Weekend Argus (Saturday Edition)
How artists helped to unite a divided city
The Cape Cultural Collective is toasting its 10th anniversary as a force of creativity and social justice in arts and culture
THE JOURNEY began modestly in a noisy Irish pub in the city centre in 2007. Poets and musicians competed with beer drinkers and loud soccer TV commentary to share their art with small audiences, who mostly came to support their artist friends.
Within a few months, this informal initiative moved to the District Six Museum and the Cape Cultural Collective (CCC) was born.
The collective is registered as a not-forprofit organisation (NPO), is financially stable and has a long list of projects under its belt. These include: • Monthly cultural programmes. • Four major celebration concerts for the 50th anniversary of the University of the Western Cape (UWC) in 2010. • A poetry anthology in 2011. • The popular Rosa Choir, which was launched in 2012.
• The Uhadi poetry production, performed in Paris in 2013.
• The Junior Rosa Choir, initiated at the end of 2015. • Cultural tourism initiatives. CCC founder member Chris Ferndale recalls the collective’s origins. “The Institute for Justice and Reconciliation (IJR) sponsored a reconciliation programme in early 2007 that focused on poetry and song-writing.”
He said the outcomes included a series of workshops and the production of a CD of poetry and music.
“Some of the poets – Khadija Heeger, Candice Prinsloo, Primrose Mrwebi, Amanda Nodada and I – decided to take this momentum into weekly sessions at Catu Irish pub where we were later joined by musos Mansoor Jaffer and Mark Jannecke and singer and poet Zenariah Barends.
“A few months later we moved to the District Six Museum where the CCC began to blossom as a platform for music, poetry and dance,” he said.
“As the collective slowly developed, a small core group began steering its journey guided by strong humanist values of equality, justice, development, nonracialism and non-sexism. The group comprised former anti-apartheid activists and a young breed of talented poets who had collaborated in the IJR programme,” said steering committee member Kay Jaffer.
Elizabeth Schutter has supported the CCC from early on. In 2010 she joined the CCC project team that organised the successful UWC concerts.
“The UWC 50th anniversary concerts united historically divided communities and were a huge revelation of the depth of artistic talent in our city,” she said.
“In 2015, I started working as the administrator of the CCC and witnessed the development of the Rosa Choir and later that year the formation of the Junior Rosa Choir. It was a proud moment when the junior choir performed publicly at the 2016 Cape Town Festival and then again at a CCC Africa Month programme to a standing ovation from the crowd,” said Schutter, who now manages the juniors.
“Apart from the choirs and the host of other outputs, the collective has put together popular themed monthly programmes of music, dance and poetry since its inception,” she said.
The programmes first took place at the District Six Museum, then at a club called Ibuyambo and finally at the Slave Church Museum in the city.
The monthly theme-based programmes have continued to grow and have featured rage poets, belly dancers, exponents of capoeira, musicians, comedians and actors. The programmes spotlight important social issues and are platforms for critical engagement and inspirational energy.
Barends was the first co-ordinator of the monthly cultural programmes and June Knight stepped in after Barends took up a senior position at Independent Media.
Knight described the programmes as a good mix between “professionalism, creativity and inclusivity”.
The line-up of performers and the substantial audiences each month transcend the deep historical divides of the city. A growing team including Kay Jaffer, Zolani Pitolo, Aziza Davids, Razak Johnson and Schutter works together to make the events a success and to include local communities.
“There is something really special when you look around the Slave Church and see all of Cape Town sitting there. And when the aunties from the Bonteheuwel walking ladies get up and start jiving to the Rosa Choir singing pata pata then you know we’re going to be okay,” said Knight.
“You can hear that new world whispering in the church during our programmes, when you see what we could be when we bridge our divides and connect as people across the artificial separations.”
The Rosa Choir is celebrating its fifth anniversary this year and is becoming increasingly popular for its singing and its astounding ability to break down barriers as it brings together children from across the city. The coaches – Tersia Harley, Monwabisi Mbambani and Chauvlin Pretorius – are injecting new energy into the choral formations.
Activist Thulani Nxumalo, a CCC founder member, has facilitated the involvement of young people in projects of the collective over the years.
Nxumalo said the collective’s relationship with communities brought many benefits to the youth and CCC projects affirmed the participants and contributed to healing.
“The conscious efforts of the CCC to create events that spoke to realities of the marginalised have had a really positive effect on members of the group who always felt that they had to conform to grand narratives in order to be recognised,” he said.
“Many young and old members of the Langa community have seen themselves encouraged to become more than what they initially imagined their futures as holding. This has been especially through the resource sharing methods of the CCC, that have made local cultural practitioners see new possibilities spurred on especially by the new types of relationships that they could forge.”
He said the inclusive culture made it possible for everyone to participate and for many to acquire a range of skills and broaden their horizons.
Others on the steering committee include treasurer Heather van Niekerk, activist Lorna Houston, Malay choir veteran Mogamat Taupe Jacobs and Rosa Choir captain Chris Blaauw.
The CCC celebrated its anniversary last night at the District Six Homecoming Centre when artists, supporters and members gathered for music, poetry and dance performances and the announcement of plans for the 10th anniversary year.
These plans include the launch of the CCC website; cultural programmes in March, April, May, June, August and November; a major fund-raiser in July; a showcase event relating the CCC journey through music and poetry at Artscape at the end of the year; and a public event in a park with arts, culture and food in October.
The Rosa Choir will consolidate with a programme that includes a concert in April; the expansion of its repertoire; a collaboration with a UK choir and involvement in an international conference in September. The junior choir will be on a growth path in 2017, while the time and place of an arts and culture summit will still be determined.
Also on the cards is the launch of the Manenberg Cultural Collective, a partner of the CCC; a 10th anniversary exhibition; the roll-out of skills development programmes and the expansion of cultural tourism initiatives.
First published in The Journalist – www. thejournalist.org.za