Image source: South African History Archive
It’s 25 June, 1955. A three-thousand strong contingent of activists from across the length and breadth of South Africa assembles in Kliptown, outside Johannesburg. The assembly is a response to an ANC-led campaign to organise all progressive forces into a united voice of the struggle for liberation – having identified the need for a clear statement on the future of South Africa.
Indeed, the assembly was the epitome of Africa’s rainbow nation, with activists of all races, religions, classes and ideologies (except the segregationists, of course) in attendance. Workers, peasants, priests, intellectuals, women, youth and students, to mention but a few, met and engaged as equals on the ideal of a future nation.
The next day, 26 June, 1955, the small town of Kliptown recorded its name in the annals of history, as it played midwife to the birth of the Freedom Charter – a vision for a united, non-racial and democratic South Africa.
Fast forward to 4 December 1996. The Constitutional Court adopts South Africa’s first democratic constitution. Hailed as one of the most progressive constitutions in the world, it includes in its text many of the demands and visions encapsulated in the Freedom Charter. And like the charter, it is a product of an intensive and inclusive consultation process, led for two years by a Constitutional Assembly comprising elected public representatives of all hues.
Following in the footsteps of the charter, it also emphasises the creation of an open society based on democratic values, social justice and fundamental human rights. It is the envy of many, and a cornerstone of the little miracle unfolding on the southernmost tip of Africa, a continent notorious for internecine conflicts.
Fast foward again… but this time to 26 March 2013. The setting is the Number Four Museum on Constitution Hill, Johannesburg, once notorious as a hell-hole of a prison for female political prisoners, but now an important national heritage site that “tells the story of our turbulent past and our transition to democracy”.
CREDOThe Freedom Charter was signed at the Congress of the People, Kliptown, on 26 June 1955. We, the people of South Africa, declare for all our country and the world to know: that the world belongs that power is no one’s will that peace is liberty to this we pledged Around a stone fountain that all will have a voice …. that labour is given that the purpose of labour is well-being that by preserving the soil … Our stones will build that poets may arrange their rhymes that duty arises from understanding … We would drain slums We would prevent, before Our beliefs would not stop at borders We turned stone to words Let all people who love say here:
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| Librettist Brent Meersman also contributed his poem, Credo (Latin for I believe), which he wrote in celebration of the Freedom Charter and published as part of his anthology, Ophila and the Poet and Other Poems. |
Unisa and Pina Ya Thari, a production company created to give expression to Africa’s creative arts and indigenous music forms, have called an assembly of media and art practitioners to officially announce a ground-breaking partnership aimed at celebrating and re-imagining the Freedom Charter and the ideals it espouses.
The partnership will, it emerged, occur through an innovative multimedia oratorio about the charter, a joint stage performance created by Bongani Ndodana-Breen (music), Brent Meersman (libretto) and Andrew Black (multimedia).
Produced by renowned radio personality Brenda Sisane, it will feature such notable musicians as the multi-talented and dynamic Sibongile Khumalo, Otto Maidi, Monika Wassung, and the Johannesburg Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Jonas Alber.
Called Credo: A musical testament to the Freedom Charter, the oratorio is a 67-minute production based on the unifying values embodied in the Freedom Charter and reflects the social vision enshrined in it.
Meersman had this to say: “Credo is a statement of personal beliefs, but perhaps it is often more a statement of our faith and hope. I had a deep need, one I share with many South Africans of my generation and younger, and hopefully of every generation to come, a need to connect with the spirit, the expression of idealism that our nation invested in the freedom charter.
In my poem I set myself the task, to attempt to distil in the simplest and fewest words, in the clearest human terms, in words as uncluttered as possible, the heart and bones of the Freedom Charter.
The charter was itself an act of extraordinary imagination, of the people’s imagination, to envisage a better more just world, and that act of the imagination created the vision we still have preserved somewhere within all of us as a nation because of that document.”
Speaking at the media launch, Bongani Ndodana-Breen said that he believed that South Africa had a historical and cultural obligation to share the legacy of the Freedom Charter with the world.
“Credo will be an important contribution to the growing body of 21st century artistic work based on the struggles, triumphs and victories of the country’s turbulent history,” he said.
Delivering the keynote address, Principal and Vice-Chancellor, Prof Mandla Makhanya highlighted that Unisa’s involvement with the project is an integral part of the university’s 140 years celebrations, and emphasised that these celebrations should mirror not only the rich tapestry of Unisa’s academic offerings, but also the collective histories of those who teach and those who are taught at Unisa.
His address was an affirmation that this partnership was a homage to those who assembled in Kliptown 57 years ago to formulate the Freedom Charter as much as it was a celebration of the charter’s cultural, historical and social impact in the struggle for liberation and the role it would continue to play in shaping futures for generations to come.
“As the landscape in which we live changes and our country develops and transforms in line with the vision of our forebears, we are called upon to embrace creativity and innovation in charting the path to our futures, just as they did many decades ago,” he said.
The VC also said that Unisa was privileged by the opportunity to collaborate on the Credo project, as this would enable it to participate in the promotion of original South African music throughout the country, the continent and the world; the creation of jobs and performance opportunities for South African artists, ensuring continued training, development and skills transfer within the performing arts community; as well as promoting an understanding of South African political and cultural history.
Other key elements of the project are the schools and community education programme linked with it (running from April until July 2013), which fits in well with Unisa’s community outreach vision, as well as the planned series of public dialogues (on 26 April and 20 July 2013 respectively), which will seek to explore the challenging issues around the Freedom Charter, particularly looking at its relevance and significance almost two decades into our democracy.
As fate would have it, it would take a rare combination of a great African institution and a great moment in African history, with Unisa incidentally sharing a birthday with the Freedom Charter, together with the celebrated artistic genius of award-winning composer, conductor and opera producer, Bongani Ndodana-Breen, with the influence of two celebrated South Africans in their respective fields, wordsmith Brent Meersman and multimedia guru Andrew Black, to tell one of the greatest South African stories ever.
Credo’s opening performance, prior to spreading its wings worldwide, will be on 18 July 18 2013, a 67-minute display of artistic celebration coinciding with the birthday of the new South Africa’s founding father, Isithwalandwe Nelson Mandela and the international 67 Minutes for Mandela volunteer campaign.
The setting will be the ZK Matthews Hall at Unisa, named after the very man whom the Kliptown assembly trusted with the mammoth task of synthesising the final document to be later adopted as the Freedom Charter.
It has come full circle!
Prof Narend Baijnath (Pro-Vice-Chancellor), Bongani Ndodana-Breen (Composer), Prof Mandla Makhanya (Principal & Vice-Chancellor), Brent Meersman (Librettist) & Andrew Black (Multimedia) ©SuzyBernstein
