SBF FrankTalk: Friday Feature

Showing posts with label Friday Feature. Show all posts

at 4/22/2016

Dorothy Nyembe

Dorothy Nomzansi Nyembe was born on 31 December 1931 near Dundee in northern Kwa- Zulu Natal in South Africa. She attended mission school until the age of 15 when she gave birth to her only child.

In 1952, Nyembe joined the African National Congress (ANC), during this time she made a living as a street vendor. She participated in the Defiance Campaign, a non-violent campaign against apartheid laws, in Durban and was arrested twice for her involvement. In 1954, Nyembe played a part in the formation of the ANC Women’s League in Cato Manor, Durban. She became Chairperson of the “Two Sticks” Branch Committee in Cato Manor. In 1956, Nyembe was one of the leaders against the forced removals from Cato Manor; she was also one of the leaders of the boycotts of the government controlled beer halls. The beer halls took away the income that women generated from brewing traditional beer. In large demonstrations, women armed with sticks marched into the beer-halls, attacking men who were drinking, and wrecking the facilities, despite the presence of police. One vivid account recalls that the women “were very powerful. Some came half dressed (in traditional dress) with their breasts exposed, and when they got near this place the police tried to block the women. When they saw this, the women turned and pulled up their skirts. The police closed their eyes and the women passed by and went in.” In the same year, Nyembe was elected as Vice- President of the Durban branch of the ANC Women’s League; she also became a prominent member of the Federation of South African Women.

On 09 August 1956, Nyembe led the Kwa-Zulu Natal body of women to the Union Buildings in Pretoria. The march to the Union Buildings was to present the Prime Minister with a petition and to protest against pass laws that discriminated black people. In the same year, Nyembe was arrested and charged with high treason, however, a year later, the charges against her were withdrawn.

In 1959, Nyembe was elected President of the ANC Women’s League in Kwa-Zulu Natal. In the same year, she participated in the potato boycott, a protest against the use and treatment of prison labourers on potato farms in the Transvaal, now northern region of South Africa.

When the ANC was banned in 1960, Nyembe was recruited by Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK), during this time, she worked closely with Chief Albert Luthuli, Moses Mabhida, Nelson Mandela, Walter Sisulu and Oliver Tambo. A year later, she became President of the Natal Rural Areas Committee where Nyembe participated in the organisation of anti-government demonstrations by rural women- the campaign became known as the Natal Women’s Revolt. In 1963, she was arrested and charged with furthering the aims of the banned ANC and she was sentenced to three years imprisonment. She was released in 1966; but she was banned for five years, this restricted her movement to Durban. Nyembe, nonetheless, continued with her underground activities, which ultimately lead to her detainment in 1968. She was charged on five counts under the Suppression of Communism Act. In 1969, Nyembe was found guilty of harbouring MK members and was sentenced to fifteen years imprisonment. These years in prison were spent in prisons for women at Barberton in the eastern Transvaal, and then at Kroonstad in the Orange Free State, far from her family. Her prison work involved washing the clothes of male convicts.

On 23 March 1984, Nyembe was released and soon after she became active in the Natal Organisation of Women (NOW), a community organisation fighting against rent increases, transport costs, poor education and lack of child care facilities. When apartheid ended and South Africa became a democracy, Nyembe was elected as a member of the National Assembly in Parliament.

On 17 December 1998, Nyembe passed on; this was said of her, "She will rest in peace for she died a day after our heroes whose remains lie strewn along the sacred Ncome River were finally recognised and honoured. She will rest in peace for she knows that the struggle continues and must continue for her colleagues.”

For her strength and sacrifice, Nyembe was awarded the Soviet Union’s greatest awards, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) People’s Friendship Award. In 1992 she was awarded the Chief Albert Luthuli prize for her commitment and dedication to the liberation struggle. Various public spaces; for instance, a park, streets are named after Nyembe in her honour.

