A Stand Against Censorship

By Renee MoodieIOL has joined the South African National Editors’ Forum, the Freedom of Expression Institute, the Media Institute of Southern Africa and several international organisations in opposing the Film and Publications Amendment Bill.

The current Film and Publications Act regulates films and publications other than the news media by censorship and classification measures which determine the age groups precluded from viewing certain films and which publications should be prohibited or how they should be displayed in stores. A clause in that Act exempted the media from its provisions thus enabling the print and broadcast news media to operate freely and without interference or pre-publication censorship. That exemption is to be removed in the amending legislation.

“If this proposal is accepted by parliament, the effect will be that the print and broadcast media will be subjected to the dictates of the Film and Publications board. The practical effects will be that the media will be subjected to pre-publication censorship, probably forced to expunge large amounts of their news coverage from their pages or broadcasts and submit to procedures which will prevent papers from being distributed on a daily or weekly basis and result in broadcasters having to delay news broadcasts. The fact that the Bill makes provision for exemption matters little, as to impose this duty on the media amounts to seeking licence to publish,” say the the National Editors’ Forum, the Freedom of Expression Institute and the Media Institute of Southern Africa.

There is a very short time for participation in public hearings and all submissions opposing the Bill need to be submitted by October 6.

You can help:

• Read the Bill.
• Attend the public hearings – read the programme.
• Email submissions to Matabela Mankge at mmankge@parliament.gov.za

Background information

• Professor Anton Harber, director of the Journalism and Media Studies Programme at Wits University and former editor of the Mail & Guardian, tackles the subject in his blog.
• The International Press Institute’s open letter to President Thabo Mbeki.
• Sanef statement.

Article sourced from www.iol.com.

The Input 2008 Guide – Practical Information

Welcome to Johannesburg!

This melting pot of cultures, some ancient and some modern, located in the province of Gauteng, (meaning place of gold) will showcase African hospitality at its best. There is not a single word for stranger in our indigenous languages, therefore, please feel welcome.

ARRIVAL AT OR TAMBO INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT

With preparations for the 2010 Fifa World Cup well underway, there is a fair amount of construction taking place at OR Tambo International Airport. There is minimal disruption at the Domestic terminal, however, there is considerable change at the International terminals.

When you emerge from either A1 or A2 arrivals terminals, please look for the Input 2008 banner and Hostess/Host. You will be directed to the pick-up point for SoWhere 2, located just outside both sections of the arrivals terminals.

At the Domestic terminal there will be an Input banner, hostess and table. Again, please identify yourself to the Input staff and you will be escorted to the So Where 2 embarcation point – just outside the terminal.

WEATHER

May is Autumn in South Africa, so bring a stout jacket and warm shoes for the mornings and evenings. Temperatures can rise to the early 20s (18-22 degrees Centigrade) at midday but can fall to anything between -2 and 8 degrees Centigrade in the mornings and evenings. In short: Come prepared for anything from sudden cold spells to unseasonably warm Autumn weather.

AIRPORT TRANSFERS

Delegates are reminded and strongly urged to book reliable and safe transport to and from the airport with Input’s preferred transport company SoWhere2.

Should delegates prefer to pay for this transport service upon arrival only, this can be easily arranged with SoWhere2. However, it is vital that you book your transport before arriving at OR Tambo International Airport in Johannesburg. Payment can then be made upon arrival.

To book your airport transfers now and to contact SoWhere2, visit: www.sowhere2.co.za or email transfers@sowhere2.co.za

SHUTTLE SERVICES AND TRANSPORT FROM SANDTON CONVENTION CENTRE

A limited shuttle service will be in operation between popular Sandton hotels and the Convention Centre. Please ask at the Information Desk for a schedule. A representative of So Where 2 transport will be based at the Information Desk should you wish to make private bookings.

ACCOMMODATION

Most delegates should by now have confirmed or at least booked accommodation in Johannesburg. Should you require sound advice on accommodation found on the internet or for more information on the hotels we have secured packages with please contact busi@input2008.org.za

TOURS OF JOHANNESBURG

Gauteng has a wide array of places of interest. Book your place on the free tour for Input delegates on Saturday 3rd May. Experience our history at the Apartheid Museum and the Hector Pieterson Memorial and visit the Cradle of Human Kind – and go Back to the beginning.

Sandton is the commercial heart of South Africa, and it has a wide array of restaurants, shops and cinemas. Take a stroll around, but do not miss the Input 2008 sessions.

There is a wide offering of entertainment in Johannesburg. Please enquire at the Information Desk for further information.

INPUT LOCATION

Input 2008 takes place in Johannesburg at the Sandton Convention Centre (SCC). Most of the Input activity will take place on Level Two (see your catalogue for more detailed maps of the rooms being used in the SCC and the area surrounding the Convention Centre).

On Level Two you will find the Registration area, Information Desk, Red, Blue and Green viewing rooms, the Producers’ Hour space (Ngugi wa Thiongo Square), the Ben Okri Boardroom, the Shop Stewards’ room, the Bessie Head Media room and the Nuruddin Farah Video-on-Demand Room.

