kagablog

January 15, 2012

jaspar lepak

Filed under: helgé janssen — ABRAXAS @ 7:48 pm

November 20, 2011

helgé janssen reviews jaspar lepak’s forgiving wind

Filed under: helgé janssen,music,reviews — ABRAXAS @ 8:45 pm

What the world needs now……is Jaspar Lepak – “Forgiving Wind”

What is so powerful about Jaspar is that she has a gift for honing in on those sensitive and often negated emotions that a brash life continues to trash, to render unimportant, and turns them the right way round replacing them in our consciousness, giving them the stature and value that they deserve. As such Jaspar does not complain about the old order of things – she simply rearranges it and presents us with the innovative result! I find this heroic, and revolutionary.

This is the fascinating essence of Jaspar Lepak.

As such Jaspar is refocusing Country and Western/Folk music in an updated, modern context…..while never losing sight its roots. From the deepest heart of her experience her understanding of human emotion spills into the spread of the collective unconscious of our time. A particular example of this aspect of Jaspar’s focus:

“Plain as you” –

‘A word that brings the heart to light
Is worth the dark and sleepless nights
And the melody that frees the shame
Is worth the journey through the pain’

These words ring a resonance with a deep reverence and respect for life’s seemingly insignificant gems that are hard won – that heal, that nurture.

Jaspar’s musical arrangements and compositions are hauntingly beautiful and mesmerizingly melodic, never overstated, always stripped to an essence and diligently refined. I say this having experienced the vast array of varying perspectives of her compositions in a ‘live’ context (Mzanzi Museum, Bluestockings, St. Clements, Eagles View) and then being rewarded with the distillation as represented on “Forgiving Wind” Jaspar’s 5th CD release. It has been an honour to have witnessed this creative process at first hand, in real time, here in Durban South Africa with an artist of the stature of Jaspar Lepak.

No virtual reality this.

“Nothing to Dream”

….dreams die slow
and you don’t even know
how you let them fall
so far behind…..

We have all experienced this process in our waking moments as we slowly forget the previous nights dream: here, applied to the sense of loss at not living one’s dream in life, becomes a statement of profound proportions. And yet, while this happens so slowly, reflectively it seems to have happened in a flash. To me, this song has the effect of heightening the sense of ‘now’, creating urgency about living in the present. There is also a warning of what it is like to not live consciously and have the courage to take life-affirming risks. Sean Ross’ bass line ties this song together most cleverly.

My current favourite is undoubtedly “Hollow Part”. The intertwining of the banjo (Bryan Eaton) and the mandolin (Richard Haslop) is inspired, and I love the accordion cord changes in particular (Kale Lepak) and the way it swells, comes to the fore, then gently recedes into the background once more, colouring the subdued moments for Jaspar’s lucid voice to have heightened impact.

“I know a woman” deals essentially with the mismatch of paternalism and of its expectations and abuse, bringing to the fore the feminine courage and fortitude needed to harness this negative energy. This ‘seeing’ of Jaspar’s brings a transformative recognition to the unfair hand of women being subjected to a matrix of pervasive assumptions that have continued to spread from generation to generation – and how women themselves have sometimes been party to this propagation. This is a song of epic proportions and is the gender-based (as opposed to indigent-based) version of ‘Streets of London’ where Jaspar takes us by the hand and leads us through the chambers of the female heart: be it daughter to mother, woman to wo/men, woman to way of the world, or the world to the Goddess.

“People won’t like you” with Rowan Stuart on slide/lead guitar, is a bluesy driving plait of guitars and a marvellous example of letting go, of trusting in the power of one’s inner voice and joyously cutting loose from expectations that hold one back. The myriad slants of the inner dialogue of self-doubt instigated by a lack of resonance from a partner are turned inside out and then underlined with a flip of a single word – by replacing ‘won’t’ with ‘will’ in the final chorus line title of this song!

Every track on “Forgiving Wind” is a winner and is a marvellous contribution to the world of thoughtful reflection as antidote to the pollution we evidence coming from the mindless music output that feeds mass immobility. It also comes as a huge boon to the music scene in Durban where the talents of Durban based musicians – Bryan Eaton, Sean Ross, Nibs van der Spuy, Richard Haslop, Shawn Lovell, Rowan Stuart, Brent Quinton – have been put to excellent use.

Photographs of Jaspar in the Drakensburg Mountains were taken by Kale Lepak . Illustration and Art Design is by Amelia of www.whimsy.co.za. The CD was recorded and mixed by Brent Quinton at the Boiler Room in Durban and mastered by Greg Reierson at Rare Form Mastering in Mpls. MN.

Nothing lost, everything gained.

A beautiful Christmas gift awaits a deserving friend!

November 10, 2011

helgé janssen reviews Beyond Gay: the Politics of Pride

Filed under: helgé janssen,reviews — ABRAXAS @ 11:41 am

2009, Canada,
Bob Christie – Director

This film takes us on a world Pride journey, following the Vancouver Pride Society’s Parade Director Ken Coolen and his VPS colleagues to places still steeped in rampant homophobia. The film includes a look at the Human Rights barometer of each country visited. As such it gives an alarming and sometimes terrible insight into the global condition of Human Rights abuses, focusing on homosexuality in particular. The film demonstrates the vast spectrum of Pride… from Sao Paulo’s government-sponsored celebration that has grown to three million people in just 10 years, to Moscow and Warsaw Pride, where Coolen is one of the few brave souls who dares to march among violent radicals and witness for himself their aggressive hatred.

In 2006 the Human Rights Watch declared Jamaica the worst country on earth for its level of homophobia. Homophobia is a particular part of the Rastafarian religion, as is sexism, paternalism and misogyny. It is for this reason that I will NEVER support the legalisation of ganga, no matter which country seeks it and for whatever reasons. Until this religion is able to address these pertinent issues, ganga MUST remain an illegal drug. I know so many people who smoke this stuff who are completely unaware of this association. I say this particularly as the ‘sell’ line for the legalization of the stuff –well at least in this country – is the fact that it is part of ‘their religion’.
Russia too, is like the dark ages. Sri Lanka, Saudi Arabia, Serbia, Poland are shocking. Quite often religion is blamed, Catholicism in particular. It is little wonder that creeds of many persuasions are at the root of close-mindedness, intransigence: what to me translates as mental illness. One also calls to mind recent Facebook campaigns highlighting the shocking level of homophobia in Nigeria. There are 80 countries where homosexuality is illegal and in 7 countries punishable by death.
Canada, Brazil (which has approximately 140 Pride marches a year!) tops the list in Human Rights awareness. It would have been interesting to see how South Africa would have fared where, in spite of our enlightened constitution; there is still so much rampant homophobia with the despicable incidents of ‘corrective rape’ of Lesbians and the murder of male homosexuals.
This film has the effect of conscientizing the audience into the concern that ongoing pride ‘demonstrations’ of freedom is a vital ingredient of solidarity that must not wane through complacency. Amongst others, the film interviews Gilbert Baker, the man who designed what is now the universal Rainbow flag. Homosexuality knows no colour, no creed, no boundaries.
As recent as 2004, while teaching Natural Science to a grade nine class I noticed homosexuality being linked to prostitution in their class notes, as being morally reprehensible. This lead to lively discussion after which I removed the offending page and ‘upgraded’ their notes! There was also an incident at one of my schools (2008) where the parents of a 10 year old boy was asked to take their child out of the school because ‘he was the instigator’ of a homosexual encounter and he could see nothing wrong with what he had done! The dark cloud of homophobia within our schools needs urgent addressing through workshops, awareness campaigns, and through conscientizing our educators.
The film focuses on the astonishing array of characters that make up the pride marches globally and the undoubted flamboyance of the outfits, the make-up, the strut, the exuberance! I have personally never seen any characters dressed up to this extreme at any gay club. I have seen it happen at straight parties where straight men exaggerate the make-up and send up the gay scene in a humorous and fun way…..if not with a surprising level of closetness! So I see the Pride parade as pushing the boundaries of visual expression so as to make the ‘normal’ gay person appear quite sane in comparison. This becomes an interesting psychological perspective thus challenging the narrow minded to allow these eccentricities of expression to happen within a broader spectrum of acceptance and tolerance.
And in the words of Steven Roche, Senior Psychology Lecturer UKZN: “Homosexuality is the last acceptable prejudice,” we realize that complacency could quite easily reverse the long road that we have travelled. I am quite sure that the director, Bob Christie, would agree!
The only drawback to this film, for me, is the camera work. In places it is too jerky, too rapid fire, too unsettling, too pacey….and I am not referring to obvious areas where there is danger to the cameraman. Personally I do not have a problem with my attention span where the subject matter is already so interesting, and I do not have a problem with ADD. The film needs some ‘slow-mo’s’ and/or some serious editing.
BUT:
Pride is more than a parade and a party.
It is a giant step towards true human equality.
FREEDOM FACTS

30+ Years of…
• Vancouver Pride
• International Lesbian & Gay Association
• Sydney Gay & Lesbian Mardis Gras
• Rainbow Flag as community symbol
• 40 years since the Stonewall Riots gave birth to the modern Gay rights movement
• 60 years since the signing of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights

BUT THERE’S STILL A LONG WAY TO GO…

• More than 80 member states of the United Nations still criminalize consensual same sex acts among adults, thereby institutionally promoting a culture of hatred
• Only 49 countries worldwide have anti-discrimination laws that include sexual
orientation
• In the U.S., there is no Federal Law to protect LGBT people from workplace discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity
• Only 8 U.S. states have legislation that provides specific laws to prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation
• Seven countries still penalize consensual same sex acts with the death penalty
• The UN notes that laws criminalizing homosexuality violate international laws that seek to protect individuals’ rights to privacy and freedom from discrimination
• By definition, human rights principles apply to all of us, simply by virtue of being born human
• Moscow rejected over 165 applications to permit a Pride event in 2008

HOWEVER, IT’S ENCOURAGING TO NOTE…

• In Brazil, where the Ministry of Tourism began sponsoring and promoting Pride only 8 years ago, Pride is now hosted in over 30 different cities, including the world’s largest in São Paulo that was attended by 4 million people in 2008
• Vancouver’s 2008 Pride parade was the largest the city had ever hosted, with
525,000 participants and spectators – 2009’s parade topped that with 630,000

November 2, 2011

Helgé Janssen reviews mulligans

Filed under: film,helgé janssen,reviews — ABRAXAS @ 9:48 pm

Mulligans: 2008, Canada, Chip Hale – Director

College students of the so-called norm of wealthy American/Canadian society scream around insanely, guzzle booze, have sex, and have nothing to worry about in an expect-driven framework that shutters any hope of contact with their authentic selves: their sexuality framed by silent taboos that never get questioned. This frantic drive to speed-up the moment seems to get faster and faster in the herd-like determination to be as shallow, as insensitive as possible, and to reject that which does not ‘fit in’. It is this framework that makes ‘coming out’ so difficult forcing a homosexual person into repression. This is so buried in this strata of the American machismo psyche that a lot of the time they are completely unaware of the import: the unconsciousness can be likened to a time when it was so fashionable for people to smoke cigarettes having little idea of the cancerous results.
Such is the façade of the ‘American Dream’.

