Artists have a role to play in healing soul of the nation
Growing movement responding to a call for the arts to return to being the soundtrack of our political work and future
South Africans’ hearts are broken. The promise of democracy unfulfilled has left millions of people despondent and opting out of project SA en masse.
Too many people describe their experience of postapartheid SA as trauma. The trauma of a violent society and system that instead of reducing the burdens of poverty and inequality, has entrenched them further with no clear end in sight.
Fixing the country is not limited to fixing failing bureaucracies or changing leaders, SA needs politics that heals and the arts has a role to play in healing the soul of the nation today, as it has many times before.
The arts have played an important role in SA’s political history. From songs like Senzeni na that became the soundtrack to political funerals during the Struggle or movies like Sarafina! that echoed hopes that freedom was truly in reach, artists in all genres have contributed to politics, shared expressions of the soul of the nation at our worst and best.
When Miriam Makeba and Hugh Masekela found themselves in exile, they became tellers of the stories of oppression and struggle. When the regime censored black voices and made invisible black pain, it was artists who used song and literature to alert the world to the injustices and rally all behind a common cause of freedom for all in SA.
This contribution of the arts to our politics continued into the early post-apartheid era. Arts activist Esther Padi, the director of Innovating Kasi Organisation, describes the advent of kwaito in the early ’90s as a distinctly political act as it emerged from the township streetbash culture.
Similarly, Letta Mbulu in the ’90s reflected on the slow rate of change with her song Not yet Uhuru, to remind us that real change was yet to be realised.
Unfortunately, the role of the arts in SA politics is being slowly eroded. Artists who have a political message are discouraged. Venues are reluctant to host and support overtly political artists. Political parties have reduced performances at their events to light entertainment at the end, as a reward for people’s attendance rather than for artists to use their platforms to conscientise and inspire.
Not only are we witnessing the neglect of the creative sector as a viable form of economic activity, we have lost the value of the arts as a form of political expression; a rallying cry to unlock people’s power and connect our hearts and minds.
Political think tank Rivonia Circle, through its work at the intersection of #ArtsandActvism, is reigniting the role of the arts in the co-creation of a better country: South Africa 2.0. Through programmes like Political Theatre, it is investing into the skills and aspirations of a network of over 500 artist who are finding their political voices once more. This work is part of a growing movement of artists who are responding to a calling to return to being the soundtrack to our political work.
American singer and civil rights activist Nina Simone said of the arts that “the role of the artist is to reflect the times”. In contemporary SA perhaps the role of artists is to project the times. Projecting into society is not limited to telling the story of what SA is today, but projecting into our collective consciousness a picture of what SA could be tomorrow. Artists can inspire hope, provide new and common language and introduce ideas that remind us of our power to act.
In a country where morale is low and political education is waning, artists can ignite our political sensibilities. Providing contemplation of the present and future.
Our crisis and despair is a window of opportunity to draw on our rich heritage of political activism through the arts, one of SA’s greatest human assets for public good. We all have a role to play if SA is to rise from our current depths to new and revolutionary heights.