| A man isn't happy truly until a man truly dies? |
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A man isn't happy truly until a man truly dies?A pursuit of dignity.By Iain Harris On March the 22nd this year, Gito Baloi the Mozambican bassist was murdered in downtime Johannesburg. He was shot three times in the head. A month later in Maputo, the musicians were in mourning. Chico Antonio the rock star asked: "Epa! What's going on in that Joburg. Why are people so violent?" "That sort of thing doesn't exist in Maputo", despaired Salinas Mohamed the famous singer. Jose Mucavele, the third of the trio of Maputo's kings of music, just shook his head and looked into his beer. Olha, he said. "Your country has to find another way to release its anger at the past." Back in Cape Town my friend and former boss, Isaac Paxe the language consultant, called from Luanda. He had just read about Gito's death on the web. "You had a peaceful negotiated liberation in your country," he says. "And yet civil society is at war with itself? What's going on? Where's the dignity?" A history of denial of dignity Angolans and Mozambicans know about loss of dignity. Once upon a time their countries were murderous places. In Mozambique, Renamo soldiers massacred villages. They destabilized the country in a reign of violence funded and supported by Rhodesia and the apartheid government. Renamo, however, has become a legitimate political party. It is the largest opposition party on the continent. In Angola, UNITA, the opposition to the ruling MPLA, started as a legitimate anti-colonial force and descended into the warmongering and barbarism of Renamo, with the support again of Rhodesia and South Africa (as well as the USA who favoured UNITA'S anti-communist stance and control of the country's diamonds). Savimbi was intent on seizing absolute power rather than sharing it. Savimbi is dead now, and UNITA with him, and the war is undeniably over for good. As Mozambique draws closer to its general elections in December this year, the outgoing president, Joaquim Chissano, is upbeat. Since the official end to the conflict between Renamo and the Chissano's ruling Frelimo, the country, particularly the capital Maputo, has enjoyed a firm and quiet peace. And while Renamo threatened a return to armed conflict in 1999 after Frelimo won the elections, it is unlikely that it could happen again. Shortly after Renamo leader Afonso Dhlakama suggested this course of action, the big brother from the South intervened and sanity prevailed. Continued peace seems inevitable. "We've had enough violence," Maputo photographer Anita Bucuani sighed to me. "Sure crime exists and I'm not saying there are no incidences of violence. But you know, we experienced campaigns of systematic mutilation for so many years. Families were wiped out. The human spirit was wiped out. Nobody can stomach violence any more. I don't believe our people believe in it as an option." And a death in the fashion of Gito Baloi's, in Luanda or Maputo, is unthinkable. "Perhaps the most enduring effects of totalitarian rule and systematic oppression … cannot be measured in terms of numbers of the dead but in immeasurable losses of the human spirit. That's what has to be restored." Pumla Gobodo-Madikizela, author of A Human Being Died that Night, in This Day Monday 28 June *** Meanwhile across the Atlantic in Brazil, the big brother to fellow Portuguese speaking siblings Mozambique and Angola, a death like Gito's wouldn't be a surprise. Violence is a way of life. Travelling along the east coast in 2000, stories about bus hijackings abounded. Staying in Sao Paulo it was hard to avoid the constant newspaper reports of innercity violence and murder. The rap group Racionais MCs catches attention with uncompromising lyrics about police violence and the violence created by economic inequality. Since the 1960s the great musical icon Gilberto Gil - who is also the Minister of Culture - and others like him have taken on the government in music, fought inequality with their words. But awareness is not enough. And the favelas in Rio and Sao Paulo are ganglands like those depicted in Fernando Meirelles' City of God. Drugs rule, like they do here in South Africa. And the associated violence is severe. The most fundamental issue to be addressed in Brazil, says Gil, is that of "reducing inequality and restoring dignity". The self-esteem of a nation where half the population and more are not employed - and not employable in the existing economy - can only be zero. Brazil's unemployment rate is the same as South Africa's, but with a population of 160 million, the scale is more drastic. The unemployment rates in Angola and Mozambique are even more radical: upward of 80 per cent in both countries. InterdepenDance South Africa, Brazil, Mozambique and Angola and have long held hands. Brazil is to Mozambique and Angola the long lost brother that disappeared in the middle of the night across the sea and returned hundreds of years later in a samba record. They look up to Brazil, they admire her tenacity, they love the way she speaks the Portuguese language that binds them. Angola is Brazil's fourth largest trading partner, and Lula's financial ministry announced in July that they were to increase their Angola credit line to USD280 million. Mozambique is South Africa's neighbour, home to many ANC exiles during apartheid, long dependent on the rich cousin for labour and access to mineral resources, and virtually unknown to South Africans. In Angola, a two and a half hour flight from Joburg, the ANC ran training camps for its armed wing Umkhonto Wesizwe. The ANC leadership has a long standing relationship with Brazil's Worker's Party, now the party in power under the presidency of Lula. Recently a trade accord was signed between Brazil, South Africa and India. Mozambique and South Africa recently completed the Sasol gas project worth 3 billion. The Maputo corridor was finished a year ago and lines of trade and exchange between the two countries has grown dramatically. To Angola and Mozambique, South Africa is the stern, rich cousin who lives down the road. Not to be understood, but certainly to be admired. Silly little Nelspruit is booming thanks to the Mozambicans who take a leisurely two hour drive from Maputo to shop and trade. SAA and TAAG flights from Luanda to Joburg are fully booked with Angolans travelling to Joburg to shop. And each of these countries has phenomenal tourism potential. South Africa and Brazil are already embracing such potential to great economic benefits. Mozambique is still largely untapped and Angola is a clean slate with some of the greatest possibilities imaginable. It is a country of great beauty and people. And so the social recovery of these countries is inextricably linked. But how to create the platforms that can bring about change? I believe part of the solution lies in the converging of tourism, cultural and artistic expression and transformation of the security services (such as the police and the army). Models for change. 