REGISTRATION

SCC Level Two Foyer

Opening hours

Sunday May 4^th: 12h00 to 17h00

Monday May 5^th to Friday May 9^th: 9h00 -16h00

If you have not pre-registered and paid, you may register for the conference on the spot at the Registration Area on Level Two. Payments may be made by credit card (we regret not Amex or Diner’s Club) or in cash (South African Rands).

When you register you will receive a bag with the Input 2008 catalogue and your Input 2008 badge. Delegates are requested to wear their badges at all times.

Please note that you will not be allowed into the Gala Dinner if you do not have your Input 2008 badge.

Input delegates may be identified by their badge colour:

Board Members – Green

Delegates – Red

Guests – Blue

National Coordinators – Yellow

Shop Stewards – Orange

Staff – Orange

INFORMATION KIOSK

Sandton Convention Centre Level Two

Opening hours

Sunday May 4^th: 12h00 to 20h00

Monday May 5^th to Saturday May 10^th: 08h30 to 19h00

DISABLED FACILITIES

The Sandton Convention Centre is fully wheelchair-accessible and designed to cater for people with disabilities.

FOOD & DRINKS

Beverages and light snacks will be served from 09h00 to 19h00 in the DuBois and Buchi Emecheta Bars on Level Two. These may be purchased, from the waiters who will be servicing all the designated open sitting areas, including the smoking balconies outside.

A buffet service will be available on two levels within the SCC. For your convenience two restaurants – Maude Street Cafe and Maraschino’s are situated next door and across the road from the SCC, at street level. These cafes serve a wide selection of light and more substantial meals.

SMOKING & EATING RULES

Smoking is permitted only on the balconies surrounding Level Two. It is forbidden by law to smoke in enclosed spaces and infringers may be prosecuted.

Eating is only permitted in the designated eating areas. No eating may take place in the viewing rooms, media room, I-cafe and Video-on-Demand room. This is to ensure that no damage is caused to equipment and other delegates are not inconvenienced.

WORKING LANGUAGE

The working language at Input is English. During the discussions following each screening session, we provide simultaneous translation between English and French. Headsets are available from the Information Desk in the foyer and may be borrowed by leaving an ID card or passport.

SOCIAL EVENTS

Opening Night Reception and Cocktail Function

Time: 18h00 for 18h30

Venue: Pavillion, Level 5

Admission is free

Gala Dinner/ Mid-Week Party

Time: 19h00

Venue: Pavillion, Level 5

Admission: R200

You will be treated to the best of African cuisine, the finest wines from the Cape and entertained like queens and kings as we showcase our local entertainers.

If you have not pre-registered for this event and you wish to attend, please buy your ticket from the registration Desk. There will be spectacular entertainment, an opportunity to network as well as to dance the night away.

For more information, please contact info@input2008.org.za or consult the Input 2008 catalogue that you can collect from the Registration Desk.

We look forward to seeing you at Input 2008....

Input 2008 Team

Input Outreach Project Update

Updates on the venues for the Input 2008 Outreach Project’s township screenings are as follows:

2 May:

Atteridgeville – Ramushi Street – Ramushi Community Hall

Boipatong – Lekoa Street – Boipatong Community Hall

3May:

Kliptown – 45 Beacon Road – Bolo’s Place

Alexandra – 12 Avenue – Alexsan Kopano

Subversive Firestart

Andrew Worsdale meets up with Sylvia Vollenhoven, the National Coordinator of Input 2008 – the International Public Television Conference that is celebrating its 30th Anniversary in Johannesburg. (article available in this week’s Mail & Guardian)

“I went to a school where the kids were mostly quite snobbish and ambitious. Everyone was going to UCT medical school or going into exile,” says Sylvia Vollenhoven, “My family was too poor for either of these options. I got the top marks in languages despite being thrown out of the English class for insubordination, so I thought journalism was the best option. I didn’t think you needed any particular training and I had a vague idea that I would be expected to write and travel extensively, at the drop of a hat. So, I carried my passport with me every day to work.”

Born in District Six in the 1950’s, which belies her vivacious good looks and testifies to her intelligence and maturity, Vollenhoven decided to move into journalism in the early 70s working for The Cape Herald before receiving a Diploma from The Argus Cadet Journalism School in 1976 – the same year that television came to South Africa and two years before the first ever INPUT conference was held in Milan.

Those were the dark days of apartheid and the struggle was coming to a head, “The Cape Herald was fun and subversion was the order of the day. Everyone smoked Gaulois and drank brandy for breakfast. When we weren’t planning grand revolution we partied with a vengeance.”

The Argus School, by way of contrast, was a shock to the system for her and was heavily ingrained with racist attitudes so Sylvia learnt how to bunk classes and hang out in Soweto and at the defiant ‘The World’ newspaper, “I learnt most of the important things about journalism from the veterans there who took me under their wing. People like Don Materra, Percy Qoboza, Jon Qwelane, Phil Molefe…the list is long. They taught me that journalism is either subversive or you go and work in a bank.”

After many years working as a print journalist, including being the SA correspondent for Swedish daily ‘Expressen’ where she won the country’s Journalist of the Year Award, Vollenhoven was approached by the SABC to help with its transformation process and she became part of a team that would kick-start transformation, ahead of the 1994 elections.

