Here we are

Every January since 2011 I take a moment to reflect what my world has become since I have left formal employ. In this post I am going to deliberately not mention something this might include peoples names, institutions and events that  have happened. One might ask why is this but I believe that unless I rid myself of those things I am not mentioning I just keep going back to the negative. 

My attitude around re-blogging again isn't too different from the last time I did. Most of the issues would be Black people issues, nothing heightened nothing confused just pure bread and butter issues that can be accessed no that should be said that not many people are saying. 

so there aren't many issues that are going to be raised in this initial blog just reflections of what has happened since then, well here goes: 

On the political front we still stuck with the same president and a defacto president in waiting has joined him (more about him in later blogs) needless to say it has become harder and harder to vote for the ANC with all the mess that goes in there. 

Those of you who know my politics would know I used to be in the SNI a movement that I truly believed was to change the course of blackness as for a moment there was a solid base for radical black thinking and while we might not have burnt a library or blockaded a street in protests against the continued co-operation amongst the ANC/DA/Anti Black Capitalist Forces we were on course to develop a black literate radical movement, then the EFF happened! This morning I was watching the news and there was a white women predicting about the demise of the EFF in 2015, this prediction came from the astros we are told but in truth we could have told this woman this EFF was doomed for failure when it was first mooted because of a few reasons :

1. It was a reactionary movement by ideologically fraught ex ANC members 

2. That it went around collecting political opportunist at will to try and force a pseudo-left movement speaking for the poor while it was being run by the by the political snobs of our time.Besides the conference or whatever they called it proved to us that the EFF will not sustain itself. 

3. That no one who claims to believe in the freedom charter has genuine interest to see Blacks emerge in the scourge created by CODESA talks in the early '90s.

The death of Cosatu is good news me thinks, its time that workers have a party that genuinely seek to fight for the protection of worker rights, after all if the incoming president is a mega business man (regardless of what he says) how can anyone aligned with his party do anything that is not going to benefit him and his friends? 

Enough about politics for now, lets talk about good news: 

the arts, more and more state funded theatre's are run by a majority of Black people and we can only live in hope that this begins to mean something for black artists who incidentally still have to struggle to survive, this isn't only a theatre problem, its across the board. Music, dance, fine arts, photography, etc it just seems the more Black people are in charge the more marginalised the Black people are, unless of course you are Nicky Minaj and you can routinely pick up a R10 million rands check in South Africa when they aren't sure what they doing. This brings us to the crucial issue of government department, agencies and or representatives of the DAC could we please have an environment that allows the arts to flourish without DAC acting like events management company? Without the NAC developing festivals? Without NFVF controversy? With SAMRO and RISA paying royalties to the artists? Without artistic directors directing every big budget production in their places of employ? With less collusion and more opportunities for the independent artists? 

Can we see a true transformation of the arts? And can this start with the National Arts Festival? Because if it happens there then it can set the tone as to which direction the industry should take rather than just feed into a messed up untransformed system? Can who ever who is sabotaging Zola's music cut the brother a break while we at it, because the continued persecution of Bonginkosi Dlamini chronicles every problem with the development of Black artists? 

On the positive side though (and now the really positive no manga manga business) We have seen the mergence of new voices across the arts, the not so new Vuyani Dance Theatre continues shining, a string of other companies keep pushing the boundaries across the country, the green goose collective, kiri pink knob, lingua franca, the different collectives working out of the BAT centre, Thenx collective, Phillip Dikotla, Mncedisi Shabangu working with Dr. John Kani (finally old meets young) The Soweto Theatre, The Plat4orm, Yellow Bunny Productions and many other alternative spaces I have come across have been really good news