Manchester Poetry Prize 2012

First prize: £10,000 – Deadline for entries: 31st August 2012

 

“Asking for a batch of poems rather than a single entry allows judges to look beyond competency and control in writing and to reward other virtues, such as risk-taking, inventiveness and sustained achievement.” Simon Armitage, Chair of Judges 2010

Under the direction of Poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy, the Manchester Writing School at Manchester Metropolitan University is launching the third Manchester Poetry Prize – a major international literary competition celebrating excellence in creative writing.

The Manchester Poetry Prize will award a cash prize of £10,000* to the writer of the best poems submitted. The competition is open internationally to both new and established writers aged 16 or over; there is no upper age limit.

All entrants are asked to submit a portfolio of three to five poems (total maximum length: 120 lines). The poems can be on any subject, and written in any style or form, but must be new work, not previously published, or submitted for consideration elsewhere during this competition.

By establishing Manchester as the focal point for a major international award, the Manchester Poetry Prize and Manchester Writing School at MMU continue to celebrate the city’s substantial cultural and literary achievements, enhancing its reputation as one of Europe’s most adventurous and creative spaces. The prize will be awarded at a gala ceremony hosted as part of the 2012 Manchester Literature Festival.

• To enter the competition online, click here.

• To download a printable entry form for postal submission, click here.

If you have any queries or would like to be sent a printed entry pack for postal submission, please contact:

James Draper
Project Manager: The Manchester Writing School
Department of English
Manchester Metropolitan University
Roasmond Street West
Off Oxford Road
Manchester
M15 6LL
UNITED KINGDOM
Telephone: +44 (0) 161 247 1787
E-mail: j.draper@mmu.ac.uk

 

* Terms and Conditions apply.

 

"The Greatest Poet

of the 20th Century

In Any Language"

–Celebrating Chilean Poet

Pablo Neruda

 Chilean poet and Nobel laureate Pablo Neruda would have turned 100 years old this week. We speak with poet and professor Martin Espada who teaches creative writing, Latino poetry, and the work of Pablo Neruda. He recently returned from Chile where he was invited to participate in the celebration of the Neruda centenary.

Chilean poet and Nobel laureate Pablo Neruda would have turned 100 years old this week. Fellow Nobel Prize-winner Gabriel Garcia Marquez called Pablo Neruda the "greatest poet of the 20th century — in any language." This week, many Chilean towns and cities have been staging poetry readings to mark Neruda’s centenary.

Born the son of a railway worker, Neruda began writing poetry when he was 14 years old and didn’t stop until his death in 1973.

A long-standing Communist Party supporter, he died less than two weeks after Gen Augusto Pinochet overthrew Salvador Allende’s government in a U.S.-backed coup. His funeral became the first public show of opposition to Chile’s military rulers and his work was banned until 1990 under the Pinochet regime.

In his Memoirs, Neruda writes: "Poetry is a deep inner calling in man; from it came liturgy, the psalms, and also the content of religions. The poet confronted nature’s phenomena and in the early ages called himself a priest, to safeguard his vocation...Today’s social poet is still a member of the earliest order of priests. In the old days he made his pact with the darkness, and now he must interpret the light."

• Martin Espada, poet and professor at the University of Massachusetts Amherst where he teaches creative writing, Latino poetry, and the work of Pablo Neruda. Sandra Cisneros calls Espada the "Pablo Neruda of North American authors." Others have called him "The Latino Poet of his Generation." He is the winner of the American Book Award, among other honors. He is the Poet Laureate of Northampton, Massachusetts. He recently returned from Chile where he was invited to participate in the celebration of the Neruda centenary.

>via: http://www.democracynow.org/2004/7/16/the_greatest_poet_of_the_20th

__________________________ 

 

Pablo Neruda,

The Art of Poetry No. 14

Interviewed by Rita Guibert

 

 

“I have never thought of my life as divided between poetry and politics,” Pablo Neruda said in his September 30, 1969, acceptance speech as the Chilean Communist Party candidate for the presidency. “I am a Chilean who for decades has known the misfortunes and difficulties of our national existence and who has taken part in each sorrow and joy of the people. I am not a stranger to them, I come from them, I am part of the people. I come from a working-class family . . . I have never been in with those in power and have always felt that my vocation and my duty was to serve the Chilean people in my actions and with my poetry. I have lived singing and defending them.”

Because of a divided Left, Neruda withdrew his candidacy after four months of hard campaigning and resigned in order to support a Popular Unity candidate. This interview was conducted in his house at Isla Negra in January 1970 just before his resignation.

Isla Negra (Black Island) is neither black nor an island. It is an elegant beach resort forty kilometers south of Valparaiso and a two-hour drive from Santiago. No one knows where the name comes from; Neruda speculates about black rocks vaguely shaped like an island which he sees from his terrace. Thirty years ago, long before Isla Negra became fashionable, Neruda bought—with the royalties from his books—six thousand square meters of beachfront, which included a tiny stone house at the top of a steep slope. “Then the house started growing, like the people, like the trees.”

Neruda has other houses—one on San Cristobal Hill in Santiago and another in Valparaiso. To decorate his houses he has scoured antique shops and junkyards for all kinds of objects. Each object reminds him of an anecdote. “Doesn’t he look like Stalin?” he asks, pointing to a bust of the English adventurer Morgan in the dining room at Isla Negra. “The antique dealer in Paris didn’t want to sell it to me, but when he heard I was Chilean, he asked me if I knew Pablo Neruda. That’s how I persuaded him to sell it.”

It is at Isla Negra where Pablo Neruda, the “terrestrial navigator,” and his third wife, Matilde (“Patoja,” as he affectionately calls her, the “muse” to whom he has written many love poems), have established their most permanent residence.

Tall, stocky, of olive complexion, his outstanding features are a prominent nose and large brown eyes with hooded eyelids. His movements are slow but firm. He speaks distinctly, without pomposity. When he goes for a walk—usually accompanied by his two chows—he wears a long poncho and carries a rustic cane.

At Isla Negra Neruda entertains a constant stream of visitors and there is always room at the table for last-minute guests. Neruda does most of his entertaining in the bar, which one enters through a small corridor from a terrace facing the beach. On the corridor floor is a Victorian bidet and an old hand organ. On the window shelves there is a collection of bottles. The bar is decorated as a ship’s salon, with furniture bolted to the floor and nautical lamps and paintings. The room has glass-panel walls facing the sea. On the ceiling and on each of the wooden crossbeams a carpenter has carved, from Neruda’s handwriting, names of his dead friends.

Behind the bar, on the liquor shelf, is a sign that says no se fia (no credit here). Neruda takes his role as bartender very seriously and likes to make elaborate drinks for his guests although he drinks only Scotch and wine. On a wall are two anti-Neruda posters, one of which he brought back from his last trip to Caracas. It shows his profile with the legend “Neruda go home.” The other is a cover from an Argentine magazine with his picture and the copy “Neruda, why doesn’t he kill himself?” A huge poster of Twiggy stretches from the ceiling to the floor.

Meals at Isla Negra are typically Chilean. Neruda has mentioned some of them in his poetry: conger-eel soup; fish with a delicate sauce of tomatoes and baby shrimp; meat pie. The wine is always Chilean. One of the porcelain wine pitchers, shaped like a bird, sings when wine is poured. In the summer, lunch is served on a porch facing a garden that has an antique railroad engine. “So powerful, such a corn picker, such a procreator and whistler and roarer and thunderer . . . I love it because it looks like Walt Whitman.”

Conversations for the interview were held in short sessions. In the morning—after Neruda had his breakfast in his room—we would meet in the library, which is a new wing of the house. I would wait while he answered his mail, composed poems for his new book, or corrected the galleys of a new Chilean edition of Twenty Love Poems. When composing poetry, he writes with green ink in an ordinary composition book. He can write a fairly long poem in a very short time, after which he makes only a few corrections. The poems are then typed by his secretary and close friend of more than fifty years, Homero Arce.

In the afternoon, after his daily nap, we would sit on a stone bench on the terrace facing the sea. Neruda would talk holding the microphone of the tape recorder, which picked up the sound of the sea as background to his voice.

 

INTERVIEWER

Why did you change your name, and why did you choose “Pablo Neruda”?

PABLO NERUDA

I don’t remember. I was only thirteen or fourteen years old. I remember that it bothered my father very much that I wanted to write. With the best of intentions, he thought that writing would bring destruction to the family and myself and, especially, that it would lead me to a life of complete uselessness. He had domestic reasons for thinking so, reasons which did not weigh heavily on me. It was one of the first defensive measures that I adopted—changing my name.

INTERVIEWER

Did you choose “Neruda” because of the Czech poet Jan Neruda?

NERUDA

I’d read a short story of his. I’ve never read his poetry, but he has a book entitled Stories from Malá Strana about the humble people of that neighborhood in Prague. It is possible that my new name came from there. As I say, the whole matter is so far back in my memory that I don’t recall. Nevertheless, the Czechs think of me as one of them, as part of their nation, and I’ve had a very friendly connection with them.

INTERVIEWER

In case you are elected president of Chile, will you keep on writing?

NERUDA

For me writing is like breathing. I could not live without breathing and I could not live without writing.

INTERVIEWER

Who are the poets who have aspired to high political office and succeeded?

NERUDA

Our period is an era of governing poets: Mao Tse Tung and Ho Chi Minh. Mao Tse-tung has other qualities: as you know, he is a great swimmer, something which I am not. There is also a great poet, Léopold Senghor, who is president of Senegal; another, Aimé Césaire, a surrealist poet, is the mayor of Fort-de-France in Martinique. In my country, poets have always intervened in politics, though we have never had a poet who was president of the republic. On the other hand, there have been writers in Latin America who have been president: Rómulo Gallegos was president of Venezuela.

INTERVIEWER

How have you been running your presidential campaign?

NERUDA

A platform is set up. First there are always folk songs, and then someone in charge explains the strictly political scope of our campaign. After that, the note I strike in order to talk to the townspeople is a much freer one, much less organized; it is more poetic. I almost always finish by reading poetry. If I didn’t read some poetry, the people would go away disillusioned. Of course, they also want to hear my political thoughts, but I don’t overwork the political or economic aspects because people also need another kind of language.

INTERVIEWER

How do the people react when you read your poems?

NERUDA

They love me in a very emotional way. I can’t enter or leave some places. I have a special escort which protects me from the crowds because the people press around me. That happens everywhere.

INTERVIEWER

If you had to choose between the presidency of Chile and the Nobel Prize, for which you have been mentioned so often, which would you choose?

NERUDA

There can be no question of a decision between such illusory things.

INTERVIEWER

But if they put the presidency and the Nobel Prize right here on a table?

NERUDA

If they put them on the table in front of me, I’d get up and sit at another table.

INTERVIEWER

Do you think awarding the Nobel Prize to Samuel Beckett was just?

NERUDA

Yes, I believe so. Beckett writes short but exquisite things. The Nobel Prize, wherever it falls, is always an honor to literature. I am not one of those always arguing whether the prize went to the right person or not. What is important about this prize—if it has any importance—is that it confers a title of respect on the office of writer. That is what is important.

INTERVIEWER

What are your strongest memories?

NERUDA

I don’t know. The most intense memories, perhaps, are those of my life in Spain—in that great brotherhood of poets; I’ve never known such a fraternal group in our American world—so full of alacraneos (gossips), as they say in Buenos Aires. Then, afterwards, it was terrible to see that republic of friends destroyed by the civil war, which so demonstrated the horrible reality of fascist repression. My friends were scattered: some were exterminated right there—like García Lorca and Miguel Hernández; others died in exile; and still others live on in exile. That whole phase of my life was rich in events, in profound emotions, and decisively changed the evolution of my life.

INTERVIEWER

Would they allow you to enter Spain now?

NERUDA

I’m not officially forbidden to enter. On one occasion I was invited to give some readings there by the Chilean Embassy. It is very possible that they would let me enter. But I don’t want to make a point of it, because it simply may have been convenient for the Spanish government to show some democratic feeling by permitting the entry of people who had fought so hard against it. I don’t know. I have been prevented from entering so many countries and I have been turned out of so many others that, truly, this is a matter which no longer causes the irritation in me that it did at first.

INTERVIEWER

In a certain way, your ode to García Lorca, which you wrote before he died, predicted his tragic end.

NERUDA

Yes, that poem is strange. Strange because he was such a happy person, such a cheerful creature. I’ve known very few people like him. He was the incarnation . . . well, let’s not say of success, but of the love of life. He enjoyed each minute of his existence—a great spendthrift of happiness. For that reason, the crime of his execution is one of the most unpardonable crimes of fascism.

INTERVIEWER

You often mention him in your poems, as well as Miguel Hernández.

NERUDA

Hernández was like a son. As a poet, he was something of my disciple, and he almost lived in my house. He went to prison and died there because he disproved the official version of García Lorca’s death. If their explanation was correct, why did the fascist government keep Miguel Hernández in prison until his death? Why did they even refuse to move him to a hospital, as the Chilean Embassy proposed? The death of Miguel Hernández was an assassination too.

INTERVIEWER

What do you remember most from your years in India?

NERUDA

My stay there was an encounter I wasn’t prepared for. The splendor of that unfamiliar continent overwhelmed me, and yet I felt desperate, because my life and my solitude there were so long. Sometimes I seemed locked into an unending Technicolor picture—a marvelous movie, but one I wasn’t allowed to leave. I never experienced the mysticism which guided so many South Americans and other foreigners in India. People who go to India in search of a religious answer to their anxieties see things in a different way. As for me, I was profoundly moved by the sociological conditions—that immense unarmed nation, so defenseless, bound to its imperial yoke. Even the English culture, for which I had a great predilection, seemed hateful to me for being the instrument of the intellectual submission of so many Hindus at that time. I mixed with the rebellious young people of that continent; in spite of my consular post, I got to know all the revolutionaries—those in the great movement that eventually brought about independence.

INTERVIEWER

Was it in India that you wrote Residence on Earth?

NERUDA

Yes, though India had very little intellectual influence on my poetry.

INTERVIEWER

It was from Rangoon that you wrote those very moving letters to the Argentine, Hector Eandi?