Sources:

http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/obituary-dorothy-nyembe-1047062.html

http://www.sahistory.org.za/people/dorothy-nomzansi-nyembe

Dorothy Nyembe Dorothy Nomzansi Nyembe was born on 31 December 1931 near Dundee in northern Kwa- Zulu Natal in South Africa. She at...

at 4/01/2016

In South Africa, Freedom Day is celebrated on the 27^th of April of each year. In honour of the many heroes and heroines that contributed to our freedom and political dispensation, the theme for this month’s Friday Feature covers four anti-apartheid activists who, in some way or another, contributed to South Africa’s freedom. This week, we cover Moses Mauane Kotane.

Moses Mauane Kotane was born in Tamposstad, Maphusumaneng Section, in Rustenburg in Transvaal (now North West) in 1905 on the 9^th of August. He was raised in a Christian household of Tswana origins.

Growing up, Kotane received little formal schooling before entering the workforce; however he was an avid reader and taught himself in various subjects. At the age of 17, Kotane began working in Krugersdorp, there he worked as a photographer's assistant, domestic servant, miner, and bakery worker. Around the same time, he also enrolled in the Communist-run night school in Ferreirastown, Johannesburg, where he became known for his ability to master the most complex writings.

Six years later, in 1928, Kotane joined the African National Congress (ANC) but left the party, considering it weak and ineffective. Later that year, Kotane joined the African Bakers Union, an affiliate of the Federation of Non-European Trade Unions then being formed by the South African Communist Party (SACP). A year later, in 1929, Kotane joined the SACP, soon becoming a member of the party’s politburo and vice-chairman. Three years later, in 1931, Koatne became a full time functionary of SACP.

Within the Communist Party, Kotane worked on Umsebenzi, the party's newspaper. As a promising young party member, Kotane was sent to Moscow to study Marxism-Leninism at the International Lenin School for a year. In Moscow, Kotane studied under Endre Sík, a Marxist theorists and 1967 recipient of the Lenin Peace Prize,

Kotane returned to South Africa in 1933, and over the coming years he advanced through the SACP ranks to the point where he became the Party's General Secretary in 1939. Kotane held his post as general secretary until the Party was banned.

In 1943 he was invited by A.B. Xuma, then president-general of the ANC, to serve on the Atlantic Charter committee that drew up African Claims, and in 1946 he was elected to the ANC National Executive Committee, a position he held until bans forced his resignation in 1952. Following the 1946 mine strike, Kotane was subjected with other leaders of the Communist Party to two years of futile legal proceedings, while the apartheid government tried to demonstrate its determination to deal with the "Red Menace," as the Party was referred to. As in the late Treason Trial, when Kotane was also a defendant, the government eventually failed to make its case, although in the meantime the burdens on the accused were heavy.

When the Party was banned in 1950, Kotane moved from Cape Town, which had been the Party's headquarters, to Johannesburg, where he opened a furniture business in Alexandra Township. He was one of the first to be banned under the Suppression of Communism Act, but he ignored his bans to speak in support of the Defiance Campaign. In June 1952, Kotane was arrested with one of the first batches of defiers. Occasionally critical of cautious leadership in the ANC, he did not hesitate to thrust himself forward as an example of militancy. In December 1952 he was tried with other leaders of the Defiance Campaign and given a nine-month suspended sentence.

In 1955, he attended the Bandung conference of Third World leaders as an observer and remained abroad for the better part of the year, travelling widely in Asia and Eastern Europe. It was in 1956, that Kotane was charged with treason alongside fellow South African leaders Nelson Mandela, Joe Modise, Albert Luthuli, Joe Slovo, Walter Sisulu and 151 other anti-apartheid activists. Kotane remained a defendant in the Treason Trial until the charges against him were dropped in November 1958. During the 1960 state of emergency he was detained for four months; and in late 1962, he was placed under 24-hour house arrest.

In early 1963, Kotane left South Africa for Tanzania, where he became the Treasurer-General of the ANC in exile; he held this position until 1973. In the elections held in Tanzania in April 1969, he was returned to the National Executive Committee; however, Kotane later suffered a stroke and went for treatment to Moscow, where he remained until his death in 1978 on the 19^th of May.