And, due to this overwhelming drive, supported by friends and family, they succeed until inevitably, if they are lucky, real life happens. In a nutshell, this is what Mulligans is about. The title comes from a rule in golf that allows a shot to be replayed.

The early student freneticism in the film perfectly captures the contrast of that impending life-standing-still moment. The pace and rhythm of the film, and therefore the timing which is so well done, becomes a vitally important element in the telling of this story. The script (the work of Charlie David who plays Chase Rousseau) intelligently tackles poignant issues regarding prejudice, friendship, intimacy and the ever-mysterious workings of human emotions that may be buried, but which are never quite dead.

A wealthy college student Tyler (Derek James) brings his best mate Chase Rousseau home for the summer holidays. Tyler was the result of a teen pregnancy (thus leading to the marriage of his parents) and is now twenty years old. He has a much younger sister Birdy (Grace Vukovic). I found the gap in the ages of the siblings to be an authentic psychological element where the young girl’s quips and insights (which, come to think of it, could never have happened if the child was a boy either) reveal a far more relaxed upbringing than that of Tyler who is tense, not at ease with himself. There is a sterling portrayal of the mother Stacey (Thea Gill) and a finely tuned and sensitive portrayal of the father Nathan (Dan Payne) who is awakened by Chase. Their temperamental interplay indicates the gradual and slow (imperceptible) dying of the spark that had no doubt ignited the existence of their first-born and reflects an excellent grasp and understanding of the imminent emotional turmoil. The director, Chip Hale exhibits an excellent grasp of the script. As such, the film avoids both melodrama and stereotype. The character of Chase is, of course, utterly central to the drama and is a fantastic depiction of a coming-out College student who one would never have suspected as ‘being gay’. It is his disclosure that awakens the father to explore a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to take back his authentic self.

While Chase had tested his relationship with Tyler in unveiling his sexual orientation, in the hard light of the discovery of the affair with Tyler’s father, Chase says half to himself: “What was I thinking?” He has now, once again, risked his friendship with Tyler by tearing his family apart.

What is particularly rewarding about the script is the matter-of-fact common sense acceptance of past choices made, with sadness, inevitably regret, but not with bitterness or hatred. So in spite of the ‘dysfunctional’ family scenario, all the characters respect each other and accept responsibility in a very human way. This allows for a resolution, which is by no means neat or convenient.

What makes this film, and films of this quality a must-see – given our particularly homophobic society – is the reflection that emotional interplay at any level between two people whether gay or straight, is no different.
And yes, the film can be likened to the classic “The Graduate” as stated in the press release notes. Sadly, what it doesn’t have is a Simon and Garfunkel-like hit song to go with it.

Next showing at the DGLFF @ KZNSA GALLERY, BULWER ROAD, GLENWOOD:
Friday 10 pm 04 November.

November 1, 2011

helgé janssen reviews judas kiss

Filed under: film,helgé janssen,reviews — ABRAXAS @ 4:01 pm

Judas Kiss – 2010, USA, J.T. Tepnapa – Director

This film is a surreal investigation (using a technique of parallel dimensions which doesn’t always work) into past decisions, past damages and the effects the experiences have had on one’s future.
A man, Zachary Wells (Charlie David) who is sent to judge a film competition encounters a young man named Danny Reyes (a brooding ambitious teen-angst Richard Harmon played to perfection) in whom he sees himself. This propels him to investigate his past and to come to terms with events that happened at this same time in his own youth. Zachary’s film, entitled Judas Kiss (the same title as Danny’s film) had won the award some 15 years previously under dubious circumstances. The kickback of this created guilt that persistently threaded through him, causing him to labour under a cloud, preventing him from enjoying the life he has. It seems clear to him that Danny is about to follow a path similar to his. He thus intervenes.

Underlined herein is the empowering aspect of how a psychological examination of one’s past, when done with integrity, is able heal the present. Central to this is to love and to forgive oneself for past errors of judgment. Youth has a way of not seeing clearly and thus has to pay the price for ill-considered decisions. In this instance ambition overrides consideration. The film thus shoulders a very brave task.

What is refreshing about this movie is that, while the story revolves around gay men, it takes place in a context where heterosexuals just don’t seem to feature. I find this a wonderful reversal of the accepted heterosexual films where homosexuality is non-existent. In a sense this is a mainstream film, with characters that happen to be gay. As such the film breaks new ground.

The subplot is very intriguing. With the devastating good looks of porn star Brent Corrigan (real name Sean Paul Lockhart) playing Chris as part of the love triangle between the ambitious Danny and the wealthy, seemingly shallow sexy Shane (Timo Descamps) there is enough cinematic interest to keep the viewer transfixed. The ensemble acting is flawless and is the primary satisfying energy that carries this film. Sadly, Sean Paul Lockhart is under utilized and is definitely moresome. Here he is sheer virgin innocence personified and when, via research, I discovered his background, you could have blown me away – no pun intended! No wonder he has won virtually every category possible for a porn star!

However I have to admit to being disappointed at the dénouement. The build-up does not satisfy and the shocking event pivotal to the disturbance at the dark and hidden core is insufficiently/too neatly dealt with. The psychology of the drama does not match the psychology of the reality. In spite of some good moments in the development of the plot, the script lacks psychological insight thus taking on more than it can chew.

October 31, 2011

Helgé Janssen reviews difficult love

Filed under: helgé janssen,reviews,south african cinema — ABRAXAS @ 3:48 pm

Difficult Love: Documentary, 2011, South Africa,
Busi Kwesa & Zanele Muholi – Directors

There is so much positivity that shimmers through this documentary that makes it a MUST SEE for anybody even slightly sceptical about a person’s sexuality that is not framed by the so-called ‘norm’ of our society – and by anybody needing affirmation about beauty, art and the brave mind. The radiance is ever that much more luminous for the shocking intransigence that frames it.

What grips one immediately about this film is that it has been made with such love. There is not an iota of hatred, resentment or annoyance trapped in the celluloid/digital matrix of this offering: there is only a quest for awareness. The ‘visual activist’ Zanele Muholi round whom this documentary is based, is firmly grounded in herself, in her being, in her sexuality without confrontation or challenge: she simply is.

Zanele’s breathtakingly beautiful photographs remind one of the work of Robert Mapplethorpe in their clarity and crispness of line. This documentary covers aspects of her exhibition and her awareness campaign and support of lesbian issues. The comments made by the EX minister of Arts and Culture Lulu Xingwana that these photographs were ‘immoral’ beggars belief, yet unwittingly becomes a barometer of the various stratas of rejection that lesbians, gays, transgender and bisexual people face. There are some very articulate views from various commentators: journalist Gail Smith in particular. There are touching scenes with a white couple for whom Zanele’s mother worked as a domestic for some 42 years and who were responsible for Zanele’s education in a time of our historical past where the majority of black people were denied so many basic human rights. These scenes are without artefact or pretention.

The abhorrent and repugnant issue of corrective rape and the paternalistic and ill-informed views of both males and females of our society is the ever-present framework that hovers in the background like an ominous cloud. These intransigent conservative views need urgent addressing if we as a nation hope to walk proudly into the future. And the only way that is going to happen is through education. This film goes a long way in addressing this discrepancy and needs to be shown in schools, church halls: everywhere and anywhere.
There is a long long long road ahead.

Difficult Love recently won the Audience Award for Best Short Film at the Africa in the Picture film festival in Amsterdam, and will show at the Perlen Queer Film Festival in Hannover, Germany (17-20 October), the Side-by-Side film festival in St. Petersburg, Russia (21-25 October), and the Durban Lesbian and Gay Film Festival (30 October at 5 pm)

ZANELE has a solo show, accompanied by a new publication on her work, at the Casa Africa in Las Palmas, Canary Islands, which was opened on the 19 October and is running until 20 January 2012. She also has work on Face of Our Time, travelling to the University of Michigan Museum of Modern Art (12 November – 5 February); Lesbians Seeing Lesbians at the Leslie/Lohman Gallery in New York (until 22 October i.e. it closed this last Saturday); and Photography 1: Snapshots of a Generation at Wentrup Gallery, Berlin (18 November – 30 December).

October 30, 2011

wearing a helgé janssen original dress, woodstock, 23 october 2011

Filed under: caelan,helgé janssen — ABRAXAS @ 8:49 pm

helgé janssen reviews house of boys

Filed under: film,helgé janssen,reviews — ABRAXAS @ 10:45 am

House of Boys: 2009, Luxembourg, Jean-Claude Schlim – Director

For those of you who are fascinated by, and admire Klaus Nomi, the German opera singer who made a brief foray into popular music, you are in for a visual treat: running through this film are constant Nomi-esque inspirations, from lighting, make-up, to styling and mannerisms – particularly in the tour de force role of Udo Keir as the manipulative Grande Madame of the House – right down to the extraordinary photographic facial angles of the beautiful Frank – a remarkable performance form Layke Anderson also surely worthy of an Oscar!

