Zebra

In a piece that has drawn a large amount of comment since being published in the current Mail & Guardian, Richard Calland finds himself astonished by the airless atmosphere that Parliament served up for Jacob Zuma’s state of the nation address. The ANC’s gone cold on its man, he writes:

For 15 years I have wended my way up through the labyrinth of corridors and stairs to the press box high up above the Speaker’s lectern in the National Assembly to attend the State of the Nation address — “Sona”, as it is now jocularly known. I don’t think I have missed one since 1996.

As with attending a live football or cricket game, there are advantages and disadvantages to being there. All you see of the president delivering his Sona is the top of his head — if you are lucky and can lean over the balcony from the front row.

His face can be seen on the big screens adjacent to the press box — but then you might as well be at home watching it on TV. But if you are there, you can gauge the atmosphere, the political temperature.

• Read the complete article (and scroll down for the lengthy comments list)

Book details

• Anatomy of South Africa: Who Holds the Power? by Richard Calland
  EAN: 9781868729036
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When word went out that veteran journalist Marianne Thamm would be interviewing Antjie Krog on her most recent book, Begging to Be Black, on the same day that the country celebrated the twentieth anniversary of Nelson Mandela’s liberation from prison, Kalk Bay Books received some 200 emails accepting! Fully a half an hour before the much-loved author arrived the bookshop was filled to capacity.

Those who braved a long stand in the late summer heat were not disappointed by the frank and funny discussion. True to her inimitable form, Krog engaged the topic of what it means to be living in South Africa with a different dominant hegemony with wry humour, irreverent observation and her insights that range from profoundly compassionate to utterly withering.

Thamm reflected how that historic day had marked the formal beginning of the country’s transformation at every level, political, social and economic, and less obivously, psychic and spiritual. She said, “Transformation, as we know, is an ongoing process, but if your cup is already full, it’s a problematic journey, and almost, a non-existent one.”

She said, “Krog’s work over twenty years prods, provokes and excavates at a deeply personal and metaphorical level what it means to be a South African, in particular a white South African, in this new transforming landscape. Few other people dare to go where Antjie Krog has gone.”

The dialogue launched straight into the vexing nature – “irritating” said Thamm – of the title that many have found disturbing.

Krog said, “It wants us to talk about what we mean when we say ‘black’. It’s a plea to understand to what we should be changing. It’s an assumption that we have to change.” She referred to a conversation with the Dutch writer, Adriaan van Dis: if you could take a pill that would make you black, would you take it?”

“When you start thinking about this,” said Krog, “people are shocked to think that we should become ‘black’. We like and prefer to be white. Like men like and prefer to be male. When I was a child my mother said that if I ran through the rainbow, I’d become a boy. I spent my days trying to run through the rainbow, but none of my brothers ever wanted to be a girl. Why is that? It’s the same with straight people, which of you would take a pill to take a pill to make you gay? Who wants to join the less powerful group?”

Thamm noted that much of the contemporary discussion about identity and belonging is happening amongst Afrikaans speaking South Africans. She referred to Max du Preez’s “being confounded by Antjie’s excessive handwringing about her white skin, her overdeveloped feelings of guilt about apartheid and colonialism, her over-romanticisation of Africa’s black people and her naivety about politics of the region.”

She mentioned that Du Preez had said he was happy with who he is as a white Afrikaner. The question of ‘blackness’ had never occurred to him. “Perhaps,” she said, “Max’s cup is already full?”

Krog responded that it wasn’t only Max, it was all the “old lefty ooms” spouting the tired jargon of women: “you’re crazy, you’re naïve, you’re angry”. For her, English is no longer the language of white English speaking people only. “When I write Eglish, I no longer think I’m in conversation with white English speakers only. English non-fiction is a conversation with the country. It comes to me through English.”

The candour with which people asked questions of Krog implies that perhaps there is an open-heartedness to pursuing the ongoing challenges of connection, transformation and apology. Maybe there are those for whom the cup is not yet full.

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Book details

• Begging to be Black by Antjie Krog
  EAN: 9781770220706
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Political commentator Richard Calland’s 2006 book Anatomy of South Africa dissected the pre-Polokwane power relations that held sway in the country. He’s now working on a new book that maps the state of play under Jacob Zuma. Calland gives us a preview of his thinking in this recent column on Zuma’s still somewhat inchoate power web:

Taking stock after nearly eight months in office, what is the “State of Zuma”? Because I had low expectations, he has exceeded them. I had low expectations not because I am cynical or because of Zuma’s limitations per se, but because I have learned to be realistic about what an individual political leader can do with problems of the scale, density and complexity of the modern age.