NERUDA

Yes. Those letters were important in my life, because he, a writer I did not know personally, took it upon himself, as a Good Samaritan, to send me news, to send me periodicals, to help me through my great solitude. I had become afraid of losing contact with my own language—for years I met no one to speak Spanish to. In one letter to Rafael Alberti I had to ask for a Spanish dictionary. I had been appointed to the post of consul, but it was a low-grade post and one that had no stipend. I lived in the greatest poverty and in even greater solitude. For weeks I didn’t see another human being.

INTERVIEWER

While there you had a great romance with Josie Bliss, whom you mention in many poems.

NERUDA

Yes, Josie Bliss was a woman who left quite a profound imprint on my poetry. I have always remembered her, even in my most recent books.

INTERVIEWER

Your work, then, is closely linked to your personal life?

NERUDA

Naturally. The life of a poet must be reflected in his poetry. That is the law of the art and a law of life.

INTERVIEWER

Your work can be divided into stages, can’t it?

NERUDA

I have quite confusing thoughts about that. I myself don’t have stages; the critics discover them. If I can say anything, it is that my poetry has the quality of an organism—infantile when I was a boy, juvenile when I was young, desolate when I suffered, combative when I had to enter the social struggle. A mixture of these tendencies is present in my current poetry. I always wrote out of internal necessity, and I imagine that this is what happens with all writers, poets especially.

INTERVIEWER

I’ve seen you writing in the car.

NERUDA

I write where I can and when I can, but I’m always writing.

INTERVIEWER

Do you always write everything in longhand?

NERUDA

Ever since I had an accident in which I broke a finger and couldn’t use the typewriter for a few months, I have followed the custom of my youth and gone back to writing by hand. I discovered when my finger was better and I could type again that my poetry when written by hand was more sensitive; its plastic forms could change more easily. In an interview, Robert Graves says that in order to think one should have as little as possible around that is not handmade. He could have added that poetry ought to be written by hand. The typewriter separated me from a deeper intimacy with poetry, and my hand brought me closer to that intimacy again.

INTERVIEWER

What are your working hours?

NERUDA

I don’t have a schedule, but by preference I write in the morning. Which is to say that if you weren’t here making me waste my time (and wasting your own), I would be writing. I don’t read many things during the day. I would rather write all day, but frequently the fullness of a thought, of an expression, of something that comes out of myself in a tumultuous way—let’s label it with an antiquated term, “inspiration”—leaves me satisfied, or exhausted, or calmed, or empty. That is, I can’t go on. Apart from that, I like living too much to be seated all day at a desk. I like to put myself in the goings-on of life, of my house, of politics, and of nature. I am forever coming and going. But I write intensely whenever I can and wherever I am. It doesn’t bother me that there may be a lot of people around.

INTERVIEWER

You cut yourself off totally from what surrounds you?

NERUDA

I cut myself off, and if everything is suddenly quiet, then that is disturbing to me.

INTERVIEWER

You have never given much consideration to prose.

NERUDA

Prose . . . I have felt the necessity of writing in verse all my life. Expression in prose doesn’t interest me. I use prose to express a certain kind of fleeting emotion or event, really tending toward narrative. The truth is that I could give up writing in prose entirely. I only do it temporarily.

INTERVIEWER

If you had to save your works from a fire, what would you save?

NERUDA

Possibly none of them. What am I going to need them for? I would rather save a girl . . . or a good collection of detective stories . . . which would entertain me much more than my own works.

INTERVIEWER

Which of your critics has best understood your work?

NERUDA

Oh! My critics! My critics have almost shredded me to pieces, with all the love or hate in the world! In life, as in art, one can’t please everybody, and that’s a situation that’s always with us. One is always receiving kisses and slaps, caresses and kicks, and that is the life of a poet. What bothers me is the distortion in the interpretation of poetry or the events of one’s life. For example, during the P.E.N. club congress in New York, which brought together so many people from different places, I read my social poems, and even more of them in California—poems dedicated to Cuba in support of the Cuban Revolution. Yet the Cuban writers signed a letter and distributed millions of copies in which my opinions were doubted, and in which I was singled out as a creature protected by the North Americans; they even suggested that my entry into the United States was a kind of prize! That is perfectly stupid, if not slanderous, since many writers from socialist countries did come in; even the arrival of Cuban writers was expected. We did not lose our character as anti-imperialists by going to New York. Nevertheless, that was suggested, either through the hastiness or bad faith of the Cuban writers. The fact that at this present moment I am my party’s candidate for president of the republic shows that I have a truly revolutionary history. It would be difficult to find any writers who signed that letter who could compare in dedication to revolutionary work, who could equal even one-hundredth of what I have done and fought for.

INTERVIEWER

You have been criticized for the way you live, and for your economic position.

NERUDA

In general, that’s all a myth. In a certain sense, we have received a rather bad legacy from Spain, which could never bear to have its people stand out or be distinguished in anything. They chained Christopher Columbus on his return to Spain. We get that from the envious petite bourgeoisie, who go around thinking about what others have and about what they don’t have. In my own case, I have dedicated my life to reparations for the people, and what I have in my house—my books—is the product of my own work. I have exploited no one. It is odd. The sort of reproach I get is never made to writers who are rich by birthright! Instead, it is made to me—a writer who has fifty years of work behind him. They are always saying: “Look, look how he lives. He has a house facing the sea. He drinks good wine.” What nonsense. To begin with, it’s hard to drink bad wine in Chile because almost all the wine in Chile is good. It’s a problem which, in a certain way, reflects the underdevelopment of our country—in sum, the mediocrity of our ways. You yourself have told me that Norman Mailer was paid some ninety thousand dollars for three articles in a North American magazine. Here, if a Latin American writer should receive such compensation for his work, it would arouse a wave of protest from the other writers—”What an outrage! How terrible! Where is it going to stop?”—instead of everyone’s being pleased that a writer can demand such fees. Well, as I say, these are the misfortunes which go by the name of cultural underdevelopment.

INTERVIEWER

Isn’t this accusation more intense because you belong to the Communist Party?

NERUDA

Precisely. He who has nothing—it has been said many times—has nothing to lose but his chains. I risk, at every moment, my life, my person, all that I have—my books, my house. My house has been burned; I have been persecuted; I have been detained more than once; I have been exiled; they have declared me incommunicado; I have been sought by thousands of police. Very well then. I’m not comfortable with what I have. So what I have, I have put at the disposal of the people’s fight, and this very house you’re in has belonged for twenty years to the Communist Party, to whom I have given it by public writ. I am in this house simply through the generosity of my party. All right, let those who reproach me do the same and at least leave their shoes somewhere so that they can be passed on to somebody else!

INTERVIEWER

You have donated various libraries. Aren’t you now involved in the project of the writers’ colony at Isla Negra?

NERUDA

I have donated more than one entire library to my country’s university. I live on the income from my books. I don’t have any savings. I don’t have anything to dispose of, except for what I am paid each month from my books. With that income, lately I’ve been acquiring a large piece of land on the coast so that writers in the future will be able to pass summers there and do their creative work in an atmosphere of extraordinary beauty. It will be the Cantalao Foundation—with directors from the Catholic University, the University of Chile, and the Society of Writers.

INTERVIEWER

Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair, one of your first books, has been and continues to be read by thousands of admirers.

NERUDA

I had said in the prologue to the edition which celebrated the publication of one million copies of that book—soon there will be two million copies—that I really don’t understand what it’s all about—why this book, a book of love-sadness, of love-pain, continues to be read by so many people, by so many young people. Truly, I do not understand it. Perhaps this book represents the youthful posing of many enigmas; perhaps it represents the answers to those enigmas. It is a mournful book, but its attractiveness has not worn off.

INTERVIEWER

You are one of the most widely translated poets—into about thirty languages. Into what languages are you best translated?

NERUDA

I would say into Italian, because of the similarity between the two languages. English and French, which are the two languages I know outside of Italian, are languages which do not correspond to Spanish—neither in vocalization, or in the placement, or the color, or the weight of the words. It is not a question of interpretative equivalence; no, the sense can be right, but this correctness of translation, of meaning, can be the destruction of a poem. In many of the translations into French—I don’t say in all of them—my poetry escapes, nothing remains; one cannot protest because it says the same thing that one has written. But it is obvious that if I had been a French poet, I would not have said what I did in that poem, because the value of the words is so different. I would have written something else.

INTERVIEWER

And in English?

NERUDA

I find the English language so different from Spanish—so much more direct—that many times it expresses the meaning of my poetry, but does not convey the atmosphere of my poetry. It may be that the same thing happens when an English poet is translated into Spanish.

INTERVIEWER

You said that you are a great reader of detective stories. Who are your favorite authors?

NERUDA

A great literary work of this type of writing is Eric Ambler’s A Coffin for Dimitrios. I’ve read practically all of Ambler’s work since then, but none has the fundamental perfection, the extraordinary intrigue, and the mysterious atmosphere of A Coffin for Dimitrios. Simenon is also very important, but it’s James Hadley Chase who surpasses in terror, in horror, and in the destructive spirit everything else that has been written. No Orchids for Miss Blandish is an old book, but it doesn’t cease being a milestone of the detective story. There’s a strange similarity between No Orchids for Miss Blandish and William Faulkner’s Sanctuary—that very disagreeable but important book—but I’ve never been able to determine which was the first of the two. Of course, whenever the detective story is spoken of, I think of Dashiell Hammett. He is the one who changed the genre from a subliterary phantasm and gave it a strong backbone. He is the great creator, and after him there are hundreds of others, John MacDonald among the most brilliant. All of them are prolific writers and they work extraordinarily hard. And almost all of the North American novelists of this school—the detective novel—are perhaps the most severe critics of the crumbling North American capitalist society. There is no greater denunciation than that which turns up in those detective novels about the fatigue and corruption of the politicians and the police, the influence of money in the big cities, the corruption which pops up in all parts of the North American system, in “the American way of life.” It is, possibly, the most dramatic testimony to an epoch, and yet it is considered the flimsiest accusation, since detective stories are not taken into account by literary critics.

INTERVIEWER

What other books do you read?

NERUDA

I am a reader of history, especially of the older chronicles of my country. Chile has an extraordinary history. Not because of monuments or ancient sculptures, which don’t exist here, but rather because Chile was invented by a poet, Don Alonso de Ercilla y Zúñiga, page of Carlos V. He was a Basque aristocrat who arrived with the conquistadores—quite unusual, since most of the people sent to Chile came out of the dungeons. This was the hardest place to live. The war between the Araucanians and the Spanish went on here for centuries, the longest civil war in the history of humanity. The semisavage tribes of Araucania fought for their liberty against the Spanish invaders for three hundred years. Don Alonso de Ercilla y Zúñiga, the young humanist, came with the enslavers who wanted to dominate all America and did dominate it, with the exception of this bristly and savage territory we call Chile. Don Alonso wrote La Araucana, the longest epic in Castilian literature, in which he honored the unknown tribes of Araucania—anonymous heroes to whom he gave a name for the first time—more than his compatriots, the Castilian soldiers. La Araucana, published in the sixteenth century, was translated, and traveled in various versions through all of Europe. A great poem by a great poet. The history of Chile thus had this epic greatness and heroism at birth. We Chileans, quite unlike the other crossbred people of Spanish and Indian America, are not descended from the Spanish soldiers and their rapes or concubinages, but from either the voluntary or forced marriages of the Araucanians with Spanish women held captive during those long war years. We are a certain exception. Of course, then comes our bloody history of independence after 1810, a history full of tragedies, disagreements, and struggles in which the names of San Martín and Bolívar, José Miguel Carrera and O’Higgins carry on through interminable pages of successes and misfortunes. All this makes me a reader of books which I unearth and dust off and which entertain me enormously as I search for the significance of this country—so remote from everybody, so cold in its latitudes, so deserted . . . its saltpeter pampas in the north, its immense patagonias, so snowy in the Andes, so florid by the sea. And this is my country, Chile. I am one of those Chileans in perpetuity, one who, no matter how well they treat me elsewhere, must return to my country. I like the great cities of Europe: I adore the Arno Valley, and certain streets of Copenhagen and Stockholm, and naturally, Paris, Paris, Paris, and yet I still have to return to Chile.

INTERVIEWER

In an article entitled “My Contemporaries,” Ernesto Montenegro criticizes the Uruguayan critic Rodríguez Monegal for expressing the vain wish that contemporary European and North American writers study their Latin American colleagues if they want to achieve the renovation of their prose. Montenegro jokes that it is like the ant saying to the elephant, “Climb on my shoulders.” Then he cites Borges: “In contrast to the barbarous United States, this country (this continent) has not produced a writer of worldwide influence—an Emerson, a Whitman, a Poe . . . neither has it produced a great esoteric writer—a Henry James, or a Melville.”

NERUDA

Why is it important if we do or don’t have names like those of Whitman, Baudelaire, or Kafka on our continent? The history of literary creation is as large as humanity. We can’t impose an etiquette. The United States, with an overwhelmingly literate population, and Europe, with an ancient tradition, can’t be compared to our multitudes in Latin America without books or means of expressing themselves. But to pass time throwing stones at one another, to spend one’s life hoping to surpass this or that continent seems a provincial sentiment to me. Besides, all this can be a matter of individual opinion.

INTERVIEWER

Would you like to comment on literary affairs in Latin America?

NERUDA

Whether a magazine is from Honduras or New York (in Spanish) or Montevideo or from Guayaquil, we discover that almost all present the same catalogue of fashionable literature influenced by Eliot or Kafka. It’s an example of cultural colonialism. We are still involved in European etiquette. Here in Chile, for example, the mistress of the house will show you anything—china plates—and tell you with a satisfied smile: “It’s imported.” Most of the horrible porcelain exhibited in millions of Chilean homes is imported, and it’s of the worst kind, produced in the factories of Germany and France. These pieces of nonsense are accepted as top quality because they have been imported.

INTERVIEWER

Is fear of nonconformity responsible?

