Sibongile Khumalo: RECLAIMING OUR HUMANITY
May 27, 2011
A speech delivered at the launch of the
Drama For Life 2011 programme, and welcome to the Drama For Life 2011 scholars,
24 March 2011 at the Wits Theatre
Prof Tawana Kupe - Dean of the Faculty of Humanities; Prof Georges Pfruender - Head of the Wits School of Arts; Dr Kennedy Chinyowa - Head of the Wits School of Arts, Drama department; Mr Warren Nebe - Director of Drama For Life; my fellow patrons Dr John Kani and Judge Edwin Cameron; honored guests, Drama for Life scholars, friends, ladies and gentlemen.
I feel privileged to have been invited to be in this space, for the second time in as many years. It is a privilege to be in an intergenerational space, where the possibility to engage and interact, and share with young and old, and everyone in-between, presents a myriad stimuli. Stimulated and challenged by the young, who are always keen to push boundaries and test the waters. Stimulated and challenged by the elders who take their responsibility of shaping minds seriously.
In the past year I had the pleasure to be in an inspiring production called “Songs of Migration”, conceived and developed by Hugh Masekela and James Ngcobo. “Songs of Migration” reflected a painful experience across time, generations and continents. Yet it also reflected a winning resilience of the human spirit. It was a reminder of the dogged determination of migrants, especially the migrant laborers of this country, to survive and even outlive their circumstances.
Much of this resilience was reflected through the songs and dances that these people sang, through the stories they told. Much of this expression provided a catharsis for a lived experience under the most dehumanizing conditions. This release was not only of and in the past, it was also experienced by the performers and their audiences as well.
We live and practice our art in an environment that is concerned with creating jobs and alleviating poverty. These are valid and pressing societal issues. However, the possibility of reducing art to mere jobs is becoming increasingly real. Yet we also know that culture, and its practice through the arts, has another, more intrinsic role.
There is a bigger and broader reason why people engage with arts. Why the cultural life of a people is innately linked to their well-being, development and progress, or lack thereof.
As we set up companies and create jobs, as we write new plays and pieces of music, and dance to new sounds even as we re-visit our classics, we need to remember that the arts are important
▪ for human and intellectual stimulation
▪ for the exploration of the human condition
▪ for an appreciation and entrenchment of freedoms and values that cultivate good citizenship
▪ for freedom of creative thinking and expression, and much more.
▪ This is part of our challenge, as practitioners of today.
▪ Every generation seems to have an event or a reason for being, that defines it.
▪ The women of the 1930s and 40s are remembered mostly for their elegance and sense of style, for being the ultimate ladies. And in this country, that same generation of women needs to be remembered for being enterprising company owners in the arts who drove the social scene, and the many men who championed their cause.
▪ We remember the women of the 1950s for a number of marches and protests that culminated in the woman’s march of 1956.
▪ We remember the men and women who lost their lives and the leaders who sacrificed their freedom in Sharpeville, Vereeniging and in Langa, Cape Town on March 21, 1960, and heralded a new political era in which “the people” took their destiny in their own hands, and did not only look up the guidance of their elected leaders.
▪ We remember the youth of 1976, of the 1980s, who began the penultimate push towards the present democratic dispensation
▪ What will this generation be remember for? A world full of disease, pain, angst, fearfulness and despair? I hope not.
We need to reclaim our humanity from a life half-lived through fear. Through a program such as Drama for Life, we have an opportunity to assert our belief in the sacredness of life.
An opportunity to affirm our greatness, for as Mazisi Kunene reminds us:
“. . . no Ancestor brings a boon to anyone who has no faith in his own greatness. With the help of the Forefathers, great deeds are done” (from the manuscript epic poem “The Anthem of The Decades” by Mazisi Kunene)
He goes on to say that:
“the mind climbs the future….. [and] by his deeds, creates a new earth”.
Indeed it is time to create a ‘new earth’, a different future, ignite a new reality. It is time to magnify the beauty in our souls (from the song “Singomanqoba” by S Khumalo)
We are in the midst of a revolution, a mind shift that recognizes that revolutions will not be televised, as Gil-Scott Heron asserted in the 70s.
Don Mattera tells us that:
“. . .revolutions are born out of love;
love for land and liberty
love for humanity
and love for oneself”
(from the poem ‘Child’ in the collection of poems “Faces of Trees” - Poems of Struggle, Freedom and Kin by Don Mattera)
And so, as we move forth, as you move forward into the future,
1) move from a place of love and not fear;
2) move forward in the knowledge that you own the future with the blessings of your elders and forbears, who watered the earth for your benefit;
3) move forward fully aware that the knowledge you acquire today does not mean you are more clever than the next guy, but that it gives you insights that enable you to make choices for the betterment or demise of humanity.
4) move forward knowing that the knowledge you acquire at this time, of necessity, must accumulate into wisdom that should render you a wise forbear yourself…but only if you seek guidance and stay guided always!
I offer you these words in the hope that they will stimulate a successful Drama for Life sharing and discourse in 2011.
Thank you.
Sibongile Khumalo D. Mus honoris causa-Rhodes, OIS