Nr. 18 Juni 2011 TRANS: Internet-Zeitschrift für Kulturwissenschaften
Section | Sektion: Johannesburg in Literature
Virtual forum
Peter Horn:
I am glad, that your paper celebrates Nat Nakasa‘s life in Johburg (those were the years when I studied at Wits,and taught at the German school in Hillbrow).I had a special relationship to The Classic (and indirectly to Nat Nakasa) because after his death they published one of my poems: An Easter Yodel for Unbelievers‘ . In: The Classic. Johannesburg: (1970) No. 3, S. 38–39.
I was deeply shocked by the news of his suicide.I also remember the legendary boxer King Kong and the musical (there was a performance at Wits) and I had a record of it. Until one day it was left in the sun an started get waves at the edges. I think the most interesting aspect is that of a black intellectual and journalist picking up material to write about in an Environment which made no provision for black intellectuals at all.
And I really love that picture!
Peter Horn:
Dingz is not an African name, is it? What is the significance of the use of this name? I think the use of language is central, when discussing literature, and thus I am intrigued by the use of Is’camtho as a marker of urban cultural identity, used to demonstrate linguistic creativity and to set one apart as ‘streetwise’. I seem to remember that poets (e.g. Sepamla) between the 60’s and the eighties used a similar mix in some of their poems. I tis not quite clear to me, whether Dingz does or does not escape Soweto in the end?
Princess MP Bembe:
Dingz is an African name. It’s short for Dingamanzi, loosely translated as ‘in need of water’. Yes, I agree that there’s significance in the use of the abbreviated version of his full name. I believe that instead of him using the full name, which sounds rather traditional, he prefers to call himself ‘Dingz’ which would prove more street-like/ streewise and ‘cool’/ appealing.
Yes, Sepamla and others did make use of ‘streetwise’ language in their works. This was also done to mark their identity and that of the people of the township. It was a language that spoke to the masses in a manner that they could identify with. This was more evident in the Drum writers of the time.
Dingz is finally evicted from the Y because he had ‘smuggled’ his girlfriend, Nkanyi, into the building. As a result, he finds himself commuting between Soweto and Wits. Therefore, he does not escape Soweto at all, but still finds himself caught between the two spaces/worlds of city life versus township life.
Peter Horn:
The Johannesburg Art Gallery was, many years ago, an important hub in the art world. The idea of the performance project, Florence was to present some of the gallery’s important history through the retelling of Florence Phillip’s (founder of the Johannesburg Art Gallery) life. Florence was wife of mining magnate Lionel Phillips, who with other Landlords provided funds for purchasing Johannesburg artworks.
Myer Taub’s paper tries to show how she was outmaneuvered by powerful men … The Randlords who gave or withheld finance. And how the performance tries to recapture marginalised spaces in history.
Myer Taub describes his own performance “Only when it Rains”, performed by himself wearing an inverted white “Scream” mask and Bio-Hazard suit in Joubert Park.In the second intervention called “Anything for money”, he performed as a character called “Greedburg”.”Practice what you Preach”, the third installment of the performance also occurred as public intervention.
What I found particularly interesting, was the short glimpse of the reaction of an audience: the spontaneous interactions occurring with people in the park. Notably there was a significant encounter with several children in the park that led to them calling the character “Uncle Mlungu” as they constantly berated me for performing like a trickster who attempted to transgress the boundaries of park fences and enclosures around fountains. Eventually “Uncle Mlungu” led the children into the art gallery. This was their first visit where they discovered the educational table and began to busy themselves by making drawings of our encounter.
I would have been very intested, what the audience was for the other two installments, and how they reacted.
Peter Horn:
I find interesting the emphasis on “the rise of an African cosmopolitanism, as well as representing the continual transformation taking place in the country as a whole” as against the view of “the city as a space of ‘otherness’; as a space consisting only of death, fear, squalor and decay.” The question is, however, whether texts like Room 207 by Kgebetli Moele (2006), Welcome To Our Hillbrow by Phaswane Mpe (2001) do not really portray the negative side of the city. I find her use of the argument that space, and specifically the built environment, is gendered interesting and worthy of exploration. She raises an important problem: “For some reason, there is a modest amount of literature based on the experience of women in the city. Of even more concern is the lack of female writers and narratives regarding the city and the lack of female artists utilising the city as the setting of, or inspiration for, narratives and other cultural works. The city and also writing about the city therefore seems to have become what M. Gottdiener and Leslie Budd (2005: 81) term “masculine space”. “Is it correct to say: suburban spaces such as large supermarkets, shopping malls and the middle-class, single family home are examples of ‘feminine space’. The city therefore seems to continue to be seen as a male-dominated site.” Interesting is the following: “when women are represented as leaving the home, walking and spending time in the city itself, they are either described as taking a risk or being in danger, or assume the roles of prostitute or tourist”. It is therefore a pity that there do not seem to be women writers in the space of the city (is this true?): “Mpe and Moele’s texts still depict Johannesburg, and Hillbrow in particular, as a masculine space. This is most evident in the fact that the protagonists in all three texts are male and therefore experience and present the city to the reader from a subjective, masculine viewpoint.”
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