NERUDA

Certainly in the old days everybody was scared of revolutionary ideas, particularly writers. In this decade, and especially after the Cuban Revolution, the current fashion is just the opposite. Writers live in terror that they will not be taken for extreme leftists, so each of them assumes a guerrilla-like position. There are many writers who only write texts which assert that they are in the front lines of the war against imperialism. Those of us who have continually fought that war see with joy that literature is placing itself on the side of the people; but we also believe that if it’s only a matter of fashion and a writer’s fear of not being taken for an active leftist, well, we are not going to get very far with that kind of revolutionary. In the end, all sorts of animals fit into the literary forest. Once, when I had been offended for many years by a few pertinacious persecutors who seemed to live only to attack my poetry and my life, I said: “Let’s leave them alone, there is room for all in this jungle; if there’s space for the elephants, who take up such a lot of room in the jungles of Africa and Ceylon, then surely there’s space for all the poets.”

INTERVIEWER

Some people accuse you of being antagonistic toward Jorge Luis Borges.

NERUDA

The antagonism towards Borges may exist in an intellectual or cultural form because of our different orientation. One can fight peacefully. But I have other enemies—not writers. For me the enemy is imperialism, and my enemies are the capitalists and those who drop napalm on Vietnam. But Borges is not my enemy.

INTERVIEWER

What do you think about Borges’s writing?

NERUDA

He is a great writer, and people who speak Spanish are very proud that Borges exists—above all, the people of Latin America. Before Borges we had very few writers who could stand in comparison with the writers of Europe. We have had great writers, but a writer of the universal type, like Borges, is not found very often in our countries. I cannot say that he has been the greatest, and I hope he will be surpassed many times by others, but in every way he has opened the way and attracted attention, the intellectual curiosity of Europe, toward our countries. But for me to fight with Borges because everybody wants me to—I’ll never do it. If he thinks like a dinosaur, well, that has nothing to do with my thinking. He understands nothing of what’s going on in the contemporary world; he thinks that I understand nothing either. Therefore, we are in agreement.

INTERVIEWER

On Sunday we saw some young Argentines who were playing guitars and singing a milonga by Borges. That pleased you, didn’t it?

NERUDA

Borges’s milonga pleased me greatly, most of all because it is an example of how such a hermetic poet—let’s use that term—such a sophisticated and intellectual poet can turn to a popular theme, doing it with such a true and certain touch. I liked Borges’s milonga very much. Latin American poets ought to imitate his example.

INTERVIEWER

Have you written any Chilean folk music?

NERUDA

I’ve written some songs which are very well known in this country.

INTERVIEWER

Who are the Russian poets you like most?

NERUDA

The dominant figure in Russian poetry continues to be Mayakovski. He is for the Russian Revolution what Walt Whitman was for the Industrial Revolution in North America. Mayakovski impregnated poetry in such a way that almost all the poetry has continued being Mayakovskian.

INTERVIEWER

What do you think about the Russian writers who have left Russia?

NERUDA

People who want to leave a place ought to do so. This is really a rather individual problem. Some Soviet writers may feel themselves dissatisfied with their relationship to the literary organizations or with their own state. But I have never seen less disagreement between a state and the writers than in socialist countries. The majority of Soviet writers are proud of the socialist structure, of the great war of liberation against the Nazis, of the people’s role in the revolution and in the Great War, and proud of the structures created by socialism. If there are exceptions, it is a personal question, and it is correspondingly necessary to examine each case individually.

INTERVIEWER

But the creative work cannot be free. It must always reflect the State’s line of thought.

NERUDA

It’s an exaggeration to say that. I have known many writers and painters who have absolutely no intention of eulogizing this or that in the State. There is a kind of conspiracy to suggest that this is the case. But it’s not so. Of course, every revolution needs to mobilize its forces. A revolution cannot persist without development: the very commotion provoked by the change from capitalism to socialism cannot last unless the revolution demands, and with all its power, the support of all the strata of society—including the writers, intellectuals, and artists. Think about the American Revolution, or our own war of independence against imperial Spain. What would have happened if just subsequent to those events the writers dedicated themselves to subjects like the monarchy, or the restitution of English power over the United States, or the Spanish king’s over former colonies. If any writer or artist had exalted colonialism, he would have been persecuted. It’s with even greater justification that a revolution which wants to construct a society starting from zero (after all, the step from capitalism or private property to socialism and communism has never been tried before) must by its own force mobilize the aid of intellect. Such a procedure can bring about conflicts; it is only human and political that these occur. But I hope that with time and stability the socialist societies will have less need to have their writers constantly thinking about social problems, and that they will be able to create what they most intimately desire.

INTERVIEWER

What advice would you give to young poets?

NERUDA

Oh, there is no advice to give to young poets! They ought to make their own way; they will have to encounter the obstacles to their expression and they have to overcome them. What I would never advise them to do is to begin with political poetry. Political poetry is more profoundly emotional than any other—at least as much as love poetry—and cannot be forced because it then becomes vulgar and unacceptable. It is necessary first to pass through all other poetry in order to become a political poet. The political poet must also be prepared to accept the censure which is thrown at him—betraying poetry, or betraying literature. Then, too, political poetry has to arm itself with such content and substance and intellectual and emotional richness that it is able to scorn everything else. This is rarely achieved.

INTERVIEWER

You have often said that you don’t believe in originality.

NERUDA

To look for originality at all costs is a modern condition. In our time, the writer wants to call attention to himself, and this superficial preoccupation takes on fetishistic characteristics. Each person tries to find a road whereby he will stand out, neither for profundity nor for discovery, but for the imposition of a special diversity. The most original artist will change phases in accord with the time, the epoch. The great example is Picasso, who begins by nourishing himself from the painting and sculpture of Africa or the primitive arts, and then goes on with such a power of transformation that his works, characterized by his splendid originality, seem to be stages in the cultural geology of the world.

INTERVIEWER

What were the literary influences on you?

NERUDA

Writers are always interchanging in some way, just as the air we breathe doesn’t belong to one place. The writer is always moving from house to house: he ought to change his furniture. Some writers feel uncomfortable at this. I remember that Federico García Lorca was always asking me to read my lines, my poetry, and yet in the middle of my reading, he would say, “Stop, stop! Don’t go on, lest you influence me!”

INTERVIEWER

About Norman Mailer. You were one of the first writers to speak of him.

NERUDA

Shortly after Mailer’s The Naked and the Dead came out, I found it in a bookstore in Mexico. No one knew anything about it; the bookseller didn’t even know what it was about. I bought it because I had to take a trip and I wanted a new American novel. I thought that the American novel had died after the giants who began with Dreiser and finished with Hemingway, Steinbeck, and Faulkner—but I discovered a writer with extraordinary verbal violence, matched with great subtlety and a marvelous power of description. I greatly admire the poetry of Pasternak, but Dr. Zhivago alongside The Naked and the Dead seems a boring novel, saved only in part by its description of nature, that is to say, by its poetry. I remember about that time I wrote the poem “Let the Rail Splitter Awake.” This poem, invoking the figure of Lincoln, was dedicated to world peace. I spoke of Okinawa and of the war in Japan, and I mentioned Norman Mailer. My poem reached Europe and was translated. I remember that Aragon said to me, “It was a great deal of trouble to find out who Norman Mailer is.” In reality, nobody knew him, and I had a certain feeling of pride in having been one of the first writers to allude to him.

INTERVIEWER

Could you comment on your intense affection for nature?

NERUDA

Ever since my childhood, I’ve maintained an affection for birds, shells, forests, and plants. I’ve gone many places in search of ocean shells, and I’ve come to have a great collection. I wrote a book called Art of Birds. I wrote Bestiary, Seaquake, and “The Herbalist’s Rose,” devoted to flowers, branches, and vegetal growth. I could not live separated from nature. I like hotels for a couple of days; I like planes for an hour; but I’m happy in the woods, on the sand, or sailing, in direct contact with fire, earth, water, air.

INTERVIEWER

There are symbols in your poetry which recur, and they always take the form of the sea, of fish, of birds . . .

NERUDA

I don’t believe in symbols. They are simply material things. The sea, fish, birds exist for me in a material way. I take them into account, as I have to take daylight into account. The fact that some themes stand out in my poetry—are always appearing—is a matter of material presence.

INTERVIEWER

What do the dove and guitar signify?

NERUDA

The dove signifies the dove and the guitar signifies a musical instrument called the guitar.

INTERVIEWER

You mean that those who have tried to analyze these things—

NERUDA

When I see a dove, I call it a dove. The dove, whether it is present or not, has a form for me, either subjectively or objectively—but it doesn’t go beyond being a dove.

INTERVIEWER

You have said about the poems in Residence on Earth that “They don’t help one to live. They help one to die.”

NERUDA

My book Residence on Earth represents a dark and dangerous moment in my life. It is poetry without an exit. I almost had to be reborn in order to get out of it. I was saved from that desperation of which I still can’t know the depths by the Spanish Civil War, and by events serious enough to make me meditate. At one time I said that if I ever had the necessary power, I would forbid the reading of that book and I would arrange never to have it printed again. It exaggerates the feeling of life as a painful burden, as a mortal oppression. But I also know that it is one of my best books, in the sense that it reflects my state of mind. Still, when one writes—and I don’t know if this is true for other writers—one ought to think of where one’s verses are going to land. Robert Frost says in one of his essays that poetry ought to have sorrow as its only orientation: “Leave sorrow alone with poetry.” But I don’t know what Robert Frost would have thought if a young man had committed suicide and left one of his books stained with blood. That happened to me—here, in this country. A boy, full of life, killed himself next to my book. I don’t feel truly responsible for his death. But that page of poetry stained with blood is enough to make not only one poet think, but all poets. . . Of course, my opponents took advantage—as they do of almost everything I say—political advantage of the censure I gave my own book. They attributed to me the desire to write exclusively happy and optimistic poetry. They didn’t know about that episode. I have never renounced the expression of loneliness, of anguish, or of melancholia. But I like to change tones, to find all the sounds, to pursue all the colors, to look for the forces of life wherever they may be—in creation or destruction.

My poetry has passed through the same stages as my life; from a solitary childhood and an adolescence cornered in distant, isolated countries, I set out to make myself a part of the great human multitude. My life matured, and that is all. It was in the style of the last century for poets to be tormented melancholiacs. But there can be poets who know life, who know its problems, and who survive by crossing through the currents. And who pass through sadness to plenitude.

—Translated by Ronald Christ

 

 

Lil Raggamuffin

Summer Camp

Rocks Jamaica

• Posted by Afro-Punk on July 9, 2012 

Afropunk is more than music and fashion it’s a lifestyle. It’s the spirit of youth- having a vision and not waiting for permission to see it manifested. I'd like to tell you about the Lil Raggamuffin Summer Camp – an arts and entrepreneurship summer program located in the mountains of Jamaica. Many members of the Afropunk community are volunteering this year (and have been for the past 6 years!).

Its completely grassroots – from the people for the people. I started it at the age of 18 years old.

 
Show us and the kids some love - 9 DAYS LEFT help us raise the last $3000 to put some paint brushes and instruments in more kids' hands... Click here to support the project.

- Zebi Williams

Bathers at Sea Point:

Photographs by Antoinette Engel

July 11, 2012

By Orlando Reade 

Antoinette Engel, a documentary filmmaker and photographer based in Cape Town (and a friend of this blog) took these images of bathers at Sea Point last year. We found them on the 75 photography website and asked to see the rest of the series.

Caption (from Antoinette’s 75 page): “love the way this girl was obviously begging her mom to let her swim a bit longer”

It is perhaps the ‘obviousness’ of these images, evocative of the various and numerous relationships exhibited by bodies at a swimming pool, which makes them so joyful. So here’s the rest of the series, with Antoinette’s description of how they came to be taken:

I took these photographs at the Sea Point Pavilion, a popular public salt water pool in Sea Point. One of the oldest suburbs in Cape Town, Sea Point is situated on the foothills of Signal Hill and faces the sea. Not only does it have the pavilion, it has a promenade too: a long winding walkway with an equally long grassy patch next to it that stretches along the coast for the best walk your money can’t buy because it’s free. I’d say it’s the best used public space in the city.

I took the photographs in response to a competition I’d seen on a national news site here, sponsored by a big name camera brand offering camera equipment as the prize – needless to say I decided to enter as I only have an analogue camera.

The brief was to capture a family on a typical South African holiday, and so I thought to go to the pools.

As a child my mom would make sure to pack us all into the station wagon to go to the pools. At least one adult would be along to keep watch and play life-guard, man the picnic blanket. The rest were cousins and friends, and when I was 12 an almost-crush who, lucky for me, happened to be a neighbour that was invited along. If it wasn’t the pools it was the beach or the water park in Table View where the slippery slide still stands (although I hope by now they’ve replaced it counting how many years have passed). It didn’t cost a lot, it meant getting to be in the water all day and for me and my water-baby brother who’d throw himself in the pool without abandon it meant the world.

I don’t think it cost R4 back then and it’s still really cheap by today’s standards at R11 for an adult pass into the pools.

Up until today there hasn’t been a summer I can say I didn’t make at least one trip to the pavilion… maybe I don’t cut as lean a figure in my bather anymore but I still get lots of sunshine, salt water and the buzz off the pools and the people. It gets busy, make no mistake, but some afternoons are more relaxed than others.

The day I took these photos is the first time I’ve ever been with my camera and I still managed a swim after. These were taken in Dec 2010 or Jan 2011, I forget which. I didn’t win anything, wasn’t shortlisted but I’m still really glad for that brief and the photos that came of it because I’ll always have them as a prompt to some of the best memories I cherish of my own family.

I’d say I negotiate for a living. I negotiate how to frame unguarded moments when I have a camera in my hand and otherwise access into people’s lives when the phone’s to my ear and I’m researching for the documentary series I work on. I take photographs because a part of me wants a part of life that is unmediated, which I didn’t do anything to earn but be ready.

* Antoinette Engel is currently researching for the documentary series I am Woman, and has directed two upcoming episodes, on Sandra Afrika and Marlene Le Roux, for the weekly show. Her documentary on meat production in South Africa will be broadcast on television in September.

The Legacy of Nat Nakasa

July 12, 2012

By Sean Jacobs 

Guest Post by Ryan Brown

On a warm July morning in 1965, South African writer Nat Nakasa stood facing the window of a friend’s seventh floor apartment in Central Park West. In the distance he could likely just make out the outline of the Empire State Building, a sharp reminder of just how far he was from home. Less than a year earlier, Nakasa had taken an “exit permit” from the apartheid government — a one-way ticket out of the country of his birth — and come to Harvard University on a journalism fellowship. Now he was caught in a precarious limbo, unable to return to South Africa but lacking citizenship in the United States, a place that he was beginning to feel offered little respite from the brutal racism of his own country. He was, he had written, a “native of nowhere…a stateless man [and] a permanent wanderer,” and he was running out of hope. Standing in that New York City apartment building, he faced the alien city. Then he jumped. He was 28 years old.