On the 1 March 2015, Moses Kotane's remains were returned to South Africa and he will be reburied on 14 March at Pella, North West.

Kotane was a well-respected member of the struggle for majority rule in South Africa by even non-communist leaders Walter Sisulu credited him as a "giant of the struggle" because of his logical and non-dogmatic approach. Kotane combined his strong convictions as a Marxist with a commitment to the goals of nationalism and a firm belief in the importance of an African leadership and initiative in the struggle for equal rights. As he rose to leading positions in both the Communist Party and the ANC, his loyalty to one organisation did not appear to be subordinate to his loyalty to the other. Even staunch anti-communists in the ANC held him in high regard for his clear-headedness as a thinker and his courage and pragmatism as a leader.

He was honoured with the Isitwalandwe Medal by the ANC in 1975. A local municipality is named after him in North West Province, South Africa, and has a memorial lecture in his name.

Sources:

http://www.sahistory.org.za/people/moses-m-kotane

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moses_Kotane

In South Africa, Freedom Day is celebrated on the 27 th of April of each year. In honour of the many heroes and heroines that contrib...

at 2/26/2016

Carol Theresa East, known by her stage name of Sister Carol, is a Jamaican-born American reggae recording artist and actress. She has used several other stage names, including Black Cinderella and Mother Culture.

Sister Carol was born on the 15th of January 1959 in Denham Town, Kingston, Jamaica. Her formative years were spent at St Anne’s Primary School and Mico-Practicing All-Age School.

It was Sister Carol’s father, Howard East, who introduced her to the Jamaican music scene. Howard East was a Senior Engineer at Radio Jamaica Rediffusion, the number one radio station during that time and he contributed to recording sessions at Studio One and Treasure Isle Sound.

At the age of 14, Sister Carol and her family immigrated to Brooklyn, New York in the US. Here, she studied at the City College of New York, and in 1984 she obtained a B.Sc. degree in education. In the same year she gave birth to her first child. Around that time she met Brigadier Jerry, a Jamaican DJ, who encouraged her to try dancehall style, rather than singing.

After winning competitions in New York and Jamaica, she toured with The Meditations, a reggae vocal harmony group, which was once the backup vocals for Bob Marley. Her first album, Liberation for Africa, was released in 1983, and the Pan-Africanist themes of emancipation and decolonisation are evident in the songs ‘Liberation for Africans’ and ‘Shackles’. Also on the album is the song ‘Black Woman’, a song that simultaneously highlights the struggle and praises being both black.

However, it was Sister Carol’s second album, Black Cinderella, released in 1984 that catapulted her into stardom. Sister Carol had this to say about the song, ‘Black Cinderella’, titled after the album of the same name:

"Well, back in Jamaica growing up as a youth, whenever I recognised things that I'm against, like there's a lot of political crime in the area, sometimes shooting involved with politics, things like discrimination and racism, things that I identified in my youth that I didn't like. I immediately saw them as the stepsisters or my stepmother, relating back to the same story as the book. I always felt like Cinderella, not being able to have the chance to do or to have certain things I might have desired as a child. I was never really seeking a Prince Charming, per se, to redeem me; I was more looking for something to happen by the Creator. And I knew that it would always be music, because as a youth, that's what brought joy to me, the music, every time."

During this time she dominated the music scene winning the coveted “Best Female DJ” for five consecutive years from 1983 – 1987. With these accolades behind her she established her own “Black Cinderella Record Label” in 1989.

Sister Carol went on to release eleven more albums, and in each album conscious and feminist messages remained present. For example, the album ISIS, released in 1999, Sister Carol stresses the importance of supporting women, a group which is “endangered.”

Sister Carol has also starred in films; she appeared in the Jonathan Demme films; Something Wild (1986), Married to the Mob (1988), and Rachel Getting Married (2008, to name a few.

A true testament of her resilient spirit and energy spans over thirty-five years in a male dominated industry, Sister Carol is a trailblazer for women in reggae. Her music carries a social message for people all over the world. Her message is rich with cultural heritage and infused with a vital social consciousness that permeates every aspect of life in the new millennium, hence her title as “Mother Culture.”

