Saving Fugard’s library of inspiration
I don’t know Athol Fugard personally and don’t claim to be an authority on his work.
What I do understand is the fount of his inspiration.
Athol Fugard is one of SA’s outstanding writers, and certainly our best playwright.
As William Henry, the Pulitzer- winning author, said in 1985: “Fugard is the greatest active playwright in the English-speaking world.”
So how did this proper Eastern Cape boy — from Middelburg — land up on the world stage and make such an impact? And that with plays set in Gqeberha!
Fugard’s strength is his ability to simplify the regional complexities of the Eastern Cape, framed by what Noel Mostert has termed “frontiers” in his definitive work on the Xhosa.
Mostert’s “frontiers” steps beyond the simplistically polarising notion of the Eastern Cape as a battlefield between the Xhosa and colonialists.
“Frontiers” recognises the region as birthing anatomically modern humans, being on the hemispheric seam between West and East, within a landscape of extraordinary biological, economic, and social diversity.
This complexity — in all its facets — provided Fugard’s foundation for launching a Tony-winning career.
The Tonys are the Oscars of theatre, and Fugard won one in 2011 for his lifetime contribution, while Winston Ntshona and John Kani won best actor awards in 1975, in plays co-written with Fugard.
Fugard’s nuanced prose was instrumental in exposing the absurdity of the apartheid social system.
Born in 1932, he came to Port Elizabeth at a young age, and found the inspiration for nurturing his talents.
His earliest memories were of the Main Public Library, nestled behind the Queen Victoria statue, and opening onto the bustling maritime trade of Jetty Street, with the port on its doorstep.
The library is one of the earliest institutions in the metro and has inspired a region, not only for the arts, but, as the foundation of the city’s maritime development.
The library is an inspirational place, oozing mystery from its book-bound galleries.
It was also the vibrant centre of city commerce.
Fugard credits the Main Public Library as being his major formative influence, filled with a treasure trove of books and the complex symbolism for making choices in life.
Today, the library is still there, the building and its books never ceasing to enthral and inspire.
It’s been closed to the public for the past nine years.
The national government funding to complete renovations is there, but remains locked behind the vaults of a squabbling political leadership and inept administration.
Since November 2023, the Main Library Friends, a local volunteer group, has assisted library staff in opening the venue to cruise liner passengers. The verdict from tourists has been unanimous.
Stunned admiration at the beauty of the library, amid the squalor of a city centre alive with neglected heritage and paralysed by crime.
These tourists feel the Fugard moments of inspiration, puzzling at how a city can lose focus so quickly — so badly.
Fugard’s work is proof that the health of the library and city are intertwined.
When the library was a bustling centre of commercial and studious activity, the city centre thrived — a hive of beauty, positivity, trade and maritime activity. The decline of the city centre went in step with the decline of the Main Public Library.
With that, the soul of the city was lost, along with the inspiration it brought.
Vibrant and prosperous societies are built from inspirational opportunities.
In every corner of our city, inspiration is being muzzled by paralysed and paralysing government institutions, overwhelmed by the enormity of our development challenges and distracted by the plunder of state resources.
The opportunities presented by the increase of students in Central are evident.
But, instead of Central being a fount of wisdom, opportunity and hope, it’s a poisoned chalice for the students living there.
Central is not a place where the doors of learning and culture have been opened, but a place where our hopes for the future must run a gauntlet of poor public transportation, substance abuse, vandalism, crime, violence and the dearth of services needed to support a vibrant student life.
Instead, the fabric of society is being stolen, as evidenced recently when the façade of the Sars offices was vandalised for scrap metal — and that’s an everyday occurrence across the city.
But herein lies the rub. In comparison with other SA cities, we do not have a difficult problem to fix.
Our city is in a reasonably good state compared with the collapses taking place in Johannesburg, Pretoria, East London and Durban. For years, the moniker of our city has been “so much potential”.
Fugard seized that potential and made it work, as have many others.
But, often, our people must leave the city to develop and grow, stifled by the gatekeepers of opportunity.
Our city does not offer the youth the opportunity to extract our inherent potential.
So, they leave, crowded out by the brunt of failed governance, selfish opportunism and vested interests.
Our experience with the library shows what can be done, but it remains a mere foundation of potential.
Between potential and success lies the need for caring and functional governance, stripped of the silos of corruption, arrogance and rent-seeking monopolies.
Citizenry is bearing the brunt of failed governance, and it is citizenry that can force change by holding the government accountable.
Ayn Rand, the author and philosopher, said the great creators — the thinkers, the artists, the scientists, the inventors — stood alone against the men of their time.
Experiencing the multifaceted treasures of the library inspires so many with the strength to stand alone against the arrogance and corruption which dominate our time.
It is time we forced change, time we lifted the veil, and exposed the failures behind.