The film opens with a series of events that leads to Frank leaving home and heading for Amsterdam where, once again, circumstance directs him to the door of the ‘House of Boys”. Here he gets taken in and begins to learn the ropes of survival as a stripper (and barman) in the all male drag-like cabaret parades, which forms an often startling and visual delight. A dark, Berlin-like pre Second World War desperation permeates the cheesy choreography and in the portrayal of the lust driven patrons. Direction is particularly sharp and crisp, and I especially liked cinematic attention to detail: the sequence where the chorus boys are seen walking on stage from the back wearing tatty rectangles of organza, yet on stage the effect being quite glamorous.

In the kitchen of the living abode, all the characters of the show congregate…usually at breakfast (or should that be lunch?) and there is some lively repartee….with the sex-changing Christopher (Michael N. Kuehl) very much on form. The ensemble cast is so well matched, the interplay so natural, that one begins to feel that the characters are in fact playing themselves.

The heady drug scenes and the promiscuousness of the pre Aids pandemic are well captured. On a wild night out (one of many) I particularly liked the rock performance of a devastatingly sexy lead singer singing: “Girls like you don’t get boys like me…” with nuance on the word ‘get’.

But Frank falls almost immediately in lust with the reluctant and supposedly straight Jake (Benn Northover). To Frank’s grief he discovers that Jake is selling his ass to a regular wealthy American patron. And herein lies the link to the ‘gay cancer’ as it was known then….pre 1985.

Inevitably Frank and Jake fall in love. True love. And it is truly believable. It is from here that Benn Northover’s performance as Jake goes up a notch.

It was not until the death of film star Rock Hudson that the extent of AIDS (Auto Immune Deficiency Syndrome) really hit home. Many less publicized artist’s had succumbed to the disease, Robert Mapplethorpe and Klaus Nomi being just two.

When it is discovered that Jake has contracted the disease, Frank’s love never wavers….if anything it gets stronger. The many memorable scenes of Lake, whose flesh is simply rotting on his body, are deeply moving. The fact that Frank escapes getting the infection (and Jakes ex-girlfriend) is one of the mysteries that surround this plague and the film goes some way into demonstrating just how promiscuous Frank had been!
A strong discussion point after the film is undoubtedly going to be about the drawn out representation of the growth of the disease in Lake. There are no reservations though that these scenes are crucial to the telling of this story as AIDS continues to be the world’s most rampant disease.

October 20, 2011

helgé janssen on time

Filed under: helgé janssen — ABRAXAS @ 8:50 pm

Living time is physically finite. It has a beginning and an end. And within that finiteness there are only so many things you can do with time. Time travels in waves, which while moving outwards also moves in a circular motion, and upwards. It is both linear and non linear. And within that, time has a series of focuses. It is within these phases of being focused that time has import. Outside of that, time has no meaning. Which is why, when those moments come, they should never be squandered. And herein lies the drama of life. Some people live all their lives outside of any need to focus. Some people struggle all their lives to gain that focus, only to squander it. Others spend all their lives avoiding that focus. And there are others still, who do all they can to live within that focus.

And yet, within all of this still, within all of us, time travels at different speeds.

August 18, 2011

helgé janssen reviews The High Art of Simplicity – Photographic installation: Angela Buckland, KZNSA gallery, Durban

Filed under: art,helgé janssen,reviews — ABRAXAS @ 3:11 pm

It is perfectly clear that had Angela’s integrity been defective she would not have been able to put a toe through the front door of block A, Thokoza Women’s Hostel, let alone step into the intimate spaces of the inhabitants.

Expectedly, Angela faced opposition to this project from some women within the hostel. A show of sound solidarity in support of her at the opening of this exhibition from the residents bears testament to the cohesion and aspiration that, not only had been won, but has also been enshrined into this group effort. These are the women who are the rocks that are struck; these are the women who are unshakeably dignified in their being; these are the women whose independence is the light that gives them strength; these are the women who carry the honour of our nation with deep felt heart.

These are the women from whom all of us gain strength.
Clear and transparent intent: no hidden agenda.
If ever there was a high art to simplicity, these women embody it, and this exhibition expounds it.
The press release carries some potent statements that were no doubt made in consultation with the Thokoza women:

the most densely inhabited residential site in Durban.
women seeking independence from the pervading male dominated society…
beyond planning policies, beyond cultural traditions…

These are extremely cogent points to consider, given the current groundswell of pockets of a ‘regressive chauvinism’ rearing its ugly head and which persist in blighting the flowering of this nation. Do we have to remind ourselves how staunchly bigoted the Nationalist Party was as it wielded its outmoded agenda? Yet who would have thought for a moment in 1994, that such bigotry would still have been an issue to contend with in 2011? I am of course referring to issues like corrective rape and xenophobia….to mention but two.

This exhibition therefore exists on a number of contrasting levels, some of which are:

To highlight a haven away from interference.
To spotlight the strength and independence these women have developed in spite of enormous financial odds.
To call attention to the importance of residences such as this and the role they play in presenting affordable shelter to women seeking some level of independence within this chauvinist world.
To gain spiritual insight at the evolvement of survival mechanisms where pride and hard work has triumphed.

The women come from virtually all walks of life: students, domestic workers, nurses, peanut sellers, bead workers, seamstresses, dressmakers and vendors. They have undoubtedly been part of the struggle for freedom, where change for a better life has all but eluded them. In a sense the hostel IS their ‘better life’. Some women have inhabited and shared a single room within these walls for most of their lives.

The Thokoza Women’s Hostel was built in 1925 at a time when grand apartheid planning was probably little more than a scribble in someone’s warped mind. The fact that it is now a forgotten plot (literally and figuratively) in this richly maladjusting land has been poignantly accentuated by Angela’s sensitive and revealing collaboration. The detail of the truth is that the Hostel represents a vibrant transcendence of prison-like conditions into a thriving and independent ‘triumph of the will’. This should not be seen as a challenge to the pervading male chauvinism, but rather as an example of how the human spirit finds ways to survive under pervading repressive odds – be it financial, emotional, spiritual, or political. Quite clearly there seems to be a dire need for more of these hostels to be built and for the existing one’s to be upgraded without disturbing the life that depends on them.

Each photograph sensitively and movingly opens a vista into the lives of the women where the bottom photograph of each totem – a perpendicular line of insights representing a single room – depicts the door of each room. Not only does the door open to reveal glimpses of content that ramifies in our consciousness, but also opens to the trust these women have placed in the photographer. Angela has reciprocated by treading respectfully, carefully and consultatively, resulting in this enigmatic Zen-like exhibition.
In many ways all of these women are heroines.

The exhibition closes on 20th August. Do grab a chance to visit it! You will be astounded.

(I see a strong synchronicity between the current instillations of Angela Buckland and Lolette Smith’s Isomorphicintergrammar. I mentioned this fact to Angela and she said that she had been born deaf! I was astounded! This aside, both these women focus on deeply important issues in our society from very similar perspectives even though visually they are miles apart. Both are dealing with communication, both reveal pinnacles in the sensitive issue of understanding and of HEARING the context/content of our fellow (wo)man and both are embedded in a deep compassion, thus spotlighting LINKAGES within our common humanity.)

August 10, 2011

The Morph of Frozen Sound – review of artwork by Lolette Smith: KZNSA Gallery

Filed under: art,helgé janssen,reviews — ABRAXAS @ 4:27 pm

Choosing a particularly interesting yet decidedly apt title for her exhibition – Isomorphicintergrammar – Smith has bravely sailed where no one has dared to journey: the specifics of the interspace between communication and cognition.

Lolette is expertly poised to bring these issues to light – of the challenges faced by both hearing and deaf – who has spent 26 years raising her deaf daughter. Plus, for nine of these years Lolette ran her own art school (Edu-Art Highway Art College at Shongweni 2000 – 2009) thus adding a formidable level of experience to her knowledge of communication. Prior to that she taught for five years at Fulton School for the Deaf and has qualified at level 2 (the highest level) in Sign Language.

Applicably darkness has been chosen within which to present her light/gut/metal/perspex works making particular use of reflection within this matrix of transparency, illumination, spirituality, connective threads, understanding and chaos. Further, the painstaking process of assembling and creating these artworks is symbolic and illustrative of the meticulous attention to meaning and the rigourous comprehension – not to mention the love – involved in the process of ‘writing in the mind’ (education) of a person – be it deaf, blind (the use of Braille) or hearing.

As a starting point in preparing these artworks Lolette asked herself this question: “What would sound LOOK LIKE?” A person who is ‘profoundly deaf’ (cannot hear a thing, and for whom hearing aids would be a waste of time) faces a particularly difficult time in not only being communicated to, but in translating his/her own experiences, wants and needs, to the outside world. Even within the Deaf World, there is no set method of teaching communication to a deaf person. Having said that, the generally accepted modus is one of ‘total communication’ i.e. oral (speaking while signing), sign, visual stimulation in whatever available form, written (as in the use of the overhead projector to write down words/sentences) and in some instances, flash cards with words. There are so many variations/degrees of ‘deafness’ to which are attached so many different personalities, that a single method of communication has remained illusive. The method has to be adjusted to the specific needs of the individual. What is decidedly common though in the education of a deaf person is that nothing can be taken for granted.

