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 …

THE EERIE SALUTATION

By OMOSEYE BOLAJI


My latest book, titled Miscellaneous Writings (2011) was launched in South Africa recently. Unlike similar occasions in the past, the book was launched in a small way this time around, as regards the formal occasion itself.

I garnered some flak for the quiet launch, especially from many other writers and literary activists who believed that it had been an oversight, or even a slight not to make the occasion even more memorable. But on my own part, I was quite satisfied; to be honest, the understated launch was quite deliberate.

Alas, there was no way I could control the media coverage however; the stories published on the new book itself. The local papers in particular made a song and dance about my latest book, and one of the publications went a bit too far!

In South Africa, unlike in Nigeria, there are many free, “mahala” publications, newspapers and magazines, distributed free of charge to tens of thousands of the people all over the place. Hence an incredible number of people would likely read stories published in such publications.

It so happened that an article on my latest book, plus my photograph was emblazoned on the front page of one of such free publications. This particular publication’s slant was that the new book, Miscellaneous Writings was the 30th I had published. And this deserved a lot of celebration!

The free, popular newspaper catapulted me almost to a “cause celebre” status.People were congratulating me all over the place. “We saw you on the front page! Congrats!” was the order of the day.

Perhaps, the most “bizarre” of such congratulations was when a certain lady, an acquaintance of mine I had not seen for some years, came to me. Smiling broadly, she threw her arms round me, and hugged me in unbridled fashion.“I saw you on the front page of the newspaper,” she said warmly, nigh tremulous with excitement. “So you have now published 30 books! You must be very clever,”

I grinned. “On the contrary,” I said. Before I could go further, she said: “you see now…pity you did not let me have a baby for you in those days…you were scared; afraid…”

I winced. But I managed to rally: “I thought we were just ordinary friends at the time…I never knew you wanted me in that way,”

She said: “Then you are blind! How could a blind man write 30 books?” She shook her head deprecatingly.

THE FLOTSAM AND JETSAM

(Right) Okara's THE VOICE

By Omoseye Bolaji

“The people who have the sweetest insides are the think-nothing people
and we here try to be like them. Like logs in the river we float and
go whither the current commands and nothing enters our insides to turn
the sweetness into bitterness,”

- from Gabriel Okara’s THE VOICE


When Pa Okara published his novel – THE VOICE – decades ago many critics and
reviewers interpreted the work as one exhorting, calling for moral
regeneration in African societies generally.

In the haunting book (The Voice) Okolo, the protagonist is on a
puzzling, nigh esoteric quest for “it” – loosely defined as “meaning
of life”; advising his people and others to ponder about the lives
they are living, their integrity, purpose of existence etc.
Ultimately, Okolo pays the price for his “treachery” and is killed on
the orders of King Izongo.

It is stressed again and again that most people will rather live
“empty” lives, lives without a purpose, and they would not like others
criticising them or calling for more integrity from them. Remarkably,
the book was published over forty years ago; yet its theme still
resonates till date.

Has Africa moved forward since the book was published? Not even an
obtuse optimist would say “yes”; the whole continent has been ravaged
with a plethora of negative things – including extraordinary
corruption, civil wars, maladministration, greed, diseases (not
forgetting the scourge of hiv aids), famine etc.

On an individual level, the type of people referred to as those who
are “like logs in the river we float and go whither the current
commands and nothing enters our insides to turn the sweetness into
bitterness” seem to proliferate in African nations, including in
Nigeria and South Africa. Yet it might well be a cosmetic situation.
But how do they manifest themselves? Do they really do any harm?

Here in South Africa, you see a medley of people milling around
apparently jobless and purposeless, wallowing in the same. Young and
old. You see them hanging around their houses, their neighbourhood,
nearby taverns and shebeens. You see a few of them and you’ve seen
them all…

Yet paradoxically, there is a serenity that surrounds people of this
ilk that indeed gives the impression that “the people with the
sweetest insides....” A friend of mine in South Africa once called
them the “flotsams and jetsam,” During summer, winter – never mind
autumn and spring – they are in profusion; often friendly, waving,
greeting good-natured in their apparent vacuousness.

Do these people have any real ambitions? What do they think about life
itself? Do they have plans to forge ahead in life? What do they do by
way of finding jobs, or furthering their education? These are answers
for the pertinent pundits and experts, perhaps. On a simplistic
level, what is clear enough is that they remind one of Okara’s famous
description.

