Experiments in cinematic biography: Ken Gampu’s early life in the cinema

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (2-3) ◽  
pp. 119-135
Author(s):  
Litheko Modisane
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
South African ◽  
Early Life ◽  
Life Writing ◽  
Experimental Methodology ◽  
Film Production ◽  
Critical Potential ◽  
African Film ◽  
Form Part ◽  
Black Actors

Contemporary scholarship on South African film is yet to address the participation of Black actors in film production, exhibition and publicity. The actors’ interpretive roles in the films, their memories and experiences, and the contradictions of their participation in colonial films and beyond, form part of an unexplored and hidden archive in South African film scholarship. This article focuses on Ken Gampu’s early life in the cinema by reflecting on his participation in two films: a western The Hellions and the drama Dingaka. Gampu was a well-known South African actor and also the first Black actor from that country to succeed in Hollywood. This article proposes an experimental methodology of life-writing called ‘cinematic biography’. It shows that the cinematic lives of the marginalized and colonized actors harbour critical potential in enriching the critical perspectives on the cinema and cinematic cultures in South Africa and beyond.

scholarly journals Dignity, religion and freedom of expression in South Africa

2011 ◽  
Vol 67 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jacobus C.W. Van Rooyen
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
South African ◽  
Freedom Of Expression ◽  
Sense Of Self ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
National Pride ◽  
Form Part ◽  
Self Worth ◽  
Constitutional Right ◽  
The Republic

The issue that this article dealt with is whether, in South African law, speech that infringes upon the religious feelings of an individual is protected by the dignity clause in the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa. The Constitution, as well as the Broadcasting Code, prohibits language that advocates hatred, inter alia, based on religion and that constitutes incitement to cause harm. Dignity, which is a central Constitutional right, relates to the sense of self worth which a person has. A Court has held that religious feelings, national pride and language do not form part of dignity, for purposes of protection in law. The Broadcasting Complaints Commission has, similarly, decided that a point of view seriously derogatory of ‘Calvinistic people’ blaming (some of) them as being hypocritical and even acting criminally is not protected by dignity. It would have to be accompanied by the advocacy of hatred as defined previously. The author, however, pointed out that on occasion different facts might found a finding in law that religion is so closely connected to dignity, that it will indeed be regarded as part thereof.

An Opportunity Missed for Male Rape Survivors in South Africa: Masiya v Director of Public Prosecutions and Another

2008 ◽  
Vol 52 (2) ◽  
pp. 284-301 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ntombizozuko Dyani
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
South African ◽  
Constitutional Court ◽  
Vulnerable Group ◽  
Rape Survivors ◽  
Form Part ◽  
Lower Courts ◽  
The Common ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Anal Penetration

AbstractThe Constitutional Court of South Africa recently handed down a judgment on the extension of the common law definition of rape to include anal penetration of women, but not of men. The court argued that women form part of the most vulnerable group in society. This article analyses the court's judgment and argues that the court should have included anal penetration of men in the light of South African lower courts' decisions, international law and the fact that there is currently a law before parliament which pertains to the anal penetration of men. The article also argues that the court should have taken into consideration that this case involved a child, who is also from the most vulnerable group in society.

scholarly journals The Cinema of Manie van Rensburg (Part 1)

1997 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martin P. Botha
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
South Africa ◽  
New York ◽  
South African ◽  
United States Of America ◽  
The United States ◽  
Film Festival ◽  
African Film ◽  
First Time

INTRODUCTIONThe name, Manie van Rensburg, is virtually unknown in Europe and the United States of America. Recently, some of his work was screened at a South African film festival in Amsterdam at the Kriterion cinema and I had the honour to present a lecture there on 7 October 1995 regarding Van Rensburg and his presence in the cinema. His film work was also highlighted in a small retrospective during October 1996 at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel. IT WAS NOT THE FIRST TIME a Van Rensburg film was screened outside the borders of South Africa. During the 1980s Van Rensburg received an International Film Festival of New York award for his historical TV drama series, Heroes, and a Merit Award from the London Film Festival was given to him for his filmed play, The Native who Caused all the Trouble. His mammoth production, The Fourth...

