Summary Creator: The Transcription Centre, circa 1962-1977 Title: The Transcription Centre Records Dates: 1931-1986 (bulk 1960-1977) Extent: 25 boxes (10.50 linear feet) Abstract: The records of the Transcription Centre comprise scripts and manuscripts, correspondence, legal documents, business records, ephemera, photographs, and clippings spanning the years 1931 to 1986. Languages: English, Hausa, Swahili, German, French, and Italian . Access: Open for research Administrative Information Acquisition: Purchase, 1990 (R12142) Processed by: Bob Taylor, 2008 Repository: The University of Texas at Austin, Harry Ransom Center The Transcription Centre, circa 1962-1977 Organizational History The Transcription Centre began its brief but significant life in February 1962 under the direction of Dennis Duerden (1927-2006), producing and distributing radio programs for and about Africa. Duerden was a graduate of Queen’s College, Oxford and had served as principal of the Government Teachers’ College at Keffi, Nigeria and later as producer of the Hausa Service of the BBC. As an artist and educator with experience in West Africa, as well as a perceptive critic of African art he was a natural in his new post. The Transcription Centre was created with funding provided initially by the Congress for Cultural Freedom (CCF) to foster non-totalitarian cultural values in sub-Saharan Africa in implicit opposition to Soviet-encouraged committed political attitudes among African writers and artists. Much of the CCF’s funding and goals were subsequently revealed to have come from the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency. The stress between the CCF’s presumed wish to receive value for their investment in the Transcription Centre and Duerden’s likely belief that politically-based programming would alienate the very audience it sought permeated his activities throughout his years with the radio service.
[Show full text]
Pejorism in Alex La Guma's and a Threefold Cord
European Scientific Journal February 2013 edition vol.9, No.5 ISSN: 1857 – 7881 (Print) e - ISSN 1857- 7431 PEJORISM IN ALEX LA GUMA’S AND A THREEFOLD CORD Victor O. Ogbeide, PhD Department Of English And Literary Studies, Faculty Of Arts, University Of Ado-Ekiti, Ado-Ekiti, Nigeria Abstract This article examines pejorism in Alex La Guma’s And a Threefold Cord. Employing the factors of characterization, setting and language it demonstrates that La Guma could be pejorative, in deference to his Marxist persuasion and his first hand experience, in his literary objective of letting the world know about the plight of the hapless non-whites in the apartheid enclave of South Africa. The implications of pejorism in the novel notwithstanding, it is the contention of this paper that its use by La Guma is not only a function of his realism as a novelist but also a function of his unflagging commitment to the cause of the oppressed, deprived and dehumanized all over the world be they in the wilds of Ajegunle in Nigeria or in the disease-infested slums of Rio de Janeiro’s favelas. Keywords: Pejorism, apartheid, non-whites, deterioration, disintegration Introduction A theory in literature states that socially conscious writers often set for themselves the rather onerous task of recreating the collective experience of a race, clan, sect or even a nation in fictional terms. And as long as it lasted, apartheid, the obnoxious policy of separate development that was formally renounced in the republic of South Africa in 1994, was a veritable nightmare of a sort whose experience was a collective one especially for the non- white population in South Africa.
[Show full text]
Black South African Literature from the 'Sophiatown Renaissance' to 'Black
Untitled Document [Although this essay was presented as a lecture at the Center for Black Studies at the University of California at Santa Barbara on April 30, 1990, it was really a product of my West Berlin stay from 1985 to 1989. Henry Nxumalo was the founding member of Drum magazine. He seems to have been intellectually closer to H. I. E. Dhlomo and Peter Abrahams (according to the latter's Return to Egoli [1953]) than to Bloke Modisane and Lewis Nkosi (writers of the literary generation in which he is usually placed). He was a historical figure of historical connections and transitions. The following essay of historical connections exemplifies this particular spirit of Henry Nxumalo.] Black South African literature from the ‘Sophiatown Renaissance' to ‘Black Mamba Rising': Transformations and Variations from the 1950s to the 1980s. by Ntongela Masilela The task of historical hermeneutics is to make alien material comprehensible, i.e. material that is remote in time or in social or ethnic origin. In so doing, we do not deny its extrinsic or intrinsic distance from us, but instead make this distance part of the present as opposed to viewing it from a detached historical standpoint. In other words, an aesthetic presence based on such historical insight embraces rather than bypasses an awareness of this otherness or alienness. -Carl Dahlhaus, "Is history on the decline?," in the Foundations of music history. In its broad outline it is this: up to now our fiction has been a fiction of witness - doing a useful job in bearing witness to the immense suffering of our people and the sacrifices they have been and are continuing to make in resisting this oppression, but the nature of our crisis as black writers is where to go from here.