It is within this matrix of challenges that Lolette’s artworks rise above the narrow confines of ‘differences’ while focusing on the specific ‘universal’ elements within communication and translating that into this visual feast of isomorphic crystals of frozen sound. Each of the seven pieces in this exhibition highlights various levels of interface which collectively throws light on the complex nature in the transmission of information. There are many ways in which a word/sentence can be expressed. There are equally as many ways for a sign to be expressed. The exhibition thus bridges this gap giving a visual elucidation which levels the playing fields in coming to terms with our common need for information. In this sense Lolette’s instillation paints a bigger picture – that sorely lacking manifestation within our ordinary lives – and throws enlightenment both literally and metaphorically into the darkness of our understanding of the nature of disclosure….be it through speech or sign language or Braille.

Hearing people take ‘incidental information’ completely for granted. Overhearing conversation, hearing something fall, change direction in a car after discussing a better route – to mention but a few – are all areas of darkness for a deaf person. For me, having taught at a deaf school for over three years, I see this as the single most exacting and taxing aspect of education pertaining to the deaf. It is here that one begins to realise how different one deaf learner is from the next. Much, if not all of their learning, has been dependent on the fortune of having enlightened parents, backed up by enlightened educators. This is of course, directly applicable to the hearing learner as well but on a far more demanding level.

From my reading of this exhibition, Lolette has visually interpreted the many questions and impaired territories – those that inevitably lead to misunderstandings, and those that lead to comprehension – with perspicacity. The strong visual element further features the need for the deaf to sharpen their eyesight to alert themselves to information as their most immediate means of independence.

The specifics of this exhibition – the individual within the collective – calls attention to the folly of recent policies pertaining to people with disabilities promulgated through the Education Department by our “understanding challenged” masters, that ‘one problem fits all’. Deafness, for example, is seen as being NO DIFFERENT to having spina bifida, being blind, or having any one of the array of human disabilities and are currently being accommodated within a single class. What is happening in the lower grades of deaf schools is a crime against humanity (and of disabilities in particular) and a blatant and systematically endorsed violation of basic human rights. While getting some things right….eventually…..the Education Department seems to lurch from folly to folly.

(At the opening of this exhibition, the curator of the KZNSA gallery simply could not pronounce the title of this exhibition and seemed to think that this was perfectly acceptable, thus making a particularly poignant point in the point of how some hearing people presume a conformity in communication that defines and defies their ability to disseminate information. Now put yourself in the position of a deaf person, and the situation is compounded. It is further sad, given all the advances in technology, that the correct DVD format for the DVD player to project the video element of this exhibition could not be put into place.)

July 20, 2011

abraxas caelan kaganof wearing an original creation by helgé janssen, 19 july 2011

Filed under: caelan,helgé janssen — ABRAXAS @ 4:24 pm

helgé janssen on the bow project cd

Filed under: helgé janssen,michael blake,music,reviews — ABRAXAS @ 3:53 am

THE BOW PROJECT

Reimagining Nofinishi Dywili’s traditional uhadi bow song performances.

I am not a traditionalist. Not by a long shot. This does not mean that I do not like tradition, it means that I feel tradition needs to transform if it is to survive. In fact tradition, as I see it, is about constantly updating the threads that link back to whatever gave rise to the original format. It is the way in which tradition transforms that creates culture. The way I see it, tradition is a springboard not a framework.

In this sense the Bow Project investigates the traditional process through which these Xhosa songs have survived and discovers that, purely on interest where these songs have been picked up by the youth within the immediate surrounds, they rely on a verbal transmission only. In so doing, the BOW PROJECT breathes new life into both an appraisal and an awareness of the uhadi bow and to Nofinishi’s songs, and to the ongoing development and experimentation in the classical music domain.

It is a well known fact that apartheid stifled growth and held the modern world at bay through the draconian laws of separate development and suppression. Spiritually whites suffered most. Yet most whites never ever realised it. However, this stagnation allowed traditional norms to also freeze, while seemingly giving them strength to consolidate their grounding. With the relatively sudden collapse of apartheid, tradition has been challenged precipitously to get its act together, or face extinction. This has created enormous tensions within the largely rural sectors of this country creating fear and foreboding. Cells phones, internet and modern technology are now available to everyone. Two years ago there was a huge furore over the traditional hand slaying of a bull (Ukushwama ritual) where Animal Rights Africa (ARA) failed in a court procedure to have this tradition transformed or scrapped. The shutters simply came crashing down and the white man was seen to be meddling in the internal affairs of tribesmen. “It is a very sad day for dignity, respect and compassion,” said Ms Pikover representative for ARA somewhat forlornly. The fact that this tradition had already been transformed from the killing of the king to the killing of a bull as a symbolic gesture, rather than kill the king himself, seemed to escape the ‘traditionalists’.

It is fortuitous then that The Bow Project began at a very crucial time in the transformation and focus on cultural diversity in South Africa – around 2002. Most critical to this is the fact that the performances of Nofinishi Dywili were originally recorded in the field by professor Dave Dargie during his research in the 1980s and 1990s. Thus these recordings form the authentic springboard for the reimaginings for string quartet.

It appears, somewhat synchronistically, as if this Bow Project has given rise to an historical investigation into the roots of the violin. A Bow Project (2004) was launched specifically with this agenda in mind by the SA born violinist Daniel Hope. Hope, who currently lives in Vienna, has been described as the “most exciting British string player since Jacqueline du Pré”. Through this research with Madosini and the uhadi bow as source, it has been suggested that the uhadi bow may even have been the originator of the bow and arrow! Hopes investigations have taken him across the globe and the project has become a multi-platform search for the roots of the ‘most human of instruments’.

CD TWO is devoted entirely to the recordings of Dywili which correspond sequentially to the reimaginings of these performances on CD ONE. There is a distinguished array of composers represented: Mokale Koapeng – Komeng; Martin Scherzinger – My Friend the Ugly One; Robert Fokkens – Libalel’ilanga (The Sun is Scorching the Earth); Julia Raynham – latshon’ilanga to mention but a few. The CD ends with Kaganof’s Anahat – a 7:37 minute remixing of Michael Blake’s String Quartet No. 3.

One can therefore listen to Dywili’s songs uninterruptedly and allow oneself the savour of journeying through the expansive rural Eastern Cape landscape so beautifully captured on the CD cover. To my Western/African ears I feel that Inxembuli (2002 version) is the more instantly accessible track of the Nofinishi recordings, all of which undoubtedly represent the heart and soul of the Eastern Cape. On this track however Nofinishi’s yearning vocal tone becomes an instrument of mesmerisingly tantric proportions in unison with the mantra of the uhadi bow.

It will sink into your bones.

It will colour your skin.

One could also download the CD onto one’s computer and then open a new window in the music programme (mine is iTunes) and then juxtapose the imagined version with the inspirational version and click on repeat. This forms, with recurrent listening, a fascinating format from which to appreciate the Bow Project’s deeper intentions! And, having witnessed the Bow Project performance at Howard College Theatre in 2009, I carry with me a delightful visual of Mantombi Matotiyana’s own renditions and her enthusiastic response to these composers’ reimaginings.

It is thus that Michael Blake String Quartet No. 3 (Nofinishi) verves the air immediately with the pluck of the viola and cello, cut through with the ‘string’ of the violins. Blake thus extracts (deconstructs) and then leaps with his inspiration flying through and interfacing with the Nofinishi arrhythymic rhythm. This resonates with my earlier musings that culture is a springboard, rather than a framework. This immediate statement clears the air for the rightful ideating of the Bow Project mandate. What Blake has achieved in my intuitive sense, is a relationship between the structure of the uhadi bow and the ‘evolved’ configuration of the classical quartet instruments. Each instrument is therefore enhanced in its individuality as well as it’s collective function.

With Anahat (a primordial sound within the body, signifying spiritual growth, especially associated with awakening of Kundalini – a sound that is created without collision or impact) – Kaganof has eliminated the orbit and crossflow of Blake’s imagining, and transformed his String Quartet No.3 into an earthy/earthly cello of a grounding turf resonance with strings of mood and essence. He thus explores the silence and space that sound creates and its imbued correspondence with spiritual growth.

The Bow Project has succeeded in creating a win win situation for diverse cultures across the Eastern Cape to the shores of Norway.

Get the CD, support this endeavour, and reap the rewards.

The project has been dedicated to the memory of Nofinishi Dywili (d.2002)

July 19, 2011

wearing an original creation by helgé janssen, 19 july 2011

Filed under: caelan,helgé janssen — ABRAXAS @ 9:35 pm

July 11, 2011

helge Janssen was Transfixed: Jaspar Lepak @ the Bluestocking, Kloof 17 June 2011

Filed under: helgé janssen,music,reviews,richard haslop — ABRAXAS @ 10:11 pm

Yes! All my senses and intuitive radars were in harmony: the sum of my cells focused in anticipation of Jaspar Lepak in performance @ the Bluestocking. This Kloof performance space was surrounded by a hypothermic Hillcrest winter (very brrrr) but soon started warming up as the audience packed into the venue to participate in the Jaspar Lepak show.

Via pre order, hearty vegetarian dishes *see menu below* were prepared by Krist A and Shawn Wehsling. The event is expertly managed by Narene Stevens.

In performance with Jaspar were an array of distinguished backing musicians: Rachel van Scoy (special guest harmonist all the way out from Minneapolis), Kale Lepak (accordion), Bryan Eaton (banjo), and Richard Haslop (dobro and mandolin).

Perhaps being the eldest of five children (all girls) shows its advantage where Jaspar is adept at sharing her stage space and stepping back from the spotlight. Rachel van Scoy who has performed on Jaspar’s most recent CD’s gave beautiful a cappella renditions of two cover songs that displayed her vocal range to excellent effect.

Jaspar’s narrative driven songs are filled with wisdom; her lyrics constantly search for the bigger picture and her poetry turns its gaze into concerned arenas. This infected an expansive theme into the crisp night air. The appreciative audience were warmed and energised. Most of her repertoire for the evening was taken from her latest CD: Send Me Home.

