The Market Theatre of Johannesburg in the New South Africa

2002 ◽  
Vol 18 (4) ◽  
pp. 359-374
Author(s):  
Hilary Burns
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
New South ◽  
Black Consciousness ◽  
Black Artists ◽  
The Past ◽  
Form Part ◽  
Incumbent Regime ◽  
Apartheid Regime ◽  
Black Consciousness Movement

The Market Theatre of Johannesburg opened in 1976, the year of the Soweto Uprising – the beginning of the end for the oppressive apartheid regime. Founded by Barney Simon, Mannie Manim, and a group of white actors, the theatre's policy, in line with the advice to white liberals from the Black Consciousness Movement, was to raise the awareness of its mainly white audiences about the oppression of apartheid and their own social, political, and economic privileges. The theatre went on through the late 'seventies and 'eighties to attract international acclaim for productions developed in collaboration with black artists that reflected the struggle against the incumbent regime, including such classics as The Island, Sizwe Bansi is Dead, and Woza Albert! How has the Market fared with the emergence of the new South Africa in the 'nineties? Has it built on the past? Has it reflected the changes? What is happening at the theatre today? Actress, writer, and director Hilary Burns went to Johannesburg in November 2000 to find out. She worked in various departments of the theatre, attended productions, and interviewed theatre artists and members of the audience. This article will form part of her book, The Cultural Precinct, inspired by this experience to explore how the theatres born in the protest era have responded to the challenges of the new society.

Equality or unity? Black Consciousness, white solidarity, and the new South Africa in Nadine Gordimer’s Burger’s Daughter and July’s People

2017 ◽  
Vol 54 (2) ◽  
pp. 225-242 ◽  
Author(s):  
Edward Powell
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
New South ◽  
Black Consciousness ◽  
Black Liberation ◽  
South Africans ◽  
Common Culture ◽  
Black Consciousness Movement

In the early 1970s, the Black Consciousness movement called on black radicals to dissociate themselves from dissident white South Africans, who were accused of frustrating the anti-apartheid cause in order to safeguard their ill-gotten privileges. In turn, liberal whites condemned this separatism as a capitulation to apartheid’s vision of “separate development”, despite the movement’s avowed aspiration towards a nonracial South Africa. This article considers how black separatism affected Nadine Gordimer’s own perspective on the prospect of achieving this aspiration. For Gordimer, Black Consciousness was necessary for black liberation, and she sought ways of reconciling white dissidents with black separatism. Still, these efforts didn’t always sit well together with her continuing belief that if there were to be a place for whites in a majority-ruled South Africa, then they needed to join blacks in a “common culture”. I consider how this tension marks Gordimer’s portraits of whites responding to being rejected by blacks in Burger’s Daughter and July’s People. In both novels, white efforts to resist apartheid’s racial segregations appear to be at odds with black self-liberation, with the effect that whites must find a way of doing without the as-yet deferred prospect of establishing a “common culture” in South Africa.

scholarly journals Psychiatry in the ‘New South Africa’

1992 ◽  
Vol 16 (6) ◽  
pp. 343-345
Author(s):  
Sean Kaliski
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
South Africa ◽  
Academic Medicine ◽  
Postgraduate Training ◽  
Public Health Service ◽  
New South ◽  
Teaching Hospitals ◽  
Political Uncertainty ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Past

Academic medicine in South Africa was created largely by talented graduates who, having travelled overseas (especially to Britain) for postgraduate training, returned to teach in the newly established medical schools and teaching hospitals. However, over the past three decades fewer have decided to return. Consequently academic medicine generally is in decline. Hospital specialists are demoralised, and about 80% of those recently surveyed indicated that they intended leaving the public health service if the present imbalance between service commitments, research opportunities, and poor pay persists (Curtin, 1991). About 40% of graduating medical students emigrate, usually to avoid conscription. The continuing violence and political uncertainty within the country probably ensure that few will ever return.

scholarly journals NEW DILEMMAS AND NEW DIRECTIONS IN SOUTH AFRICA AFTER APARTHEID

Afrika Focus ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 31 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Stefaan Anrys ◽  
David Chan ◽  
Albie Sachs
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Death Penalty ◽  
Coming Out ◽  
New South ◽  
Constitutional Court ◽  
The Third ◽  
New Directions ◽  
Freedom Fighters ◽  
Apartheid Regime ◽  
The Many