Her prolific music career includes over 12 albums, a Grammy nomination for “Best Reggae Album” in 1997, “Most Outstanding Reggae Artist” two consecutive years 1997 and 1998, and “Queen of Reggae” in 2000 in Detroit Michigan, New York City Council Proclamation celebrating Jamaica’s 39th year of independence. Also honouring Jamaicans in New York for outstanding cultural contribution to life in the city of New York in 2001, Institute of Caribbean Studies Wash. DC – “Cultural Heritage Award for Excellence in Music” in 2004, “Lifetime Achievement” in 2008 in Columbus Ohio, “Roots Women in Reggae” 2009 to name just a few.

Sources:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sister_Carol

http://www.allmusic.com/artist/sister-carol-mn0000012570/songs

https://debate.uvm.edu/dreadlibrary/stone.html

www.sistercarol.com/

Carol Theresa East, known by her stage name of Sister Carol, is a Jamaican-born American reggae recording artist and actress. She ...

at 2/12/2016

Bob Marley born Robert Nesta Marley on 06 February was a Jamaican reggae singer, songwriter, musician and guitarist. His musical aspirations started at primary school. Marley and childhood friend Neville Livingston (later known as Bunny Wailer) started playing music together while at Stepney Primary and Junior High School.

However, Marley’s mother, Cedella Booker was uncertain about the prospects of Marley’s career and she encouraged him to take up a position as a welder’s apprentice at the age of 14. He quit several months later and took up pursuing his musical aspirations again. This led him to record several singles at the age of 16. However, these singles failed to find popular appeal and Marley was paid $20 for his work.

It was in 1963, that the band, The Wailers, consisting of Marley, Bunny Wailer, Peter Tosh and others, was born.

By the mid 60s, the jaunty ska beat had metamorphosed into the slower paced rock steady sound, which soon gave way to Jamaica’s signature reggae rhythm around 1968. Reggae lyrics became characteristically imbued with Rastafarian beliefs that were essential to reggae’s development.

The same year Booker relocated to the US, Marley married Rita Anderson and joined Booker in the US. There, Marley worked as a DuPont lab assistant and on an assembly line at a Chrysler plant under the alias Donald Marley.

In his absence from Jamaica, His Imperial Majesty Emperor Haile Selassie I visited Jamaica. His Majesty is revered as Lord and Savior, according to Rastafarian beliefs and his visit to Jamaica had a profound impact upon Anderson and Marley. Marley soon adopted the Rastafarian way of life and began wearing his hair in dreadlocks.

Upon Marley’s return to Jamaica, The Wailers established the Wail’N Soul’M label/record shop in front of his aunt’s Trench Town home but due to lack of resources, the Wailers dissolved Wail’N Soul’M in 1968.

It was a chance visit to the London offices of Island Records that resulted in The Wailers receiving financial aid to record an album. And in 1973, The Wailers released their album “Catch a Fire.”

Following the successful Catch a Fire tour the Wailers promptly recorded their second album, “Burnin”, which was released in October 1973. Featuring some of Bob’s most celebrated songs “Burnin” introduced their timeless anthem of insurgency “Get Up Stand Up” and “I Shot The Sheriff.”

Marley released a third album, Natty Dread and Rastaman Vibration in 1974 and 1978 respectively. Rastaman Vibration included the song “War”, adapted from a speech to the United Nations General Assembly in 1963, delivered by Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie I. Songs like "War” are examples of how reggae music that praised the liberation war effort in Africa.

Then Marley lived in London for quite some times; there he recorded the albums Exodus released in 1977 and Kaya released in 1978. In Exodus, Marley advocates for the literal return to Africa. It speaks of the need to fulfil the aspirations of all peoples of African descent by moving, metaphorically or literally, to Africa, which is to all intents and purposes the bona fide possession of the Black man. Marley sings of this pan-African return to the fatherland in their songs. He equally emphasises the need to leave "Babylon", the place of captivity where Black people face segregation rather than integration.

