SA - POST COLONIAL TRENDS

AFRICAN CULTURE ON THE RETREAT by Tswagare Namane

The fact that the European derived cultures of South Africa remain as strong as they are in post Apartheid South Africa is not just an accident of history. English continues to enjoy the prima donnastatus in the constellation of languages, with even some among the indigenous population abandoning their own for it. There are those who say Afrikaans is now on a free fall due to deliberate policies to kill it off. Some on the other hand say Afrikaans is actually finally finding its rightful place with the removal of the artificial enhancements of the past. And yet relative to African languages die taal continues to thrive and prosper.

The languages are where they are today because of continuing heavy investment in them in the form of newspaper and other media advertisement, grants and bursaries to universities and educational institutions, sponsorships to activities and events, etc. Their creators of culture, in the form of artists and practitioners, relative to those in the indigenous domain, cannot be said to be atrophying at all. In fact, English has never been on such a roller coaster before, as the new black elite increasingly becomes proselytized to it. Among African middle-class children it is now the language of choice in cross-cultural situations, much to the detriment of the previously naturally evolving indigenous-basedlingua franca, the so-called tsotsi taal of Gauteng, with its numerous variants across the country. Perhaps the relative wane of Kwaito in relation to Hip Hop amongst youngsters is a worthwhile indicator. English is of course also the global imperial language of the day.

The policies of the new government have done very little in reality to buttress the situation of African cultures and in their promotion into a unified sustainable front. The widespread dip in moral decency and ethics is indicative of the extent of damage to our cultural identity under the might of global forces that some have termed cultural imperialism. Through its continuing tilt towards the traditionally privileged sectors of our society – in the form of theatres, museums and other institutions and events – current government practice is failing to afford noticeable relief to the most vulnerable . The fact, for instance, that under the Cultural Institutions Act, institutions that are benefitting predominantly as declared institutions are based in formerly whites-only areas, is a telling example. These favoured institutions, in spite of the claim that they are now transformed – which in ideological terms means very little – continue to do little in rendering themselves relevant to the recovery and development of local cultures. This is pretty much the trend in general funding practice.

The leading Senegalese thinker, late Cheikh Anta Diop, said in his The African Origin of Civilization, “The history of Africa will remain suspended in air and cannot be written correctly until African historians connect it with the history of Egypt.” This highlights the fact that Africa has an authentic history and a civilization worth its own. What this means in the end is that Africans, if they are to move forward, must borrow from the West according to their own terms and not those imposed on them by a history forced on them. This, of course, involves their excavating of their authentic identity and in accordance with its dictates moving forward to their true destiny. The “new” South Africa seems to be moving in any direction but this.

SABC Television provides a vantage viewpoint into the direction of events. Looking at programmes on a typical Sunday, for instance, you would think this country is anything but African. Only a total of 15minutes is dedicated to looking at spirituality from an African perspective – this would be on the programme, Imani, which on certain days somehow even fails to air. Programmes like Roots, reserved for indigenous music, look more like a zoo parade; which inevitably forces one to ask – is African music not complete by itself, without the distracting dancing; just where does one draw the line as far as African music is concerned? Why is it that the work of such serious folk musicians like Madala Kunene and even Phillip Tabane, whose style you could term Afro-Blues, does not qualify as African music? Who decides the boundaries here? There is no music in the world which is as segmented as African music on the SABC; in the process borderline artists who cannot be pigeonholed become sacrificial lambs. On this particular programme, it seems the underlying intention is always to lend the music a tribal spin. Many other programmes on the “public broadcaster” do more harm than good to the African sensibility.

Africans in this country, before they start to even think of themselves as South African, must first endeavour to find their true self. This involves far more than the habitual hollow claims to ubuntu and the attendant mechanical ritualizing; it means a fundamental effort to reconnect with our ancestral source in East Africa, and an opening up to a far reaching invigoration of our sense of self. The revivalism in their African identity among African-Americans has to a large extent been lent impetus by the development of Black Studies at universities and colleges around the USA, where in intense research projects mountains in myths and falsities continue to be lifted from the subject of African History; boosting Afro-American culture and lifting the esteem and confidence of its members to participate freely and competently in the first world economy. In other words Baraka Obama is not just an anomaly of history; he is a manifestation of the struggle of a long oppressed minority to find its true self and lift itself from the yoke of subjugation.