44 years later, nearly to the day, South African president Jacob Zuma stood before a room of dignitaries at Durban’s Elangeni Hotel to deliver the keynote address for the annual Nat Nakasa Award for Media Integrity. Given annually since 1998 by the South African National Editors’ Forum (SANEF), the prize honors a journalist whose work shows a commitment to telling important and dangerous stories, no matter the political trends of the day. Facing the crowd of writers, editors and political dignitaries in the audience that night, Zuma lauded the country’s journalists as a ‘vital partner’ in protecting and strengthening South Africa’s young democracy. And staring into the past, he conjured up the name of the man who had inspired the award he was presenting. ‘This evening,’ he told the audience, ‘you are celebrating the struggle of Nat Nakasa, and many other courageous journalists like him, against a political system that sought to silence them.’

But as observers of South African politics will no doubt be aware, President Zuma’s relationship with his country’s media is nowhere near as rosy as that description suggests. Indeed, in the two years following that speech, Zuma has come to be seen to many of his critics as the very embodiment of a political system intent on silencing free speech. From the Protection of State Information Bill (dubbed the “Secrecy Bill” for its harsh repercussions against those who leak state secrets) currently winding its way through South Africa’s legislature, to the recent firestorm the ANC created over a satirical painting of the president with his genitals hanging out, Zuma has put himself and his party on the front lines of a societal debate about what can and should be done with the country’s unruly chorus of political dissenters.

In the year that I have been living in South Africa, where I am working on a biography of Nat Nakasa, I have watched the ANC’s clashes with the media with great interest. Like with so many public conversations in South Africa, debates over media freedom here frequently return to the original sin of the country’s modern history: apartheid. And in a small but fascinating way, the legacy of Nat Nakasa has become a touchstone in that conversation.

Nat Nakasa, Drum Office 1958

In 2010, for instance, Minister of Justice Jeff Radebe told the members of SANEF that the government’s proposed new press regulations would protect the country’s citizens — journalists included — from the dangers of misinformation, helping to create a media landscape that was a ‘fitting tribute to departed gallant fighters such as Nat Nakasa’. But Radebe’s Nat Nakasa also had to contend with the Nat Nakasa conjured up by critics of the government’s policy. As Oxford professor Peter McDonald, a scholar of South African censorship, put it, ‘the ghost of Nat Nakasa’ would haunt Parliament as it debated the new laws, ‘because, as [he] insisted, the freedom of expression … is an inalienable part of human dignity and a cornerstone of democracy.’ Filtered through time and memory, Nat Nakasa — the witty black writer, the exiled intellectual, the young suicide — has transformed into something far more vapid than he ever was in life: a nearly content-less symbol of the scars apartheid left on South African journalism. And so shallow a symbol, it seems, can be appropriated by whoever wants it.

Of course, there are worse legacies a person could have than to be vaguely remembered as a “gallant fighter,” a tragic hero of the anti-apartheid cause. But the fact that Nat Nakasa is celebrated this way speaks to a wider and by all accounts dangerous trend. Stripped of any substance or moral complexity, individuals like Nat Nakasa have become part of a wildly caricatured popular imagining of South Africa’s past, one that speaks in stark moral dichotomies — good and evil, right and wrong, black and white.

This view of South African history as a kind of moral fable, of course, contains a kernel of truth. After all, here is a country that was all but unhinged by its own obsession with difference, a place that for decades resisted the undertow pulling the rest of the continent toward African majority rule. I will not be the first or the last foreigner to say that the spooky singularity of modern South African history has long fascinated me. A stubborn pariah state with a white-knuckled grip on its own version of reality, South Africa was for decades a boogeyman of global politics — and with good reason.

But South Africa’s history, as with any history, is a thorny and complicated place, full of ambiguity and texture. And resistance to apartheid, in its many varied forms, was acted out not by symbols but by people, who moved through their lives without the moral clarity that historical hindsight affords. Such individuals are not simply shorthand for the injustices of apartheid. They are humans with sprawled and intricate lives that resist easy categorization.

Nat Nakasa, for instance, was no crusader for media freedom. He was simply an ambitious journalist who had the cold fortune of being born black in twentieth century South Africa, a fact that meant that throughout his life he would be constantly in battle with state-sponsored segregation. But while the Nelson Mandelas and O.R. Tambos of the world were staging protests and fermenting revolution, Nat was writing for Africa’s most widely circulated news magazine, Drum, and The New York Times. He was founding one of South Africa’s first black-edited literary magazines and penning the first black-written column for a popular white Johannesburg newspaper. In his world, freedom wasn’t the end point of a long struggle arching towards justice. It was something you seized each day — one white girlfriend, one multiracial party, one critical news article at a time.

And he did not leave South Africa as a political exile, a foot soldier of the freedom movement. He went instead, in 1964, to complete a Nieman fellowship in journalism at Harvard — in short, to advance his own career. That meant he didn’t step into the ready-made community of the freedom movement abroad. Instead, he found himself perhaps the only black South African at a staggeringly elite — and elitist — American university, persistently called upon to provide the African perspective on apartheid for audiences across Cambridge. He grew to see these gatherings with students and civic groups as wildly hypocritical. It seemed easier, he grumbled, to invite a black African to speak about his country’s fight against white rule than to address tenement housing or segregated schools in your own city.

As Nakasa’s year at Harvard progressed, he began to feel progressively more isolated and slunk toward a deep depression. His one-year student visa in the U.S. was also racing towards its expiration date. When it ran out, he would have to find another country to take him in. And despite his lack of overt politicking, Nakasa had also become a person of interest to the FBI, who opened a file on the young writer in February 1965. Five months later, under the strain of surveillance, loneliness, and a precarious immigration status, Nakasa found himself in that New York City apartment window, desperate to a point of no return.

At his funeral, South African singer Miriam Makeba — also in exile in the U.S. at the time — eulogized him with a Zulu song whose title translated as “The Faults of These Noble Men.” But indeed, what she and the others in attendance at his funeral in New York mourned was not the death of a noble man, but of one who had been, in many ways, quite ordinary. Like them, he had swept through apartheid South Africa as a young man, taking as much as he could from a state that gave little, conquering reporting assignments, women and the literary scene because he was a smart, ambitious man who saw what he wanted, and no reason why he should not have it. And like them, he had left his country not so much to take a principled stand but because it was the best option for his life and career, or so it had once seemed.

In a similar vein, the ANC’s days as a moral compass for South Africa — if indeed it ever was one — are long past. It is the ruling party in a teenaged democracy, a collection of scrappy politicians whose ambitions are far less noble than practical. They marshal figures and events in South African history in large part to prove their own legitimacy. When Jacob Zuma calls Nat Nakasa “an outstanding patriot” and a “courageous journalist,” he is drawing a line of connection between them, casting himself as a supporter of the brand of anti-establishment writing that Nat spent his career perfecting. But if that is the case, it might do Zuma and his ilk some good to take a hard, close look at the particulars of Nakasa’s life. Indeed, as he once told a student reporter at Harvard, journalists weren’t there to bend reality to fit the needs of the present. They simply “have to look at things as they are and report them.”

* Ryan Brown is a Fulbright fellow in Johannesburg, South Africa, where she is writing a book about the life of Nat Nakasa. Portions of this article originally appeared, in a modified form, in the author’s article, “A Native of Nowhere: The Life of South African Journalist Nat Nakasa, 1937-1965” in Kronos: Southern African Histories (November 2011).

>via: http://www.sahistory.org.za/topic/stephen-bantu-biko-writings-documents-artic...

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Black Consciousness

Movement Documents,

Articles and Paper

 

 

Archive of resources:

This page lists and links to primary and secondary resources written by or about Steve Biko and the Black Consciousness movement. Please note that SAHO has been granted permission to upload these resources but their copyright still lies with the original author or archive.

 

Online books:

• Black Viewpoint, edited by Steve Biko and published in 1972.

  'Black Viewpoint is meant to protect and further the interests of black people... we focus attention on four addresses delivered by blacks in different situations. By juxtaposing these articles in this issue we hope to reflect the broad spectrum now to be found in our society both in terms of the different stresses we lay in the definition of our problem - the white problem - and in the mooted solutions that all four speakers touch briefly on...'

• No46 - Steve Biko, by Hilda Bernstein published in London by the International Defence and Aid Fund in 1978. Steve Biko was the 46th person to die in security police detention in South Africa.This book holds detailed information about the life and times of Steve Biko. There are chapters on Biko's inquest, the funeral, black consciousness, the courts, the police ect.

• Black Student Politics, Higher Education & Apartheid: From SASO to SANSCO 1968-1990, by Saleem Badat published in 1999.

• Psychological Liberation Black Consciousness and Africanism, a chapter from the book 'The Negotiated Revolution Society and Politics in Post – Apartheid South Africa' by Adam, H. and Moodley, K. Published by Jonathan Ball Publishers, Johannesburg in 1993.

 

Document, Articles and Papers:

• Steve Biko: An Enduring Legacy, by Barney Pityana (2002, UNISA)

• Black Consciousness a Critical, Relevant and Liberatory Angle of Vision, by Lerato Seohatse (2005, WITS)

• Black consciousness and the quest for a true humanity, by Steve Biko, a paper later published (1990) in a book titled 'I write what I like' - a collection of Steve Biko's writings put together by Aelred Stubbs.

• Mandela's ultimate recognition of Biko (in the Sowetan, September 2004, Pg 12)

• Biko, Black Consciousness, and 'the System' eZinyoka: Oral History and Black Consciousness in Practice in a Rural Ciskei Village by Leslie Hadfielda (PDF)

 

'Frank Talk' journal articles:

• The church as seen by a young layman, by Steve Biko (Frank Talk 9 September 1987)

• Fear: An important determinant in South African politics, by Steve Biko (Frank Talk 9 September 1987)

• Biko Lives! (Frank Talk, 11 November 1984)

 

Related features:

• Definition of Africanism

• The Youth Struggle: Focussing on the Soweto Riots of 1976

• Steve Biko feature

• The Liberation Struggle: 1970s

• South African Students Organisation (SASO). Note: SASO was formed under the leadership of Steve Bantu Biko in 1968. The organisation was banned in 1977. This led to the formation of AZASO under the leadership of Tom Nkoane. AZASO became SANSCO in 1986, and later merged with NUSAS to form SASCO.

• History Classroom, Grade 12: Black Consciousness and Steve Biko

 

Outside links:

• The Steve Biko Foundation Website: A great archive of information.

• Biko Inquest: The TRC hearings. There are two sections on this webpage which link to the TRC hearings surrounding Biko's Death.

• Why my hostname is "biko". A memorial and tribute page to Steve Biko www.nogas.org

 

Further reading:

• Cooper, C. et al., Survey of Race Relations in South Africa, 1983.

• Davenport, T. R. H., South Africa: A Modern History, 2nd Edition (1977).

• Gerhart, G. M., Black Power in South Africa, 1979.

• Hellman, E. and Lever, H., (eds.), Conflict and Progress, 1979

• Horrell, M. et al. Survey of Race Relations in South Africa, 1972.

• Rand Daily Mail, 11 November, 1972.

• Lodge, T., Black Politics in South Africa since 1945, 1983.

• Biko, S. [Frank Talk], “Lets Talk About Bantustans,” SASO Newsletter, September-October 1972.

• Cawthra Gavin et al (eds.) (1994), War and Resistance, Southern African Reports: The Struggle for Southern Africa as Documented by Resister Magazine, London: The MacMillan Press Ltd.

• Gutteridge William (ed.) (1995), South Africa: From Apartheid to National Unity, 1981-1994, Aldershot: Dartmouth Publishing Company Limited.

• Johnson Shaun (ed.) (1988), South Africa: No Turning Back, London: The MacMillan Press Ltd.

• Lodge, T. (1983), Black politics in South Africa since 1945, Johannesburg: Ravan Press.

• Mokhtar, Z. (2007), “The most potent weapon in the hands of the oppressor is the mind of the oppressed, ”http://zdmokhtar.blogspot.com (26 March) .
  
  
• Mufson S (1990), Fighting Years: Black Resistance and the Struggle for a New South Africa, Boston: Beacon Press.

• Ndlovu S. M. (1998), The Soweto Uprisings: Counter-Memories of June 1976, Randburg: Ravan Press.

• Seidman Ann (1990), The Roots of Crisis in Southern Africa, Trenton: Africa World Press.

• Woods D. (1978), Biko, New York: Paddington Press.

• Kane-Berman, J. (1978), Soweto: Black Revolt White Reaction, Johannesburg: Ravan Press.

• Ramphele, M. (1995), Mamaphele Ramphele: A Life, Claremont: David Phillips.

• Random, P., (ed), Survey of Race Relations in South Africa, 1982.

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Black Consciousness Movement

Timeline 1903-2009

1903

William Edward Durghardt Du Bois publishes The Souls of Black Folk rejecting the notion that Black people need western values be to accepted as citizens. Du Bois calls for Black Consciousness among all Africans throughout the world.

1919

19 February,  The Pan African Congress is held in Paris, France and is headed by William Edward Durghardt Du Bois. A firm supporter of the ‘Back to Africa’ movement in the United States of America, Marcus Garvey founds the African Communities League and the ‘Black Star Line’ (part of the Universal Negro Improvement Association(UNIA)), with the intention of ‘bringing home’ the African Americans.

1944

2 April, The African National Congress Youth League is co-founded by Muziwakhe Anton Lembede, its first president.

1945

The fifth Pan-African Congress is held in Manchester, England, shortly after the end of World War II. This a critical event in exposing African scholars to ideas and strategies on seeking independence for African colonies using Black Consciousness ideology. The theme of the congress covers an end to colonial rule and political independence.

1946

18 December, Bantu Stephen Biko born in Kingwilliamstown

1952

October, The Mau Mau Rebellion begins in Kenya. Jomo Kenyatta is arrested by the British colonisers on the suspicion of being the main architect of the rebellion. His Africanist approach is influential on the development of Black Consciousness among South African Black activists.