[Show full text]
Laligens, Vol.4 (1), January 2015
LALIGENS, VOL.4 (1), JANUARY 2015 An International Journal of Language, Literature and Gender Studies (LALIGENS), Ethiopia Vol. 4 (1), Serial No 9, January, 2015:119- ISSN: 2225-8604(Print) ISSN 2227-5460 (Online) DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.4314/laligens.v4i1.9 The City as Trope: Snapshots of the Urban Experience in Alex La Guma’s A Walk In The Night Igbifa, Ene Eric Department of English Studies University of Port Harcourt Port Harcourt, Nigeria Phone: +234 (0) 803 898 3199 E-mail: [email protected] Abstract In A Walk in the Night, Alex La Guma holds aloft, for his readers, a portrait of slum life in urban South Africa at a particular historical moment. Depicted on La Guma’s novelistic canvas is a life which bears too frightening a resemblance to Thomas Hobbes “state of nature.” This essay attempts to establish a causal connection between the brutishness, nastiness, shortness and solitariness which characterize the lives of La Guma’s characters, and the cheerless, filthy and insalubrious physical surroundings in which these characters find themselves. By highlighting some of the many tropes which La Guma employs in the realization of his grim portrait of urban life, the essay validates the literariness of La Guma’s work. The essay insinuates, in conclusion, that La Guma’s narrative is animated by the consequential link the people and places in it. Key words: Alex La Guma, A Walk in the Night, the Urban Novel, the South African Novel, Apartheid Copyright © IAARR 2014: www.afrrevjo.net/laligens 119 Indexed and Listed by AJOL & EBSCOhost LALIGENS, VOL.4 (1), JANUARY 2015 I It is hardly contestable that of all the genres of literature, prose-fiction—probably because of its considerable magnitude—is the one which allows the writer the most ample room to treat a variety of themes.
[Show full text]
Mind Your Colour the 'Coloured'
Mind Your Colour The 'Coloured' Stereotype in South African Literature Vernon February bron Vernon February, Mind Your Colour. The 'Coloured' Stereotype in South African Literature. Kegan Paul International, Londen / Boston 1981 Zie voor verantwoording: http://www.dbnl.org/tekst/febr002mind01_01/colofon.php © 2014 dbnl / erven Vernon February vi Preface This book is essentially about stereotypes as found in the literature and culture of South Africa. It deals specifically with those people referred to in the South African racial legislation as ‘coloureds’. The book is also an illustration of the way in which stereotypes function as a means of social control and repression. One of the direct consequences of colonialism and racism is that the colonized or the discriminated invariably become the dupe of a series of rationalizations whereby the power-holders (i.e., the whites) justify their dominant position in society. Balandier, the French scholar, has given ample demonstration of this phenomenon as it operated in the former French colonies in West Africa and the Antilles. Here, the major channels of imposing French values were the French administrative officials and expatriates in the colonies, the school system and the policy of assimilation. Such a policy led to a reverence for the metropolis, Paris, an over-evaluation of French customs and norms, and a rejection of their own culture. This illusion was soon dispelled the moment the colonized set foot in France. Most blacks discovered that they were still looked upon as le nègre, even by the lowest of Frenchmen. The Dutch economic historian, D. van Arkel, has, on the basis of his work on the Austrian Jews, come to the conclusion that stereotypes arise when the following conditions are fulfilled: (1) there must be stigmatization, (2) social distance and (3) terrorization.