Particularly striking for me was Jaspar’s solo piece about mothers and woman abuse: “I know a woman” – an earlier composition and not on her latest CD. Here, her composed strength shone through and gave a gifted flair to her stature as she began to feel the awe-struck effect her lyrics were having on the enrapt listeners. The pen certainly is mightier than the sword even if just for the fact that the pen does not kill, but enlightens! And with enlightenment, awareness is effected eternally. It seems to me that Jaspar is intuitively dovetailing with a growing new wave of feminine inventiveness where learning through keen observation, taking stock – rather than judging – creates a gap as a positive way forward in this ever male dominated world. As such one gains inspiration and courage to deal with life’s hurdles.

This delightful evening ended off with the encore: “Leaving the Country”.

There are still a few Jaspar Lepak gigs lined up before she departs! Watch the press (and Facebook) for details.

It IS important to book EARLY as many people had to be turned away.

The Bluestocking menu: 17:06:11

Vegetable Lasagne
Potato, Butternut & Cheese Bake
Peppers, Sweet Potato & Chickpea Curry with brown rice and sambals *Vegan*

Our magik* ingredients come from the garden, thus completely home grown thanks to Narene and Shawn (perma-culture enthusiasts) who have cultivated a variety of fresh herbs and veggies which go into our dishes. The magik from the garden flows into all Bluestocking meals making every evening here a truly unique and sublime experience…..

June 22, 2011

helgé janssen reviews “the legendary syd kitchen in g-string blues”

Filed under: 2011 - G-String Blues,helgé janssen,reviews — ABRAXAS @ 8:24 pm



this review first published on helgé’s blog

June 19, 2011

From the muse – through the heart: helgé janssen reviews The Wild Land – Nate Maingard CD release June 2011.

Filed under: helgé janssen,music,reviews — ABRAXAS @ 11:16 pm

If Nate himself is a matrix of cross-referencing wonders with at times a naive matter-of-factness, his debut CD ‘The Wild Land’ is a mesmerising distillation alchemized into the sum total of brilliance. When his muse speaks, we listen…..and wander with him through enchanted forests……entwined with loose vines….glinting sunlight and a rich dark undergrowth…where we encounter PAN (the god of experience) in all his wonderpotent glory….

The astonishingly opulent guitar tone (a Nathan Maingard original – Nate learned guitar-making from his father) matched by a clarity of pitch with an alluring melodic voice in shamanic harmony (the voice and the guitar are one – so much so that at times it seems as if there is a backing homogeneous male vocalist echoing words) rang a unique resonance within me from the moment this CD made aural contact. It is always interesting when the intended raison of a song expands beyond its original framework and infuses a wider territory! So, while the songs are deeply personal, they transcend and connect with a listener tired of the glib boy meets girl/boy loses girl phrasing of current popular fare. The driving acoustic rhythms weave through the lyrics and travel an expanse that resonates with the crux of the matter conjoining emotion and intellect. The colours, moods, memories, visions that thus emanate throughout this story/concept motivated album inspires a sense of healing and crusades for a return to our intuitive selves: the innocence of the heart matched by the seduction of experience….yet with discernment….and with caution. While this may seem like a contradiction in terms on a surface level, when one is in that deeply felt intuitive (artistic) space, it all makes absolute sense.

And sense it makes!

Each track is a carefully selected gentle-gem-offering of immense beauty discovered within the thicket of…..

The Wild Land –

the track that gives the album its name – deals with the secret landscape where the river of sexuality/sensuality is obligated to course its way through the psyche without hinderance….or face the wrath of the inner voice that speaks no lie. This very important flow is not that easy to attain, yet where the hurdles serve to strengthen resolve and the bottling up of sexuality is done at one’s peril. This is the domain of that which is wild…….tread gently through it least you arouse the displeasure of these guardians of our underworld.

The plea is not to mishandle the serene (yet potentially chaotic) space that respects a surrender to our innermost gifts in our quest to find our authentic self.

Just Like You:

This song is concerned with a search for personal identity which has come about through a lack of being able to live up to the expected norms of one’s peers/society/parents/religion. There is neither anger nor blame: just compassion for oneself. Yet in so finding, discovering compassion for others which requires reciprocation:

“if no one is listening
then this all seems absurd”

This is, after all, a deeply felt anticipated yet unwritten human pact which we implicitly make with our fellow man. This is further demonstrated in the final punch line:

“I hold onto my love, just like you.”

…..where the playing fields are gently levelled.

Fire:

two embers in the fire faced one another
said to the other: What are you doing here?
although I question carefully your presence
I am so grateful for your company in the fire

until we’re gone gone gone gone gone
gone gone gone gone
gone gone gone gone gone
when the flames have all burned down
what will remain?

The birth/death/rebirth cycle so beautifully and poignantly expressed in a total acceptance of the heat of experience yet posing a mysterious philosophical question: “what will remain?” The answer to this seems to rest with the quality of the experience. The phoenix undoubtedly springs to mind too, for is it not from/through the ashes that the new is born? Each experience is savoured, considered…..it forms a vital ingredient in our transformation…..of that which we are becoming..

My favourite track is undoubtedly

I Will Devour:

in the soft moist loam
in the undergrowth
where all creatures know
what that seed is worth..
i will lay me down
and i will sink in to
just like the seed
i will feed the new

…..sheer genius!

And performed to mesmerising perfection at the Bean Green Roastery, in Durban, where I had the delighted pleasure of also filming it! I am also now the proud owner of a signed ‘The Wild Land’ CD.

Yes!

They say that the ‘indie folk’ scene is exploding in Cape Town. If this album is an example of that, then folk music in this country has finally come of age. This has to be the most remarkable folk debut album in many a decade, and in my experience, in South Africa – ever! It draws through its many folk influences and turns out a product that is modern, inspired, fresh and immediate. Nate exhibits an innate sense of drama and timing in his distinctive musical style. He treads…and plays……where few have dared to go….and through his creative process fearlessly faces his beasts inviting them into obeisance.

Buy “The Wild Land” now. Immediately! You will never regret it.

http://natemaingard.com/album/the-wild-land

May 30, 2011

helgé janssen as punch

Filed under: helgé janssen — ABRAXAS @ 8:34 am

May 22, 2011

helgé janssen on tokyo elegy

Filed under: 1999 - shabondama elegy (tokyo elegy),helgé janssen,reviews — ABRAXAS @ 11:46 pm


keep reading this review on helgé’s blog

helgé janssen reviews jaspar lepak’s debut cd “send me home”

Filed under: helgé janssen,music,reviews — ABRAXAS @ 10:56 am

The voice opens and draws you in, it soars and takes you with it, it dips and saddens, lilts and widens…..and you suddenly find yourself on the Jaspar Lepak flight: an inspirational wing across a world landscape as broad as it is deep, as beautiful as it is dark, as light as it is sorrowful. It twists and turns, swings and rhythms, rocks you shakes you….but the beauty never leaves you: a mesmerising combination of the utterly angelic with the tender rasp of hard earned experience. This integration gives a weight to her being, to her presence, with a gravitas that is yet born with ease and is deceptively uncomplicated. Jaspar is thus immediately accessible to a wide range of listeners, and while her genre is firmly rooted in ‘country and western’ there are elements of folk, rock and blues.

And her words paint fluid pictures -

send me home:

“…I lost my light, I lost my light
don’t know when I let it go dim
my spirit cries out
my spirit cries loud
I’m sadder in any church
I feel better in any crowd….”

clouds:

“…and you carry your dreams on a million pots of coffee
and your hands can’t find nothing more to hold….”

to pieces:

“…every night we prayed to Jesus
while we told each other lies..”

Every track holds a memory in a sacred place and is indelible.

In sum “Send Me Home” while originating/germinating within everyday experience, crosses into the metaphorical – searching, discovering, and claiming the inner journey towards ‘self’. Thus it is that new discoveries of meaning await with each replaying.

The production of this album is excellent. The harmonies within the backing vocals (Andy Thomson, Rachel Van Scoy, Kale Lepak, Mother Banjo and Kim Bahmer on specific tracks) are always inventive with an intuitive spontaneity that lends an immediacy that never fades no matter how many times you hear them. The wonderful use of the accordion (Kale Lepak) and the array of backing instruments (Andy Thomson) lends subtlety and distinction.

“Send Me Home” has been expertly produced, recorded and mixed by Andy Thomson at his home in Minneapolis. The track “Minneapolis’ was recorded by Jaspar at her Durban home!

“Send me home” is an exceptional album. Get it. Listen to it. Be amazed.

You can buy the album from Jaspar herself as she performs in and around Durban at regular intervals. Avail yourself of this opportunity to hear her live before she returns to Minneapolis. And be amazed.

http://www.myspace.com/jasparlepak

May 12, 2011

helgé janssen on capote

Filed under: film,helgé janssen,reviews — ABRAXAS @ 8:28 pm

well at least we know on which side this reviewer stands where he reviews this film through the layers of his own prejudice: “asthete-weakling”?

Is that a fact?

also i cannot agree that Miller (director) had made ‘in cold blood’ reflect Capote’s modus operandi.

i cannot fathom why there is this ‘edginess’ about capote, the man or author. Is it because he is gay? There is a very noted and sometimes callous side to ‘a gay sensibility’ – and i feel this sensibility cannot be seen ‘within itself’ but must be seen within the larger context of a gay persons fight for survival within an unenlightened world. this journey would undoubtedly play a part in the formation of the adult. and I am yet to come across a perfect person.

the film does not profess to be ‘a documentary’ so one needs to be very careful about the ‘documentary’ style of the film as opposed to the actual reality.