Nor should we be naïve enough to think that many of these people are
as harmless as they look. From among their ranks the likes of thieves,
rapists, even murderers lurk. Perhaps this is in accordance with the
hoary saying that “an idle mind is the devil’s workshop,”

OMOSEYE BOLAJI'S LATEST BOOK (2011)

OMOSEYE BOLAJI'S LATEST BOOK (2011)

Review by Paul Lothane



So Omoseye Bolaji’s 2011 book is out, and those of us who love his brand of writing are enthused again. After all, his last book came out in very early 2010. The new book is titled Miscellaneous Writings.

Some might be disappointed that the new work is NOT fiction. But as I always say, we can always re-read Bolaji’s many works of fiction anyway. This latest work comprises short essays, articles, reviews etc, written by the author.

As the blurb of the book tells us: “This book contains a selection of (Bolaji’s) miscellaneous writing: brief, informative, sparkling, introspective; often humorous and dazzling. Not surprisingly, the author touches on many aspects of the world of literature…”

This book is written in various styles, so to speak. I suppose the author wrote each piece the manner in which he felt they should be written. Bolaji’s essays on writers D.H Lawrence, NMM Duman, and (largely) Lewis Nkosi are essentially formal, with a rather disciplined format.

Yet there are idiosyncratic pieces included in this new work too, as one would expect from Bolaji. The write-up on “facebook” will probably fall under this framework; as would the one titled “The vagaries of poverty”, and “Guitarists with brio”. Read them and see whether you agree with me!

A few of the essays in this new book clearly show Bolaji’s passion for sports, especially football. The one on “Segun Odegbami” a former great African soccer player, is filled with child-like fascination and hero-worship, for example. Odegbami was at his best when the author was still quite young.

Yet by the time the 2010 World Cup finals came around, Bolaji, as a grown-up, exhibits the same passion for football, but is much more philosophical and serious about it all. Hence the three or so special articles pertaining to the unforgettable South Africa 2010 in this book, reaching a peak with the one titled “The allure of the stadium”

It is no surprise – since Bolaji is such a fine writer of fiction – that some of the essays here seem almost as if we are reading short stories. Examples in this wise here are “Gem of an artist”, “The burgeoning wordsmith”, “Stumped”, “The pungent illustrators", and “Murder in the temple”

Bolaji is also famed for the twists and turns of his fiction, the unexpected conclusions. We see traces of this here in some of these short essays, especially “Stumped”. Can a leopard change its spots?

In the very last segment of this new book, some recent essays on Bolaji’s literary work are published. The piece on his short stories (The Guillotine), is excellent; as are essays written by Deon Simphiwe Skade and Raphael Mokoena. I agree with Pule Lechesa, who wrote the Introduction to this book, that all lovers of literature in particular must get a copy of Omoseye Bolaji’s “Miscellaneous Writings”.

Those interested in getting a copy of this new book can email barbara@newvoices.co.za

THE PROFUNDITIES OF INITIATION?

By Omoseye Bolaji

It was a magnanimous gesture on the part of Ntate Thabo, the nigh-veteran South African police officer. Although exactly 50 years of age now, he has been in service for decades.

Now, he painstakingly tracked me down to buy me special lunch!I had been rather busy and could not meet him for a couple of days. He kept on phoning me. “My friend, stop avoiding me,” he said. “I have some extra money now, and I want to make you happy....” Anyway I did meet him, and we went for some drinks – and a magnificent lunch, at his expense.

We talked. A very hearty straightforward, genial man, this man is a mine of so many intriguing stories. He has had a somewhat checkered career while serving his country, but at least he is very much a fulfilled man in his own right. This became evident as he told me about his son. Thabo grinned. He does have a wonderful smile!

“Ah, my son – in his early 20’s – will soon become a man. You know, he will be spending weeks at the arcane initiation centre, up in the mountains; where he’ll be circumcised during this winter. I’ll be driving my boy there,” he said.

I winced. Initiation ceremonies have become somewhat controversial in South Africa these days, with horrifying tales of kids being abducted, suffering harrowingly, bleeding to death during these initiation ceremonies. And here was a proud father, who will soon drive his own son there very much willingly.

Officer Thabo was still smiling. “Thank God, my boy will soon become a veritable man. I’ll be supporting him all the way whilst he’s there (in the mountains); taking food and other material support to him; blankets....”

I managed to say: “you mean, you are not worried...about your son. I have read so many negative things about these initiations...the practice is not anachronistic?"