Together with a team of twelve other journalists and producers she went to Canada and the UK working with the CBC and the BBC and later the Australian Broadcasting Corporation and the Thomson Foundation of the UK, an international ‘media for development’ NGO, to come up with a new ‘scheme’ for the national broadcaster. “We dreamed big dreams and devised grand strategies. It started with razing the Piet Meyer ‘gebou’ (the Radio Tower – a notorious apartheid icon) and its bomb walls to the ground,” she says.

The group of lefty idealists took positions inside the broadcaster and became heavyweights in their own right. “It was a bruising cycle in the media struggle and at this stage the old style Nationalist guard at the SABC won many rounds. Then we got serious tackling current affairs head-on and I finally ended up being part of the team that started Morning Live.”

At the time these journalists founded the Public Broadcasting Initiative (PBI), with Sylvia as director, which became the pressure group that steered the Corporation’s transformation. But Vollenhoven didn’t spend all her time behind the scenes formulating strategy, for many years she was a news anchor and presenter of current affairs programmes such as ‘Face To Face’ and ‘Focus on One’.

She remembers those heady days of tests and conquests as fundamental to creating her point of view as a broadcasting professional, “The central challenge was that coming from print I did not have a clue how television worked. The most significant issues we faced were not so much pulling the old guard into the new South Africa, it was more the fancy political footwork needed to deal with all that dead wood in a place like that, and the time consuming, enervating endless political parlour games.”

She’s very proud of having been involved in those early transformation processes around in-house training, current affairs and the special election programmes that she designed but says she’ll never go back to flaunting herself in front of the cameras again, “I never again want to be faced with the stress of putting on so much make up and making my hair lie down for the camera, just so you know you also can’t wear shiny, dangly earrings. Life’s too short to wear demure little studs.”

The twelve years she spent at the SABC have made her a strong defender against the barrage of criticism that the broadcaster faces from the media and film and TV producers. She believes, “it is such lazy journalism to fall into the trap of distancing ourselves from the SABC and making it our favourite whipping boy (this is our institution and we are responsible for the direction it takes). It is an incredibly complex organization with a giant mandate.”

The role of the SABC as a public broadcaster even whilst it straddles the demands of a commercial one are distinctive and one of the main reasons South Africa was chosen to host the INPUT conference. “The SABC’s model is unique in the world. The reality is that until the people of South Africa come up with an alternative way of funding public broadcasting, this is the one we’re stuck with and so let’s make it work. There is no God of PBS who says we can’t do it this way,” she says convincingly.

“As programme makers and even as viewers we don’t understand our power with regard to institutions like the SABC. We engage with it as if it is a thing apart. We kind of know that it is wrong to allow it to be controlled by the politicians but we don’t much care who the alternative is. We debate endlessly who is pulling the strings but we don’t care a damn about the endless American crap we watch.”

Then she gets a dig in at the trendy newsmakers who believe they are the ‘in-thing’, “The reason why the media debates are so lacklustre is because the parameters are set by journalists who wear suits (even the women), hang out at swanky Melrose Arch and think Peroni is real beer! My real concern is this constant diet of mediocrity. I think journalists collectively should be ashamed to be getting on their high horses all the time when they are mostly lazy, middle class armchair specialists who have become like doctors… they just don’t do house calls anymore.”

Sylvia became involved in Input ten years ago when she helped put together the first Mini Input in Africa held at Sithengi and she’s been to every conference since the 2000 event held in Canada’s Halifax. “I still get people coming to me saying Cape Town was one of the best Input experiences ever, because it had heart. As South Africans we put so much passion into that event and the people who came will never forget it.”

Local players headed up by Vollenhoven put in the Johannesburg bid four years ago and she says that one of the main reasons it has returned to South Africa so soon after 2001 was because this time it is designed as a pan-African venture, “This time of course you will have the big doses of South African passion but we’ve grown up quite a bit since then, so now we’ll throw in quite a large measure of Afropolitan flair as well.”

Although she’s left hands-on journalism Vollenhoven’ s interests have become more wide-ranging within the field. Her company VIA – Vision in Africa – is committed to pan-African joint ventures and global co-productions and collaborations whilst Dream Weaver Trading is a black female investment group that she chairs.

“My forte is creating massive projects from concept to execution. So I am working on a global collaboration with the SABC and UNESCO for the Human Bondage project, which will feature at Input. I have several projects in the pipeline with the UK’s Thomson Foundation. And of course here and there I might put in a bid in response to the SABC’s regular call for proposals, but my sights are set on the Continent and global storytelling and TV ventures.”

Joburg’s vitals for the visitor

Visiting Joburg? Here are some this buzzing African city’s vitals:

Location

Johannesburg is a city located in the Gauteng Province of South Africa.

(For an overview of South Africa for the (tourist) visitor, click here.)

Emmarentia Dam in the Parkview suburb of Joburg

Stretching all the way from Pretoria in the north to Vereeniging in the south, Gauteng (Sotho for place of gold, although the ‘gaut’ is also thought to originate from the Dutch ‘goud’ for gold) came about in 1994 after the country’s first democratic elections, uniting six regions, including part of the old Transvaal province, into what might be the smallest South African province, but serves as the gateway into Africa.

Whilst Gautengs history lies embedded in the discovery of gold, today Gauteng not only has one of the best infrastructures, but its population of over 9 million people form part of a vibrant mix of energy and diversity that make it one of the wealthiest provinces in Africa, and the entertainment epicentre of the country.

