Democracy and the Arts in South Africa
How are the arts in South Africa reflecting the country’s journey since the end of apartheid.
Twenty years on from the end of apartheid, what role can the arts play now in helping South African society develop? Recorded with an audience at the National Arts Festival in Grahamstown, Bridget Kendall talks to playwright Mike Van Graan, poet Phillippa Yaa de Villiers, arts journalist Percy Mabandu, and jazz singer Nomfundo Xaluva who performs live for us.
(Photo: From left, Mike Van Graan, Phillippa Yaa de Villiers, Percy Mabandu and Nomfundo Xaluva. Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ copyright)
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Chapters
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Playwright Mike Van Graan
Why South African democracy needs the arts
Duration: 14:30
Poet Phillippa Yaa de Villiers
Your skin colour is not your identity
Duration: 05:38
Arts journalist Percy Mabandu
Jazz is the democratic process incarnate
Duration: 11:11
Jazz singer Nomfundo Xaluva
South African protest classic lives on
Duration: 04:48
Mike Van Graan
For playwright Mike Van Graan, satire remains a powerful tool:Β it is just the targets that have changed.Β His new play, Return of the Ancestors, imagines murdered activist Steve Biko visiting modern South Africa. Encountering government corruption, poverty and police brutality, Biko begins to question whether his sacrifice was worth it.Phillippa Yaa de Villiers
As a mixed-race African and adoptee, poet Phillippa Yaa de Villiers has always felt like an outsider in her own culture, but this has turned out to be an advantage as an artist.Β Free of the constraints of a traditional role, she simply tries to tell her truth as generously as she can.Β
Percy Mabandu
Arts journalist Percy Mabandu believes that jazz is the most democratic of all art forms, and so invokes it in taking stock of how far his country has come over two decades. Like democracy, the music demands strict collaboration but also handsomely rewards individuality. Perhaps we could all learn from its example.
Nomfundo Xaluva
Jazz singer and pianist Nomfundo Xaluva performs a live rendition of Yakhal’Inkomo and explains why this song, which holds deep meaning for black South Africans as an anthem of the anti-apartheid struggle, is still inspiring musicians today.
Broadcasts
- Sat 2 Aug 2014 21:06GMTΒι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ World Service Online
- Sun 3 Aug 2014 09:06GMTΒι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ World Service Online
- Mon 4 Aug 2014 02:06GMTΒι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ World Service Online
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Podcast
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The Forum
The programme that explains the present by exploring the past