1955

26 June, The Congress of the People is formed. A Congress Alliance, bringing together the African National Congress (ANC) and the South African Indian Congress (SAIC) results in the adoption of the Freedom Charter at Kliptown.

1957

6 March, Ghana (formerly the Gold Coast) achieves independence under the leadership of Kwame Nkrumah.

1958

December, The Sixth Pan African Congress, held in Africa for the first time, takes place in Accra, Ghana (formerly Gold Coast) under the chairmanship of Kwame Nkrumah.

1959

6 April, Robert Sobukwe and others break away from the African National Congress (ANC) to form the Pan African Congress (PAC). They argue that the Congress Alliance reasserts and emphasises ‘White-imposed racial division’ by organising itself along racial and ethnic lines. Sobukwe believes that the Congress Alliance is shifting from the ideology of Black Consciousness.

The Extension of University Education Act is passed, to channel students into segregated tertiary institutions, providing a breeding ground for the development of black nationalism. The Act made it illegal for white universities to allow black students to be enrolled unless they had special permission from the state.

1960

21 March, The PAC campaign against pass laws, in which people were asked to leave their passes at home and present themselves to be arrested by police, ends with police opening fire on the crowd in Sharpville, killing 69 protesters. In the wake of the Sharpeville Massacre, African students loyal to the African National Congress (ANC) establish the African Students’ Association (ASA), Pan African Congress (PAC) sympathizing students form the African Students’ Union of South Africa (ASUSA), and those loyal to the Non-European Unity Movement (NEUM) form other organisations in the Cape and Natal. However none of these organisations survives long, since identification with banned movements is hazardous, and university authorities are hostile to student political groups. Non-cooperation between peers in different student political groupings makes matters worse.

8 April, The African National Congress (ANC) and the Pan Africanist Congress (PAC) are banned in South Africa.

1963-64

African students begin focussing their attention on the multi-racial National Union of South African Students(Nusas), an outspoken anti-government organisation with a membership drawn heavily from White English-speaking universities, for want of a better vehicle to express their political aspirations.

Steve Biko is introduced to politics as a teenager, when one of his older brothers, Khaya, a student at Lovedale High School, is arrested as a suspected Poqo member and jailed for three months. The South African Policeinterrogate Steve Biko in connection with his brother’s Pan Africanist activities, and Steve Biko is subsequently expelled from Lovedale. Biko develops a strong antipathy toward White authority, and carries this attitude with him when he enters St Francis College at Marianhill in Natal, a liberal Catholic boarding school and one of the few remaining private high schools for Africans in South Africa.

1964

With the Rivonia trial still in progress, Nusas delegate Martin Legassic attends a student conference in Dar es Salaam, then Tanganyika, at which Nusas is condemned for not being representative of the black majority. This provokes a deep questioning of the role of Nusas within the organisation, with radial elements arguing to cut Nusas ties with its moderate student base and realigning the organisation with the liberation movements.

April, Jonty Driver delivers a speech at a Nusas conference at Botha’s Hill, arguing that the organisation would be weakened if it broke away from its student base, but also saying that idealy, the organisation should be led by black students, and that its political activities were much more important than its involvement in student affairs. Driver’s speech was leaked to the national press and presented as official Nusas policy, and at the next Nusas conference, Driver is censured, marking a rightward shift over the next few years.

Former Nusas students engaged in subversive actiity under the umbrella of the African Resistance Movement are arrested

In the face of strong opposition from rank-and-file members, mostly White, to some of its more "radical" policies, the Nusas shifts rightwards, confining itself to symbolic multiracial activities and protests after-the-fact against government infringements on academic freedom. This marks the beginning of a phase of deep frustration for the small Black membership, as virtually all channels for the expression of anti-apartheid sentiment are closed.

The World Student Christian Federation calls on South Africa’s Student Christian Association to reject segregation, and the SCA withdrew from the federation, eventually leading to a split in the SCA along racial lines, setting the scene for the launch of the University Christian Movement in 1967.

1965

Steve Biko matriculates after finishing his schooling at St Francis College in Marianhill in Natal.

1966

After completing his studies at Marianhill, Steve Biko enters the Natal University’s ‘non-White’ medical school, familiarly known as Wentworth. A vastly talented political analyst, he is soon elected to the Students’ Representative Council (SRC) and through the SRC he is drawn into Nusas activities. Biko lives in the Alan Taylor Residence of the university in Wentworth, where African, Indian and Coloured students are housed on an equal basis.

July, Steve Biko attends the annual Nusas Congress as an observer. He impresses the Nusas leadership enormously and is considered for grooming to become the first black president of Nusas, and invited to a Nusas leadership training seminar. At the conference, about a quarter of the delegates are African, Coloured or Indian. The black students put forward a motion to cancel annual fund-raising festivals (rags) unless hey were racially integrated, but the motion is defeated.

late 1966: John Vorster becomes prime minister and vows to curb the activities of Nusas

1967

July, The University Christian Movement (UCM) is formed, mainly by a group of liberal white clergymen, including Basil Moore, a Methodist minister and theology lecturer at Rhodes University and Colin Collins, a Catholic priest who was chaplain to the National Catholic Federation of Students. About 90 students and clergymen attended the founding congress in Grahamstown, many of them black, and an executive committee was elected, with Moore as president. The executive committee included Collins and Winifred Kgware. The UCM established 30 branches over the next two years at universities, seminaries and training colleges.

Steve Biko remains in Grahamstown to participate in the annual Nusas Congress as a Wentworth Delegate. The congress sees bitter reactions from Black students when Rhodes University, the host institution, prohibits mixed accommodation or eating facilities at the conference site. The Black students put forward a motion to suspend the congress until a nonracial venue is found, but the motion is defeated, 42 voting against, and nine in support of the motion. The Black students (led by Biko) begin to question their status within Nusas and consider a black breakaway group.

December, Basil Moore and two black students attend the annual conferene of the American UCM in Cleveland, Ohio. They raise funds that allow the UCM to hire a full-time secretary, buy a car and cover programme costs.

1968

July, At the Annual Nusas Congress, Steve Biko and some of his fellow medical students begin to draw black students into a candid discussion on their second-class role within the union.

The UCM holds its second national conference at Stutterheim, where 60 percent of the delegates are black. Biko, also at the conference, begins to actively promote the idea of an all-black university movement.

August, The UCM’s Colin Collins attends  a conference of the World Student Christian Federation in Finland, saying on his return: "In theology and social action South africa is a geographic and cultural backwater of the world."

Folowing a government veto on the apointment of an African anthropologist, Archie Mafeje, as a lecturer at University of Cape Town, students at Fort Hare boycott the appointment of their new principal, JM de Wet. The ’ringleaders were identified and subject to police questining, with over 300 students suspended by September. Most of these were allowed to return to campus, but  22 were expelled, including Barney Pityana, Kenneth Rachidi, Justice Moloto and Chris Makoditoa.

late 1968, The UCM is barred from holding meetings at Fort Hare, Turfloop, Ngoye and the University of the Western Cape.

During the Christmas recess, a meeting takes place at Marianhill, and is attended by about thirty members of Black University Students’ Representative Councils. From analysing the Nusas experience from this group, Steve Biko finds an encouraging receptiveness to his idea of an all-Black organisation. The name South African Students’ Organisation (Saso) is chosen and plans are laid for a formal inaugural conference.

1969

1 July The constitution of the South African Students’ Organisation (Saso) is adopted at the inaugural conference and Steve Biko is elected president. Other leading party members include: Barney Pityana,Harry Nengwekhulu, Hendrick Musi, Petrus Machaka, Manana Kgware, Aubrey Mokoape, J Goolam and Strini Moodley. Though the new organisation is committed to a philosophy of Black Consciousness, it does not reject the liberalism of Nusas right away.

1969-70
The SA Council of Churches, in collaboration with the Christian Institute, launches a programme for research into the black community, called Study Project for Christianity in Apartheid South Africa (Spro-cas)

1970

Colin Collins of the UCM decides to leave the priesthood.

July, Saso’s first General Students’ Council is convened, where the organisation takes a bolder stance. The organisation encourages contact between SASO and other multi-racial organisations such as the UCM and the Institute of Race Relations, but recognition of Nusas as a "true" national union of students is withdrawn. The term ’black consciousness’ enters Saso discourse, and in July 1971 is set out for the first time in Saso’s Policy Manifesto as follows:

i) "BLACK CONSCIOUSNESS" is an attitude of mind, a way of life;

ii) The basic tenet of Black Consciousness is hat the Blackman mus reject all value systems that seek to make him a foreigner in the country of his birth and reduce his basic dignity;

iii) The Blackman must uild up his own value systems, see himself as self-defined and not as defined by others."

The organisation encourages contact between Saso and other multi-racial organisations such as the United Christian Movement (UCM) and the Institute of Race Relations, but recognition of National Union of South African Students (Nusas) as a "true" national union of students is withdrawn. Saso becomes identified with a well-articulated ideology of Black Consciousness.

Mosibudi Mangena enrols as a student at Ngoye, and is exposed to Saso ideas through speeches by Biko, Pityana and Nengwekhulu

Basil Moore publishes a paper, titled "Towards a Black Theology", which is enthusiastically received, and sparks off a Black Theology Project within the UCM, to be co-ordinated by Stnley Ntwasa, a student at the Federal Theological Seminary at Alice. Moore begins to disseminate the works of James Cone, the originator of Black Theology in the United States.

Smangaliso Mkhatshwa provokes controversy in Catholic circles by publishing a Black Priests’ Manifesto,  which sets out the grievances of black priests and calls for the Africanisation of church structures.

August, In an article published in Saso’s newsletter, Steve Biko writes: "The integration they (liberals) talk about...is artificial ... a one-way of course, with the Whites doing all the talking and the Blacks the listening."

1971

January, Biko, speaking at the Abe Bailey Institute in Cape Town, openly criticises the ANC’s policy of political alliances

South African Students’ Organisation (Saso) helps launch Black Community Programmes (BCP).

March, UCM holds a seminar on black theology

April, After Biko, Pityana, Mokoape and Lindelwa Mabandla hold meetings with various black organizations in March, a meeting is held in Bloemfontein with IDAMASA as convener. Representatives of Saso, Idamasa, Asseca, Aica, the YMCA and members of the St Peters Old Boys’ Association. A subsequent meting in Edendale in mid-August produced an agreement to form a confederation of African organisations to promote community development programmes and represent African political opinion.   The Edendale gathering chooses Drake Koka to head an ad hoc committee to convene a follow-up meeting. Ben Khoapa (of the YMCA) and Biko were commissioned to produce a draft constitution for the organisation. At a mid-December conference at the YMCA in Orlando, the Saso bloc push through a resolution in favour of a more overtly political organisation, based on Black Consciousness philosophy, and using its expanded definition of "black". This would result in the launch of the Black People’s Convention (BPC) in July 1972.

July, Saso passes a resolution on Black Theology at its conference in Wentworth, declaring that Christianity in SA has proved to be a support for the status quo and oppression

Saso adopts a policy manifesto, stating the centrality of the Black Consciousness doctrine.

Saso establishes relations with two student funding organisations based in the UK; World University Services and the International University Exchange Fund

After receiving a military call-up, Colin Collins goes into exile.

Strini Moodley and Saths Cooper, members of the Natal Indian Congress (NIC) urge other Indian activists to embrace the Black Consciousness ideology. Although there is sympathy among NIC members, they view Saso’s ideology of Black Consciousness as potentially leading to Black racism.

1972

Basil Moore and Stanley Ntwasa of the UCM are banned

Basil Moore, formerly of the UCM, and by now banned, goes into exile.

January, Spro-cas, with money raised by Beyers Naudé from European churches, launches Black Community Programmes (BCP), with Ben Khoapa as director

A book of papers from seminars on Black Theology, titled Essays on Black Theology, published by UCM

29 April, OR Tiro delivers a blistering speech at the Turfloop graduation ceremony, attacking apartheid education and anticipating a movemen of national liberation

South African Students’ Movement (Sasm) launched, a high school-based youth organisation

3 May, Onkgopotse Abram Tiro is expelled from Turfloop, sparking a student boycott of lectures the next day. Eventually, all 1146 students are expelled. Tiro eventually gets a job as a history teacher at Morris Isaacson School in Soweto, but is fired after six months as authorities put pressure on the school, where high school students join the South African Students Movement

12 May, Saso holds formation school at Federal Theological Seminary in Alice, producing the Alice Declaration. The Declaration resolves that students nationwide should close down Black institutions of higher education through lecture boycotts in support of the expelled, Onkgopotse Abram Tiro, from the University of the North (Turfloop)

1 June, every major black campus endorses the strike, eventually leading to Saso being banned on many campuses. The planned reopening of the University of the North (Turfloop) fails. Their grievances go beyond the Turfloop expulsions to reiterate long-standing student complaints about domination by White staff, biased curricula and demeaning campus conditions.

2 June, White students at UCT demonstrate in solidarity with black striking students, and are viciously baton charged by police outside St George’s Cathedral. Press coverage of the white demonstration eclipses the strikes by black students, and newspapers cry out against the Afrikaner treatment of English students at liberal campuses

2-9 June, Themba Sono is ousted as South African Students’ Organisation (Saso) President, in a General Student Council meeting held in Hammanskraal. Sono stands for close co-operation between Saso and some homeland leaders. Chief Gatsha Buthelezi seen by as an undeniable force in South Africa politics. Saso advocates a radical approach towards the homeland leaders, calling them puppets of the Pretoria regime.

The Theatre Council of Natal, a politically committed Indian drama group which included Strini Moodley and Saths Cooper, decides to devote itself exclusively to black audiences.

MDALI (Music, Dance, Art and Literature Institute) formed to combat exploitation by white impresarios

July, Black People’s Convention (BPC) formally launched at a conference in Edendale, with Reverend Mashwabanda Mayatula as interim head and Drake Koka as interim secretary general.

mid-1972, The Schlebusch Commission is appointed to investigate the activities of liberal organisations.

mid-1972, UCM disbands, bequeathing many of its funds to Saso, while its Joburg offices are taken over by BPC.

mid-1972, BPC establishes he Black Allied Workers’ Union (Bawu), which evolved out of the Sales and Allied Workers’ Association which was begun by Drake Koka. Bawu set up offices in Joburg and Durban, espouses Black Consciousness and critises the paternalism of the white-led Trade Union Council of SA.