Tu-Nokwe on guitar performs at the Bassline

The energy of the Highveld, with its intense summers broken only by intermittent electric storms, is echoed in the sheer buzz of the place. In Johannesburg people walk and talk fast, they drive at high speed too, and the ever increasing skyline – as glass and chrome structures rise like mushrooms seemingly overnight – reflects the rapid development that has taken place in the city in the last 10 years.

There is more to Gauteng than the art of business and money-making. Johannesburg and Pretoria – the two major cities in Gauteng – are diametrically opposed. Pretoria provides a more laid-back, gentrified alternative – its jacaranda lined, wide streets and lovely old buildings a more sedate choice for many who readily make the daily commute to Johannesburg.

Violet Jacaranda Trees line Cradock Avenue in Gauteng

The Vaal River, which separates Gateng from the Free State Province, provides a number of avenues of escape; the Magaliesberg Mountains, virtually on Johannesburg’s doorstep, another effortless flight into days of heady blue quiet spaces; and Limpopo Province – just to the north of Gauteng, with its allure of game reserves, waterfalls, forests and streams – one more escape of note.

Dialling code

27; all local numbers dialled, even from within Johannesburg, should be preceded by the area code (011).

Population

Approximately 4-5 million (Johannesburg city); 8-9 million (Gauteng Province) – these are estimates.

From left to right:Thousands of young people fill the FNB stadium in Joburg on Youth Day, 16 June; A school trip to the Joburg Zoo; the Johannesburg Art Gallery (JAG) situated in the heart of the city.

Time zone

GMT + 2.

Electricity

220 volts AC, 50Hz; round three-pin plugs are standard.

A map of Joburg: a city of contrasts and diversity.

Left to right: The 1957 Bus Boycott in Alexandra township; Alexandra township today.

Average January temperatures

20°C (68°F).

Average July temperatures

10°C (51°F).

Did You Know? Gauteng is said to offer one of the world’s best climates: summer days are warm and wind free (relatively) and winter days are crisp and clear. Johannesburg and Pretoria differ in temperature by about 2% (Pretoria being the warmer of the two). [www.sa-venues.com]

Annual rainfall

720mm (28.8 inches).

For an updated 5-day Weather guide, click here.

(the above information extracted from www.cityguide.travel-guides.com)

From left to right: The Joburg railway station in the city; Newtown cultural precinct on the city’s outskirts and the Sandton Convention Centre in the Sandton Central Business District, and venue for Input 2008.

Airport Transfers for INPUT 2008 delegates:

Input delegates flying into O.R. Tambo International Airport in Johannesburg are encouraged to book transport between the airport and their accomodation beforehand with the recommended Input 2008 Transport Company SoWhere2.

Delegates can make suitable payment arrangement with SoWhere2 beforehand or upon arrival as long as you are registered for the Input 2008 conference and provided these are arranged before landing in Joburg.

For more information and to book your airport transfers now visit: www.sowhere2.co.za or email transfers@sowhere2.co.za

Happy travelling!

(All pictures from the City of Johannesburg website)

What’s in a Name?

The main Input 2008 Committee Rooms have been named after notable South Africans. Here is a brief guide to who’s-who…click on the highlighted names to be directed to more information.

Committee Room 1: The Herman Charles Bosman Room

Herman Charles Bosman (1905-1951) was an Afrikaans South African author and journalist who wrote in English, lived a bohemian and colourful life and is regarded as one of the country’s best short story writers.

Committee Room 2: The Zakes Mda Room

Zakes Mda (1948- ) is a celebrated and award-winning South African author. He is also a composer, playwright, filmmaker and painter. He is professor of creative writing at Ohio University and commutes between the USA and South Africa. His latest titles include The Whale Caller and Cion.

Committee Room 3: The Lewis Nkosi Room

Lewis Nkosi (1936- ) worked for years as an editor and journalist and later became a prolific essayist, playwright and author. He is best known for his commentary on contemporary Africa and is regarded by many as one of the architects of black consciousness in South Africa. He resides in Switzerland and visits South Africa regularly.

Committee Room 4: The Miriam Tlali Room

Miriam Tlali (1933-) is the first black woman to have published a novel in South Africa and remains a keen critic – through fiction and non-fiction – of injustice in society. She was the co-founder of the radical arts journal Staffrider and sits on the board of Skotaville Press.

Committee Room 5: The Es’kia Mphahlele Room

Es’kia Mphahlele (1919- ) is a South African novelist, autobiographer, and critic who was banned under Apartheid for many years. He spent much time on the continent, returned to South Africa in 1978 and remains a respected commentator on Africa and African literature.

A New World Is Possible If We Can Imagine It So

- An Interview with James Early * (article available in this week’s Mail & Guardian)

James Early is a friend of Cuba. No big deal around here but still an issue in 21^st Century America. What’s more Mr Early has long been a friend of Cuba.

Finding a launch pad for critical thinking is always difficult. In the US of A it is doubly difficult because free thinking is often compromised by so many powerful forces, before it can even take off. But James Early fires off his challenges no matter what and then turns the retaliatory salvos into an admirable display of intellectual fireworks, albeit somewhat one-sided some days.