1. Arts and culture "The arts have been the principal interpreter of our world, they give intense significance to the process of being human. The creative processes are vital for the development of our human potential, they help us to understand and affirm our social contract." Gilberto Gil, Minister of Culture for Brazil "Art is… the most important concept to human beings after consciousness itself - or, in moral terms, conscience. It is essential to human happiness because it embodies the virtue of order, and society cannot function without order." Paul Johnson, British writer, historian and delightfully pompous old codger. In Brazil, President Inacio Lula da Silva of the Worker's Party, together with Minister of Culture Gilberto Gil seem to have a strong understanding of how to restore human dignity. Gil's point of departure, it became clear when I met him in Maputo, is his history as a music icon in Brazil. As Lula says it, Brazil wouldn't be Brazil with people Gilberto Gil, Caetano Veloso, Carlos Jobim and Jorge Ben. And now with Gil in government, the counter-culture of the 1960s has become the political mainstream - with a mandate from the people of Brazil to do what he believes is necessary. Certainly the presence of a loved national icon in government can work powerfully. Just look at what Schwarzenegger has been able to achieve in California. Cinema is one of the key areas that Gil has prioritized as a platform for people to see themselves in a new light and to reconnect them with their cultural roots. In the last year Brazil's output of films has moved from 30 to 60, and the endpoint of Gil's five year tenure as Minister is to be making 100 movies a year. His department is also intervening directly in issues distribution to ensure that an increased production meets the largest possible audience - and generates sustainable revenue. Brazilian cinema has been powerful in branding the country to the world. Orpheus for example, the massively successful 1967 film by what what Moreira, introduced the world to bossa nova. The trick is now to turn that phenomenon inward to market Brazil's identity back to itself. Cinema alone, of course, can only contribute to the broader issue. It's in the convergence of a variety of different modes that change is effected. Two other key areas Gil has identified are storytelling and hip hop. He has put into place policies and programmes for both to address some of the needs for expression and contribute to a restoration of dignity. Running parallel to these efforts in the department of Arts and Culture is Brazil's grand public works programme, much like our government's Expanded Public Works Programme, attempting to ensure a far reaching access to the economy. In South Africa, the Ministry of Arts and Culture has an unprecedented one billion rand in its budget. It remains to be seen how effective it can be with that sum, but I believe that Pallo Jordan has some good tricks up his sleeve. 2. Tourism But a restoration of self-belief cannot happen just with artistic and cultural belief and affirmation. People need access to the economy, we need to be able to feed our families. The most talented person in the ghetto, without access to the economy, is incapacitated. So it is in the combination of cultural cultivation, and access to economic empowerment that real change happens. South Africa and Brazil are both rolling out extended public works programs aimed at creating access to the economy for the country's poorest. This will not doubt contribute to the healing process, but is not in and of itself a holistic solution. Tourism offers innumerable opportunities for change. The World Tourism Organisation in its mandate identifies tourism as one of the most powerful means of overcoming poverty. And the combination of culture, artistic expression and tourism has particular significance. By way of example, for six months, together with Jethro Louw the Ghetto Poet in Kalkfontein, I have been running a cultural tourism initiative called the Coffee Beans Route. Each week we take out a group of tourists, both local and international, to visit Kalkfontein township: we take in dinner, drinks at a shebeen, music and poetry and the emphasis is on creating a space for dialogue. Each week people learn about each other across borders and barriers, and each week the tourists leave with a changed understanding of life in South Africa's townships. They leave inspired by the hope and talent that exists there. And the residents of Kalkfontein involved in the project are just as changed each week. They are affirmed for their skills in cooking, music, arts and their ideas. The reconnection with other parts of the world - and how they can and are contributing to it - leaves residents with an indelible sense of their own value and power over their destiny. It also leaves them with money in pocket. It is economically and spiritually empowering. The great result of the project is that sustainable business opportunities are emerging, and people are embracing them. It's about tourism as a means of creating the impetus for sustainable business development and creating an atmosphere of entrepreneurialism. And though it is in its infancy, the model is one that can be applied anywhere. And together with government support and funding, such a project can have broad and significant impact. The potential for such a model in Angola and Mozambique particularly, with their traditions of music and storytelling are grand. 3. Safety and security None of these countries have police services. We all have police forces: inefficient, badly trained and aggressive policemen and women who seem to work not to serve us but rather to make life more difficult for us. We are all scared of the police, rather than empowered by them. In Cape Town you will see groups of three city policeman together ambling around smoking cigarettes paying no attention to the urgent crimes that are being committed. Instead they'll be ticketing cars parked the wrong way in residential zones. In Luanda and Maputo a random encounter on the street over no crime at all can lead to a bribe being paid or a visit to the local police station. In Brazil, you can buy drugs from the police. Part of the problem is that the police force has become an employer, rather than a service. Policemen rarely become policemen out of a desire to serve and protect. They need a job. The police force provides one. They pay poorly. Everywhere there is resentment. You can check out any time you like… The interplay of government, the arts, and business enterprise can create the impetus for radical change. In South Africa, according to a recent report, there is R390 billion in fluid cash sitting in the corporate sector gathering interest. There is money to be made from uplifting society - those billions could be used to create more money, for people across the board. Prince's Sign 'o the Times doesn't have to ring true. Nor does the The Eagle's song Hotel California: You can check out any time you like but you can never leave. Originally published in Rootz Magazine. |
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