Cape Town - Yvonne Chaka Chaka, not known for being unsure of what her story is or how to tell it, summed up a session she was attending on “Telling Africa’s Stories” at the World Economic Forum on Africa by saying: “When I look in the mirror in the morning I say to myself, Every freckle is in it’s place. I have a story, and I am going to be the one who tells it.”
The popular South African singer advised Africans who are looking for platforms and audiences for their stories to keep knocking on those doors.
Medical doctor-turned-spin doctor Garth Japhet added a dose of patience to the prescription. The global social entrepreneur who is founder and chief executive of Heartlines said Africans all had to “think the long game” in terms of reclaiming and changing the African narrative.
Vuyo Jack, acting director-general in the Department of Arts and Culture, standing in for Minister Nathi Mthethwa, said transformation was happening in some areas and gave examples of local television series Isibaya, which he described as a local Romeo and Juliet, and other stories being presented about “our rural culture, the rituals people go through”.
He said the fact that these programmes “talk in our language”, thereby expressing certain intricacies that cannot be captured in a European language, triggered something and made us say, “Let’s look at our stories.”
He said that the department’s aim was to create a sustainable ecosystem that allowed people to define themselves culturally and to allow this to be disseminated. This process of people reclaiming their story, he said, enhanced social cohesion and nation building.
He noted the added responsibility of being “in the free era”, the era when we can define who we wanted to be, adding that if we didn’t make the most of that opportunity “the world would be robbed”.
David Adjaye, whose architecture practice has offices in New York, London and Accra, also noted that responsibility when he said that thanks to the previous generation doing a “great job” we had freedom but now needed to manifest that freedom.
Adjaye - whose project, the National Museum of African-American History and Culture, will soon open on the National Mall in Washington DC – said Africans needed to be confident of what their image and aesthetics were, and shouldn’t “ethnicise” themselves to placate others.
In terms of foreign templates and designs being imposed on African cities, Adjaye said there was a specific geography and way of life in Africa and if designers and architects were not working to transform the specific geometry to sustain the particular communities and culture they were just building fantasies.
Another perspective on the idea of authenticity was given at question-time by a young man from Uganda in the audience who prefaced his question with a little bit about himself. He said he had grown up in a refugee camp. When he came to South Africa he had met Ahmed Kathrada and had told him his story. Rivonia treason trialist and political prisoner Kathrada responded by asking him how he would tell his story to his children in a way that would not make them want to exact revenge.
ANA