Mr Early is Director of Cultural Studies and Communication at the Center for Folklife Studies at the renowned Smithsonian Institution of Washington DC. The Smithsonian is the world’s largest museum complex. In keeping with the Institution in which he is based, Mr Early is broader than most academics in his approach to the issues of politics and culture or rather the politics of culture.

James Early is one of the main speakers at the launch of the global Human Bondage Project at Input 2008. Human Bondage is an ambitious, five-year project that will develop a drama series, feature films as well as documentaries… stories of an enslaved people told from the perspective of the slaves. With UNESCO as one of the main partners it will also have significant extensions, mainly educational. We spoke with Mr Early shortly before leaving Washington.

M&G: How do we help people understand, especially those who are the gatekeepers of the mainstream media industry, that stories of slavery are as important as the war in Iraq?

JE: Just as the anti apartheid struggle in South Africa gripped the consciousness of the world, just as the civil rights movement gripped the consciousness of the world, this story in the modern world of mass communication, has the potential to be huge in advancing world consciousness about the legacy of slavery and about the dimensions of democracy that we must envision for all people at this moment in the early part of the 21^st century. This project could carry that load if we will imagine the possibilities of that.

M&G: You recently attended the UN commemoration of the anniversary of the abolition of Slavery. What did that occasion mean to you?

JE: It was a heartening experience. One, to see our ideological father, our patriot of 81 years old, Harry Belafonte, most eloquently sitting there next to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon. He had not been invited by the US elected representative but by the representative form Barbados. The US government is trying to bury its history of slavery in the hope that it will go away, in the hope that it will perpetuate a so-called colour blind philosophy.

M&G: What does it mean for you to be coming to South Africa for the launch of the Human Bondage Project?

JE: Anytime the victims are able to become the protagonists, it is a potentially powerful step forward… (But) we have to wrestle with the accuracy and detail of what slavery was actually about. The sociology of that, the horror, the terror, the murderous nature of that and we have to situate that very carefully so that we don’t get into this attempt to suggest that because there was complicity on the part of some Africans in the slave trade that it was a complicity of equity. The system of slavery and its interface with capitalism and the ends to which the great philosophers and the great theologians of the world went to rationalise the dehumanisation of black African people is quite a different order of magnitude than the complicity of the Africans who were involved in the selling of their brothers and sisters.

M&G: When we look at issues of class and race in Africa and in other parts of the world, the descendants of slaves are invariably poorer and they have a kind of restricted social mobility. What are your thoughts on the fact that slavery in that sense has not been abolished completely?

JE: Slavery has not been completely addressed. I would say that chattel slavery characteristically in the sense of the Atlantic slave trade in which people were turned into objects, into property like animals or like field tools, has been characteristically abolished There is however a socio-cultural and economic hold over. Let’s take the Americas for example, from Canada to Argentina right through the United States, through to the Carribean and including socialist Cuba where I spent a considerable amount of time. The correlation between skin colour and marginalisation and poverty and low self esteem and lowered access to education, lower statistics in the defining dimension of state power and public institutions are hold-overs of slavery. What we are still struggling with is the social, cultural, economic strictures that carry over from slavery.

In fact there’s a whole new order of health investigation now across class lines. Issues of anxiety and physical issues, issues of what enslaved people were forced to eat and how that is transferred through the genetic pool and future generations even when those generations might emerge in middle and upper classes. Their health statistics tend to be characteristically lower than those who came from freer dimensions of society. So, in that regard we are still dealing with the legacy of chattel slavery.

M&G: So much of our society has been built on slavery and we have inherited a racist culture… people like you are doing a lot of work in order to raise awareness and to change that. Do you think these changes are taking effect globally?

JE: A New World is Possible, my own slogan. A new world is possible if we can imagine it so. We joined the African people and defeated colonialism. We joined the struggle and defeated apartheid in South Africa. We all wanted SA to be free not only because it represented the struggle of the enslaved darker people exploited and oppressed but because it also helped us to confront the unfinished social revolutions in our own country, particularly in a place like the US. Mandela became a metaphor for all humanity. The reconciliation process that played out in SA was not just something for us to observe from afar, it was a way for all of us to think back through all of the struggles that we had been involved in and to try and avoid the vengeance that so many of us may have wanted to exert on those who had exploited us.

We must take stock of those victories. We have come a long way yet we have a very long way to go.

* James Early of Washington’s Smithsonian Institute is a main speaker at the launch of the Human Bondage project at Input 2008.

Authorship & Ownership in TV Drama

- by Lauretta Ngcobo *

If we talk of such things as ownership and authorship it is imperative for us to be honest with ourselves and with one another. We should not be afraid to bare our souls and explore those hushed –up areas of our experiences, for the function of our stories is to explore and come to terms with our past. Here we are as black people and white people joining hands, in quest of who we are and for the sake of ourselves and our children.

In fact, who are we? We are Africans who have tried hard to trample on our past while we seek to reveal who we really are. When our African fathers and later our mothers were first drawn through the imperatives of the times into the city experience they soon found out that they were at variance with the lifestyles of the city. They became self conscious about their dress, their songs, their dances, their food even. Ever since that encounter, African people have lived like chameleons on their long journey of adaptation. In the process of shedding all the paraphernalia, they also learned to look down on themselves and their culture as white people did. From then on, most Africans especially the educated ones are practitioners of a hybrid culture, forever grappling emotionally, intellectually and physically with the vexing questions of who they are, much like the American that is portrayed in the writings of Richard Wright, Ralph Ellison, James Baldwin and others.