There is a curious claim here that this Capote is a ‘compulsive liar’ and using an example where capote is seen gleefully telling a friend about a brilliant title he has hit on for the book, only to be seen ‘in the very next scene’ where capote answers to a friend that ‘he hasn’t decided’. What exactly is it that goes on inside a creative persons’ head? This is not an easy question to answer but why should it be expected that capote needs to be consistent where he could quite easily have changed his mind in-between his first statement and this follow up? Capote was living this story as he was writing it. Surely this response may rather have something to do with the emotional turmoil that capote was experiencing within the creative import, and the toll it was exacting on his psyche within his personal capacity as an investigator of this shocking event.

and what is so wrong about ‘making these compelling details up’ when capote wrote about his experiences of the corpses at the funeral parlour? And made them up how? In a way “that maybe Capote himself doesn’t realise”….? This statement is an obvious contradiction that Capote had an “icily detached attitude”…. Capote was tapping into a very very dark element within the american psyche at this time. It was but three years to the Sharon Tate murders…and this dark underbelly of the ‘american dream’ was already drawing a very very sick blood.

Next we are going to be told that poets enhance their information!!!

It is very difficult for an artist to have ‘passionate, authentic vocation to his art’ and yet still be trapped by the niceties of conventional interactive living. why then should hoffman’s capote be seen as a ‘magnificently unsympathetic figure’?

What was it that sparked Capotes interest in this murder in the first place? Had capote fallen in love with the murderer? I do not think capote was insincere when he promised to help the murderer. the problem came when the murderer confessed to capote about his crime. this shattered capote. why? did some part of capote believe or rather wish that this man was innocent? was there not something ‘innocent’ within the murderer that attracted capote to him? Capote witnessed the execution of Smith. This must have sealed his trauma!

artists/authors do sometimes tap into strange and ‘unaccountable’ energies.

i do not think there will be a single gay person, or artist for that matter, who would apologise for that.

however the author gets it right in the end:

“capote sacrificed everyone and everything for his great book. there was a kind of integrity in sacrificing himself, too.”

the film was indeed compelling. the book more so!

May 5, 2011

helgé janssen on paternalism

Filed under: helgé janssen,miscellaneous,politics — ABRAXAS @ 12:30 pm

Paternalism: the policy or practice on the part of people in positions of authority of restricting the freedom and responsibilities of those subordinate to them in the subordinates’ supposed best interest.

South Africans generally, across all race groups suffer from PATERNALISM: too scared to challenge authority because to do so is seen to be going against ‘the father’. This sickness in our society underlines our inability to openly (and justifiably) confront stupid rules and regulations. If you DO, you are labelled a TROUBLEMAKER and people view you with AUTOMATIC suspicion. The AUTOMATIC underlying notion is that the SYSTEM (i.e. the father) cannot be wrong and it is YOU that is in the wrong, In short, the system is inviolate and to challenge it is to challenge GOD.

Exactly WHO do you think you are?

On a personal level I have always found that if you challenge authority you are seen to be challenging the PERSON responsible for the implementing the authority. The silly person has totally identified them self with the silly rule i.e. it all gets taken personally.

Subsequently we have, I think, one of the most violent societies in the world.

We all know how paternalism manifests in the private domain: domestic violence (battery), rape, misplaced discipline, authoritarianism, teenage rebellion in the form of: drug abuse, pregnancies, suicides, bullying, wanton rebellion etc etc etc.

Paternalism is of course chauvinist: and with that goes racism, sexism, ageism, homophobia, xenophobia, fear.

Because paternalism presumes to know what’s good for you, it also presumes to control how you should think, what you should like, who you should associate with, how you should spend your time, what you should wear, and who you should worship.

Paternalism opens the door for weirdos who want to weild their wiley power willfully: Hitler, Verwoed, Mugabe. And it looks like it now wants to open the door for Malema too.

I am convinced that paternalism is behind our extraordinary high incidence of traffic accidents where idiots scream around our roads (particularly at 4 am) thinking that they are invincible! I do not think there is a single traffic light (even the most obscure ones) at any major intersection in Durban that has not been christened with death, destruction, ruined lives.

PATERNALISM underlines and accentuates any clashes in the public domain where there is poor governance, poor leadership, poor service delivery, corruption, and nepotism. Those in authority seem to think that they can do what they like purely because they are in authority and ALSO because AUTHORITY to them IS INVIOLATE and they PRESUME that it should NEVER BE QUESTIONED. The fact that what they are doing is UNJUST never seems to register with them. They develop a type of schizophrenia that defies their level of insight and their ability to make sound moral judgements based on impartial assessment of facts. I have seen even the most highly educated people stick to what they consider to be ‘principle’ in spite of damning logical common sense evidence to the contrary!

The sum total of the attitude is IMMATURITY: political, social, spiritual, emotional.

The entire construct upon which APARTHEID was based was on PATERNALISM.

I am of the opinion that it was because of PATERNALISM that apartheid survived for so long.

It is now an accepted fact that apartheid could not have been MORE WRONG.

Why then does paternalism continue to exist?

Paternalism is fostered by lack of knowledge or half-knowledge both of which are of course framed by IGNORANCE.

Paternalism favours a TOP DOWN approach which creates short term solutions for long term problems.

Paternalism has a ‘structure’ to it and people therefore ‘relate’ to it easily: it is adopted comfortably and belies the intricate manner in which people relate meaningfully to one another.

Paternalism is the ever pervasive negative manifestation of patriarchy.

Paternalism is propagated by almost all religions.

Subsequently we live in a PUNISHMENT DRIVEN SOCIETY.

And as we move more and more into our democratic/lateral thinking society paternalism feels more

and more threatened. It thus lashes back with a violent and brutal vengeance!!

I have an inbuilt AVERSION to PATERNALISM.

BUT

just IMAGINE

if we lived in a

REWARD DRIVEN SOCIETY!

May 4, 2011

TZM: Response to Media; Death of Osama bin Laden

Filed under: helgé janssen,politics — ABRAXAS @ 1:56 pm

On May 1, 2011 Pres. Barack Obama appeared on national television with the spontaneous announcement that Osama bin Laden, the purported organizer of the tragic events of September 11th 2001, was killed by military forces in Pakistan.

Within moments, a media blitz ran across virtually all television networks in what could only be described as a grotesque celebratory display, reflective of a level of emotional immaturity that borders on cultural psychosis. Depictions of people running through the streets of New York and Washington chanting jingoistic American slogans, waving their flags like the members of some cult, praising the death of another human being, reveals yet another layer of this sickness we call modern society.

It is not the scope of this response to address the political usage of such an event or to illuminate the staged orchestration of how public perception was to be controlled by the mainstream media and the United States Government. Rather the point of this article is to express the gross irrationality apparent and how our culture becomes so easily fixed and emotionally charged with respect to surface symbology, rather than true root problems, solutions or rational considerations of circumstance.

The first and most obvious point is that the death of Osama bin Laden means nothing when it comes to the problem of international terrorism. His death simply serves as a catharsis for a culture that has a neurotic fixation on revenge and retribution. The very fact that the Government which, from a psychological standpoint, has always served as a paternal figure for its citizens, reinforces the idea that murdering people is a solution to anything should be enough for most of us to take pause and consider the quality of the values coming out of the zeitgeist itself.

However, beyond the emotional distortions and tragic, vindictive pattern of rewarding the continuation of human division and violence comes a more practical consideration regarding what the problem really is and the importance of that problem with respect to priority.

The death of any human being is of an immeasurable consequence in society. It is never just the death of the individual. It is the death of relationships, companionship, support and the integrity of familial and communal environments. The unnecessary deaths of 3000 people on September 11, 2001 is no more or no less important than the deaths of those during the World Wars, via cancer and disease, accidents or anything else.

As a society, it is safe to say that we seek a world that strategically limits all such unnecessary consequences through social approaches that allow for the greatest safety our ingenuity can create. It is in this context that the neurotic obsession with the events of September 11th, 2001 become gravely insulting and detrimental to progress. An environment has now been created where outrageous amounts of money, resources and energy is spent seeking and destroying very small subcultures of human beings that pose ideological differences and act on those differences through violence.

So, coming back to the point of revenge and retribution, I will conclude this response with a quote from Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., likely the most brilliant intuitive mind when it came to conflict and the power of non-violence. On September 15, 1963 a Birmingham Alabama church was bombed, killing four little girls attending Sunday school.

In a public address, Dr. King stated:

“What murdered these four girls? Look around. You will see that many people that you never thought about participated in this evil act. So tonight all of us must leave here with a new determination to struggle. God has a job for us to do. Maybe our mission is to save the soul of America. We can’t save the soul of this nation throwing bricks. We can’t save the soul of this nation getting our ammunition and going out shooting physical weapons. We must know that we have something much more powerful. Just take up the ammunition of love.”

- Dr. Martin Luther King, 1963 -

~Peter Joseph

wwwthezeitgeistmovement.com

April 11, 2011

helgé janssen on the legendary syd kitchen in “g-string blues”

Filed under: 2011 - G-String Blues,helgé janssen,reviews — ABRAXAS @ 2:24 pm



this review previously published here: http://www.artlink.co.za/news_article.htm?contentID=26793

March 31, 2011

Unpacking Biko within the Uncomfortable Confines of Post Apartheid South Africa Before Lunch.

Filed under: helgé janssen,politics — ABRAXAS @ 5:47 pm

A response to the paper produced by biko for a SASO leadership training course in 1971 AND to his ‘White Skin, Black Souls?’ article.

However, before I begin I want to make mention of the following which was taken from T. Spreelin Macdonald: Steve Biko’s poetics:

“The role of the white liberal in the black man’s history in South Africa is a curious one. Very few black organisations were not under white direction. True to their image, the white liberals always knew what was good for the blacks and told them so. The wonder of it all is that the black people have believed them for so long. (55)”

It is against this background that SASO was born: a black organisation to deal with black issues. Blacks had finally had enough of white interference.

