Nkosana Sibuyi

Posted by Nkosana Sibuyi: 22 May 2011

It can be inspiring, moving, even terrifying, to observe a reflection of an actual human centred development story. Humankind is shaped by myriad of consciousness, orientations and world views. These paradigms of thinking shape who we were, who we are and we seek to become in our existential life. A number of icons, scholars and the intelligentsia played a cardinal role in the emancipation of South Africa from the yoke of apartheid colonialism, defined as the Colonialism of Special Type.

The South African sensibility emerged at the official launch of Winnie The Opera at the State Theatre on 28 April 2011. This refers to Winnie Nomzamo Madikizela Mandela, the mother of the nation and the former wife of President Nelson Mandela. Winnie The Opera depicts a discourse of an extraordinary life lived in diverse dimensional circumstances in the ordinary life of the titanic struggle for liberation. This life, to a remarkable degree, was defined by sweat, blood and tears. Central to The Opera is an acknowledgement, recognition and appreciation of the role Mama Winnie played to give a living profile to South Africa’s pursuit for freedom.

She has had to contend with languishing in solitary confinement, excommunicated to Brandfort at the Free State, formation of the Mandela United Football Club and appearance at the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), affectionately known as the Winnie Hearings. Critical to note, the arrest of her husband former President Nelson Mandela, bequeathed to her and the country the significance of heightening consciousness and the collective struggle for human emancipation from the bondage of apartheid chains.

Undoubtedly, Mama Winnie, guided by the four pillars of the liberation struggle, ensured that the fight gravitates away from liquidity to solidity. In a sense, working within collective of the ANC, she was a leaf of the same branch. She was part of the roots and branches of the same tree watered by the liquid from which South Africa gravitated towards solidity ushered in on 27 April 1994. From this standpoint, Mama Winnie represents a body of knowledge and experience in which the world had to be defined, re-imagined and reconfigured in a manner that defines the soul of the nation.

The ushering in of democracy in South Africa bears testimony to the fundamental role she played in constructing a society all of us must be proud of. She played the orchestra to strengthen democracy and uphold the Constitution for the country in a manner that is unmatched and unmistakable. In a sense, the vibrancy and integrity of South Africa’s democratic epoch takes us closer to the notion of participatory democracy, interactive governance and making leadership more accessible and transparent.

What is novel about them is how they lay bare and equally acknowledge the worries, wants, freedom, poverty, equality, uncertainty and torments of integrity, in the celebration of freedom. This is a concrete expression of the permanence and temporality of affirming memory as an instrument of remembrance and non-amnesia. History and memory offer all solutions, alpha and omega (beginning and an end) that protect their relevance, appropriateness and value.

It is difficult to resist the implication that the phenomenon of Mama Winnie Mandela and her role in the liberation struggle. Professor Njabulo Ndebele’s book, Cry of Winnie Mandela is an outstanding book that depicts the four women persona whose lives have been defined by waiting for their husbands to return, watched by libidinous neighbours for signs of faithlessness. The rigour of waiting consequently led them to an imagined conversation with Winnie Mandela, whose existential hegemonic life has been marked by 27 years waiting for her husband, Nelson Mandela. Contrary to Samuel Becket book, it was not a Waiting for Godot, a comedy about someone who neither comes nor arrives.

This is a serious condition in the well-being of the people, nation and the world. For Mama Winnie, it was perhaps an expression of a tragi-comedy. To put it bluntly, it was a concrete expression of poetic justice.

Do we play gluttonously or do we project our collective objectives to construct a society that would have laid a basis for the ushering of a national democratic project? What does Winnie: The Opera seek to communicate? What is the message inherent in the reiteration and depiction of the role she played in the liberation struggle? In what way will The Opera contribution in creating a new person in accordance with the new democratic values and principles? We need to be aware her meaningful contribution is neither about human physiology nor human frailties. It is about human philosophy. It is about human civilisation. It is about human dignity and integrity. It signifies a new beginning, a revival and wonders of democracy to reflect the new spirit of inclusivity. The past Mama Winnie inherited and the future created takes us closer to the notion of “moments of consciousness going through their life kaleidoscopically” as captured by Buchi Emecheta’s Joys of Motherhood.