On 3 October 2016, Sachs, who collects honorary doctorates and other titles as if they were panini stickers, visited Ghent University for the third Mandela Lecture organised by the Africa Platform of the Ghent University Association, and moderated by Prof. Eva Brems. This interview was conducted on that occasion. ‘Since the attempt on my life, I see everything as rose-tinted’, laughs the man who sur- vived an attack, abolished the death penalty and was close to the ANC leadership. ‘If I were to become pessimistic about South Africa, people would really get scared, they’d say: Oh, even Albie doesn’t like it anymore ’(laughs). In 1988 Albie Sachs was viciously attacked, losing his right arm and the sight of one eye. He was living in exile in Mozambique at the time, as South Africa suffered under the Apartheid regime. Sachs was one of the prominent freedom fighters, but survived the assassination attempt and eventually became an important member of the ANC, one of the many authors of the Constitution of the new South Africa. He was also invited by Mandela to sit on the Constitutional Court, which abolished the death penalty and forced Parliament to legalise LGBT marriage. In Ghent, the now 81-year-old freedom fighter nuances the pessimistic news coming out of South Africa. ‘A lot is going wrong in South Africa. But what gives me hope is that people can speak their minds. Our democracy works. Our institutions work, and not just the courts and tribunals. Recently we had elections, and they were free and fair. And yes, the ANC lost the elections. But that is in fact the best evidence that our democracy works.’

scholarly journals CLERGY’S RESISTANCE TO VENDA HOMELAND’S INDEPENDENCE IN THE 1970S AND 1980S

2017 ◽  
Vol 42 (3) ◽  
pp. 121-141
Author(s):  
Thias Kgatla
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Black People ◽  
Church Leaders ◽  
Community Leaders ◽  
Black Consciousness ◽  
Lutheran Church ◽  
Real Community ◽  
Student Christian Movement ◽  
Black Consciousness Movement

The article discusses the clergy’s role in the struggle against Venda’s “independence” in the 1970s and 1980s, as well as resistance to the apartheid policy of “separate development” for Venda. It also explores the policy of indirect white rule through the replacement of real community leaders with incompetent, easily manipulated traditional chiefs. The imposition of the system triggered resistance among the youth and the churches, which led to bloody reprisals by the authorities. Countless were detained under apartheid laws permitting detention without trial for 90 days. Many died in detention, but those responsible were acquitted by the courts of law in the Homeland. The article highlights the contributions of the Black Consciousness Movement, the Black People Conversion Movement, and the Student Christian Movement. The Venda student uprising was second in magnitude only to the Soweto uprising of 16 June 1976. The torture of ministers in detention and the response by church leaders locally and internationally, are discussed. The authorities attempted to divide the Lutheran Church and nationalise the Lutherans in Venda, but this move was thwarted. Venda was officially re-incorporated into South Africa on 27 April 1994.

Steve Biko and the Black Consciousness Movement

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Leslie Anne Hadfield
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
South African ◽  
White Supremacy ◽  
Political Influence ◽  
The State ◽  
African National Congress ◽  
Black Consciousness ◽  
Eastern Cape ◽  
The South ◽  
Black Consciousness Movement

The Black Consciousness movement of South Africa instigated a social, cultural, and political awakening in the country in the 1970s. By the mid-1960s, major anti-apartheid organizations in South Africa such as the African National Congress and Pan-Africanist Congress had been virtually silenced by government repression. In 1969, Steve Biko and other black students frustrated with white leadership in multi-racial student organizations formed an exclusively black association. Out of the South African Students’ Organization (SASO) came what was termed Black Consciousness. This philosophy redefined “black” as an inclusive, positive identity and taught that black South Africans could make meaningful change in their society if “conscientized” or awakened to their self-worth and the need for activism. The movement emboldened youth, contributed to the development of Black Theology and cultural movements, and led to the formation of new community and political organizations such as the Black Community Programs organization and the Black People’s Convention. Articulate and charismatic, Steve Biko was one of the movement’s foremost instigators and prolific writers. When the South African government understood the threat Black Consciousness posed to apartheid, it worked to silence the movement and its leaders. Biko was banished to his home district in the Eastern Cape, where he continued to build community development programs and have a strong political influence. His death at the hands of security police in September 1977 revealed the brutality of South African security forces and the extent to which the state would go to maintain white supremacy. After Biko’s death, the state declared Black Consciousness–related organizations illegal. Activists formed the Azanian People’s Organization (AZAPO) in 1978 to carry on Black Consciousness ideals, though the movement in general waned after Biko’s death. Since then, Biko has loomed over the history of the Black Consciousness movement as a powerful icon and celebrated hero while others have looked to Black Consciousness in forging a new black future for South Africa.

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