As he is bound, therefore, to fail, does it matter how badly? Which calls to mind Toby Ziegler’s recall in the iconic West Wing series of the exchange between Princes Richard and Geoffrey in The Lion in Winter as they hear King Henry approach their dungeon: “You fool! As if it matters how a man falls down,” says Geoffrey. And Richard says, “When the fall’s all that’s left, it matters a great deal.”

Zuma is failing rather well — or better than expected. With the ignoble exceptions of advocate Lawrence Mushwana to the human rights commission and Menzi Simelane as National Director of Public Prosecutions, his appointments have been solid — unspectacular and largely uncontroversial.

• Read the complete article in the Mail & Guardian

Book details

• Anatomy of South Africa: Who Holds the Power? by Richard Calland
  EAN: 9781868729036
  Find this book with BOOK Finder!

An in-depth look at Krog’s themes and thrusts in Begging to be Black, Zvomuya’s carefully-plotted interview is a must-read:

The book asks whether it is possible to “make a moral decision within an immoral context”. How do you counter the grand national narrative that recognises two sets of morality: one black and another white? “A white life has meaning only for whites, while a black life means nothing for both black and white.” Small wonder a teacher at a black school asks: “My question is what do I teach children who are not scared of death?”

Riven by such conflicting feelings, extending right to the personal, Krog tries to locate a different framework of morality that admits the interconnectedness (Krog’s favourite phrase) of humanity that finds itself in a world in which different sets of values fight for dominance.

These questions take her back to King Moshoeshoe (1787-1868), founder of the Basotho nation. In an interview with the author in Johannesburg, I remark on the strangeness of that choice. King Shaka would have been the conventional option, I hazard.

• Read the complete article in the Mail & Guardian

Book details

• Begging to be Black by Antjie Krog
  EAN: 9781770220706
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Antjie Krog’s Cape Town Press Club launch for Begging to Be Black – the third volume in a trilogy that began with Country of My Skull – centred on the concepts of right and wrong in South Africa.

Krog asserted that our perceptions of what’s right and what’s wrong remain warped by our country’s warped history – citing the Tony Yengeni corruption case as an example:

“I know that one thinks the only way to save this country is to create a non-tolerance for corruption … But I am concerned that the strong daily emphasis on yet another example of corruption leaves us with only a vocabulary of non-tolerance.”

Krog said when the scandal around Tony Yengeni broke, a part of her wanted him to be contextualised in a space which also understood his past – not only as an activist but also the specific hurt and damage he experienced at the hands of his torturer.

“What are the consequences in one’s psyche when one’s lived through that?

“I am not saying he should be regarded as not guilty. But shouldn’t he be treated with an understanding of the complicated and complexness and the f****d-upness of oneself inside?”

• Read the complete article at IOL News

Book details

• Begging to be Black by Antjie Krog
  EAN: 9781770220706
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Tiki Dickson, co-author of Talking Balls: A Collection of Light-Hearted Writings about Sport, introduced the book humourously at its launch earlier this week – a crowded event hosted by BookWorld in Pietermaritzburg – saying that she and John Bishop wrote it so that its profits could pay for John’s daughter’s wedding next year. Returning to a sporting theme, she averred that it was up to the readers to decide if the authors “should be red-carded, or awarded the try”.

Andy Capostagno, the well-known sports journalist and a contributor to the book, carried on with the puns where Dickson left off, riffing on the book’s title, saying that if had just been about rugby it would have been called “funny-shaped balls” – and if it were about running, “powdered balls”.

The book includes pieces not just by professional journalists and writers like Capostagno, but also by a few enthusiastic amateurs, many of whom were in the audience on the night. It does not claim to be comprehensive or representative in any respect; as its title suggests, it is a carefully-chosen sampling from the lighter side of sports writing.

Taking over from Capostagno, co-author John Bishop thanked his book club, which he called his “sounding board”, and commended his book to them with a wink. He also mentioned his indebtedness to Dickson, who was the “driving force” behind getting the book into print. Bishop was well-supported at the launch by his colleagues from the Witness (he has worked there as Sports Editor for 35 years). The mood at the gathering was cheerful, and many copies of the book were sold, hopefully setting the trend for times to come – and contributing to the defrayment of those wedding costs!