White people lately are faring no better in their turn, having to come to terms with the fact that if they are wealthy and better off in every way, relative to Africans, it is because that wealth was acquired dishonestly under a spurious belief that they had to oppress others so that they could prosper. And if they are poor it is because the only thing that had given them status before was their feigned superiority to the African people. The sanctuary of the skin. That is the burden they bear today. White people have to explain how they can be “good people” when everything they are, is based on the exploitation of others. Much the same as the white people of America are forever searching for the essential me in writers like Williams Faulkner, Margaret Mitchell, Harper Lee and many others.

Here we are standing naked before each other now, forced to tell stories, true, authentic stories that proclaim who we really are. Most African writers, brought up in the cities are forced to appropriate for themselves those selective cultural aspects of their original culture, often with half-baked understanding of what it all means and often mixed up and jumbled with aspects of the superior culture. Yes, superior, because we do draw from it often what we ourselves do not fully understand, now that we have shed our own. As a result, the stories that come up on our screens leave us unsatisfied or unfulfilled for aspects of the stories seem phoney and alien on our own uninformed mindscape.

The screen is a fleeting medium. And often after it is gone from view we sit and sigh because it has affected us deeply – not so much the storyline. We already know who killed who and why. You can even tell that it is about jealousy, vengeance reconciliation and so on, whatever the theme is. But deep in the recesses of the mind,

you continue to wrestle with the deeper human conflict that the text is dealing with. Basic truths, told in symbols, codes if you like, telling the human story of life and death, birth and renewal, time and eternity, providence and destiny; the origin of the world, the end of the world, the end of time, the creation of the world, question of time and eternity. Stories about all these delve deep in every culture. They come through stories, language, communication, religion, art, literature, drama etc. In other words, we look for hidden meanings, the symbols that filter through the stories we tell or read or dramatise. This treasure store does not owe its existence from direct experience only. They often come from the very ethos of ones existence as a practitioner of a culture. Many attitudes that the characters portray in drama are partly due to the writers own beliefs. How they live and why and how they die, what they will fight for and what they will defend with their lives.

Such values that influence our judgement and morals are taught to us in very subtle ways in the culture and become embedded in our interpretation of life and develop into legends and folk tales. They are the foundation of culture. Stories about gods, superhuman beings and extraordinary events in a time – span altogether beyond our comprehension. The actors in these mythical stories are people who influenced and changed the human condition. For the English such is the story of King Arthur and the Round Table, The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer, Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll and other foreign legends. They have such a powerful hold on the thinking of the speakers in their societies. The values in such stories are internalised and passed on so that even the not so literate members of the culture are tutored through story telling.

Now, to come back to the Africans in South Africa. It is undeniable that very few city homes from which we draw most of our script writers are told on a regular basis, from early childhood the stories of Mabhejana, Sondonzima, Chakijana and many more from the varied languages in South Africa. In other words, while they labour and create, they are focused on the culture and the traditions of the other. Few Africans have assimilated and soaked up the stories of King Arthur and his Round Table, characters like Pinocchio among the Italians and other foreign legends. Yet they superimpose the values of these other cultures on their thinking for even though they do not live like the English do, they perceive the culture to be the centre point of expressing their inner-selves.

We come back to the thorny question of authorship and ownership of the books that the writers produce. In view of the background we have given, we pose this question and interrogate the issue. From the models we have cited it is clear that there are more than one body of stories that we are talking about. There are those that have been passed on to us and have influenced our thinking and form part of our culture. They insidiously work themselves into our lives and we use them in formulating our view of life. We own such stories. But on the other hand, they inversely own our creativity. We claim them for ourselves and use them as we wish. We tell them to one another over and over again. We, in Africa, are also privileged to be allowed to intervene in the retelling of such stories thus becoming co-creators as we put in our own variations of such stories. We feel no guilt in doing this. If we should be telling such a story to the young we may embellish the details to suit young minds. And conversely do the same with an adult audience. We can even create parallel stories that resemble the legends. No one can accuse us of plagiarising. The ownership is all inclusive.

In a mixed society, such as we are, there may be problems of ownership and authorship in such cases. There are fine lines that separate these categories. Among Africans, it is considered acceptable for a story teller to extend his/her imagination in the act of creativity. We have the case of one writer who chose to write about the African tokoloshe. A fine literary piece. But when another writer wrote his own contribution based on the same legendary figure of tokoloshe, there was an outcry for others perceived his writing as plagiarised. This is a cross-cultural conflict.

On the other hand, we have stories that spring from our own personal experiences and are evoked by our own imagination, a complex amalgam of personal thoughts as influenced by what we know of life. These we author on our own and lay claim to authorship. Ownership and authorship overlap for the former is common property and the latter is the product of one inspired creative writer. It flows from common experience whether of one singular person or a social group. So we appropriate them for self or a social group as we identify them through common experience.

There are no answers to these eloquent questions but in addressing them perhaps we could consider a new paradigm. True creativity is a matter of the heart. So should we not be moving towards a better understanding of our common humanity. That at heart our creativity has complex links, ancient origins and definitely defies linear description. But where would that leave plagiarism litigation?

