1 - Eureka Street

SOUTH AFRICABlacl< andother artsNelson Mandelaagreed to becomepatron, giving hisblessing from theportal of thecathedral. 'I welcomeyou to the Festival,'he said, 'if you arepoor or rich, if youare black orwhite, if you arelocal or foreign .'The rhetoric thesedays is one ofinclusion.Jim Davidson goes to the Grahamstown Festival and discovers SouthAfrica in microcosm.IBallarat transposed to Bacchus Marsh, only with theMAG INE A PLAC E with half the Victorian buildings of policies that could not be criticised overtly, because ofh eavy censorship, might be attacked through playssurrounding housing estates replaced by African shanties written about contemporary situations. People still talkand matchbox dwellings, and you have something rather about one which dealt with the return of a raw Afrikanerlike Grahamstown. Even so, for the 50 years to 18 70 this youth from military service in Angola to his traditionalwas South Africa's second-largest town. Kneecapped by rural family: as they listened to the dialogue, the audiencethe gold and diamond discoveries to the north, didn't know whether to laugh or cry.and then (for previous impertinence) relegated But the Festival can no longer grab the spotlight withby the Cape government to a branch railway protest, and there is a feeling abroad that it needs a newline, its clays of greatness ended abruptly. But a guiding vision: numbers attending have slipped in recentlingering sense of entitlement continued-and years. Rumours have spread that the Standard Bank, thecontinues still-to hang about the place. main sponsor, is likely to scale clown or withdraw itsIn the 1960s it was realised that the town support. In fact the bank was particularly generous inhad two great assets. It was the nodal place of enabling a very full program to be mounted for this 25thEnglish colonisation in South Africa, a place festival. From the rest of Africa were brought dancewith tap roots: at least a quarter of a million companies and an orchestra, while from Europe camepeople could be claimed as descendants of the (among others) baroque musicians, flamenco dancers, a1820 Settlers. Moreover, in the full flush of Cambridge choir, the Philippe Genty Company and thecivic pride, the pioneers had started three or Neclerlancls Dans Theater. These, combined with localfour of South Africa's most famous schools (to offerings-some 200 on the Fringe alone- gave thewhich was later added a small but reputable Festival an unusual depth of field. Moreover, lectures,university), together with other public build- film shows, poetry readings and exhibitions, to sayings. Perhaps the town, small though it was, nothing of open air markets and houses turning intocould be made the site of an annual festival. temporary restaurants, meant that the whole town wasAnd so, with the blessing of the Nationalist effectively taken over. Students from the university'sgovernment (delighted that the local English journalism department assumed their usual role ofwere earthing themselves in South Africa, producing a daily festival newspaper, and also got up arather than pining for the mother country) a satellite television channel. Nelson Manclela agreed tolarge monument with a theatre and various become patron, giving his blessing from the portal of thehalls soon arose above the town.cathedral. 'I welcome you to the Festival,' he said, 'if youcThe result is not a thing of beauty; indeed it are poor or rich, if you are black or white, if you arecould be described as a cross between a schlosslocal or foreign.' The rhetoric these clays is oneand London's Festival Hall. But it functions splendidly asof inclusion.the focal point for a festival.The early ones, like the Shakespeare Festival of 1976,ERTAINLY AN OUTSIDER was struck by the appropritencleclto be eurocentric and-within the context of ately African emphasis of much of the program. ButAfrikaner hegemony-were concerned to maintain some of the biggest set pieces of the Festival, whileEnglish-languagecultureinSouthAfrica,completewith addressing themes such as life in contemporaryits manifestation in new works. This emphasis on Johannesburg, or the return of a community to theirlanguage meant that blacks would come to be included traditional land, chose to do so partly with music. Thistoo (as eventually were Afrikaners), if not in the Main may reflect the contemporary urge towards more fluidprogram then certainly on the Fringe. And almost from art forms; but the effect was to dampen clown urgency,its beginning, the Grahamstown Festival functioned as and to turn elrama into pageant and display. This elementan important site of protest. Nationalist government of celebration does not come simply from being staged28 EUREKA STREET • SEPTEMBER 1999