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Book details

• Talking Balls: A Collection of Light-Hearted Writings About Sport by John Bishop, Tiki Dickson
  EAN: 9781770220683
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The entire political landscape has changed since Max du Preez first published his acclaimed book, Pale Native: Memories of a Renegade Reporter, in 2003.

This revised, updated edition has new chapters on the ‘”bloodless coup” of Polokwane, the demise (and an updated assessment) of Thabo Mbeki, the Zuma and Malema Show, the rise of Cope and the 2009 election, the country’s slide into systemic corruption and the spectacular crash of the SABC, as well as the controversies in Afrikaner culture and politics (the Free State University racist video, the De la Rey song and the language debate at Stellenbosch University).

The book will also be published in Afrikaans for the first time, under the title Dwars: Mymeringe van ’n Bleek Boorling.

A must-read from one of South Africa’s top opinion makers.

Book details

• Pale Native: Memories of a Renegade Reporter by Max du Preez
  EAN: 9781770220607
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• Dwars: Mymeringe van ’n bleek boorling deur Max du Preez
  EAN: 9781770220560
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A fascinating glimpse into the life of advertising leader John Hunt, which concludes with the tale of how Hunt’s agency helped independent newspaper The Zimbabwean attract new audiences earlier this year:

WHEN TBWA Hunt Lascaris relocated to Sandown last February, the movers broke down co-chairman John Hunt’s desk and an electronic bug fell out.

It was a legacy of an era when he worked on the African National Congress’s (ANC’s) campaign for the 1994 elections, when bomb threats and “third force” ops sabotaged the path of change for even the most maverick agency in the advertising industry.

“The bug was rusted and long out of service, and it disappeared with the rest of the junk that’s discarded when you move on,” says Hunt. “I should have kept it and had it framed as a memento of those crazy days. Then again, times right now are just as interesting. Change means new ideas, and if they’re any good they always make people nervous.”

At 54, the kid who dropped out of Wits university by lunchtime on his first day still lives by his instincts when it comes to making decisions. Picasso could draw a complete picture — a bull, a horse — with a single line, and Hunt’s book, The Art of the Idea (Zebra Press), takes an equally direct approach to finding simple ideas upon which megabuck advertising campaigns are created.

• Complete article in the Business Day

Book details

• The Art of the Idea: And How It Can Change Your Life by John Hunt
  Book homepage
  EAN: 9781770220676
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Photo courtesy Business Day

Mervyn Sloman, proprietor of The Book Lounge – which hosted the launch of Andrew Brown’s new novel, Refuge, at the Centre for the Book in Cape Town yesterday – opened his remarks by citing the sales figures of another Brown. Dan Brown, that is, whose The Da Vinci Code and The Lost Symbol have collectively sold into the gazillions.

That may be impressive, said Sloman, but tonight we are gathered at an altogether more significant event, the international launch of a new work by Andrew Brown. A pause. Then, to much cheering from the Centre’s packed main hall, “The better Brown”. Sloman announced the start of the The Better Brown Campaign, an educational initiative targeting booksellers – but more on that later.

Brown’s book incorporates a meditation on the plight of refugees in South Africa, who have never exactly been warmly welcomed here, and who suffered great losses during the spate of xenophobic attacks in 2008 – violence and intimidation that have continued to this day. The author accordingly desired that his launch be not just about a single book, but that it should feature a tapestry of voices, the voices of those who speak out against nationalist bigotry and violence against those who are different.

Enter MaAfrika Tikkun and the organisation’s Lizeka Rantsane, who introduced a dozen young women from the NGO, there to perform “Hold Me Tight, Fear Not My Skin”, a powerful, choreographed depiction of xenophobic violence and a call to action to promote greater understanding and the peaceful working out of differences. Here’s a clip from the opening scene:

Video: “My name is…” scene from “Hold Me Tight, Fear Not My Skin”

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Another voice at the launch that attracted that admiration of the audience was Dale Yudelman’s, which spoke silently through his photographs, arranged around the room. The diptychs – snaps of personal ads placed in public spaces like supermarkets by non-South Africans looking for work, paired with haunting, black and white imagery – comprised part of Yudelman’s “I Am” exhibition and reinforced the evening’s central message about our collective humanity.