* Novelist and essayist, Lauretta Ngcobo, was born in 1931, raised in the Ixopo District of southern Natal and educated at Inanda Seminary and Fort Hare University. Lauretta Ngcobo’s late husband, AB Ngcobo, a founder executive member of the Pan Africanist Congress (PAC), was detained in the aftermath of the Sharpeville massacre in 1960. In 1963, she left South Africa, escaping imminent arrest, and went into exile with her husband and children, first in Swaziland, then in Zambia and finally settling in England where she worked as a teacher for 25 years.

She came back in 1994 at the time of the new political dispensation in South Africa, thirty years after she left her country of birth. After a short teaching spell she became a Member of the KwaZulu Natal Legislature where she spent eleven years before retiring in 2008. She now lives in Durban.

Lauretta Ngcobo is the author of several books and is the recipient of the annual South African Literary Awards’ lifetime Achievement Award, 2006. The rural community of Ixopo, where she was born and raised, is described in her most recent novel, And They Didn’t Die. She praised the unsung heroines, the rural women, whose struggles and complexities in harsh environments were further compounded by having to deal with the hardships of apartheid.

The above article appears in the South African Mail & Guardian (25 April-1May)

Public Broadcasting Survey in Africa

- by Hendrik Bussiek * (article available in this week’s Mail & Guardian)

Public broadcasting has a lot of friends in the world today – though they do not always seem to be loving quite the same thing and certainly not for the same reasons.

(Almost) every national broadcaster in Africa now lays claim to the PBS title, proudly calling itself a ‘public broadcasting service’, regardless of how it is run or constituted. There are obviously a lot of myths and misperceptions around what is basically a simple and straightforward concept: a broadcaster that serves the public as a whole and is accountable to the public as a whole.

Clearing up some of these misunderstandings and assessing the real status of public broadcasting in Africa is one of the purposes of a comprehensive survey currently undertaken by the Africa Governance Monitoring and Advocacy Project (AfriMAP) of the Open Society Foundation – the first such survey on the continent. Researchers in 12 carefully selected countries (Benin, Cameroon, Cape Verde, Kenya, Mali, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, South Africa, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe) are presently busy collecting and collating information on regulation, ownership, access and performance as well as prospects of reform of broadcasting in Africa. Field workers are interviewing representative samples of listeners and viewers to assess their use of media in general and opinions on broadcasting in particular – another first in most of the countries under review.

The study starts from the premise that development and democracy cannot thrive without open and free public space where all issues concerning people’s lives can be aired and debated and which gives them room and opportunity to participate in decision making. Nobel Prize laureate Amartya Sen describes democracy as “governance by dialogue” and broadcasters are ideally placed to facilitate this dialogue by providing the space for it – if their services are accessible, independent, credible and open to the full spectrum of diverse views.

The key objective of the survey, therefore, is to assess whether and to what extent the various forms of broadcasting are able to create such a public space, with special attention given to those services which call themselves ‘public’.

While the study may be unprecedented in its scope and depth, it does feed into ongoing discussions among broadcasters, civil society and politicians on the nature and mandate of genuine public broadcasting. At least on paper there is already broad consensus on the need for state broadcasters to be transformed into truly public broadcasting services. The AU’s African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights says in its 2002 Declaration of Principles on Freedom of Expression in Africa that “state and government controlled broadcasters should be transformed into public service broadcasters accountable to the public”. This African document serves as one of the major benchmarks in the AfriMAP survey (see box below).

Most countries in Africa still have a long way to go towards the realisation of the ideal of a truly public broadcaster. But the process is gathering speed – not just because progressive forces in civil society and among law makers are pushing for it. Already even staunch defenders of state broadcasting are reluctantly learning the lesson that their impact and influence is on the wane: with more and more other sources of information at their disposal, people are not easily fooled any longer by blatant propaganda or content with government using the airwaves purportedly to ‘inform’ its citizens while in fact crowding out almost all other information or points of view.

The survey’s ultimate goal, then, is to provide facts, figures and informed assessments on where broadcasting in Africa stands between “His Master’s Voice” of old and the envisaged public broadcasting service of the future. These data can then be used as a sound basis for the friends of public broadcasting to conduct and intensify their advocacy work, both among decision makers and civil society as a whole. To assist in these efforts, National Fora will be held in all participating countries to discuss the results of the survey and explore avenues and strategies for possible reform.

First results will be available from September 2008 on www.afrimap.org

* Hendrik Bussiek is the editor-in-chief of AfriMAP’s Survey on Public Broadcasting in Africa

Article VI of the 2002 Declaration of Principles on Freedom of Expression in Africa issued by the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights of the African Union:

State and government controlled broadcasters should be transformed into public service broadcasters, accountable to the public through the legislature rather than the government, in accordance with the following principles:

Ø public broadcasters should be governed by a board which is protected against interference, particularly of a political or economic nature;

Ø the editorial independence of public service broadcasters should be guaranteed;

Ø public broadcasters should be adequately funded in a manner that protects them from arbitrary interference with their budgets;

Ø public broadcasters should strive to ensure that their transmission system covers the whole territory of the country; and

Ø the public service ambit of public broadcasters should be clearly defined and include an obligation to ensure that the public receive adequate, politically balanced information, particularly during election periods.

