Launch of The Texture of Shadows by Mandla Langa at
Rhodes University in Grahamstown (eRhini) on
Thursday the 5th of March 2015 at 17:00pm.
Good afternoon ladies and gentlemen. Greetings to
Academics and Students. As has been mentioned, my
name is Mwelela Cele and I am the Librarian at the
Steve Biko Centre Library and Archive, where our
concern is with both the past and the future, honouring
the legacy of Steve Biko, and facilitating the application
of his philosophy to help improve the current conditions
and prospects of the disadvantaged, and the prospects
of future generations. The Steve Biko Centre is situated
in Ginsberg King William’s Town (eQonce). I greet you
all, and all protocol observed.
I would like to begin by thanking Rhodes University’s
Unit for Humanities (UHURU) for organising this
launch and giving me the opportunity to introduce
Mandla Langa. Similarly I also thank most sincerely
Siphokazi Magadla from the Rhodes University Politics
Department, and Dr Richard Pithouse for inviting me to
this launch, and for giving me this honour.
As a brief aside, while greeting my friend Dr Richard
Pithouse I will take this opportunity to say it is a
pleasure to be with Richard and his wife, my friend Vash, here at Rhodes University, because we all come
from far away in terms of distance, and from way back
in terms of time. We come from KwaZulu Natal, and we
have known each other since the days when the
University of Durban Westville and the University of
Natal existed independently, before the establishment of
the University of KwaZulu-Natal. I have known Richard
from the year 2000 when he used to organise the Frantz
Fanon Memorial lectures, bringing respected
international scholars like Professor Mahmood
Mamdani to the University. I have known Vash from
the days when I was working at the UDW
Documentation Centre and she would come there to do
research, and from our participation in the famous
UKZN History Seminars. And I was at their wedding
celebrations in mid-2007. Hence I am saying our
friendship goes a long way back.
Thus I have been given the honour to greet and
introduce Bhuti Mandla Langa. I would like to begin
this formal introduction by recalling his days within the
South African Student Organisation (SASO) and
remembering that he was a participant in the post-Sharpeville
cultural and political renaissance that
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became associated with the rise and spread of Black
Consciousness.
According to Professor Saleem Badat in his book,
published by the Steve Biko Foundation and STE
Publishers, entitled Black Man You Are On Your Own "At the 1971 General Students’ Council (GSC) a
lengthy resolution was adopted which defined culture
as á dynamic [occurrence] involving all activities of a
people’ and asserted that [Black Consciousness] BC was
‘a supremely cultural fact’. The resolution called for a
‘cultural orientation’ that made blacks realise they were
united by a common experience of political and
economic oppression and ‘insult to human dignity’, and
for the appointment of an organiser who would be
responsible for organising and promoting black cultural
activities and disseminating literature… SASO and BC
played a major role in stimulating and facilitating black
cultural production during the 1970s. In 1972 GSC
included an art exhibition, a poetry reading, and a
drama and music festival, and cultural activities were to
become a vibrant on-going feature of SASO national and
local meetings and events, and of campus life. SASO
forums provided platforms for BC cultural production
and exposure for emerging black artists, while SASO
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publications carried numerous articles on culture and
also featured black poetry. SASO members were
instrumental in establishing a number of cultural
formations, played an active role in various theatre, art
and music bodies, and a number of them were to go on
to establish national and international reputations as
novelist, poets and playwrights.”
During this period of heightened politico-cultural
awareness and activity, Bhuti Mandla Langa, from 1972
to 1976, was Director of SASO Cultural Affairs,
responsible for organising and promoting black cultural
activities and disseminating literature. Indeed, Bhuti
Mandla Langa is one of the distinguished alumni of the
SASO Black Consciousness movement era who “were
instrumental in establishing a number of cultural
formations, played an active role in various theatre, art
and music bodies, [is one of the poets and writers of the
black consciousness era that] established national and
international reputations as novelist, poets and
playwrights.”
When it seemed that the apartheid establishment had
gained an overwhelming victory over its opponents, courageous and creative writers and poets, such as
Bhuti Mandla Langa, came to the fore, inspired to write
poetry of resistance, proclaiming an alternative
philosophy against that of the dominant regime.
In his introduction to the collection of short stories
entitled Hungry Flames and other Black South African Short
Stories, the editor, Professor Mbulelo Mzamane writes
about what he describes as a cultural renaissance in
black South African writing. According to Mzamane
“Black consciousness and the literature it inspired
emerged in the midst of political and cultural repression
after Sharpeville. The new wave of writers who
emerged in South Africa after 1967 appeared to shy
away at first from the more explicit medium of prose
and took up poetry, after the manner of established
literary figures such as James Matthews. Between 1967
and 1974 the cultural renaissance which accompanied
the rise of Black Consciousness produced, at an
unprecedented rate in the literary history of South
Africa, many outstanding poets of the calibre of Dollar
Brand (Abdullah Ibrahim), Oswald Mbuyiseni Mtshali,
Mongane Wally Serote, Sipho Sepamla, Mafika Gwala, Mafika Mbuli, Mandlenkosi Langa and Njabulo
Ndebele.
Having pointed out these brief glimpses into his life, I
am sure you will agree with me that it is indeed a
formidable task to attempt to introduce, in a few brief
words, a person who has made so great a contribution
to the public life of South Africa, and who continues,
through his writing and through his current
commitments, to make a unique difference in society.
Bhuti Mandla Langa was born in Stanger (KwaDukuza)
(the home of Chief Albert Luthuli, Ngazana Luthuli of
Ilanga Lase Natal and Professor B.W. Vilakazi of Inkondlo
kaZulu and the Vilakazi Age in African Literature), an
area situated inland from KZN’s north coast, and spent
his childhood and teenage years in Durban’s vast
KwaMashu, vibrant, yet with all the challenges and
connotations of township life in mid-20th century South
Africa. In due course he moved south to this area of our
country, with which all of us here are certainly familiar,
the Eastern Cape, in so many ways the crucible of South
Africa’s colonial history. At the iconic Fort Hare
University, Bhuti Mandla Langa studied for a Bachelor Arts degree, and thereafter became increasingly
involved in the struggle against apartheid.
In 1976, that year of such significance, Bhuti Mandla
was arrested on a charge of planning to leave South
Africa illegally, and endured imprisonment for 101 days
until he managed to jump bail and escaped into
Botswana, the beginning of a long and painful exile.
During this time he devoted his life to furthering the
struggle in various ways, including military training in
Angola, and cultural activism in numerous centres
throughout Africa and beyond. He managed to fit some
writing into his demanding schedule and he was
recognized in 1980 for his short story 'The Dead Men
Who Lost Their Bones', when he won the Drum short
story contest. He was the first South African to be
awarded, in 1991, the Arts Council of Great Britain
Bursary for creative writing. He also represented the
ANC in cultural affairs in both Western Europe and the
United Kingdom.
As well as being a celebrated writer, his output having
included a musical opera, Milestones, which was
featured at the Standard Bank Festival in Grahamstown,
Bhuti Mandla Langa has continued his involvement in
the practical realities of culture, communication and the
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arts. He has served as Programme Director for
Television at the SABC, and has been Chairperson of the
Independent Communications Authority of SA (Icasa)
(1999-2005). Bhuti Mandla Langa has also served on
numerous boards and as Chairman of MultiChoice
Africa and a trustee of the Nation's Trust, Read
Educational Trust and the South African Screenwriters'
Laboratory. Currently he is a member of the ANC
Archives subcommittee.
It is indeed a great privilege and honour to present to
this distinguished audience a truly eminent South
African, Bhuti Mandla Langa.
Mwelela Cele
