THE PAST lives on, it’salive, and you feel as ifyou can touch it. Andtwo documentaries,One, Humanity, One

Justice and 21 Icons,serve as reminders –

of how far we’ve come, of how muchhope we have experienced. They area chance to remember that hopeamong some of the negativity thathangs over us today, as well as achance to celebrate.

First a look back at history, andwhere we’ve come from with One

Humanity, directed by MickeyMadoda Dube.

This two-hour documentarytakes a look at the production of twostar-studded global television broad-casts produced by TonyHollingsworth in 1988 to celebrateNelson Mandela’s 70th birthday andraise awareness of his plight; and af-ter Mandela’s release in 1990.

The story intertwines interviewswith Hollingsworth and some of theartists who appeared at the concert,along with historical footage of thecreation of apartheid in SouthAfrica and the reasons for its fall.

While the history is not new forthe majority of us, watching some ofthe footage is a sometimes neces-sary reminder of the road we’vetravelled. Seeing former prime min-ister Hendrik Verwoerd intoning ina chillingly reasonable voice, “Thisis ‘our’ country” while defendingthe creation of apartheid is spine-chilling. And I was surprised tolearn that the newly independent In-dia was, despite its impoverishedstate, the first to impose sanctionson South Africa. It’s a look back atthe sports boycotts that hit hard,and the banning from the Olympics.

Archive footage of a young Man-dela being interviewed in the 1960sin also included, as is that of activistSteve Biko. Sharpeville erupts withits senseless deaths. “The deaths ofchildren illuminated the animal na-ture of apartheid,” said BritishLabour MP Neil Kinnock.

Neighbouring countries werepunished for their opposition toapartheid, with the government go-ing to war in Angola. President Ja-cob Zuma reflects on that time, say-ing that the ANC said to theneighbouring countries that help

could be found in remembering,“Just don’t see us as we go through.”

Former US president Ronald Re-gan meets with then British primeminister Margaret Thatcher – wehear her reiterating her stance thather government won’t talk to a ter-rorist organisation.

The US finally imposes sanctionson South Africa.

The townships are burning. Censorship is in full force. Jour-

nalist Anton Harber recalls workingunder those conditions as part ofthe alternative press: “If we got stories we couldn’t use, we gave it toour friends in the overseas presshere, and then we’d go and report on that.”

Then, the Berlin War tumbles,the Cold War ends, apartheid crum-bles and FW de Klerk releases Nel-son Mandela. There are interviewswith British politicians Peter Hain,Richard Caborn (treasurer of theAnti-Apartheid Movement) andRobert Hughes (chair of the Anti-Apartheid Movement); Alan Yentob,Frene Ginwala, Pallo Jordan, MacMaharaj and Ron Dellums, the firstAfrican-American to be elected toCongress, who campaigned for dis-investment.

History is on the march. But the real fire of this documen-

tary comes in the thriller-likefootage of how Hollingsworth man-

aged to secure a starry line-up ofperformers to take part in the Nel-son Mandela 70th Birthday Tributeconcert. It focused the world’s atten-tion on the plight of Mandela and in-creased awareness, and thus pres-sure to release him.

Footage of the concert plays be-tween the interviews and the build-up to the concert. Hollingsworthhad to get broadcasters involved toshow the concert, and artists tocome on board who would lend realstar-pulling power. The artistssigned up, from Stevie Wonder toAnnie Lennox, Peter Gabriel,Whoopi Goldberg, Sting, MarkKnopfler, Eric Clapton, ChrissieHynde, Jerry Dammers, Ali Camp-bell, Joan Armatrading, The Man-hattan Brothers, the MahotellaQueens, Caiphus Semenya, LettaMbulu, Soweto’s “People’s Poet”Mzwakhe Mbuli and Whitney Hous-ton among the giants who lent theirtalents to the concert.

The coming together of the con-cert was like, “75 000 orgasms all atonce”, said Hollingsworth. TraceyChapman, an almost unknownblack person singing Talkin’ ’bout a

Revolution, which was, saysHollingsworth, was symbolic of Nel-son Mandela himself. Goldberg re-marks on stage that she’s been askednot to talk about politics, but we seeher mouthing “We all know

apartheid is wrong”. When she endsher speech with “Happy birthdayNelson Mandela, we’ll see you nexttime!” you want to cheer too. The 11-hour concert played to over 600 mil-lion viewers in its entirety – al-though Fox channel in the USshowed a delayed, edited version.

When Mandela was released in1990, another concert was staged, andGoldberg’s words came to fruition –Mandela receives an eight-minutestanding ovation. His words to thecrowd at Wembley stadium capture itall with beautiful simplicity: “Thankyou that you chose to care.”

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It took an Australian photographerand documentary film-makerAdrian Steirn to shine a light on 21icons of the South African scene, en-gaging them in conversation whileshooting their portraits for this se-ries. At a preview last week, Steirnadmitted that they didn’t intend toproduce a documentary – whatstarted out as a photographic jour-ney – soon evolved into somethingmuch larger, into the series. “I be-came fascinated by a communitythat exists in spite of itself. I wantedto shine a light on South Africa, onthose who had accepted us.”

And it’s that hope, energy, andfun that infuse this highly watch-

able documentary, which celebratesboth the people in it as well as thiscountry. The series showed on SABClast year and this film reflects a dis-tillation of that.

Refreshingly for a documentary,there’s a fair amount of laughter asSteirn coaxes his portraits and con-versations from the icons chosen.The stories are poignant, funny, hon-est and sometimes heartbreaking.As in hearing John Kani relatingthat, “I was 51 when I voted for thefirst time”. He speaks of his chil-dren being given bread from some ofthe fellow voters in the queues andthen, in turn, his wife sharing breadwith the others there too. “That, forme, was April 27th.”