On Apples, Seeds and Public Broadcasting

- by Dan David*

Fifteen years ago, I arrive in Johannesburg with one of the early waves of foreign journalism trainers invited to a country tensing for its first truly democratic elections. We come from public broadcasters in Denmark, the U.K., or the U.S.A. I’m with the Canadian crew from the CBC. We’re invited to help SABC transform itself from a “state-controlled” broadcaster into a “public” broadcaster and to prepare for the elections.

On the ride in to the SABC, we pass through neighbourhoods with names like Houghton, Rosebank, or Parkview. I notice the high walls around homes that are going even higher. The driver, a journalist and friend, says almost every home is fortified, armed and guarded. The walls are going up, he says, because people are afraid. Change is coming .

At the SABC, I see massive metal gates, airport-style metal detectors, and armed guards telling people to check their weapons at the door. Our friend describes the building as a fortress built by the rulers, a state institution with no need for pretense. He warns that inside, bureaucratic walls may be going up as well.

As foreign trainers, I sense that we’re viewed with a mixture of fear, ambition, and hope. Some people approach with caution, as though we are here to judge, and their jobs are on the line. Others cling, I’m warned, using adaptive colouration like chameleons hoping to blend into the background. One senior executive becomes a shadow. I’m never quite sure if he’s registering approval by his hovering presence, or if he’s taking names. My sense is the latter.

The trainees are a different story. They want change badly. Many of them are tired of being treated like lepers by the greater journalism community. They want self-respect; to feel good about their chosen professions again. They want to be recognized as journalists by their peers.

This training, and moves to change the SABC, are seen as major steps in that direction. Journalists and technicians of all colours, genders, and job descriptions, want to be part of any initiative that might breathe new life and purpose into a rigid old broadcaster.

Many of the trainees are already highly skilled and experienced. Others are less so, and relatively new to their jobs. They’re a mixed group from various programs, positions, channels, colours, languages and regions of the country. This is deliberate. It’s a way of tearing down internal walls.

During the workshops, everyone leaves job titles by the door. We nudge very different people to find something in common with each other. Junior reporters work with, and help, senior editors. Editors take time to thank a camera person. A video editor writes a story that earns applause from professional writers.

The workshops polish skills, but they also tackle ethical and moral questions that journalists around the world grapple with each day. Discussions about their tasks in the coming elections lead to debates about their roles in society, and hopes for the SABC. Something is happening here. They are becoming a team despite all of their differences.

One person says this may be the first time that anyone at SABC has respected her, encouraged her to think, took her ideas seriously. Others say they feel better, more confident about themselves and their work. People want to return to their jobs so they might push for more change from within. Before they leave, however, there’s a warning: This opportunity for change has a “best before” date.

Then, the training is over. Another group waits by the door. And then another. During these months, I’m stunned by the speed of change at the SABC. Almost overnight, an entire corporation turns itself upside-down. It creates new programs, hires new faces. The place is awash with optimism and a renewed sense of purpose.

For the next several years, I go back and forth between Canada and South Africa. As expected, the “best before” date expires. The SABC still evolves, but much more slowly than before. Corporations tend to do that.

According to most public broadcasters, the ideal is to become something that keeps everybody else honest. It would set an example and never knuckle under to pressures from advertisers, lobbyists, governments, or any single segment in society. Any public broadcaster that could achieve that, the theory goes, would set a standard against which society’s institutions might compare themselves.

The transformation of the SABC, only fifteen years old, began with similar high ideals and hopes. Some people look back at those years with longing. They may even judge the SABC by those earlier years. But, as the saying goes, reality bites. Everything changes with time.

Expectations are always highest with a public broadcaster. When people feel it has not met their expectations, they let the SABC know it. Woe to the public broadcaster that dares to violate the trust the audience has invested unto it. That is not a negative. It shows they care.

When things have gone well, there is the comfortable sound of crickets and bullfrogs. To the audience, all is well with the world. No need to rally in front of Auckland Park today. The SABC has entertained them, surprised them, challenged them to think. It made them laugh. It made them proud. It informed them about what was right and wrong with the world on this day. It showed them problems, but solutions too. In other words, it honoured the contract with the people.

You cannot ask for more from a public broadcaster that has too many audiences to serve, in too many languages, on too many channels, in too big a country, on too large a continent. Yet, you – the audience – always demand more. And so you should.

Unlike some, I don’t long for some mythical “golden age” in public broadcasting in South Africa. It doesn’t exist. It never did. Instead, I want to see what happened to those seeds we sowed back then. I want to see which ones have taken root, or have mutated into something weird and wonderful.

I want to see just how far an apple may hope to fall from the tree.

* Dan David is first a Six Nations Mohawk, bear clan, with roots in Kanehstake Territory, near Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Then he is a writer, journalist, teacher and trainer, and former construction labourer, photographer, tree surgeon, and offset printer. He’s created a wake of confused employers at (to name a few) the Aboriginal Peoples Television Network (APTN), the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), Ryerson University’s School of Journalism, and the Institute for the Advancement of Journalism (IAJ). He is currently writing two books; one slamming Canada’s Indian Act, and the other a novel based upon his father.

The above article where he recounts his visits to the SABC during its transformation, appears in the South African Mail & Guardian (25 April-1 May)