This is an adapted version of the opening speech by Kim Berman at the Art of Human Rights Print Portfolio, featuring works by South African artists and poets, hosted at the UJ Art Gallery from 11 May to 8 June 2016.
Questions educators are asking across the country are how does the student movements of 2015 affect the insides of our classrooms in the University. The 2015 student protests demonstrated a level of political maturity in that students were able to link their struggles with that of the broader society and managed to force institutions to review policies on hiring practices and conditions of service. This movement established a base of democratic practices that promotes critical citizenship.
Questions educators are asking across the country are how does the student movements of 2015 affect the insides of our classrooms in the University. The 2015 student protests demonstrated a level of political maturity in that students were able to link their struggles with that of the broader society and managed to force institutions to review policies on hiring practices and conditions of service. This movement established a base of democratic practices that promotes critical citizenship.
More recently however, we seem to
be surrounded by a wave of destructive fury that shows contempt for any rules,
institutions and constitutions. Adam Habib, in an opinion piece in the Sunday
Times, talks of “multiple manifestations
of rage” and recognises that our public discourse and electoral campaign
rhetoric “are replete with militaristic and violent imagery”. He asks the
question: “How do we return to a path to address the economic and social
inclusion that is necessary to heal the divides of our society?” And further states
that: “There is too little recognition of the fact that social justice will
result from a process through the progressive realization of our rights” (Habib
05/16)
In the wake the burnings of 20 schools
in Vuwani and the many acts of destruction on University campuses, our
challenge as educators is to reframe and re-imagine democratic agency that can
void the “rhetoric that invokes militaristic and violent imagery”. How do we
learn and teach the strategic lesson that political progress requires learning
how to engage power “with a view to a socially inclusive future”? (Habib 05/16)
Educators
are faced with a number of challenges to consider in engaging not only the
project of decolonisation in the classroom, but promoting active citizenship.
Some
of the challenges include:
·
How to we re-invent and dissolve power relationships in the
classroom?
·
How do we create safe spaces in the classroom so everyone
feels a sense of belonging
·
How do we disentangle from obsolete pedagogies (top down),
and look at teaching and learning as co-creation
The
exhibition by Art for Humanity (AFH) currently on show at the UJ Art Gallery can be instructive in
this regard. Arts and arts activism have valuable lessons to share with the
project of decolonisation. The arts enable crossing boundaries, discovering
commonalities, porus relationships, curiosity, aesthetics, quality of presence,
consciousness of connection and in particular, the development of the capacity for a ‘moral imagination’ (Lederach
2005). The conscious and introspective
process of the scholarship associated with social justice (SoTL) correlates
with the role of the creative arts, which primarily concerns critical
reflection of, and engagement with society. These are also the capacities that
are required for a holistic and multi-disciplinary approach to education for
citizenship.
How does the current exhibition
up at the UJ Gallery: The Art for Human Rights print portfolio
make an important contribution to promoting awareness of human rights in our
communities? In the introduction to this portfolio of works, Jan Jordaan,
convener of AFH quotes Justice Edwin Cameron statement at a press conference in
2013 that said: The constitution is still
our best practical hope.
One could read this to mean that
in the face of the social economic problems of poverty, deprivation, racism,
xenophobia, crime, gender violence, health services, education, justice,
corrupt leadership, political violence all of which are debilitating obstacles
to the future wellbeing of South Africans, the constitution is our best
practical hope for the citizens of South Africa to embrace the values, spirit
and meaning of the South African Bill of Rights. One only has to look at the
events of the day; whether it is the constitutional court upholding the
judgments against our president as criminal or unconstitutional; or the
students’ movement for more equal access to education that started with throwing
excrement at the Rhodes statue in Cape Town, leading to its eventual removal
last year.