At the end of 1978 Bob made his first trip to Africa, visiting Kenya and Ethiopia. And in 1979, Marley released Survival, his ninth album. Survival is a politically progressive work championing pan-African solidarity. The album also included “Africa Unite” and “Zimbabwe”, the latter an anthem for the soon-to-be liberated colony of Rhodesia. He makes specific mention of the need to rid Africa of colonial domination in the song “Zimbabwe.” In April 1980, Marley and the Wailers performed at Zimbabwe’s official Independence Ceremony at the invitation of the country’s newly elected president Robert Mugabe. This profound honour reconfirmed the importance of Marley and the Wailers throughout the African Diaspora and reggae’s significance as a unifying and liberating force.

Additionally, in his posthumously released album, Confrontation, the pan-African scope of another of Marley's song, "Buffalo Soldier", resides in “the vividness of this historical account of an African immigrant whose forced labour built the American nation. It is basically the account of the plight of the Negro in the New World. "Yes, he was stolen from Africa/Brought to America/Fighting in arrival/Fighting for survival/Driven from the mainland/To the heart of the Caribbean." Thus, the "Dreadlocked Rasta" is a metaphorical buffalo and soldier captured and exploited to build the American State. The mention of "Africa", "America", "Jamaica" and the "Caribbean" reveals the story as an allegorical account of Black people in their Diaspora in the New World.”

In 1977, Marley learned that he had cancer that had taken root in his big toe. He fought the disease for eight months, but he succumbed to his cancer in a Miami hospital on May 11, 1981.

In April 1981, Marley was awarded Jamaica’s third highest honour, the Order of Merit, for his outstanding contribution to his country’s culture. Ten days his death, he was given a state funeral as the Honourable Robert Nesta Marley O.M. by the Jamaican government. Thousands of spectators lined the streets to observe the procession of cars that wound its way from Kingston to Marley’s final resting place, a mausoleum in his birthplace of Nine Miles. The Bob Marley and the Wailers legend lives on, however, and thirty-five years after Marley’s death, his music remains as vital as ever in its celebration of life and embodiment of struggle.

Sources

http://www.bobmarley.com/history/

http://motspluriels.arts.uwa.edu.au/MP1600kad.html

Bob Marley born Robert Nesta Marley on 06 February was a Jamaican reggae singer, songwriter, musician and guitarist. His musica...

at 2/05/2016

The month of February is regarded as Reggae Month in Jamaica; however the celebration of the musical genre has spread to other corners of the world- to Nigeria, South Africa, the US and so on. The purpose of Reggae Month is to bring to light and celebrate the lasting impact the musical genre has on Jamaica’s social, cultural and economic development. However, over the course of history, the impact of reggae on social, cultural and economic development has gone beyond the borders of Jamaica to the rest of the world.

Specifically, reggae has, through its oratory capabilities, highlighted and inspired the political independence, economic advancement and pride of black people globally. In essence, pan-Africanist and anti-colonial themes are central in reggae. Generally, reggae has gone on to influence other musical genres such as punk rock and rap.

The pan-Africanist focus of reggae can be traced back to its origins- finding inspiration in ska and steady rock- with their new-found genre, Jamaicans employed it as a tool of British colonial resistance. Even after Jamaica gained independency, reggae continued to reflect social struggles and historical experiences of Jamaicans.

Significant is the fact that the colonial context of Jamaica resonated with that of Black people around the world. The colonised people of Africa, Latin America, the Caribbean and all over began to employ reggae as a tool of resistance. Reggae became the music of the oppressed, and of revolutionaries.

In this month’s Friday Feature, we take a look at a few reggae musicians who have used their art as tool to fight oppression and domination, which in turn, has inspired others the world over to fight for their own freedom and dignity.

Sources:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reggae

http://motspluriels.arts.uwa.edu.au/MP1600kad.html

The month of February is regarded as Reggae Month in Jamaica; however the celebration of the musical genre has spread to other corners ...

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