As a dissenting white person, I would not go anywhere NEAR one of these so called ‘white liberal’ organisations. My intuitive gut feeling was always uneasy, disturbed. All I saw was obfuscation. And that could only mean ONE thing: these organisations were set ups. Set-ups to confuse opposition and to subvert resistance. There was NOTHING that I trusted about the apartheid regime. Even my involvement with the End Conscription Campaign which I was ASKED TO JOIN in 1985, was problematic as much as I believed in its importance. I always felt that any ‘white resistance’ movement that was allowed to operate were frames to monitor dissension and to pick out possible subversive trends and militancy in the white population. The small group of whites with whom I associated, had similar misgivings. Fortunately none of us were militant otherwise we would not be around today, that is for sure. However my artistic forays into the streets, theatres and night clubs as the red bull (fear and blindness) and later as the apartheid demon were targeting white, not black consciousness. The fact that I was surrounded with rumour and misinformation – pedophilia and satanism – is testament to my effectiveness. There were many other ‘non aligned’ forms of white resistance to apartheid: the punk band Powerage being one such, the Kalahari Surfers, Psychotic Junkanoo, The Gay Marines, The Dynamics, Via Afrika, The Subtropical Fits, Roger Lucy, Mikhail Peppas, the Scratch collective (Henry, Mario, Jane, Gerry, Anthony) and a lot more…..

I speak therefore, as a sceptical non aligned white dissenter. Or, if you like, as the last white liberal?

thus:

In 1971 apartheid was gathering such oppressive momentum that few would have thought that it could ever be vanquished. While black South Africans were targeted with brutal physical subjugation, white South Africans were targeted psychologically via an intricate system of brainwashing: radio, education, the press, religion, the ever present fear of intimidation. And there were those too – black, white, indian, coloured – who found themselves a niche within that insane system. This aspect of survival mechanisms under extreme duress that caused human beings to contort their reality in order not to be victimised (quite similar to what had happened in Nazi Germany for example) yet still earn a daily living, has not been fully researched. The point that we cannot all be revolutionaries is acknowledged by the fact that many of these people still hold the same jobs, and some are even lauded in post apartheid South Africa. With the existence of the apartheid ‘death squads’, the Askaris and their network of informers, there was a reign of a terrible and despicable ghostly fear. It is accepted that most whites benefited from that system whether they agreed with it or not. But not all whites. And that statement only refers to the material benefits: the truth is that emotionally and spiritually NO whites benefited. Yet, apartheid was undoubtedly a black struggle for power, for dignity. And most whites never realised that apartheid for them was a struggle for conscience, for spirit. Perhaps it is this that Biko was referring to when he stated:

“It becomes more necessary to see the truth as it is if you realise that the only vehicle for change are these people who have lost their personality.”

Yet looking back, the glaring flaw as with all fascist regimes, was that apartheid was unsustainable. It relied on stagnation. It was a white right favoured movement. It simply could not work, and it was all just a matter of time.

And yet, the devastation. The devastation.

It was vitally important during apartheid for black consciousness to extract itself from white man’s thinking and to find its power. Biko obviously played a vital role in this regard and it is through his unrelenting vision that Biko consciousness and the work of the resistance forces that gave focus to Black Power in South Africa.

However, I think it is crucial to bear in mind that the SASO paper was written at a time of great racial stress and disharmony – and of cultural censorship, disinformation, and bannings. Biko’s writings therefore carry so much more weight in that he had to devise his philosophy by honing his intuition, digging deep into his blackness. This enhanced his charismatic appeal and hence his power as a leader. Biko was not militant – he presented a viable model of a possible way forward. Stupidly the apartheid regime felt threatened and Biko paid the highest price. So without wanting to distract from the greatness AND importance of Biko’s work, when seen in today’s light I see Biko’s direction more a ‘right of passage’ than a doctrine.

Biko himself would not have agreed with this as he stated:

“One must immediately dispel the thought that Black Consciousness is merely a methodology or a means towards an end. What Black Consciousness seeks to do is to produce at the output end of the process real black people who do not regard themselves as the appendages to white society. This truth cannot be reserved.”

While I completely agree with this 1971 statement, I need to point out that it carries a contradiction: “to produce at the output end of the process” IS a means towards an end. However, in 2011, I very seldom, and certainly not in the youth, come across black people who see themselves as ‘appendages to white society’. I say this as an educator who taught at the coal face of change – the classroom – for the past 14 years. That meant that I was interacting with 150 learners every day. And, in some cases I was spending more time with them than their parents. These were ‘first generation’ learners who had access to a real education, unfettered by the indoctrination of the past for the first time in South African history. I relished the privilege of this opportunity as I am not the type of educator that believes in a ‘top down’ approach to education. Sadly as change has swept through the Education System and which has not been implemented correctly, I have witnessed the attitude of that youth recently tip from a respect for education to frustration and a sense of entitlement. Plus the world has changed so radically in the last 40 years. We now have internet, cell phones, FB, Twitter blah blah blah and this needs to be taken cognisance of in terms of information overload that we are experiencing today.

Biko, in this SASO paper, is completely disgruntled with ‘LIBERALS’ – hence I was lead to “White Skin, Black Souls?” (as I researched more information) because here he deals specifically with the ‘white liberal’. The sad thing is that due to the SPIN DOCTORING by the RIGHT WING there has been a determined effort to undermine liberal consciousness and one needs to look deeper into how these mechanisms affected ‘white guilt’ and ‘black racism’. To sew dissension and suspicion has always been a right wing ploy which was never less than two pronged: rumour and mistrust, and if that does not work: physical interference. Simply put: divide and rule.

A lot of the argument that Biko uses in the paper for the SASO leadership course is VERY SIMILAR to the notion of ‘self determination’. This is not foreign to much of the thinking that characterised the rise of black consciousness elsewhere in the world: Fanon, Césaire, DuBois for example. And while this might have been necessary at the time, looking back in today’s perspective, not only is it regressive, it is also out of touch with modern reality. It creates FEAR OF BEING. i.e. it undermines that ‘intuitive’ feeling we instinctively use to gauge our existence and our relationship with our fellow human beings. It causes us to MISTRUST ourselves. To have misgivings about our spontaneity and with whom we find common interests. This is exactly what apartheid did where self determination was nothing short of a rallying cry for the Afrikaner and, via the IFP, for the Zulus. However, if Black Consciousness is to be ‘swallowed up’ by white racism, then ‘self determination’ in accordance with Biko is the only viable option. They exist as polar opposites and in the no longer new South Africa they aid and abet one another across a spectrum of the population that are volatile and undereducated many of whom take this sterile banter literally. Who would have thought that we would have to deal with the likes of Malema and Hoffmeyer in our post apartheid democracy? Much of Biko’s argument had found its fulcrum in the shocking realities of apartheid which was a closed and fearful system of government and an aberration in humanistic terms. Apartheid had a terrible and dark agenda locked into Christian fundamentalism.

Yet it is important to point out we are dealing with TWO WORLDS: the inner world of growth and realisation, and the outer world of our common humanity. Rather than impose our inner world (which is basically our private domain which we may share with family/ancestors etc. and where the imposing of this reality on others seems to be the type of thing fascists do and on which apartheid built an entire system and thereby selectively undermined notions of ‘common humanity’) we should surely be seeking ways to harmonise that inner world with the outer reality.

Biko wrote: “it is only when these two opposites (black and white) have inter played and produced a viable synthesis of ideas and modus vivendi that black and white can live together in harmony without fear of group exploitation.”

This point would further corroborate my view that ‘Biko consciousness’ is a vital ‘rite of passage’ in the maturing process of black power. It is for this reason that I state that Black Consciousness could never be part of a political ideology in a multi party democracy OTHER THAN being a methology or a means towards an end. Otherwise Black Consciousness is in danger of becoming a right wing movement. I am therefore of the opinion that Black Consciousness as Biko knew it, also died the day the entire country went to the polls in 1994. Ostensibly there was now a black government in power. However, I certainly feel a need to question – given the events of post apartheid – to what extent the high moral ground of Black Consciousness was a real consideration of the liberation forces. It seems that the deeper subtleties were lost in the tsunami of post apartheid dash and grab. I see none of this evidenced in the ANC rulers. I see comrades being given jobs, I see Shabir Shaik being pardoned, I see business deals going to friends, I see vested interests, I see expedient twists to moral judgement. Not unlike the previous white oppressors. Would Biko be shaking his head in dismay? And why is it that dictators cling to power well past their sell by date, and never manage to nurture an acceptable successor? Ask Mugabe, or on a more benign level the IFP leader Mr. Buthelezi.

What the last 17 years of democracy has been urging, interfacing with a global PARADIGM shift of consciousness (South Africa being now so interconnected and not a separate entity) is the rapid fast forward track of manifesting the Biko ideal of black/white interaction as a matter of expediency.

However I feel that Biko is historically naive when he states that:

“…nowhere in the world today do we see whites exploiting whites on a scale even remotely similar to what is happening in South Africa.”

It is simplistic to state that whites do not/have not exploited other whites in relation to South Africa. Whites are just as RUTHLESS when it come to controlling other whites – on varying scales of exploitation – even down to the individual where oppression is used to devastating effect – the assassination of Kennedy for example; the beheading of wives because they could not produce sons; Romans and Christians; Hitler and the Jews; America and its suppression of its own people under the blind spot of the ‘American dream’. Anybody with an informed history of Europe would know that whites have exploited each other since time immemorial. So using this argument he states that ‘it is not coincidence that black people are exploited’. YET he states that it is true “that history of weaker nations is shaped by bigger nations”. His neat dismissal of 1971 (at the time) years of Christian domination and devastation bypasses a deeply wrought and fraught history of mankind! And I am not just referring to white history.

‘Whites can only see us from the outside’ is a frustrated statement and reflects Biko’s realisation of a deep flaw in white ethos at that time. Yet it is just as valid today to state that blacks can only see whites from the outside! Or that whites and blacks can only see the Chinese from the outside…etc. etc. Can wives and husbands see each other from the inside? It is important not to mix what is a flaw of human nature/growth/awareness with a political agenda. I might as well take statements from the bible (as so many people do) and try and fit them in to today’s world. We have numerous examples of this type of folly: if we cannot remember the past we are bound to repeat it. In this sense we have a history of ‘misinterpretation’ and ‘misrepresentation’ when looking at the wiles of organised religion which has created expedient prejudices and devastated many lives. Its the age old policy of divide and rule emerging in yet another disguise.