Later on, he reminisces that, “Icould use theatre, art as a weapon ofchange. That was my AK47.” It’s athought that is echoed by singerJohnny Clegg: “Music cuts througheverything, it goes beyond politics.”

Or here’s politician and formerprisoner Ahmed Kathrada talkingabout being in prison and bringingit all vividly to life with his story ofMandela’s annoying habit of run-ning at 4 and 4.30am. “We neverimagined that Nelson Mandelawould be president one day…”

And writer Nadine Gordimer an-swering a question on what adviceto give to a young girl writing today.Ever on point, the literary icon re-torts to laugher from the previewaudience: “Why a girl? A writer is awriter – we don’t write with our gen-itals.” Too true.

Musician Hugh Masekela speak-ing poignantly about the fact that,“When you are in exile you are al-ways translating. In the US I starteddreaming in English.” Artist HelenSebidi echoes that with her com-ment, “in America I was very boredwith just one language, English”.

Singer Yvonne Chaka Chakasays it was difficult becoming asinger in the turbulent mid-1980s,but there were ways around thecensors. She wrote a song called, I’m

Winning (My Dear Love) andrecorded it as such with those lyrics,

but at concerts the words morphedinto Winnie Mandela… Ah yes,there were ways and means.

Then there are unexpected views– Steirn has former president FW deKlerk posing for a portrait, sittingon a hillock in the veld, barefoot, theway we’ve never seen him before.“In South Africa we all need eachother,” he says. Golf champion GaryPlayer says to enjoy other people’ssuccess, while Desmond Tutu pro-vides yet another delightful counter-point to any lingering seriousness.They pose him with a tutu for hisphotograph – and he hams it up forthe cameras, dancing faux balletsteps with the tutu – the Arch aswe’ve also never seen him before.

Most poignant of all is watchingthe elderly Mandela being pho-tographed, frail, completely white-haired, staring into a handheld mir-ror, in essence “watching” himselfas Steirn takes his portrait. “Whereare you?” he calls out in a reducedvoice as Steirn looks through theviewfinder. He will be gone soon –and this knowledge foreshadows ourviewing of this photo session.

This image recently sold forR2 million to an anonymous USbuyer. The proceeds have been do-nated to the Nelson Mandela Chil-dren’s Hospital and the World WideFund for Nature South Africa.

The remaining 20 icons’ portraitswill be auctioned at a charity galaevent to be held in the Tshwane CityHall later this month. All fundsraised will be donated to each icon’scharity of choice.

The documentary is dedicated toMadiba, and Zackie Achmat’s wordssum up the hope symbolised by theicons: “We will make South Africa abetter place. We will. Black andwhite together.”● One Humanity will be flighted on

SABC tonight and shows as part of

the Durban Film Festival. Two

DVDs will be released, one for the

documentary feature film One Hu-manity and another of the concert

highlights special. 21 Icons was

shown on SABC: www.21icons.com

7lifefeatureTHE SUNDAY INDEPENDENT MAY 04 2014

FREEDOM Day,April 27,saw the dou-ble premiere of the documentaryOne Humanity, with the documen-tary being screened simultaneouslyto guests in London and in Pretoria,with a live link to London.

Held at the Atterbury Theatre,One Humanity was screened to aline-up that included Frene Ginwala,Jerry Dammers, UK High Commis-sioner Judith Macgregor, Mac Ma-haraj, South Africa’s afronaut MandlaMaseko, and poet Wally Serote.

Watching the documentary ex-actly 20 years after democracy,among an enthusiastic audience,was moving. At the end, when Nel-son Mandela takes the podium atthe second Wembley concert to cel-ebrate his release, the cheers and at-mosphere in the theatre echoed theexcitement of that concert in 1990.

We were all emotional, filled withsomething bordering on pride,hope, and in the end, a joy at the oc-casion. Mandela’s face lit up thescreen again – and his presence inthis world was missed with an achethat is impossible to describe.

The premiere was followed bytwo panel discussions, held on thestage in Pretoria and with a link-upto that in London. Pretoria panelistsincluded Ginwala, Macgregor, MacMaharaj and Collins Chabane. TheLondon panelists included the film’sproducer Mickey Madoda Dube, Pe-ter Hain, Abdul Minty, and Chichi

Maponya brand ambassador forSouth Africa.

Maharaj reminisced about being afirst-year student in 1953,saying,“Lifewas very simple – you either suc-cumbed to apartheid,and lived everymoment under humiliation, or youjoined the struggle and fought andwere punished for that. What ittaught us is that the struggle waslarger than you, whatever the strug-gle asked you to do,you did,and livedwith the consequences.“We need totell these stories more and more.”

Dube said:“One thing that droveme throughout the process was theneed to recapture the essence of…empathy, and connects us as humanbeings, and that humans can rise upagainst insurmountable objects.” –Arja Salafranca

Arja Salafranca takes a look at two documentaries whichcelebrate our heritage and people.

‘One Humanity’:20 years on

Ahmed Kathrada is pictured at his home in Johannesburg, as part ofphotographer and film-maker Adrian Steirn's 21 Icons South Africa series

Mac Maharaj

Photographer and film-maker Adrian Steirn and internationallyacclaimed actor, playwright and director John Kani discuss Kani’s portraiton location at the Market Theatre in Johannesburg.

PICTURE: GARY VANWYK

Mahotella Queens Anton Harber Jonas Gwangwa

Nelson Mandela portrait

Storiesof

History