Nnu Ego is a woman character created in Emecheta’s book, who did all in her power to shape her history, destiny and translate shared values to lend sustainability to the possible or next future. Similarly, the agonized personal testimony that Mama Winnie went through can best be equated with Icarus, one of the scenarios sketched out in the Mont Fleur Scenarios exercise in the early 1990s. The scenario reflects on broader insights of the dangers of a new government implementing populist economic policy. Icarus was not a random scenario. It is a product of reading, analysis and comprehension of the balance of forces at the time, public messages and their possible meanings, which was to inform a possible future development for the country.

Nigerian Poet, Chris Abani, on the occasion of the 2007 TED talk said something profound about the African chronicles as stories told by Africans themselves. He intimated on the “terms of humanity we bring to complicate every story.” There is something defining and eponymous about the experience, interpreting and understanding these stories. It must be the uprightness, truthfulness, relevance and appropriateness of the speeches that express them. Each voice is an orchestra mindful of balancing and appreciating the centripetal and centrifugal forces inherent in their aspirations, desires and contradictions that define the nation. The greatest risk is for these stories to be given a cold shoulder, misunderstood and lay a basis for the emergence of historical amnesia.

Winnie The Opera is a true South African story. Our future had been stolen for some many years. Our past remains our future and home. Our past represents, hope, beauty, growth and development. Through our past, our greatness is significantly enhanced. Humankind’s contribution to life protects the value and power of words and memory. They carry a monumental weight. Interestingly, at the end of the Opera, Mama Winnie Mandela emerged and roared “Amaaaandla!! Long live the spirit of Nelson Mandela Long live”

She expressed her thanksgiving and appreciation to the Minister of Arts and Culture, Mr Paul Mashatile, Minister of Justice and Constitutional Development, Mr Jeff Radebe and her “little sister Graca Machel”. She quoted what Nelson Mandela said in 1993 about the significance of musical instruments and implored the audience to pick up the spear for the future is heavily reliant on the preservation of memory as a cornerstone for human development.

“My story is a South African story. We never fought the struggle to compromise our goals. When we know the past, we will never fear the future,” she added. She expressed thanksgiving to her children and all South Africans to have made her potent and strong to celebrate 75 years in September 2011.

“It is for the first time I get accolades in my country,” she continued. The fact that she was receiving accolades from her country, South Africa for the first time could be attributed to many suppositions and subtexts. First, it is incumbent upon humankind to be humble in her greatness. Second, it could be concluded that this amnesia about her contribution was deliberately aimed at lessening the meaningful contribution she has made in human emancipation. Third, this was a well-considered and well informed stratagem to, like former present Thabo Mbeki, the late Miriam Makeba to erases her memory from the annals and façade of history. Mongane Wally Serote’s poem For Don M. – Banned’s moving verse intimates that “but seasons come to pass”.

Fourth, contrary to the centrifugal attempts, The Opera affirms the centrality of memory and her contribution in the liberation struggle. Lastly and married to the above, Song is a narrative to free the potential of South Africans in all its manifestations (social, culture, politics, economics). Having acted in theatre on the occasion of the Grahamstown Arts Festival in 1997 one has a firm understanding of the germane nature of song and theatre in shaping humankind’s orientation, consciousness and philosophy.

The historic loyalty to the national liberation movement is neither an art of the possible nor an art of fantasy. It must be driven by integrity, transparency and capabilities in governance, political strategy and tactics. There is something immediate and remarkable about witnessing this real life story. It communicates a message, It is a call to action for South Africa not to be amnesiac for history will not absolve us. Undoubtedly, “we must be humble in our greatness.”