July, Saso holds a symposium on "Creativity and Black Development", releasing the contents of the gathering in book form soon after.

Saso holds conference in Hammanskraal. After the conference, small groups of Saso members begin to leave the country, crossing the border into Botswana, to join the exiled liberation movements. Saso expels journalists from The Star and The Rand Daily Mail from its conference, because white reporters were sent and also because of the papers’ refusal to use the word “black” in place of “non-white”.

July, The Chatsworth train boycott and a public stance on foreign investment attracts more attention to the Black People’s Convention (BPC).

August, Biko quits his medical studies and becomes a paid staffer at Black Community Programmes (BCP)

September, Bokwe Mafuna, a journalist with trade union experience, tasked with a plan to initiate a national Black Workers’ Council

New Saso-dominated SRC elected at UWC, with a 61% student turnout after a Saso branch begins to operate on the campus, but university authorities refuse to recognise the new SRC and collude with security police who question many students

16 December, BPC holds its first annual congress in Hammanskraal, with delegates from 25 newly formed branches (each having at least 25 members). Winifred Kgware is elected national president. Interim head Reverend Mashwabanda Mayatula’s address calls for economic justice and puts forward reasons why blacks should reject homelands.  BPC’s Constitution declares it intends to preach and popularise the philosophy of Black Consciousness and black solidarity.

December, Activist Mthuli Shezi, who inspired Black Consciousness ideas through his writings and plays, dies. He is pushed beneath a moving train at Germiston Station for standing up for the dignity of Black women who were being drenched with water by a White station cleaner.

1973

January - February, Durban is swept by a wave of spontaneous strikes by Black workers. This prompts reserved acknowledgment from industry, and attracts worldwide publicity. Though none of the Black organisations can claim credit for the strikes, nonetheless the strikes demonstrate the potential for successful industrial action. Many Black radicals consider the possibility of forming a student-worker alliance. The Black People’s Convention (BPC) declares its support for the Durban strikers.

January, Spro-cas and the Christian Institute launch Ravan Press, a publishing house for their books as well as for BC publications such as the Black Viewpoints series and the book-length Black Review (published from 1972 to 1976)

26 February, Eight BC leaders banned: Biko, Pityana, Nengwekhulu, Jerry Modisane, Strini Moodley (then Saso president and publications director), Drake Koka and Saths Cooper of BPC, and Bokwe Mafuna, whose banning scuttles the birth of the BWC. Henry Isaacs, a law student at UWC, becomes acting president of Saso, Tiro becomes permanent organiser and Ben Langa replaces Pityana as secretary general. Bko continues as a field officer of BCP, but moves to King William’s Town because of his banning order.

8 March, In Parliament, Helen Suzman refers to the BC movement as the "ugly stepchild of apartheid’s racism".

BPC national organiser Mosibudi Mangena detained and convicted on charges under the Terrrorism Act, for allegedly trying to recruit two policemen for guerilla training. This forms part of a campaign by the authorities to stop BC activity: printers of BC material are raided, activists are detained and interrogated, Saso and BPC offices are raided and searched throughout the country.

"Black Images" festival featuring mostly Indian performers from the Theatre Council of Natal exhorts audiences to identify themselves as back

Gibson Kente performs How Long?, a political play catering for an increasing receptiveness to "relevant" entertainment

May, BCP forms the National Youth Organisation (Nayo), an umbrella body for regional youth organisations

5 June, UWC’s SRC issues Die Geel Dokument (the yellow document), listing student grievances and calling on authorities to effect reforms. Students hold a mass meeting on 8 June after the administration fails to respond, and security police detain Saso president Henry Isaacs on 9 June . The students erupt in protest and the university is closed down, announcing that all students would have to apply for readmission. At a mass meeting at St John’s Cathedral in Belville on 12 June, students vote to reject the readmission process and call for student/parent committees. The move generates a wave of support from parents, clergy, journalists and graduates nationwide. the protests culminate in a rally at Athlone Athletic Park on 8 July , with a crowd of about 10 to 12 thousand people. Speakers include Gatsha Buthelezi, Sonny Leon and Adam Small (who resigned from his position as an academic at UWC), and Fatima Meer. The rally was the largest political demonstration in SA since Sharpeville. Two days later the university announces that all students will be readmitted, but protests continue, and the university appoints a commission to look into student grievances and replaces the white rector with a Coloured rector.

Shanti, a play written by Mthuli Shezi, is performed in Durban and the Transvaal by the People’s Experimental Theatre (PET) troupe. They also stage Requiem for Brother X, a play inspired by Malcolm X.

September, Bokwe Mafuna and Harry Nengwekhulu cross the border into Botswana, later to be joined by Tiro, Tebogo Mafole of BCP, and Willie Nhlapo. Relations with the exiled liberation movements are strained and the question of BC organisations forming a "third force"  begin to surface.

October, Ben Khoapa banned and put under house arrest

Mangena’s terrorism trial ends in his conviction.

Mid-December, BPC, after a rapid beginning, with 25 branches formed in the first six months, manages to organise only 34 branches by mid-December, reflecting a failure to draw independent African churches, as envisaged earlier in Mayatula’s 1972 speech.

By the end of 1973, a dozen or more leaders have been banned, including all members except one (Winifred Kgware) of BPC’s national executive.

1974

Baleka Kgositsile is active in the Black Consciousness Movement as well as the ANC underground.

February, Tiro is killed by a parcel bomb

25 April, Portuguese dictator Marcello Caetano is toppled, setting off a process of phased transition to the independence of Portuguese colonies, including Mozambique and Angola

Lack of capital for a black-owned newspaper sees the project scuttled, prompting black journalists to form the Union of Black Journalists (UBJ)

The UBJ’s Percy Qoboza succeeds Moerane as editor of The World

September, The Durban branch of Saso announces it will hold a rally to celebrate Frelimo’s impending takeover of power in Mozambique, with Frelimo representatives invited to make speeches at Curries Fountain in Durban. Turfloop was also set to hold a rally, but planned rallies in other centres couldn’t be organised in time. On September 24, Minister of Justice Jimmy Kruger announces a ban on the rallies. On the 25th September, police used dogs and truncheons to disperse several thousands of people gathering to hold a rally outside Curries Fountain in defiance of the ban. At Turfloop students hang posters on the campus, and police break up a large indoor meeting. After interventions by the administration, the staff association and the SRC, police withdraw, but white lecturers driving into campus are roughed up after displaying racist attitudes. On September 27, the university is closed for two weeks, during which time police carry out raids on suspected leaders.

Following the arrest of various Durban Saso activists, Mapetla Mohapi and Malusi Mpumlwana are despatched from King William’s Town to Durban to run Saso’s headquarters. Saso activists in Durban begin cultivating links with the ANC underground in Natal

From late 1974, The ANC shifts focus from Botswana to Swaziland for recruiting new cadres.

By late 1974, 20 activists from Saso, BCP, Bawu and Tecon are banned

December, The Black Renaissance Convention sees 300 representatives of black organisations meet over four days in Hammanskraal. Organised by clergymen Maurice Ngakane of the SACC and Smangaliso Mkhatshwa of SACBC. The meeting brought together representatives of black religious, educational, civic, labour, sports and welfare organisations. Several factors irked BC organisations: the steering committee did not include members of BC organisations, and several officials from homeland administrations were invited, with Collins Ramusi of Lebowa giving the opening address. Saso and BPC arrived in a bloc of about 20 people and steered the convention to adopt a militant declaration of principles, calling for black trade union recognition and sanctions against SA.

1975

January, Thirteen activists who organised the Viva Frelimo rallies, all in detention, are charged with offenses under the Terrorism Act. Eventully only nine are charged after state witnesses leave the country.

February, At the Saso Nine pre-trial hearing, the defendants emerge from the holding cells singing a protest song, waving the Black Power fist and generally behaving in an insubordinate manner.

18 February, Announcement at Turfoop University that all activities of Saso are suspended

March, At another hearing in the Saso Nine trial, the defendants repeat their earlier display of insubordination, and this time scuffle with the police when relatives are prevented from making contact with the prisoners.

Mamphele Ramphele founds Zanempilo Community Health Centre in Zinyoka, outside King Wiliam’s Town

early 1975, The West Rand Administration Board announces that theatre producers will have to submit scripts for review before they can be performed in townships. Gibson Kente’s play Too Late is banned, unbanned and banned again. Three months later, Reverend Mxwandile Maqina’s Give Us This Day ’took Soweto by storm’, according to The World. The play is eventually banned in May 1976.

May, Steve Biko holds a clandestine meeting with Robert Sobukwe and obtains the assurance of the banned PAC leader’s full support in attempts to reunite the ANC and PAC. Biko also begins, through Mapetla Mohapi and Malusi Mpumlwana, to create a dialogue with Griffiths Mxenge and Harry Gwala, senior ANC underground operatives, and with the PAC’s Zeph Mothopeng. Plans to hold a secret meeting by Christmas 1975 had to be aborted.

6 May, The government announces that it will provide free and compulsory education for black children

9 June, Le Grange Commission reports on activities of UCM, defunct since 1972, declaring that as a multiracial organisation it engaged in dangerous activities aimed at violent revolution

25 June, Mozambique becomes independent under Frelimo

August, The trial of the Saso Nine begins, officially designated The State vs Cooper and eight others, at the Pretoria High Court. Accused of conspiring to bring about revolutionary change and inciting anti-white hostility, the trial lasts 17 months

Several key activists from Natal medical School, all members of Saso national executives from 1975 to 1977, are recruitrd by the ANC, initiating "Phase Two" of the BC programme. They take as their task steering BC activists to identify with the aims, ideology and leadership of the ANC.

Mid-December, BPC holds its fourth national conference in King William’s Town. Conference refines the definition of black consciousness to align the BC movement with the ANC’s multiracialism, uses the name Azania to refer to South Africa, and attempts to define the concept of "black communalism". After the conference, Biko, Kenneth Rachidi and Mxolisi Mvovo draw up draft papers on black communalism in preparation for a conference. These papers, known as the Mafikeng Manifesto, and containing policies on BC economic policy, are debated at a symposium in Mafikeng in May 1976.

1976

April, Baleka Kgositsile goes into exile to join the ANC underground

May, Steve Biko testifies for five days at the Saso Nine trial, turning the trial into an open "seminar on the history, aims and principles of Black Consciousness".

13 June, Lindiwe Sisulu is detained

Representatives from Soweto schools meet at the Naledi branch of SASM, and decide to protest on 16 June. The Soweto Students Representative Committee (SSRC) formed to organize the protest

16 June, The Soweto Uprisings begin with about 20 000 students marching in protest against the new language decree and the Bantu Education system. The march turns violent with many students being killed by the South African Police (SAP) . The uprising spreads countrywide, and it is believed that the Black Consciousness movement contributed significantly to the ferment behind the uprising.

19 June, Government Gazette announces that 123 people have been banned as a result of the June 16 revolt. nationwide prohibition on meetings announced

25 June, The death toll in the riots is officially given as 174 blacks and two whites, the number of wounded 1,222 blacks and six whites, the number of persons arrested 1,298. Property damaged or destroyed is officially listed as sixty-seven state owned beer halls and bottle stores, fifty-three administration buildings, thirteen schools, eight state hostels, 154 vehicles, as well as banks. clinics, bus sheds, hostels and factories - public buildings and amenities built up over the previous twenty-five years.

27 June, The National President of the Black People’s Convention declares that riots have ushered in a new era of political consciousness.

Further arson occurs on Langa Post Office and Zimosa school.

July, The Minister of Police imposes a nationwide prohibition of meetings, which is renewed until the end of the year.

6 July, The government announces that teaching in Afrikaans in black schools will no longer be compulsory.

6 July, The South African Government annuls the regulation that African pupils be instructed equally in English and Afrikaans, and issues new regulations leaving the choice of the medium of instruction to school principals, subject to approval by the Government.

August, The police begin arresting black leaders, not only members of the Black Peoples Convention (BPC) and the South African Students’ Organisation (SASO), but also members of the Soweto Black Parents’ Organisation.

4 August, Riots erupt again in Soweto and spread to other townships in South Africa. The Minister of Justice again bans public meetings under the Riotous Assemblies Act, until the end of August.

5 August, Mapetla Mohapi dies in detention, police claim he hung himself with a pair of jeans.

23-25 August, A three-day strike is observed in Soweto by between 150,000 and 200,000 workers.

13- 15 September, A second strike call in Soweto leads to absenteeism estimated at 75-80 percent in Johannesburg.

17 October, The township of Soweto flares into violence again. An estimated 75,000 Pounds Sterling damage is caused. Incidents are also reported from Cape Town, Pretoria and Krugersdorp.

21 October, The Minister of Justice J. Kruger says that 697 people are being held for security reasons: 123 under the Internal Security Act; 217 under the Terrorism Act; thirty-four are jailed for their protection as witnesses; 323 are held for cases pending in relation to public security.

18 November, The Cillié Commission into recent riots is given a detailed account of the loss of life and damage to property in the Greater Cape Town area.

15 December, The South African Institute of Race Relations reports that 433 people are known to be still in custody. According to their sources, these comprise fifty-six school children, seventy-two university students, twenty-six student leaders and office-bearers of the South African Students’ Organization and related organizations, twenty-five members of other Black Consciousness organizations, sixteen churchmen, thirty-five teachers and lecturers, fifteen journalists, sixty state witnesses, six trade unionists, thirteen former political prisoners, one member of the Coloured Labour Party and eighty-one who have no known connection with political organizations. Of this total, 102 were in preventative detention, with no charges pending. In addition, according to the SAIRR, 144 people are under banning orders, restricting their movements and prohibiting them from attending gatherings.

Mamphela Ramphele is detained under Section 10 of the Internal Security Act

21 December, The Saso Nine trial ends with the conviction of all defendants, with six sentenced to six year terms and three to five year terms on Robben Island.

