Kin Bentley In Line: Drum Magazine, Zimbabwe, Rwanda, Iraq, Mike Xego, Mkhuseli Jack, Nceba Faku, Anton Brink, Aziz Pahad

Wednesday, August 24, 2011

Drum Magazine, Zimbabwe, Rwanda, Iraq, Mike Xego, Mkhuseli Jack, Nceba Faku, Anton Brink, Aziz Pahad

I've been labelled all manner of things, but this posting will show you I am, if anything, a chameleon. I go from lauding the anti-apartheid journalists of Drum Magazine in the 1950s to slamming the ANC. There are also a couple of art reviews in the mix.

The first part of my review of The Drum Decade, Stories from the 1950s, by Michael Chapman, which appeared in the Herald, Port Elizabeth, on April 7, 2004. It continues below. (Please click on the text to see it larger.)

The concluding art of my piece on the Drum book.

I continued to beat the Zim drum, as the situation got ever worse. This was run in the Herald on April 12, 2004.

Even the Rwanda genocide was somehow twisted to make it appear the West was at fault. This letter was run on April 13, 2004.

I continued to take the broader view on the war in Iraq. This appeared on April 19.

I reported extensively on the UDF-led uprising of the 1980s, and one of those at the forefront was Mike Xego. But by 2004, and now a city councillor in Port Elizabeth, Mike was revealing a vehement dislike for anything that reminded him of the city's colonial past. This appeared on April 20. His views inspired a short novel I wrote soon after, called Azanian Apocalypse, which can be read online at: www.azanianapocalypse.blogspot.com

Amidst the political madness, some light relief at the art gallery.

Another of those I helped make famous, if you like, during the 1980s was Mkhuseli Jack. Khusta was head of the PE Youth Congress and led the UDF's consumer boycott committee which put immense pressure on businesses to confront the government over apartheid. Khusta has recently jumped ship to Cope. Who knows, maybe one day we'll see eye to eye.

A question mark still hangs over the dealings of then PE mayor Nceba Faku. Here I tackled one issue affecting him.

The Sunday Times still provided the best forum for intellectual debate. I loved tackling the supposed boffins, like Prof Malegapuru Makgoba, as I did here, along with others, on May 2, 2005.

Several people jumped to Mr Faku's defence in the Herald of May 3.

Anton Brink is a talented Grahamstown artist who will, I'm afraid, always live in the shadow of his famous dad, Andre.

The smug face of Aziz Pahad is hard to erase from one's mind. This letter appeared on May 9, 2004, in the Sunday Times.

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About this blog

This blog has morphed from one thing to the next, and will continue to do so.

The latest offerings are of a political nature, though the main role of the blog is to put online scanned versions of my sketches, which make up the bulk of the first part.

* Earlier, I returned to a project I suspended on September 12, 2011, namely posting clilppings from my writings in the Herald newspaper in Port Elizabeth. From those you'll have gleaned that I was first prevented from writing political letters and articles critical of the ANC government.

Then my art reviews came under fire - from the hallowed halls of academia, no less.

* Before this, I posted a series of book reviews and an account of recent travels.

* There is also a short autobiographical novel, Little K and the Big World.

Below is a summary of what was posted before that. (NB. To view pictures larger, hold down "shift" and left click on the mouse. Click again to see it even larger.)

* During the 27 years I have worked as a journalist, I have kept random samples of my work. Initially, when I joined the Evening Post in Port Elizabeth in 1984, I kept a scrapbook, so those first years – when the anti-apartheid struggle really started hotting up – are fairly well covered.

By the time I joined the Eastern Province Herald in about 1988, I’d stopped collecting my stories, but I have one article I wrote that year which I think captures the mood of those dark times.

During two years in the UK – 1990 and 1991– when I worked as a correspondent for the SA Morning Newspaper group, I kept no cuttings. The same applies to the early 1990s when, back on the Herald, I covered the gradual transition to democracy. After the April 27, 1994, first non-racial elections, I moved to the sub-editing department, where I have been ever since.

When Robert Mugabe started his crackdown in 2000, I took up the pen again in a big way – and was lucky to have been given space by then editor Ric Wilson to vent my spleen in the Herald. In between, I wrote numerous book reviews and art crits, which balance out the offerings. I began this section with the more recent stuff, from 2000 onwards, and will take up this project again in 2012.

* Having all but exhausted my sketches on this blog - though I have yet to post pictures of my paintings and a few carvings - I thought I would digress into other areas of interest, and use a few of my photographs to illustrate them.

As Thabo Mbeki and the ANC set about rubbishing everything to do with our colonial past, I found myself rather cherishing what our ancestors had done here, notwithstanding my obvious detestation of the apartheid system which, had Jannie Hofmeyr lived to succeed Smuts after the Second World War, may not have happened. It is interesting to note that the National Party came to power in 1948 despite polling 100 000 fewer votes than the United Party. This was the effect of "loading" the urban constituencies.

Anyway, the East Cape has seen a fair share of interesting history down the centuries, some of which is covered here.

There is also history in stamps and envelopes. A few years back I went to a Port Elizabeth antique shop in the hopes I could acquire some old SA stamps from my youth. At first things looked bleak. The dealer only had posh albums of expensive stamps. But wait, he said, I do have a couple of black bin bags cluttering up the place somewhere, full of useless old stamps and envelopes. He gave them to me for about R100, if I recall correctly.

From these I have made several postage stamp-based artworks, photos of which I'll be posting, eventually. I also discovered a treasure trove of envelopes which had been posted to the City Treasurer of the PE Municipality as well as to the Divisional Council and another whole batch sent by dealers around South Africa to the Ford Motor Company in PE. These all date from the early 1960s, so we're talking 50 odd years ago. Each envelope tells a story.

* Initially I started this blog to illustrate how I learnt the art of drawing, after many years of toil, and how, once learnt, this skill has accompanied me throughout my life.

At each step, since about the mid-1970s, I have, where possible, made drawings that are often a more telling record than any photographs.

You will find a plethora of styles and techniques, but the bottom line – forgive the pun – is an attempt to get at the visual truth. As we go along, I explain each work and how I came to do it – that is, where I remember precisely when they were made.

* Remember, as this is a blog, the story starts from the first post and works its way upwards, as it were.

Click on the images to see them in a larger format. If you want an image to fill your computer screen, press F11. Press the same key to escape.

My thanks, again, go to my son, Douglas, who was just 16 when he helped me put together the header for this blog. Most of the more creative ideas - and all the technical expertise - in this regard were his.

Wednesday, August 24, 2011

Drum Magazine, Zimbabwe, Rwanda, Iraq, Mike Xego, Mkhuseli Jack, Nceba Faku, Anton Brink, Aziz Pahad

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