HUNDREDS OF YEARS UNITED – IN 24 HOURS DIVIDED. Cameroon abdicated his duty as master of the ship of State, for his reasons of Party Power Politics. Aided and abetted by the ambitions of trai…
HUNDREDS OF YEARS UNITED – IN 24 HOURS DIVIDED. Cameroon abdicated his duty as master of the ship of State, for his reasons of Party Power Politics. Aided and abetted by the ambitions of trai…
Cameroon abdicated his duty as master of the ship of State, for his reasons of Party Power Politics. Aided and abetted by the ambitions of traitor Boris Johnson. And Corbyn as invisible as a ghekko.
Playing Russian Roulette.
With the inevitable result:
EXIT – Europe
EXIT – Scotlandafter a vote of Independence, remaining in the EU
EXIT – Ulsterto re-unification with Republic of Ireland, remaining in the EU
REMAIN – Little England: Xenophobic, nationalist, hostile to refugees, racist.
Cameron will make millions on the lecture circuit, instead of doing the decent thing and falling on his sword.
B R I T A I N L O S E S – B I G T I M E. E U R O P E – U N R A V E L S.
C R E A T I V I T Y in the D R A M A T I C A R T S
APARTHEID’S evil regime of 50 years locked down all political protest.
Because of this oppression there was an incredible flowering of the arts, by necessity, subtly subversive.
The theatre exploded with the Welcome Msomi zulu production of Macbeth in the 60’s, which he told me would be understood by Zulus as being anti-Apartheid. It became nationally and then globally famous.
The play-writing and acting trio of Athol Fugard, Winston Ntshona and John Kani with The Island, Sizwe Banzi is Dead, (South Africa’s own Samuel Beckett), really pushed the envelope, but were never banned, because of the cerebral content that was lost on no-one but DID NOT break the law. John Kani also played an unforgettable Othello, even Apartheid couldn’t ban William Shakespeare.
C R E A T I V I T Y in M U S I C
Miriam Makeba on her first world tour had her passport torn up and was cruelly banned from returning to South Africa. We all knew by heart her songs of longing for freedom, as those of the torch singer Brenda Fasse who lived to embrace Madiba at the abolition of apartheid. There were many, many more musicians for freedom Julian Bahula of Black Malombo, Dollar Brand’s African Sketchbook and of course the white Zulu warrior Johnny Clegg who wrote and performed the global tear-jerker Asimbonanga.
C R E A T I V I T Y in L I T E R A T U R E
The pen is mightier than the sword – Nadine Gordimer, André Brink’sLooking on Darkness, Alan Paton with Cry the Beloved Country, BreytenBreytenbach and others mocked, ridiculed Apartheid and it’s vile racism. More, their words and emotions wormed their way into their readers’ hearts to plant the uncomfortable seeds of denial.
C R E A T I V I T Y in V I S U A L A R T S
Walter Battiss, my professor of Art was the supreme jester. An early fan of graffiti he slashed the the racist rigidity with his superbly seditious, sometime inter-racial sexual, camel-hair paint brush.
SO WHAT IS OUR CONCLUSION?
This volcanic outburst of creativity by women, men, black, white, brown was the ONLY non subvertly political expression possible. Television was banned, the Beatles were banned, an English cricket team with a black player was banned, Bobby Kennedy was banned outside the university precinctand on and on.
But you cannot ban people from thinking, from writing, drawing, singing, making music. And this is precisely what happened in the creative hothouse that Apartheid unintentionally produced and thereby imploded.
« By the delicate, invisible web they wove – the… mystery of freedom » T.S.Eliot.
Just like you I listen to a lot of music. Heck there is too much music to listen to. So I made a rule – if in 10 seconds it doesn’t grab me by the throat I zap and move on.
And then this morning on Facebook I hit on Solomon Burke and my EUREKA moment hit me. From the very first note I KNEW it was Solomon Burke.
WHY? ‘COS HE IS UNIQUE.
When Miles was asked aren’t there any good white jazz musicians he answered « Yeah but they aren’t creative » Cruel, but not entirely wrong – we recognize Miles, Mingus, Monk, Bessie Smith, Billie Holliday et al from the very first note.
When Jean Paul Gaultier was asked aren’t there any couturiers who aren’t gay he answered « Oui mais ils ne sont pas créatif »Cutting, but we recognize instantly a JPG, YSL frock et al at first sight.
So now my mantra is: If from the first note I say « Hey this is different Ilisten, if not paff! »No matter what the genre.
I’ll bet a dime to a dollar that when you heard the above either you knew instantly that it was the Duke and Mingus, or you went « Awesome I gotta hear this. »
If not you are a Backward Country Girl or Boy.
Generic is ok for everyday, goodbye. Creative is WOW, unique, forever and a Lady Day.
C R E A T I V E IS U N I Q U E IS G E N I U S – OK!
I am 4 years old. When I grow up I want to be an airline pilot, heavyweight boxing champion of the world, president of my country. Why does the white man hold me back?
With the inevitable result:
TIME 4 AFRICA 