Giving it up for Nelson and Charlize
Posted on 27. Aug, 2010 by Graham in Headlines and Opinions
It is amazing to see the flags still flying on cars and houses a month after the FIFA World Cup. My mirror sock – singular, the other has gone, no doubt the wind took it – is pretty faded, I must admit, but there it will remain come rain or shine, until it is no more. For now, it is a colourful reminder of that glorious month when we basked in the rays of our own national pride. Oh, how I long for the heady days of vuvuzelas, gogolos and makarapas. What a month! And the crime? What crime? The 2010 World Cup courts that were set up dealt swiftly with transgressors and South Africans behaved themselves in front of the visitors – some of the visitors were another story! But hey, we’re talking about good things here.
The fever is leaving us slowly, but there is no end to people who want to shake off the negative past and move into the light. Graham Wood of Southern Sun International attributes the quick change in perceptions of foreign visitors to South Africa to the infrastructure development that took place before the world cup – the airports, transport and roads showed we can hold our own with the best in the world. But the people of South Africa were the biggest asset, Wood says, as he recounts the warmth Southern Suns’ guests found so phenomenal, and the tears shed by a group of Brazilians when they bade farewell to the staff at a Cape Town hotel.
These are the nameless faces who promote this country in the way that Wood describes, but there are also many who are our icons, our human brands. And I am sure the first person who comes to everyone’s mind is Nelson Mandela: father of the nation, prisoner, husband, freedom fighter, son, negotiator, brother, statesman, grandfather. The man who founded the military wing of the ANC, umKhonto we Sizwe, was at the forefront of freeing this nation from the shackles of slavery and won a Noble Peace prize. Friends and former foes speak with equal pride of one of this country’s greatest.
Then there’s Charlize Theron, who won us an Oscar, and is a famous star in Hollywood. Of course she has done her bit in promoting South Africa. Remember that speech? “I am just a girl from a small farm in South Africa.” Benoni, a small farm? Well, if you did not know it, she confirmed it! And then there was her appearance at the 2010 World Cup. By the way, I checked the origin of her name, and yes, she was named after her father, Charles Theron, but no, it is not one of those names that South Africans are so fond of making up – daughter: Craigalene, father: Craig; daughter: Garthella, father: Garth and mother: Stella; and so on. There really is a name, Charlize, of Germanic origin, and it is feminine for Charles and pronounced CH as in Charle-eze.
Hugh Masekela, the musician who made it big in the US, formed the first African jazz group in South Africa in 1959 – the Jazz Epistles – with Dollar Brand, Johnny Gertze, Kippie Mokoetsi and Makhaya Ntshoko. Masekela is just one of several South African artists who left the country and who made their mark for South Africa. Dollar (aka Abdullah Ibrahim), Miriam Makeba, Letta Mbulu, Jonas Gwangwa, to name but a few, all hit the high road and went abroad because of apartheid.
We are reminded of our own achievements again in woman’s month, August, as Brand South Africa honours women such as Dulcie September, anti-apartheid activist who was assassinated by unknown assailants in Paris; Lilian Ngoyi, Helen Joseph, Rahima Moosa and Sophie de Bruyn who marched to the Union buildings in Pretoria to protest the pass laws and laid the foundations for the emancipation of women in South African. Today South Africa boasts one of the highest representations of women in national parliament in the world – about 44% in the Lower or Single House and about 29% in the Upper House or Senate. How! Does this mean we beat the US, that grand old defender of democracy and freedom? Yeah! Okay, enough bragging and back to the women who gave us our freedom. William Kentridge says of his drive to draw, to be an artist: “It’s the inner urge or inner need to be making something that gets the activity beginning.”1 It is without doubt their inner urge and need which drove these mothers, wives, lovers, friends to take on the South African state.
Speaking of Kentridge, his work has been a comment on the political realities of apartheid South Africa and it continues to reflect the social milieu of this country. He is undoubtedly one of South Africa’s greatest artists.
And they are all proudly South African.