Every event must have a main act, however, and this came with Brown’s turn at the podium. He first read from Refuge – a passage in which the main character says to his (hired) Nigerian lover that what he lacks, in his life, is curiosity (the acoustics of the hall weren’t great, but give this clip a listen):

Video: Andrew Brown reads from Refuge

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Brown segued from that passage into a story about how, twenty-five years ago, he stood on a hilltop in Tanzania, an exile who had fled apartheid South Africa after being released from Pollsmoor prison, and contemplated his country’s future. He was not particularly sanguine then – but things turned out differently from his expectations.

Brown continued: he’d recently returned to Tanzania on a motorcycle trip – but found that he wasn’t able to unfurl the South African flag that he’d taken with him, because he was too ashamed by our xenophobic episodes to put it proudly on display.

What can be done to thwart the expectations of so many Africans that last year’s violence has set? he asked. “We have to find our voice again, because terrible things happen when people stay silent.”

We’ve gone back into our shells, he continued: this week, for instance, “community eviction notices” were served on Burundians living in Du Noon. “Refuge is my small voice of outrage. We must use our fear,” he said – fear being a cognate, almost, for curiosity, its dark cousin in our quiver of emotions – “and use it to regain what we have lost” as a rainbow nation.

Brown thanked the Nigerians who had let him into their world when he was writing Refuge, and singled out his editor, Martha Evans, for especial praise, saying her name deserved to be on the book’s cover as much as his.

Back to Mervyn Sloman. To conclude the formalities, he outlined the main points of The Better Brown Campain. There are only four, and they’re quite simple:

• Step one: Buy the book.
• Step two: Read the book.
• Step three: Tell your friends, family, colleagues and pets about the book.
• Step four: (The most important step.) Go to a bookshop, find a copy of Dan Brown’s The Lost Symbol, take it to the counter, thrust it toward the bookseller and say, “I want the better Brown, Andrew Brown, he has a new book called Refuge.” Hold the bookseller’s eye. Make sure he or she gets the message. Pause, before you leave the store, and say, “I’m watching you. I’ll be back for the better Brown.”

Simple, not so? And a great way to reinforce the fact that, in Andrew Brown, South Africa has a writer who can take the nation on to the world stage.

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Book details

• Refuge by Andrew Brown
  EAN: 9781770220621
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As an award-winning playwright, author, and Worldwide Creative Director of advertising agency TBWA, John Hunt has witnessed again and again the power of original thinking to transform both companies and individuals.

In The Art of the Idea, his new book, Hunt addresses everyone from the global boardroom to the man on the street, bridging the gap with ease. Few can argue with Hunt’s claim that it is ideas that move the world forward, and he refreshingly articulates that anyone can play: there is no hierarchy to original thinking.

The Art of the Idea demonstrates how to create space so ideas can breathe.

Unassuming, original, and accessible, the publication is accompanied by 20 original artworks by the internationally acclaimed South African artist Sam Nhlengethwa. The Art of the Idea grants permission to trust your instincts, endure initial ridicule, and practice thinking as a team sport.

Whatever your idea is about ideas, this book will change it.

Watch a video that describes one of the book’s core concepts, the notion that there are two kinds of people in this world: sunrise people and sunset people:

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Key Art of the Idea links

• The Art of the Idea home
• The Art of the Idea on Facebook

About the author

John Hunt is an award winning playwright, author and Worldwide Creative Director of TBWA. Keen to celebrate all forms of creativity, he co-founded globally renowned TBWA\Hunt Lascaris with the mantra “Life’s too short to be mediocre”.

In 1993 Hunt was intimately involved in Nelson Mandela’s election campaign. Although rather harrowing at the time, this unique moment in history ushered a battered South Africa into the warm light of democracy.

In April 2003 John moved to TBWA’s New York headquarters to assume the role of Worldwide Creative Director. Here he helped reshape the network to celebrate original thinking and ground-breaking ideas. In the last few years TBWA has been voted International Network of the Year on numerous occasions (most recently in 2008).

John has since returned to South Africa from where he continues his Worldwide role.

Book details

• The Art of the Idea (And how it can change your life) by John Hunt
  Book homepage
  EAN: 9781770220676
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