29 December, The Minister of Bantu Education announces moves towards the introduction of free and compulsory education for blacks. This is the fifth concession to black demands since the Soweto riots of 16 June 1976. It has also reversed the Afrikaans ruling in schools, suspended the ‘homeland citizenship’ requirement for blacks leasing houses in townships, introduced a home ownership scheme and agrees in principle to give increased powers to Bantu Councils in black areas.

Police announce the release of the last of the 113 detainees held under Section 10 (preventive detention) of the Internal Security Act. Restriction orders are placed on six of those released, including Winnie Mandela.

1977

1 January, Four senior members of the Soweto Students’ Representative Council (SSRC) are arrested.

10 February, The Southern African Catholic Bishops’ Conference decides to uphold the rights of conscientious objectors, expresses its perturbation over reports of police brutality and deaths in detention, calls for an investigation and protests against the provision of legal indemnity for the police. At the close of their conference, a twenty-one point action programme is issued for guidance in future stances to be taken.

11 February, In a ‘Declaration of Commitment’ the Bishops’ Conference states it will promote Black Consciousness in solidarity with all those who work for the legitimate aspirations of oppressed people.

15 February, Between March 1976 and 15 February 1977, a total of eighteen black people have died while in police custody, the causes of death being officially described as suicide, accident or natural causes.

21 March, Steven Biko, former Saso leader, released on 30 November 1976 after temporary detention under security laws, is re-arrested.

27 April, Police confront some 10,000 students demonstrating against rent increases in Soweto and violence ensues. The offices of the Urban Bantu Council in Soweto are attacked. The government later suspends rent increases for one month, pending investigation of alternative financing.

11 May, According to a report by the South African Institute of Race Relations, a total of 617 black persons, of whom it names 558, are known to have died by violence since June 1976 in the townships, including at least eighty five children and youths, of whom fifty three have been shot.

21 May - 22 May, The United States Ambassador to the United Nations, Andrew Young, pays a two-day visit to South Africa at the invitation of Harry Oppenheimer. He meets Soweto student leaders, black and white community leaders, newspaper editors and addresses a business dinner. He maintains economic pressure can bring about radical changes.

11 June, It is announced that Security Police have arrested the leader of the Soweto Students’ Representative Council (SSRC), Dan S. Montsitsi in connection with plans to commemorate the Soweto uprisings. Four white students are also arrested.

23 June, Violence erupts in Soweto again and at least 146 arrests are made by the police.

26 July, The ‘Committee of 10’ formed by prominent Soweto residents, and issues a programme for the election of a new community board to have total autonomy in Soweto, including powers to levy taxes and to control education, the police and local elections. The Minister of Justice rejects this and the government remains committed to community councils with limited powers, control being retained by the Bantu Administration Board.

3 August, Dr Motlana, on behalf of the ‘Committee of 10’ repeats the call for non-ethnic elections for an autonomous Soweto city council.

12 September, Steve Biko dies in detention, the 10th in a year, in Pretoria after being tortured and beaten by security police. Magistrate Prins delivered the following verdict:

a) The identity of the deceased is Stephen Bantu Biko, Black man, approximately 30 years old;

b) Date of death: 12 September 1977;

c) Cause or likely cause of death: Head injury with associated extensive brain injury, followed by contusion of the blood circulation, disseminated intravascular coagulation as well as renal failure with uraemia. The head injury was probably sustained during the deceased was involved in a scuffle with members of the Security Branch of the South African Police at Port Elizabeth.

Messages of concern come from, among others, Cyrus Vance US Secretary of State and Dr. Kurt Waldheim, the United Nations Secretary-General.

Baleka Kgositsile goes to Tanzania and becomes the first secretary of the regional Women’s Section of the ANC.

Winnie Mandela is banished to Brandfort in the Orange Free State.

Mamphela Ramphele is banished to rural Northern Transvaal where she forms the Isutheng Community Health Programme.

25 September, Steven Biko’s funeral in King William’s Town is attended by some 15,000 people. Twelve Western diplomats are present, including the American Ambassador.

16 October, A total of 128 members of the United States Congress, from both the Democratic and Republican parties send a written request to the South African Ambassador in Washington urging the government to invite an appropriate international body to examine South Africa’s laws and practices relating to detention and to make recommendations, with special reference to the death of Steve Biko.

19 October,Following a Cabinet decision on 18 October, the government, by proclamation under the Internal Security Act, declared 18 organisations unlawful, arrested some 70 leading Africans, placed a number of people in restriction (inc Donal Woods) and closed down the daily newspaper ’The World’ and its associated ’Weekend World’. The South African Police (SAP) jail dozens of government opponents not previously detained, including The World editor Percy Qoboza. Banning orders are issued to Beyers Naudé and Donald Woods, two prominent Whites who had publicly supported Steve Biko and the Black Consciousness Movement (BCM). Justice Minister, Jimmy Kruger places bans on all movements affiliated with the Black Consciousness Movement (BCM). Along with South African Students’ Organisation (SASO) and Black People’s Convention (BPC) the following organisations are included in the bannings: AASECA, the Black Parents Association, the Black Women’s Federation, the Border Youth Organisation, the Christian Institute of Southern Africa (a multi-racial organisation of anti-apartheid churchmen), the Eastern Province Youth Organisation, the Medupe Writers’ Association, the Natal Youth Organisation, the Transvaal Youth Organisation, the Union of Black Journalists, and the Western Cape Youth Organisation. Person’s arrested included 8 members of the Soweto ’Committee of 10’. The actions provoke worldwide shock and protest.

Banning orders are issued to Beyers Naudé and Donald Woods.

Emergency powers are proclaimed by the government of Venda.

The United States declares that the Carter Administration will be re-examining its relations with the South African government.

24 October, As the United Nations Security Council debate on South Africa opens in New York, a major diplomatic effort begins to deal with South Africa’s severe treatment of its critics and with African demands for mandatory United Nations sanctions.

The Minister of Justice, Police and Prisons receives a report of a police investigation into Steve Biko’s death and a post-mortem report submitted to the Attorney General of the Transvaal and signed by Professor Johan Loubser, Chief State Pathologist, by Professor W Simpson (University of Pretoria) and by Jonathan Gluckman (pathologist appointed by the Biko family) whose findings are unanimous. Death has been caused by extensive brain damage. Biko sustained at least a dozen injuries between eight days and twelve hours of his death.

26 October, The Attorney General of the Transvaal, Jacobus E Nothling, announces that an inquest into Biko’s death will be held, but that he would not institute criminal proceedings. On 28 October the Attorney General of the Eastern Cape, Carel van der Walt, also declines to institute criminal proceedings.

14 November, The Chairman of the Olympic Games organising committee announces that Rhodesia and South Africa will be excluded from the 1980 Moscow Olympics.

The inquest into the death of Steve Biko opens in Pretoria. Evidence given concerning the autopsy report is widely reported both locally and overseas.

21 November, A Soweto Action Committee is formed to back the plan for the future of Soweto proposed by the ‘Committee of 10’ most of whose members are in detention.

1 December, Counsel for Steve Biko’s family, Sydney Kentridge, makes his final submission calling for a verdict that Steve Biko died as the result of a criminal assault on him by one or more of the eight members of the Security Police in whose custody he was on 6 and 7 September. During his four hour address Kentridge reserves his most serious criticism for two Security Police officers, Colonel Piet Goosen and Major Harold Snyman and two doctors who examined Steve Biko, Dr Ivor Lang and Dr Benjamin Tucker.

2 December, The fifteen-day inquest into the death of Steve Biko ends with a three-minute finding by the presiding magistrate, Martinus Prins, who rules that no one can be found criminally responsible for his death in detention. The verdict causes deep concern within South Africa and a storm of protest overseas. Shock is expressed by the United States Secretary of State and consternation by the United Nations Secretary-General.

Two members of Steve Biko’s family, as well as eight other blacks, some of them friends of the Biko family, are detained by police in a pre-dawn raid in Soweto.

3 December, The record of the Biko inquest will now go to the Attorney General of Transvaal who can decide whether there should be any further investigation or any other action taken.

8 December, Sir David Napley, President of the Law Society of England (who attended the Biko inquest as an independent observer at the invitation of the Association of Law Societies of South Africa) issues a twenty-five page report on the inquest in which he severely criticises police procedure, evidence and investigation (‘perfuctory in the extreme’). Regarding the magistrate’s findings he is in accord, but adds I do not, however, apprehend that it would have been irregular for the Magistrate to have found that the death was caused by one or more of a group of persons without specifying such persons with particularity’.

6 January, Donald Woods, banned editor of the Daily Dispatch (East London) reaches Britain with his family, having fled South Africa via Lesotho and Botswana. The pro-government Afrikaans press launches a virulent campaign against him: the British and American press in contrast give wide and sympathetic coverage to the story of his escape.

22 January, At a meeting of the newly organised Soweto Students’ League, a decision is taken to continue the students’ boycott of State schools, to call for a national conference to launch a new education system and to take no part in elections to the Soweto Community Council.

26 January, Amnesty International’s detailed report on human rights violations in South Africa is banned. It presents comprehensive documentation on deaths in detention, detention without trial, treatment of convicted political prisoners, bannings and banishment.

At the request of the African delegates, Donald Woods addresses the United Nations Security Council and urges member states to pursue a policy of disengagement from South Africa.

2 February, The Attorney-General of the Eastern Cape states that he will not prosecute any police involved in the arrest and detention of Black Consciousness leader Steve Biko.

3 February, Pik Botha announces that the Biko affair had done untold damage to SA’s reputation

27 February, Robert M Sobukwe, founder of the Pan Africanist Congress, dies of cancer at the age of 53 and is buried in his home town, Graaff Reinet.

28 February, The Minister of Justice announces that detainees held under security laws will soon he allowed to have monthly visits from doctors and legal representatives.

10 March, Percy Qoboza, editor of the banned newspaper, The World, is released from detention, together with nine other black leaders seized in security raids in October 1976.

21 March, It is reported that about 15,000 students have returned to secondary schools in Soweto and that thirty-two of the forty state-run schools in the townships will re-open by the beginning of April.

23 March Three more detainees are released: the Chairman of the ‘Committee of, Dr. N. Motlana, a member of the Committee, L. Mosala, and Soweto Journalist, Aggrey Klaaste.

12 April, The Black Consciousness Movement of Azania (BCMA) is formed in London, UK.

late April, The Azanian People’s Organisation (Azapo) is formed at an inaugural conference at Roodepoort, near Johannesburg. It is open to Blacks, Coloureds and Indians, but closed to Whites. It adopts the slogan of the banned Black People’s Convention: ‘One Azania, one People’ and will oppose all institutions created by the government, from homelands to Community Councils.

4 May, Azapo’s two principal leaders, I. Mkhabela and L. Mabasa are arrested in Soweto. Anglican Bishop Desmond Tutu protests and queries why the authorities are so unwilling to listen to the voices of authentic black leaders.

12 September, On the eve of the first anniversary of the death of Steve Biko, police arrest sixteen people including Biko’s brother, his sister and her husband and close friends of the family. No reason is given but police say the arrests are preventive measures covered by the 1977 Internal Security Act.

25 September, The trial begins of eleven Soweto students charged under the Terrorism Act. The 56-page indictment alleges that as officers, members or supporters of the now banned Soweto Students’ Representative Council (SSRC), they conspired to commit sedition and terrorism between May 1976 and October 1977.

20 November, The Bureau of State Security (BOSS) becomes a full portfolio of National Security under the Prime Minister who is now Prime Minister and Minister of Defence and of National Security.

1979

Sisulu’s son Zwelakhe sentenced to 9 months imprisonment in Thami Mkhanazi trial.

African trade unions are for the first time recognised under the Industrial Relations Act.

7 February, Figures released by the South African Institute of Race Relations indicate a fall of 20 percent in political trials in 1978, compared with 1977. Authorities are showing increasing recourse to preventive detention rather than administrative banning of opponents.

9 April, The Botswana government is building a camp to house over 5,000 student refugees from South Africa at Molepolole, thirty-five km. west of Gaborone. This will be a country settlement and not a training camp.

11 May, Eleven Soweto school pupil leaders are convicted of sedition and sentenced in Johannesburg to terms of imprisonment, most of which are suspended, since the accused have already been held for long periods. The charges arise from the June 1976 demonstrations.

29 July, The government is reported to have paid the family of the Black Consciousness leader, Steve Biko, R65,000 in settlement of claims for his death in custody in 1977. The Minister of Police, Louis le Grange, says the state is not admitting liability and the file on the Biko affair has now been closed.

30 September, Azapo elects new leaders at its first Congress, near Johannesburg. The 200 delegates choose as leader Curtis Nkondo, a former Soweto teacher who resigned in protest against the separate school system for blacks. Azapo declares itself opposed to all institutions created by the government and to the principle of ethnically-based institutions and advocates the creation of a single Parliamentary state.

November The Azanian Students Organisation (AZASO) is formed.

24 December, The Security Police detains the President and six Executive Members of the recently formed Congress of South African Students (Cosas).

1980

March, A campaign is launched for the release of Nelson Mandela. Organisations supporting the campaign include the Soweto ‘Committee of, Inkatha, Azapo, the Labour Party, the Natal Indian Congress and the South African Council of Churches (SACC).

April, The London-based Black Consciousness Movement of South Africa changes its name to the Black Consciousness Movement of Azania.

21 April, The Coloured schools boycott is joined by pupils at a number of Indian schools in Pretoria and Natal. Support is also pledged by Black Consciousness groups.

1983

11 June - 12 June, The National Forum, representing 170 black organisations, holds its first Conference at Hammanskraal near Pretoria. Delegates from political, religious, student and trade union movements unanimously adopt a manifesto identifying racial capitalism as the real enemy and pledging to establish a Socialist republic. Azapo predominates: absent are movements subscribing to the Freedom Charter adopted by the ANC and its allies.

1984

10 December, Three leaders of the anti-apartheid United Democratic Front (UDF) and two Azapo officials are freed from jail, the UDF and Azapo report. South Africa announced the withdrawal of detention orders against 14 leading opponents of its racial discrimination policies but immediately charges six of them with treason.

1985

30 January, The South African Medical and Postal Council is ordered to hold an inquiry into the conduct of doctors that treated the Black Consciousness leader, Steve Biko, who died at the hands of the security police in 1977.

