WATCHING THE PLAY: "IHOBE THE FREEDOM SONG"

By OMOSEYE BOLAJI

There is no running away from the fact – South Africa has had a chequered past, a horrific past really; with millions of blacks suppressed, oppressed and butchered during apartheid.

This, however, had the effect of producing so many gallant, intrepid heroes over the decades.A number of books, documentaries, and the occasional drama have been churned out in South Africa to celebrate certain pertinent events, or heroes of the struggle. The other week I was a guest at one of the most recent of such dramas commemorating the struggle; titled:“Mangaung Students Revolt: Ihobe the Freedom Song”.

The event was held at the Assemblies of God Church in Mangaung.It was a great moment for one of the heroes of the struggle, Fikile Qithi, the gentleman of whom the riveting play is essentially weaved around, his face was creased with smiles, even tears, as the play honouring him unfolded. I found myself reminiscing on the times I had visited the great man in his house while he simply and modestly prepared meals for us.

Fikile Qithi, famously a former student leader of Ihobe Secondary School, and former political prisoner at Robben Island said: “the event commemorates of Mangaung Students Outburst. We are all indebted to younger students in Mangaung who were inspired by the Soweto uprisings of June 1976, who also took part in the struggle against Afrikaans as the medium for education.”The gentleman also paid tribute to young black students from the schools in the days of yore who displayed exemplary courage.

Such schools included: Ihobe Secondary School, and Marang Primary School, Sehunelo High School, Lereko High School, St Bernard Roman Catholic School. History reveals that these institutions rejected the imposition of Afrikaans. Their heroes included: Mpho Diba, Pinkie Litheko, and Fikile Qithi.

Zingile Dingani, the former Ihobe Secondary School student and now secretary of parliament from Cape Town said: “I’m a former learner at Ihobe Primary School. In the past, we learned Geography and Mathematics in Afrikaans. That helped us to raise our consciousness though, we were young. We knew it was a terrible thing for us to be oppressed so much in our own country, and we fought the system.”

The occasion came at a propitious time, with the mammoth ANC getting ready to celebrate the centenary of the formation of the liberation movement. As illustrious poet, Raselebeli Khotseng explained at the occasion: “It is good that this play has been organised in Mangaung, we are going to have the ANC Centenary in the Free State next year. The people of this province must participate in the centenary celebrations.”

Indeed, many distinguished people turned out to enjoy the didactic, powerful play. They included the celebrated female poet, Nthabiseng Jah Rose Jafta, Flaxman Qoopane, Hector Kunene, Raselebedi Khotseng, and performance poet, Imbongi Sibongile Potelwa.The applause for the well orchestrated play was deafening.

Afterwards, well known South African struggle stalwart, Mpikeleni Duma told me: “this play is the culmination of a dream I have had to honour one of the heroes of our struggle. We blacks must learn to celebrate, and learn from the steamy marsh of our history,”

For the records, here is the cast of the play:

Hector Kunene
Mungisi Tshobeka
Morena Hamilton Berries
Zola, Mzayiya Thabang
Lenko Nomthandazo
James Nthabiseng Diphoko.

THE EFFERVESCENCE OF THE NOBEL AWARD

BY OMOSEYE BOLAJI




Soyinka

Wole Soyinka has always been a writer I have admired for decades, infact, ever since I was a kid. There are so many endearing and charismatic factors that form the warp and weft of him and his sublime writing – his incredible writing career, his mien and demeanour (never forgetting the luxuriant beard!), his integrity, his theatrical approach to life, his baritone voice, etc.

Of course his extraordinary literary career has propelled him to the very top – the first black man to be awarded the Nobel Award in Literature. His fecundity of works is also amazing – he has averaged more than a book a year for about half a decade now! In fact, the records show that his first published books came out in 1963 – before people like me were born!

I grew up surrounded by books written by the likes of Soyinka, Chinua Achebe, Chukwuemeka Ike, John Munonye, Ola Rotimi, etc. Of course, we youngsters then agreed with all the adults that the most difficult writer was always Wole Soyinka! I recall that when he garnered the Nobel Award, the great Achebe congratulated him, noting that his (Soyinka’s) prolificacy was staggering.

Indeed it was, and still is. How can one forget his early works like The Jero Plays, Idanre, The Interpreters, Kongi’s Harvest, and Season of Anomie? Then there were many others like the man Died, Requiem For a Futurologist (whatever this means!), Isara :a voyage around essay, The Beatification of Area Boy. In recent years, he has added works like The Burden of Memory: – the Muse of Forgiveness, King Baabu, and You Must Set Forth At Dawn.

Winning the Nobel Award catapulted Soyinka into an international superstar, a world icon. After all, he still remains Nigeria’s only Nobel laureate. Nobel Laureates are few and far between, in Africa anyway; although in the genre of Literature, most would agree that Achebe surely more than deserves the award too.

Hence (by African standards) South Africa has performed wonders in producing many Nobel laureates (almost 10). Of course because of the blighting scourge of apartheid, many heroes emerged in the country and a few of them garnered the Nobel Prize for Peace. The most famous of them is of course, Nelson Mandela, but other illustrious recipients here are FW De Klerk, Desmond Tutu and Albert Luthuli.

South Africa has also produced Nobel laureates in the field of science, or medicine. In 1951, Max Theiler got the ultimate accolade for his contributions to medicine. Again in 2002, Sydney Brenner also became a Nobel laureate thanks to his great innovations in medicine. He was also a South African.

The first part of this column today is about Wole Soyinka; hence we can touch on the genre of literature again. Two South Africans – both white – have received the Nobel Award for Literature; Nadine Gordimer in 1991, and JM Coetzee in 2003. Coetzee remains a very reclusive figure. An associate of his for 10 years, for example, has famously said he only saw the great man smile twice during such a long period!

It is a rare occasion indeed when any African country receives a Nobel award, especially the veritably black ones. Nigeria has one Nobel laureate (Soyinka), Ghana has one (Kofi Anan) and Kenya has one too (Wangari Maathai) Contrast this with the United States of America (one country) which has over 200 Nobel laureates!! Nigeria has produced so many great people in diverse fields, and the country certainly needs more Nobel laureates …