What apartheid had bred and which has taken hold of a large section of the Black population with a daunting fervour is the very Christian fundamentalism that intellectual whites and blacks have long since moved away from.

I find many people do not know how to, or are unable to adjust information from the past and to see it in association with the present. It is vitally important to bear this aspect in mind when reading historical content of any nature. I see this as a glaring failure of our Education System which is only concerned with producing people with a piece of paper that is a passport into the job market. The role of culture, and in particular within our multicultural society, is, for the most part, being left to its own devices. Questions surrounding issues such as farm murders, hijackings, rampant crime, rape and homosexuality, remain glaring unresolved conundrums of the modern South Africa.

What has also emerged and which further makes my point is that in some black circles the word ‘black’ seems to be a dirty word! These circles like to refer to themselves as ‘African’. Well I am African too! And the sooner we all see ourselves as AFRICAN the better. This is yet another strange twist of logic that has emerged in the no-longer-new South Africa.

In referring to “White skin, black souls?” it is interesting to note:

1. The white community was/is NOT basically an homogenous community. It never was and I have always maintained that any truly intellectual person (black or white) could not possibly be racist – racism defies logic. Racists are stupid due to the fact that they find it impossible to apply rational logic to thinking processes, particularly when it comes to issues of race. Whites in particular were subjected to a systematic process of brainwashing via a subject referred to as National Christian Education. South African radio was the most painful contribution to our daily lives and I simply refused to listen to it. Sundays were days more holy than holy. Sewing on a Sunday was seen as ‘pricking the eye of God’. Yet whites who, in spite of this systematic onslaught began to realise there was something deeply amiss with this white world in a black country, were being methodologically targeted for not accepting this fallacy of white supremacy! Bizarrely, there are blacks who think whites were stupid if they did NOT succumb to this ‘once in a lifetime’ opportunity! Through Christian Education in schools the apartheid regime stifled ‘free thinking’ by banning certain aspects of education from the classroom – discussion of ‘evolution’ for example was forbidden. White and Black (those blacks that had an education) were thus deprived of a ‘questioning’ ethic as part of their education. The harm thus imposed is immeasurable. However, it is understandable that given a black perspective of what apartheid represented, that there would be the view (propagated by the apartheid regime) that the white community was homogenous. Nothing could be further from the truth and the emergence of the End Conscription Campaign is one proof of this. However seeing the white community as homogenous gives Biko the power to penetrate some core issues relating to ‘white domination’ that enables him to unpack some vexing issues. His scepticism of ‘integration’ following a white model of conscious manoeuvrings is without question, but this is so far removed from the current South African reality where racial barriers have been dismantled.

2. It seems that Biko had never met any genuine white people. Given the confines of apartheid and its mechanism of ‘separate development’ one can see via Biko exactly how effective this mechanism was. Also in 1971 there were NO formal structures through which whites could express their resistance to apartheid. At best there was a remote political party which was no where near able to represent them. Whites that resisted apartheid were referred to as ‘traitors’ and ‘kaffirboeties’ and were ‘ostracised’ and culturally isolated. They certainly would never have been allowed to make their way into politics or into any position ‘of authority’. Their path was therefore fraught with terrors (children being victimised at school for example) that escaped black perception. This reality created an oppressive barrier which caused dissenting whites to contort their ‘resistance’ into a form of ‘disinterest’ for fear of these reprisals. This despicable psychological burden has all but been overlooked yet is no less real. However I do not accept those naive statements from whites who claimed that they ‘didn’t know what was going on’ and were thus blithely oblivious to the suffering around them.

3. I have found many so called ‘white liberals’ to be closet racists in the same way that we have closet homosexuals: they spend most of their lives in denial and do the most amazing contortions of logic to fit the ‘idea’ into the false reality creating much emotional pain along the way. The homosexual closet is driven by guilt – and the racial closet no less. The use of the term ‘white liberal’ is therefore misleading and Biko unwittingly plays into the hands of the white right by denigrating what he refers to as ‘white liberals’. The true white liberal represents a threat to the white right and therefore any confusion in this regard serves their purpose. And, strangely, this aspect of the closet racist only became much clearer to me POST apartheid. What I find embarrassing, is that many blacks have no problem with white racists, claiming that they know where they stand with them. White racists, thus appearing ‘honest’ enveigle their way into appearing to be morally acceptable. Mind numbing! I find this a naive and shocking indictment of an inability of those such inclined to understand nuance and subtlety and to see what is not always that evident without having to have it spelled out to them.

Biko though displays a paranoia regarding the manoeuvrings of the ‘white liberal’ which is understandable, given the prominence with which he encountered such. Yet while the white liberal may have been guilt ridden and driven to ‘do things for blacks’ the true white liberal was just as irritated by these antics! That this effectively created a false resistance is testament to the white right ability to psychologically manipulate the oppositions agenda. And yet I would have thought that Biko would show far more paranoia regarding the manoeuvrings of the white RIGHT rather than be so vehemently side-tracked with the somewhat politically ineffectual ‘white liberal’. The apartheid masterminds must have been chuckling, if sickly, over this one: creating suspicion and mistrust AND a false decoy!

However, Biko redeems his perspective in the closing paragraph of his insights on ‘white skin, black souls?’ in referring to the ‘true liberal’ with an insightful analysis!

Biko: “No true liberal should feel any resentment at the growth of black consciousness. Rather, all true liberals should realise that the place for their fight for justice is within their white society. The liberals must realise that they themselves are oppressed if they are true liberals and therefore they must fight for their own freedom and not that of the nebulous “they” with whom they can hardly claim identification. The liberal must apply himself with absolute dedication to the idea of educating his white brothers that the history of the country may have to be rewritten at some stage and that we may live in “a country where colour will not serve to put a man in a box”. The blacks have heard enough of this.”

However he then states that:

“In other words, the Liberal must serve as a lubricating material so that as we change gears in trying to find a better direction for South Africa, there should be no grinding noises of metal against metal but a free and easy flowing movement which will be characteristic of a well-looked-after vehicle.”

I trust here (although I do not sense it) that ‘liberal’ must surely refer to both white and BLACK or does Biko not associate a liberal consciousness with ‘blackness’? Can Blacks not be liberal in just the same manner that ‘they cannot be racist’? It is in this sense that the ANC have not come up to scratch in feeling that they have had to do very little ‘work’ ON THEMSELVES in order to achieve this desired outcome and thus entrenches the sense of entitlement which has emerged amongst many ANC leaders and much of the youth. The black struggle, caught up in fighting for political liberation, was not particularly concerned about the niceties of the deeper import of Black Power. Yet, being thrust so suddenly into transformation meant a middle ground had to be found with expediency. Many right wing black comrades had to be sidelined.

The statement that ‘blacks cannot be racist’ is a call to summon up the power of political sloganeering to galvanise the black community into claiming a confidence of non subjugation. This statement has the disadvantage of ‘irritating’ whites and thus demeans the very power it purports to strengthen. When seeing this statement from a non poetic stance (i.e. the majority) it displays a convenient twist of logic that is in itself racist. This anoints blacks with a sense of entitlement: that whites ‘owe’ them. As such, are intellectual blacks still not measuring themselves against whiteness? I am not trying to be glib about the atrocities of apartheid. But at some point the ANC has got to switch from being a liberation movement into a mature political party that governs all. “Blacks cannot be racist” is as silly as saying blacks cannot drive cars because cars and driving them was invented by whites. In the same way, and being somewhat cynical the striving for homosexuals for the right to marriage (which I thoroughly endorse) also gives them the right to divorce, so common amongst heterosexuals.

Elsewhere Biko wrote:

“Black Consciousness is an attitude of the mind and a way of life,the most positive call to emanate from

the black world for a long time.”

There is no taunt in this statement. Just a clarion call to ‘wake up’.

There is a seething mass of blackness out there. It is invigorating and is the essence of what makes Africa such an exciting continent. I travelled with it daily for three years to and from work in the black taxis. I had interesting conversations. This blackness does not question its authenticity. It is emerging intuitively, finding its own substance without approval very much along the lines of the Biko ideal. This poverty stricken mass has little time to debate the intricacies of Black Consciousness, likewise the burgeoning black middle class who are quite giddy with materialism. There are groups of black intellectuals who are just as dismayed with the strange antics of the ANC. Sadly, and due to ineffective leadership, the impoverished mass is turning more and more to crime as it attempts to take charge of its destiny in the only way that it can. South Africa is in desperate need for real black leaders. They are there. But a leader is not somebody who can shout his mouth off. The new leaders need to be discovered and nurtured with expediency.

Biko was murdered in police detention on 12 September 1977.

I think it is important to end with this quote by Martin Luther King assassinated on 04 April 1968:

“All I’m saying is simply this, that all life is interrelated, that somehow we’re caught in an inescapable network of being mutuality tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly affects all indirectly. For some strange reason, I can never be what I ought to be until you are what you ought to be. You can never be what you ought to be until I am what I ought to be. This is the interrelated structure of reality.”

Quite clearly South Africa still has a long way to go, and there are many areas of our history that need to be debated and brought to light. Getting a greater perspective on Biko is just one of them.

ref: Steve Biko’s Paradise Lost – an extract from ‘Biko Lives!’ by Jackie Shandu

Steve Biko – Rare TV interview

The influences and representations of Biko and Black Consciousness in poetry in apartheid and post apartheid South Africa/Azania – Mphutlane Wa Bafelo

T. Spreelin Macdonald – Steve Biko’s poetics

T. Spreelin Macdonald – The struggle over Biko’s legacy

The Poetics of Anti-colonialism – Robin D.G. Kelly

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