5 July, Two white medical doctors are found guilty of misconduct by the Medical Council in the 1977 death of Black Consciousness leader, Steve Biko.

October, Dr. Benjamin Tucker is struck off the roll for disgraceful conduct over the death in detention of Black Consciousness leader Steve Biko in September.

31 December, Government extends orders, in force since March, prohibiting anti-government groups from holding meetings, for another six months. Initially, they affected 29 organisations in 18 districts. In June they were extended to 64 organisations and 30 districts. Now 10 more groups linked to UDF and Azapo are added.

 Clashes occur between supporters of the UDF, Azapo and Inkatha throughout the year.  A State of Emergency comes into force. Cosas is banned. The Soweto Parents Crisis Committee (SPCC) is formed to address the education crisis.

1988

Azapo and the Azanian Youth Organisation (Azayo) are banned. Black Consciousness members leave the country and others join the African National Congress (ANC) in exile, where they undergo military training in several countries, many in the Soviet Union.

1989

December, An all-inclusive black political conference is held with the main groups being the Mass Democratic Movement and the Black Consciousness Movement. The Conference adopts the Harare Declaration which sets out pre-conditions for negotiations and outlines a new constitutional future.

1990

2 February, Bans on all political organisations are lifted.

1991

The Azanian Student Convention (AZASCO) is launched at the Medical University of South Africa (MEDUNSA), Pretoria.

1994

The African National Congress (ANC) and Azapo agree on a task force to look at the issue of land possession and Black empowerment.

January, Azapo launches an anti-election campaign as the party feels the ideology of Black Consciouness has not been addressed.

9 October, The Black Consciousness Movement of Azania merges with Azapo. BCMA chairman Mosibudi Mangena is elected president of Azapo at its eleventh national congress.

1997

28 January, The Truth and Reconciliation Commission confirms newspaper reports that five former security police officers confessed to the 1977 murder of Black Consciousness leader Steve Biko, and have made a formal amnesty application.

1998

Azapo and Tiro’s family organise the exhumation of Tiro’s remains and returned to his birtchplace, Dinokana, for reburial

21 March, A newly formed party claiming to be the legitimate custodian of Black Consciousness, the Socialist Party of Azania is formed. Sopa is formed by a breakaway group from Azapo.

2000

Mamphela Rampele joins the World Bank in Washington as managing director responsible for human development.

2003

1 February, “On the occasion of the commemoration of the life of Onkgopotse Abraham Tiro” by Bokwe Mafuna in Meadowlands, Soweto.

2009

Call for Submissions:

Poetry Potion's

5th Year Anniversary Edition

(South Africa/ Africa-wide)

Deadline: 23 July 2012

Poetry Potion is a monthly online journal featuring poet profiles, reviews, and poetry. To celebrate 5 years of the journal, Poetry Potion is coming up with an anniversary edition. There are two themes for this edition:

FIVE (5)

2 rules: no more than 30 lines, and must use the word "FIVE" in your poem.

GROWING

2 rules: no more than 30 lines, and must use the word "GROWING" in your poem (you may substitute with a synonym)

GENERAL SUBMISSION GUIDELINES:

• poetry is accepted in any language.

• if you submit in any language other than English then please provide an English translation of the poem or submit a short paragraph that explains what the poem is about (this is NON-NEGOTIABLE).

• poetrypotion.com does not edit poetry - so make sure that you submit your work in it's final publishable draft. DO NOT SUBMIT FIRST DRAFTS.

• poetrypotion.com reserves the right to edit articles for length, clarity and style.

• submit your best work.

CONTACT INFORMATION:

For submissions: via the online submission page

Website: http://www.poetrypotion.com

 

Open to Entries Worldwide:

The First Teenage Writers

Summer Writing Contest

(poetry/ short story

| $500 top prize

| international)

Deadline: 15 August 2012

We at Teenage Writers are very excited to announce our 1st annual Summer Writing Contest. Acceptable submissions are poems and short stories containing 1,000 words or less. There are three themes, of which all contestants much select only one.

The three themes are:

• "He awoke to the sound of birds"
• The departure of youth
• Caprice

All participating pieces of writing must be submitted by August 15th. The following three prizes will be awarded to the top three writers:

• $500 -- First place
• $300 -- Second place
• $200 -- Third place

Where you come from does not matter for participation. To submit your entry, please save it as a Word document and attach it in an email to vb@123.ca. All contestants must also submit their name, country of residence, and email address.

CONTACT INFORMATION:

For queries/ submissions: vb@123.ca

Website: http://www.teenagewriters.com

 

 

 

 

Call for Submissions:

“Where I See the Sun

–Poetry in

Contemporary St. Martin”

House of Nehesi Publishers (HNP) announces that poets and spoken word artists of St. Martin—from the island or living abroad—are invited to submit up to five poems for a new poetry book. “Where I See the Sun–Poetry in Contemporary St. Martin” is the working name for the upcoming anthology. A wide range of subjects and writings styles are encouraged.

A rigorous selection process by a confidential editorial board is planned for “Where I See the Sun.” The writers submitting their work “just have to meet the measure,” said Drisana Debbie Jack, one of the nation’s leading author/artist. [Her first title, The Rainy Season (1997), was one of the most read HNP poetry books in 2009, according Philipsburg Jubilee Library statistics.]

House of Nehesi Publishers has published works by Kamau Brathwaite (Barbados), Amiri Baraka (USA), and Marion Bethel (The Bahamas).

The full guidelines may be found at http://www.facebook.com/nehesipublishers or requested at houseofnehesipublish@gmail.com

For original press release, see http://notes.marist.edu/mail4/iromero.nsf/0/bb08a6e0cc895eac94acde762d3d28ad/Body/M2.2/OESnews12-HNP_anthology.pdf?OpenElement

ETHEL WATERS

 

Ethel Waters (October 31, 1896 ? September 1, 1977) was an American blues and jazz vocalist and actress.

She frequently performed jazz, big band, rock and roll and pop music, on the Broadway stage and in concerts, although she began her career in the 1920s singing blues. Her best-known recording was her version of the spiritual, "His Eye is on the Sparrow", and she was the second African American ever nominated for an Academy Award.

Early life

Waters was born in Chester, Pennsylvania on October 31, 1896. Ethel Waters was raised in a violent, impoverished home. She never lived in the same place for more than 15 months. She said of her difficult childhood, "I never was a child. I never was coddled, or liked, or understood by my family." Despite this unpromising start, Waters demonstrated early the love of language that so distinguishes her work. Moreover, according to her biographer Rosetta Reitz, Waters' birth in the North and her peripatetic life exposed her to many cultures. For the rest of her life, this lent to her interpretation of southern blues a unique sensibility that pulled in electric influences from across American music.

Waters married at the age of 13, but soon left her abusive husband and became a maid in a Philadelphia hotel working for US$4.75 per week. On Halloween night in 1913, she attended a party in costume at a nightclub on Juniper Street. She was persuaded to sing two songs, and impressed the audience so much that she was offered professional work at the Lincoln Theatre in Baltimore, Maryland. She later recalled that she earned the rich sum of ten dollars a week, but her managers cheated her out of the tips her admirers threw on the stage.

Career

After her start in Baltimore, she toured on the black vaudeville circuit. As she described it later, "I used to work from nine until unconscious." Despite her early success, Waters fell on hard times and joined a carnival which traveled in freight cars to Chicago, Illinois. Waters enjoyed her time with the carnival, and recalled, "The roustabouts and the concessionaires were the kind of people I'd grown up with, rough, tough, full of larceny towards strangers, but sentimental, and loyal to their friends and co-workers." She did not last long with them, though, and soon headed south to Atlanta, Georgia. There, she worked in the same club with Bessie Smith. Smith demanded that she not compete in singing the blues opposite her, and Waters conceded to the older woman and instead sang ballads and popular songs and danced. Though perhaps best known for her blues singing today, Waters was to go on to star in musicals, plays and TV and return to the blues only periodically.

She fell in love with a drug addict in this early period, but their stormy relationship ended with World War I. Ethel Waters moved to Harlem and became part of the Harlem Renaissance around 1919.

Waters obtained her first job at Edmond's Cellar, a club that had a black patronage. She specialized in popular ballads, and became an actress in a blackface comedy called Hello 1919. Her biographer, Rosetta Reitz, points out that by the time Waters returned to Harlem in 1921, women blues singers were among the most powerful entertainers in the country. In 1921 Waters became the fifth black woman to make a record (recording for the tiny Cardinal Records label). She later joined Black Swan Records, where Fletcher Henderson was her accompanist. Waters later commented that Henderson tended to perform in a more classical style than she would prefer, often lacking "the damn-it-to-hell bass". According to Waters, she influenced Henderson to practice in a "real jazz" style. She first recorded for Columbia Records in 1925; this recording was given a Grammy Hall of Fame Award in 1998. Soon after, Waters started working with Pearl Wright, and together they toured in the South. In 1924 Waters played at the Plantation Club on Broadway. She also toured with the Black Swan Dance Masters. With Earl Dancer, she joined what was called the "white time" Keith Circuit. They received rave reviews in Chicago, and earned the unheard-of salary of US$1,250 in 1928. In 1929, Harry Akst helped Wright and Waters compose a version of "Am I Blue?", her signature tune.

During the 1920s, Waters performed and was recorded with the ensembles of Will Marion Cook and Lovie Austin. As her career continued, she evolved toward being a blues and Broadway singer, performing with artists such as Duke Ellington.

In 1933, Waters made a satirical all-black film entitled Rufus Jones for President. She went on to star at the Cotton Club, where, according to her autobiography, she "sang 'Stormy Weather' from the depths of the private hell in which I was being crushed and suffocated." She took a role in the Broadway musical revueAs Thousands Cheer in 1933, where she was the first black woman in an otherwise white show. She had three gigs at this point; in addition to the show, she starred in a national radio program and continued to work in nightclubs. She was the highest paid performer on Broadway, but she was starting to age. MGM hired Lena Horne as the ingenue in the all-Black musical Cabin in the Sky, and Waters starred as Petunia in 1942, reprising her stage role of 1940. The film, directed by Vincente Minnelli, was a success, but Waters, offended by the adulation accorded Horne and feeling her age, went into something of a decline.

Waters with Count Basie in Stage Door Canteen (1943)

 

She began to work with Fletcher Henderson again in the late 1940s. She was nominated for a Best Supporting Actress Academy Award in 1949 for the film Pinky. In 1950, she won the New York Drama Critics Award for her performance opposite Julie Harris in the play The Member of the Wedding. Waters and Harris repeated their roles in the 1952 film version of Member of the Wedding'' In 1950, Waters starred in the television series Beulah but quit after complaining that the scripts' portrayal of African-Americans was "degrading."

Despite these successes, her brilliant career was fading. She lost tens of thousands in jewelry and cash in a robbery, and the IRS hounded her. Her health suffered, and she worked only sporadically in following years. In 1950-51 she wrote the autobiography His Eye is on the Sparrow, with Charles Samuels. (It later was adapted for a stage production in which she was portrayed by Ernestine Jackson.) In it, she talks candidly about her life. She also explains why her age has often been misstated, saying that her mother had to sign a paper saying she was four years older than she was. She states she was born in 1900. In her second autobiography, To Me, It's Wonderful, Waters states that she was born in 1897.

Her biographer, Rosetta Reitz, called Waters "a natural". Her "songs are enriching, nourishing. You will want to play them over and over again, idling in their warmth and swing. Though many of them are more than 50 years old, the music and the feeling are still there."

Private life

Waters is the great-aunt of Dance music singer and songwriter Crystal Waters. In the period before her death in Los Angeles, California, she toured with The Reverend Billy Graham, despite the fact that she had once been a Catholic and he was a Protestant. She died in 1977 at the age of 80 from heart disease, at the Chatsworth, California, home of a young couple who cared for her.

Awards and honors

Grammy Hall of Fame

Recordings of Ethel Waters were inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame, which is a special Grammy award established in 1973 to honor recordings that are at least twenty-five years old, and that have "qualitative or historical significance."

Ethel Waters: Grammy Hall of Fame Award
Year Recorded
Title
Genre
Label
Year Inducted
1929
"Am I Blue?"
Traditional Pop (Single)
Columbia
2007
1933
"Stormy Weather"

(Keeps Rainin' All The Time)
Jazz (Single)
Brunswick
2003
1925
"Dinah"
Traditional Pop (Single)
Columbia
1998
National Recording Registry

Waters' recording of "Stormy Weather" (1933) was honored by the Library of Congress. It was listed in the National Recording Registry in 2004.

Legacy
Year
Title
Organization
Result
Notes
2007
Christian Hall of Fame
Inducted
1994
29 cents Commemorative stamp
U.S. Postal Service
Honoree
Photo (Scott #2851)
1983
Gospel Music Hall of Fame
Inducted
1962
Outstanding Single Performance

by an Actress in a Series
Emmy Awards
Nominee
Route 66

"Goodnight Sweet Blues"
1949
Best Supporting Actress
Academy Award
Nominee
Pinky (film)

Filmography

On with the Show! (1929)
Rufus Jones for President (1933)
Bubbling Over (1934)
Gift of Gab (1934)
Tales of Manhattan (1942)
Cairo (1942)
Cabin in the Sky (1943)
Stage Door Canteen (1943)
Pinky (1949)
The Member of the Wedding (1952)
Carib Gold (1957)
The Heart Is a Rebel (1958)
The Sound and the Fury (1959)

This page is based on the copyrighted Wikipedia article Ethel Waters; it is used under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. You may redistribute it, verbatim or modified, providing that you comply with the terms of the CC-BY-SA. 

Original Wikipedia article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethel Waters

>via: http://www.lyricsfreak.com/e/ethel+waters/biography.html

Here she is, singing "Am I Blue," in 1929:

A 1925 recording of "I've Found A New Baby":

Here she is in 1975, almost 80 years old, singing "His Eye Is On The Sparrow" at some kind of revival meeting (as she explains, she got religion in the last years of her life):

...His Eye Is On The Sparrow is also the title of her autobiography.

Donald Bogle recently published a biography of Waters.  Read reviews here and here, and hear Bogle interviewed here.

 

Posted by Worry Later at Tuesday, July 26, 2011