Arts community responds to Xenophobia attacks
by Tavish McIntosh
On Monday May 26 a group of representatives from major stakeholders in the arts and culture sector got together to discuss the xenophobic crisis facing the country. From this meeting a civil society organisation, Artists for Africa, was formed with the aim of addressing this and related issues as a unified response from the creative industries. Identifying the unique role that artists can play in combating injustices and the unique skills that they can bring to bear on the matter, the group committed itself to assist civil society both in the immediate crisis and in the medium and long term. Like other citizens and organisations, numerous individual artists and arts organisations have given of their time and resources in the last few weeks. Artists for Africa plans to provide a mechanism for greater collective action, to encourage the arts community to utilise its unique creativity at this time and to plan and embark on further action beyond this particular crisis.
The founding committee consisted of Andrew Lamprecht, Karen Jeynes, Mandla Mbothwe, Kathy Coates, Mike van Graan (newly appointed director of the Africa Centre), Robert Weinek, Dathini Mzayiya and Farzanah Badsha.
Artists for Africa issued this statement:
'If art were to mirror our society right now, it would reflect the rainbow as a tattered farce, the African Renaissance as a bad stand-up comedy routine, the notion of ubuntu as a horror movie, and our much-admired constitution as a satire on what we have become. Given where we have come from, with Madiba's inaugural "never again" speech still ringing in our ears, and with the dream that we would be a beacon of humanity, dignity and tolerance, there can be little excuse for the sheer brutality in the violence wreaked against foreign nationals in the last few weeks.
'At the same time, we recognise the desperate conditions in which many of our fellow citizens continue to live. The horrific statistics of Aids-related deaths, of victims of violent crime and of infant mortality bear testimony to a people brutalised by the genocide of neglect and dehumanised by the third force of poverty.
'We call upon the many ordinary citizens who have rallied in response to the current humanitarian crisis on an unprecedented scale to translate these efforts into concerted action that will revive the non-racial project, hold accountable those responsible for delivery and help to build a truly better society for all.
'We call upon our colleagues in the arts community to employ their creativity in the service of all our people to speak truth to power and to continue to remind us of our dreams. It is time for us as citizens to reassert our central role in our democracy, to reclaim ownership of our ideals and to practice our common humanity.'
Elsewhere, the South African Coalition for Cultural Diversity (SACCD) expressed its horror at the events that have unfolded in Johannesburg - and elsewhere in the country - during the last few weeks. They called on all leaders to mount a visible campaign of intervention in the communities that are currently traumatised by this violence. The SACCD is a recently formed civil society body representing the interests of a wide range of membership-based organisations in the cultural sector in South Africa. It has a specific mandate to address issues related to the implementation of the UN Convention on the Diversity of Cultural Expressions, to which the South African government is a signatory.