We can also consider how the arts
are playing a significant role in the recent actions at UCT. After the fall of
the Rhodes statue, the Shackville protests resulted in the burning of artworks
from the hostel, and now, more recently, the removal of 75 artworks from the
UCT collection in the buildings. There is no question that the arts are a
powerful medium of change and influence and one remembers the kind of debate and
level of protests that Brett Murrays Spear
initiated.
Ahmed
Bawa, the VC and Principal of DUT, at the opening of the exhibition in Durban,
and in the catalogue, talks about the kinds of tension at the heart of our
struggle which can be either destructive or constructive. He says that tensions
are defined by the quantity and quality of energy they contain.
“The key question
that we face is to understand how we might use our constitutional democratic
framework to mobilise the energy of the tension to make decisive strides toward
socio-economic justice” (Bawa 2015).
How is
the act of burning art from the Shackville protests by students in the hostel a
legitimate action of decolonization? David
Goldblatt’s angry response at the lack of outcry from the art community calls this
act of vandalism “the antithesis of democracy”. And further, is the removal and
storage of contentious artwork by the UCT administration censorship? (The UCT
task team identified some of the removals as works
frequently mentioned among black students as causing offence when they
encounter them on campus).
It
seems to me that art has very important lessons to offer the debate on
de-colonisation, and it’s my belief that artists should play a role in engaging
it.
According to Edward Tsumele, an arts writer in response to what
he sees as UCT’s act of censorship:
“Let the art
prevail, colonial or not colonial. I should be allowed to be offended on my
behalf, not have anyone else being offended for me” (2016).
The visual is its own language …it
allows things to be said that cannot be said in words.
Removing it shuts down difficult dialogue. As Goldblatt
aptly points out:
“ I think a democracy is based on the idea that when you have differences
you can talk about it … it’s fundamental” (2016 Art Times).
This
portfolio is meant to open dialogue and give voice to difficult complex
thoughts and feelings that cannot always be reduced to language. Added to it,
is the voice of poets who bring additional layers of complexity and meaning. As Bawa says, students and academics should
have the opportunity to mobilise the energy of the tension in a constructive way to make
decisive strides towards socio-economic justice. Engaging these works in the
classroom, or around campus in dialogue with historic and time or issue
specific artwork is an intervention that can go a long way in critically
engaging colonial spaces. It is one act (among many others needed) that can spark much needed
conversations on these critical issues and questions about decolonising our institutional
spaces.
The
point being made here is that the arts are a powerful catalyst for opening up
dialogue on our human rights, on decolonising the universities and on engaging
with a diversity of voices, which is imperative in a University context.
Each
artist and poet in this exhibition has engaged deeply with one clause linked to
a specific Bill of rights which hopefully entrench themselves into our minds. As
Keyan Tomaselli eloquently states in his catalogue essay: It’s easier to
remember 27 images than 27 clauses.
“ If we truly are to live our
lives through others then all others must be included, and those others who are
denied bills of rights must be recognized an included in this global
humanistic/Ubuntu discourse” (2015).
This
portfolio and exhibition is a decisive step in this direction.
Figures: from Art of Human Rights Print Portfolio (images courtesy of Arts for Humanity.)
Fig 1: Zanele Muholi: Isililo: Access to courts (article 34)
Fig 1: Zanele Muholi: Isililo: Access to courts (article 34)
This
work refers to the epidemic of hate crimes and brutal murders of black
lesbians.
Two
images in dialogue that use colour and language to express the nuances and
shades of meaning associated with the idea of citizenship
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Fig 3: Berni Searle: Crossing. Assembly, demonstration, picket and petition (Article 17). The piece refers to the 44 people killed at Marikana in 2012, and that the right of Article 17 is the right to protest without being shot in the back.
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References:
Habib, Adam: http://www.timeslive.co.za/sundaytimes/opinion/2016/05/15/Politics-of-rage-puts-South-Africas-gains-in-danger
The South African Art Times:
Lederach JP 2005. The moral imagination: The art and soul of building peace. New York: Oxford University Press.
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