Agitprop,
Part 5
Song,
Dance, Drama and Poetry
Avanti Popolo
Agitprop, Part 5
Avanti Popolo, alla
riscossa
Onward, people, to the
revolution
Songs
Political songs in South
Africa are a main part of the Agitprop of the country. Mass political singing
is a South African characteristic.
At political rallies and
conferences, and whenever the masses are gathered in one place, songs can be
heard. New songs and old songs.
I would be unusual if a
speaker on a platform was to call for a song, and the audience be unable to
respond.
Often, a crowd will assert
itself with songs that the platform may, or may not, welcome. The songs can
provide a current of discourse that runs beside, and affects, the formal,
verbal process of the gathering.
Both melodies and lyrics are
composed and re-composed to express current meanings of the moment. Comrades
compose and rehearse in groups. Together with dance, this mass art form that
can spread and take off with speed, with or without the benefit of electronic
media, is a very powerful unifier of the South African masses and of their
liberation movement.
All of the above can be
written without fear of contradiction. But what becomes apparent, when doing
so, is that there is hardly any literature or recorded audio material that
bears witness to this giant phenomenon that touches millions and which proceeds
from year to year and decade to decade.
There is the story of the
martyr Vuyisile Mini, who was known as a
composer of songs. There is Enoch Sontonga, the composer of “Nkosi Sikelel' iAfrika”, which is
the national anthem of South Africa and at least three other countries,
although in South Africa it has been diluted with parts of “Die Stem”. These are known about, but the
modern and regenerative life of political songs in the country is not as a rule
written about in the mass media, or studied in the academy.
Efforts to promote “The Internationale”, the US
trade union anthem “Solidarity Forever”, and others of that kind are not very
successful here, mainly because these works come out of a tradition that is far
less of a mass phenomenon that what we have here in South Africa. With the
possible exception of the “Internationale”, because of its ancient associations
with the Paris Commune of 1871 (the first ever workers’ state) and its
consequent worldwide acceptance as the anthem of the communists, most of these
songs lack resonance in South Africa, where the living culture of political
song is far in advance of other places.
Is it necessary to discuss
something like this? Yes, it is necessary. All of our study is to objectify our
political world and to understand it in a rational and explicit way. It is not
acceptable to remain with a situation where some things are reflected in
academic and journalistic discourse, while other aspects of our political lives
are allowed to pass away without commentary or permanent record of any kind.
In the absence of a
readily-available discursive literature, the above will have to suffice for the
stimulation of a discussion about political singing. We should bear in mind
that this study of ours is breaking new ground in terms of commentary upon mass
political song.
We would also want to appeal
to anyone who has knowledge of any recordings of, or scholarly works about,
political singing in South Africa, to let the CU know about them. It may be
that there is a body of scholarship and critical commentary that we just have
not discovered yet.
Choirs
Formal Choirs are
characteristic of South Africa, although South Africans seem hardly to be aware
of their comparative high position in the world in this wonderful art form. It
is true that there are choral traditions in many countries but in South Africa,
choirs are everywhere. Naturally, they sing religious songs for the most part,
but not always, and there has always been revolutionary choral singing.
Agitprop, Part 5a
Umkhonto we Sizwe Toyi Toyi
Dance
Use of dance as a means of
Agitprop is a South African characteristic.
It is often said, for
example, that South Africa is the only place where striking workers dance as a
means of protest. Whether or not it is the only place, yet it is true that this
happens in South Africa and that a strike without any “toyi-toying” is a rare
thing in SA, such that the words “toyi-toyi” and “strike” are interchangeable
in some South African contexts.
When demonstrators dance,
they are marshalled and kept to a pace and kept tight in formation.
The effect altogether is to
magnify the impact of any demonstration as compared to the strolling, loose
crowd that is typical of European “marches”, which rely only on size for
impact.
Agitprop, Part 5b
Drama and Poetry
Live drama and street theatre
are always going to be part of any study of Agitprop.
But in South Africa, the
actual tradition of political theatre that existed during the struggle against
apartheid, and which was associated with the actor/playwright Athol Fugard in particular, and with
the director Barney Simon, is practically
discontinued at the present time and for some years past, with the notable
exception of the efforts of actor/director/playwright John Kani.
Acting, directing, producing
and all of the dramatic performing arts continue to be cultivated in relation
to film and television. But live theatre as a mass phenomenon is hardly present
in South African streets and towns. Insofar as live drama does exist, it is
usually in theatres that are behind walls in Casino (gambling) complexes, while
the theatres that formerly prospered are often standing dark and neglected.
The great exponent of
political drama, apart from William Shakespeare, was the German communist
Bertolt Brecht (1898-1956).
The effect of television has
been to commodify and to render unfruitful the impact of drama on the lives of
the people. It becomes the wallpaper of our lives.
All of the above applies as
well to stand-up comedy, variety and cabaret, for the time being, and to Ballet
and Classical Music, including Opera, which flourish in socialist countries,
but in South Africa are elite pursuits.
In the apartheid years there
was a performing group called Amandla Cultural Ensemble, also know as
the Amandla Group. It was high quality and it made a great impact. The Amandla
Group were recorded as musicians, and there is at least one clip of them on
YouTube.
Apart from the casino
theatres, drama and live performance art are probably only being practised in
schools, colleges and universities in South Africa. The extent to which drama
and the other performance arts are taught in South Africa, we do not know, but
we would expect that the graduates would mainly be headed for the television
production studio and related industries, in any case.
Poetry
Poetry is something that
continues to have a life. People are still writing poetry and performing it,
live. Comrades sometimes publish their poems on the Communist University.
Poetry lives, and is ready to have its day again.
Agitprop, Part 5c
ANC Election Manual
The attached document is a
short version of the ANC Election Manual, produced in 2013 for the 2014
National and Provincial general election.
The Agitprop course is
necessarily organised according to the different ways and means that can be
used to get the agitational political message out.
There is no organic point at
which we will start to consider campaigns in their totality. It is convenient
to introduce this text on election campaigning at this half-way point, although
it is not especially related to the other items in this part.
You will see that the
document considers and combines many different means of propaganda.
In this document, you can see
the various means deployed in proportion to their usefulness in this particular
context, which is that of an election.
Further on in the course, we
will look at strikes, which are a different form of campaign, and in the last
part we will again consider campaigns in more general way, including the annual
Red October campaigns of the SACP
·
The above is to
introduce our reading-text, ANC Gauteng Election Manual, CU short
version.
·
A PDF file of the reading text is attached
·
To download any of the CU courses in PDF files please click here.
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