Whether he understood what I meant by “anachronistic" I am not sure; but he continued smiling effulgently. He said: “My son knows that without going through the initiation rites he would not be regarded as a true man in many circles as he grows up. That is why you see some very old men in my culture (the South African Xhosa people) going to the initiation schools in the end...."

My mind went briefly to Camara Laye’s masterpiece, ‘The African Child’, which brilliantly re-creates the poignant ambience, fear, dread, pains, and travails of such initiations in his own old society (Guinea). I suppose there is a lot to be said for Africans still having pride in certain ancestral customs.

“What are you thinking? Still worried about the initiation? I’m the boy’s father, and I’m not worried. Why should you?" my cop friend said, still good naturedly.I said: “You know, I’ve always felt that maybe some sort of printed certificate should be given out at these initiation schools, maybe as a token to modernity. I mean; all those weeks of deprivation, great discipline, learning, learning, the old ways...."

Thabo laughed. “There is no need for any certificate. There are special songs they learn at the initiation, which nobody else can know. The uninitiated cannot pretend to have gone to the school....Stop worrying about nothing. Let me get you another drink, my friend," he added, still with sparkling good humour.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

This piece, in its original form, sparked some interest and comments. I was particularly interested in the comments of my good friend, Soqaga "Dada", a very proud Xhosa man who commented thus:

"You must also know that we the Xhosas we are
unshaken and unafraid to practice our ancient culture of initiation.
It is the old culture and since this western and so called advanced super
power states have problem about it and certainly we cannot compromise
our noble,lovely and beautiful heritage of our forefathers. This is
the best school for the boys to learn to behave in a manner that is
moral and disciplined in our society..."

"ND" AND THE INTERNET

By Omoseye Bolaji

It was “peak period” inside the internet centre, as it were. A cauldron of frenetic activities! Here we were in the heart of Bloemfontein city in one of the internet cafes.

As usual the young ones, the students, were in the majority here now, adolescent boys and girls in school uniform chatting and gossiping whilst savouring the wonders of the internet. Eyes glued on the screen of the computers; intermittently the young ladies in particular checked the latest goings-on on facebook – both on the computer screens and their mobile phones.

Apparently, these days the young find it much easier doing their homework and assignments with the help of the internet. Showing off their knowledge, the pupils luridly made suggestions to each other: “No, try Google!” “Wikipedia is better!” “I still like yahoo,” etc.

I could hardly hide my smiles; perhaps I was in a tolerant mood! But it struck me powerfully how the youth have taken all these scientific marvels in their stride; how they take it all for granted. Whilst the truth is that the world has existed for thousands of years, yet incredibly things like world wide web, internet are just about 20 years old in human existence!

Now virtually everybody, especially the youth take advantage of this technology every time, sending a plethora of electronic messages hither and thither; be it via emails, facebook, twitter, SMS (text messages) etc. I shook my head, remembering that not so many years ago – before the internet became popular in Africa too – as a roving journalist I used to send my reports via telephone (eg from stadia during football or rugby matches), as internet was very scarce then.

“ND”- the owner of the internet cafe now entered, surveying the goings-on inside his internet cafe. He greeted me very well – after all we are both Nigerians and have been friends for years and he moved on to his office.Ah, ND! A very important man indeed, though the hordes of youngsters here at his internet cafe would not know this.

ND, a proud Igbo man to boot, was the first person to popularise the internet in the whole of Bloemfontein city. Almost 10 years ago he opened his internet café and charged incredibly cheap prices for the masses” to come and use his services. To complement this, he went out of his way to teach people the wonders of the internet at a time ignorance was rife in this wise even amongst the most educated people.

Within a few years other people were copying the pioneering efforts of ND, all over the city; opening internet cafes and trying to keep the prices down. Gone now were the days when black people in particular had to more or less “travel” to white areas to use the internet at very exorbitant rates. That was/is the legacy of ND!

And he was not alone. In other South African cities (and towns), Nigerians over the last 10 years have contributed greatly to popularising the internet – in well known cities like Johannesburg, Cape Town, Pretoria, for example. Till date, many of such internet cafes belong to Nigerians; affording cheap access to the internet for large numbers of people; and to boot, often opening their offices to the public at unusual times (eg late into the evening, and on Sundays.

Hence we now see a situation where hordes of people, including young scholars, flood these internet cafes. Yes they are taking so much for granted; but that is part of the effervescence of youth. They take it all in their stride!