scholarly journals Homosexuality and South African Cinema

2003 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martin P. Botha
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
South African ◽  
Unique Contribution ◽  
African History ◽  
Film Festival ◽  
African Cinema ◽  
Lesbian And Gay ◽  
African Film ◽  
Lesbian History ◽  
Gay And Lesbian History

The following is an excerpt from a larger manuscript HOMOSEXUALITY AND AFRICAN CINEMA, a co-operative effort of Dr Botha (CityVarsity, Film & Television and Multimedia School in Cape Town, South Africa) and Professor Dethier and Dr. Willemse at the Free University of Brussels. IN A GLITTERING ceremony at the 49th Berlin International Film Festival a full-length South African film, The Man Who Drove With Mandela won the Documentary Teddy Prize. It was rewarded for its unique contribution to gay and lesbian history and for bringing forward a challenging and politically engaging subject. The Man Who Drove With Mandela was directed by Greta Schiller and researched by the co-writer of the outstanding compilation on South African lesbian and gay lives, Defiant Desire, namely Mark Gevisser. No other film in South African history chronicled the lives of lesbian and gays in the way Gevisser's documentary has done(1). It is a...

scholarly journals Reconciliation and psychiatry in South Africa

2015 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 62-64
Author(s):  
Bernard Janse van Rensburg
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Human Rights ◽  
South African ◽  
Truth And Reconciliation Commission ◽  
African Society ◽  
The South ◽  
Reconciliation Commission ◽  
South African Society ◽  
Truth And Reconciliation ◽  
Form Part

Although psychiatrists did not form part of the structures of the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), the Society of Psychiatrists of South Africa (SPSA) at the time did make a submission. Since then, the local association of psychiatrists has been reconstituted as the South African Society of Psychiatrists (SASOP). Psychiatry and psychiatrists may have to extend their activities beyond rehabilitation and restoration, to include endeavours to prevent future violations of human rights.

The Limits of Liberalism in South African Film: Recycling Black Stereotypes in Sarafina and Tsotsi

2018 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Khatija Bibi Khan
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
South African ◽  
Role Models ◽  
Black People ◽  
Film Genre ◽  
South Africans ◽  
African Film ◽  
Black Films ◽  
Negative Images ◽  
Children And Young Adults

Twenty-two years into democracy, and South Africa is still producing white films for a black audience. In this film genre, black people participate as part of the cast but they are accorded questionable roles that distort important strides that the country has made to achieve racial reconciliation. Although black South Africans are participating in the production of films in South Africa, they have not been able to defeat the ghosts of liberalism that inform black films. The aim of this article is to draw attention to instances of stereotyping black children and young adults who are part of the casts of Sarafina! and Tsotsi. The article argues that, because people internalise the roles imposed on them, the cultural consequence of the creation of negative images is the production of a mentality among young black Africans that they are permanently disabled. Stereotyping is a pernicious mode of representing blacks because in the context of the post-1994 period, a numerical minority is a majority in terms of creating images and controlling the film industry, and a numerical majority is transformed into a numerical minority that assumes important role models and empowering images in films. This reality, which is informed by the ideology of white liberalism, has ensured that blacks remain marginalised in terms of the cultural creations offered through film in South Africa.

scholarly journals The impact of the Bible and Bible themes on John Rangiah's Ministry in South Africa

2012 ◽  
Vol 33 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Rodney Ragwan
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
South African ◽  
Early Life ◽  
African Continent ◽  
Baptist Church ◽  
Post Colonial ◽  
The Bible ◽  
Kwazulu Natal ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Insight Into

John Rangiah was the first Indian Baptist missionary who came to Natal (today called KwaZulu-Natal). He was born in India in 1866 and died in 1915. He established the first Telugu Baptist Church on the African continent in Kearsney, Natal. In the corpus of South African Baptist mission literature, the contribution of John Rangiah is given very little attention. Although he is referenced by Baptist historians for his work amongst Indian Baptists, the impact of the Bible and Bible themes as well as his theology in South Africa have not been examined. This article provides insight into Rangiah�s early life and faith, and critically examines his understanding of the Bible and its themes, such as the Bible, prayer, salvation and eschatological hope. These themes will be critically examined from a conservative evangelical perspective and thereafter attempts to examine these using elements of post-colonial hermeneutics will be undertaken.

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