Voices From Sa

This is the tenth episode of Voices from SA. Yippee. My guest this week is writer, performer and director Jefferson Tshabalala. He is part of the new wave of South African theatre. Tshabalala creates works across varied fields, ranging from orthodox drama to hip-hop theatre, and was nominated at the 2014 Naledi Theatre Awards for the Best Emerging Voice award. In 2015 his production of the play “Secret Ballot” was nominated at the Naledi Awards for Best Ensemble production. We spoke about how exposure to theatre performance in his first week on campus changed his whole creative direction. We also chatted about his relationship to directing, acting and performing and how these different roles suite him at different times. I asked him about the nature and importance of collaboration and also the freedom that his alter egos-POET O-type, JBobs Live and J Bama Klot give him on stage.

My guest this week is South African jazz pianist and composer Paul Hanmer. Over the years he  has worked with some of the giants of South African music including Miriam Makeba and Hugh Masekela. We speak about his growing up in Cape Town, his formative musical years playing in cover bands, the search for his own musical identity and the joy of playing his own music.  We also speak about collaboration and the creative process. Paul gives a great view on what it is like to work as a professional musician. This is a slightly longer episode as Paul plays one of his compositions at the end of our discussion.

This week my guest is the artist Thenjiwe Nkosi. She was born in the USA to a South African father and an American mother. The family moved back to South Africa in 1992\. Our discussion covers a number of topics including identity and race, migration, creativity and commercialism and individuality vs collaboration. She tells a nice story about enlisting some skate punks in Bayreuth into one of her video projects. "I would love to be making quite radical works that incites action or are in themselves action. That is something that I have not yet figured out. That is an expectation that I have of myself to be radical in my practice." Thenjiwe is exhibiting here Heroes series, which we touch on during our discussion, in the Reading Room at the Goethe Institute from 5April to 22 June.

Dipak Patel is a former MK commander, a former Director-General in the Department of Transport and now an investor and social entrepreneur who spends his time between Johannesburg and New York. In this episode Dipak talks about growing up in Durban, joining the armed struggle at the age of eighteen and finding himself as part of the negotiations process that enabled the transition to democracy at the age of twenty-seven. The interview took place before the ANC elective conference in December 2017 but contains interesting reflections on the current state of the ANC and the possibility of recovering from the Zuma years.

In the sixth episode of Voices from SA, host Nicholas Claude speaks to lifelong activist Kumi Naidoo, shortly before his appointment as Head of Amnesty International. During the course of a wide-ranging discussion Kumi speaks passionately about the role that activism can play in changing legislation and transforming society. “Optimism of action is the best antidote for the terrible analysis of where the world is. I refuse to accept that the world we live in is the best that humanity can create for itself.”

Mpofu-Walsh is an academic, author, activist and rapper who released his book Democracy and Delusion, accompanied by a rap album, towards the end of 2017. In the wide-ranging interview with host Nicholas Claude, Mpofu-Walsh talks about the impact of the Fees Must Fall movement, land reform, gender violence and the state of politics in South Africa. He is currently busy with a D.Phil. in International Relations from Oxford University which looks at global nuclear weapon-free zones.

The fourth episode of Voices from SA is an interview with the young South African author Yamkela Tywakadi, the author of ten books. She has written in both isiXhosa and isiZulu and some of these works are on the school curriculum in South Africa.  She recently published her first English novel entitled “Lies in Her Boots”. Yamkela was raised by her grandmother near Mount Frere in the Eastern Cape. We had a fascinating discussion about the role of the author in contemporary South Africa, about ancestors and tradition as well as issues around land, race and patriarchy.

The third episode of the recently launched podcast, Voices from SA, is an interview with Ronnie Kasrils, a founding member of the armed wing of the ANC, uMhkonto we Sizwe(MK). The interview took place on the eve of the ANC National Executive Committee meeting that took the decision to recall President Zuma. The wide-ranging interview, part history and part manifesto covers the challenges of launching the armed struggle, resurrecting the struggle against apartheid during the late 1970’s, the failures of the negotiated transition and the potential “second chance” offered by the recent appointment of President Cyril Ramaphosa.

Kagiso Lediga is a pioneering South African comedian as well as an actor, writer and producer. His directorial debut Catching Feelings will be released in cinemas across South Africa on March 9, and around the world in April. The interview took place in early December 2017\. We chatted about a number of things including his early comedy influences, the winding road to making his first TV show, the groundbreaking Pure Monate Show, the benefits of knowing your audience, and the role of comedy in the modern South Africa. He loves to tell a story so enjoy the show.

Sisonke talks to Nicholas about growing up in exile, gender violence, fake news and the potential of the Fees Must Fall movement.