[Show full text]
African Novelists, Poets, Playwrights, Artists and Musicians; African History, Politics, and Social Questions
Dennis Duerden collection of sound recordings relating to African novelists, poets, playwrights, artists and musicians; African history, politics, and social questions Note: Part of the Duerden Collection purchased from The Transcription Center (London) by Archives of Traditional Music, Indiana University, Bloomington, and the Cooperative Africana Microfilm Project (CAMP) a division of the Center for Research Libraries, Chicago, in 1974; under option 2. Digitized transcripts of sound recordings by The Transcription Center (London) in various locations, ca. 1962-1969. Original sound recordings held by Archives of Traditional Music, Indiana University, Bloomington. Below is a list of the sixteen titles contained in the collection. Title OCLC Transcripts of "Africa, interviews with Black African writers and artists, ca. 1962-1969" 813232968 Transcripts of "Africa, Lectures with Black African writers and artists, 1962-1966" 813410265 Transcripts of "Africa, Black African writers and playwrights, 1962-1968" 813410430 Transcripts of "Africa, Black writers and poets 1962-1966" 813418592 Transcripts of "Africa, West Indies and United States, Black artists and writers, 1962-1967" 813436589 Transcripts of "Africa, Black social scientists and writers, 1962-1966" 813441400 Transcripts of "Tanzania and Kenya, Swahili program series, 1966-1970" 813444554 Transcripts of "Nigeria, Hausa program series, 1968-1970" 813455796 Transcripts of "Africa, lectures on African music, 1967," Amharic 813835133 Transcripts of "Africa, lectures on African music, 1966,"
[Show full text]
Richard Rive, an Informal Guide to the Growth Of
Y\tC'v\o.vd. T<\Vt::_ ( I Ma..-,: !,,_ { ff 3 D - Lf Ju. ,1 e l qgq) Mo.,-+; ..... T·fl)-tM.p , ~~ ~2~ i-~'" :t ~~~~.,~~~~C-~L 17-:-':1;, ~..-,~--,)I, Hl..J,."_, ,....="'-ni'"·, ..- = ;:;._ c_. .i. 7 t; I -r;;;;;::""-- i -c=-- :, ~citiag ~!~~h (Cape Town: David P~ilip, -i,_ ,...,7·P_, ".i. ',, ,· .''----~-b=~---.-_.·._ .• .,._ .,,-.1::-~_",...t_t- ·,·-..-~-·~ =--.-• .6..-,;·;. c::::> Qi':-:,-"'\ • David 1 , a ...:,' f ~~--- (Cape I ' L! ! . '., • ,.. , I r ,1 ! · I ·· ...,t-s.:;; . \ • ~ .. - ' I ~- F:ichard Rive was born in Cape Town in 1931. He attenCed schools in the city and later graduated in English at the University of - ,_ Cape Tov--111. He traiAed as a teacher d. L College~ Cape Town, and, 1n subsequent years, gained degrees in literature from Columbia 3nd Oxford universities. His Oxford doctoral thesis was on the works of Olive Schreiner. Rive ~spent most of life in So uth Africa, a p oint Ar._ .:. __ _ '- - notirig, a :5 all black Soutt-1 HTf .lLd.l l of 11lS le-ft th= Luuntry as exiles during the 195(} =' s 1960' -5 . Rive had been a teachet- ot- ar1 i nstrL1ctor- of teachers -foi-- vJQ.$ mo-=:.-c o f his t.--.Jorking li-fe .. :i=e head of the L( e ,t V $ ;I • I /'. D_,.,._ e I YI :). Rive grew up in a poor area of Cape Town called District Six. The "District" is the setting in much of his fiction. Despite its poverty and the violence thet haunted its streets, District Si:{ is recalled fondly, but with little sentimentality, by Rive, as a community in which people from different backgrounds and with differ-ent creeds lived together in a form of harmony that is virtually unknown in the broader South African society.
[Show full text]