Maureen Isaacson
Among South Africa’s luminaries this week, photographer David Goldblatt’s name shone the brightest. Goldblatt received the Order of Ikhamanga, Silver from President Jacob Zuma “for his excellent contribution in the portrayal of South African life through the medium of photography and for leaving an indelible mark in our country’s inclusive literary culture”.
And then TJ/Double Negative, an unusual project which includes a collection of photographs by Goldblatt and a novel by Ivan Vladislavic, won the prestigious Kraszna-Krausz Best Photography Book Award for 2011 at the Sony World Photography Awards in London on Wednesday.
Judges Mary McCartney (chairwoman), David Campany and Yuka Yamaji said: “Goldblatt and Vladislavic’s ambitious project explores the relationship between text and image. A highly effective pairing of fiction and photography, this innovative collaboration redefines the possibilities for writing on and about photography.”
Goldblatt’s photography career began in 1963. He has published sixteen photobooks and received many awards, including the Camera Austria Prize (1995), the Arles Book Prize (2004), the Hasselblad Award (2006) and the Grand-Prix International Henri Cartier-Bresson (2009).
Vladislavic too is the recipient of prestigious South African awards including the Sunday Times Fiction Prize, the University of Johannesburg Prize and the Sunday Times Alan Paton Award.
Also this week, South African author Lauren Beukes won Britain’s most prestigious Arthur C Clarke award for Zoo City(2010).
Zoo City’s cover designer, Joey Hi-Fi, won the Best Art category at the British Science Fiction awards last weekend.
Also in the news is the fact that Colonel Ahmed “Kathy” Kathrada has been inducted as a Colonel of Kentucky. When he went to Kentucky to launch the American edition of his memoir last month, Ahmed Kathrada, Memoirs, under the new title, No Bread for Mandela, with a new preface by himself, he learnt he had received this title, which is highest title of honour bestowed by the Commonwealth of Kentucky.
Commissions for Kentucky colonels are given by the governor and the secretary of state “to individuals in recognition of noteworthy accomplishments and outstanding service to a community, state or the nation”. While in the state, he received an honorary doctorate. His wife, Barbara Hogan, the former Minister of Public Enterprises, collected two honorary doctorates – one at the University of Kentucky, the other at the University of Massachusetts.
No Bread for Mandela, launched in Boston, Kentucky, Cincinnati and Washington, has sold over 5 000 copies in the US edition. It recalls his time in the Young Communist League and Fordsburg Youth Club, which he joined in 1941, “not out of any intellectual appreciation of Marxist-Leninism, or any intelligent understanding of its policies on South Africa”.
It was good enough to know that these groups were for non-racialism and the struggle against injustice and inequality. He was 12 then.
On Freedom Day Zuma bestowed National Orders – the highest order a president can bestow – on a range of artists and writers.
The Order of Ikhamanga, Bronze was awarded posthumously to Thokozani Mandlenkosi Ernest Nene “for his outstanding contribution in enriching the isiZulu language and culture, and his revolutionary invention of new lexicon in isiZulu”. Another Bronze was awarded to Masana Samuel “Sam” Nzima “for his excellent contribution in photojournalism and putting the brutality of apartheid police in the international spotlight”. He took the iconic photograph of Hector Pieterson who was shot during the Soweto uprising in 1976.
Among the writers who received the Order of Ikhamanga, Bronze were Sindiwe Magona for literature and Marlene van Niekerk for her “intellectual contribution to literary arts and culture through poetry, literature and philosophical works”.
Basil “Doc” Bikitsha received the Order of Ikhamanga, Silver, (posthumous) for his contributions to journalism and literature. Musicians Raymond Chikapa Phiri and Busisiwe Victoria “Busi” Mhlongo (posthumous) also received the award, as did Mannie Manim “for his excellent skills in theatre lighting design, administration, practical and technical contribution to theatre… and the arts”.
The Order of Ikhamanga, Gold went to Amandla Cultural Ensemble “for their contribution to the struggle against apartheid”.