Creative Consulting and Development Works would like to extend our sympathy to the Asmal family as we join the rest of South Africa in celebrating Kader Asmal and his life as an activist academic and politician. His ANC comrades hail him as a “selfless man of honour” and that “his death must be a reminder for all of us of the non-racial, non-sexist and prosperous South Africa we committed to build”. Kader represented the anti-Apartheid movement as a committed ANC member from the United Kingdom during his early professional life after being exiled by the Apartheid government. In exile he was awarded the Prix UNESCO award for his work in human rights, founded the British Anti-Apartheid Movement, and served as Chairperson for the Irish Apartheid movement. When he returned to South Africa he became a professor of human rights at University of the Western Cape before he was tapped by the first democratic government to be the Minister of Water and Forestry and later as Minister of Education (a position for which he was appointed personally by President Nelson Mandela). He was also involved in many other anti-racism and human rights commissions and movements throughout his life.
Professor Asmal’s memoir will be released in August, and the official launch for the book will be in September at the Open Book Festival in Cape Town.
Youth Day, 16 June, is a national holiday that commemorates the 1976 student uprisings in Soweto. In 1953 the National Party government of South Africa introduced The Bantu Education Act, which segregated the education system along the lines of race. While this act enabled more children to attend school, it forced children of color into a secondary and substandard education system designed to produce a more docile workforce. Overwhelming frustration began to take hold of communities as a result of this exclusionary educational system causing many children to drop out of school. In 1976, the government took another step to alienate the majority of non-white South Africans when they introduced the compulsory use of Afrikaans in classes starting from Grade 7. As the majority of South Africans did not speak Afrikaans as their first language, teachers were not able to teach their subjects and students had difficulties learning. Very dissatisfied with the direction the government had taken the education system, the youth in Soweto decided to demonstrate. Over 20.000 students gathered on 16 June to march to the office of the department of education in Booysens to express their dissatisfaction.
Hector Pieterson
The peaceful demonstrators were met by armed police and military vehicles. Without warning, a policeman shot into the crowd. The unprovoked shot tore through the crowd and struck twelve year old Hector Pieterson. The photo of his lifeless body has become a symbol of uprisings in Soweto.
The official number of deaths after the brutal conflict is only 23, but unofficial numbers range anywhere from 200-600 and most of the victims were younger than 23. The student uprisings of 1976 were a turning point in the long struggle for liberation and helped to guide South Africa to a more inclusive, democratic order. As South Africans stop work to remember this day, let’s all take a moment to remember the lessons history has taught us.
Creative Consulting and Development Works joins the rest of the world in mourning the loss and celebrating the legendary life of Nontsikelelo Albertina Sisulu activist, mother and liberation icon. MaSisulu made her mark on history by standing up for human rights and dignity for all people during the dark years of Apartheid era South Africa as the wife of activist and politician Walter Sisulu as well as in her own right as a member of the ANC Women’s League. One of her most notable stands was when she and other ANC Women’s league members led all women demonstrations of civil disobedience against the pass laws in 1956. Thousands of women took their fight against racial and gender oppression to the world stage by marching to the Union buildings in Pretoria to protest against the unfair classification system that had for so long restricted the everyday lives of the majority of South Africans.
She will be remembered as a graceful pillar of justice, who maintained a strong commitment to her family and country throughout some of the most chaotic times in South African history.
Nelson Mandela's prison cell on Robben Island. Photo: Samantha Marx
On International Nelson Mandela Day, people all over the world are meant to spend 67 minutes doing something to benefit their community. Creative Consulting & Development Works has some ideas of how you can get involved in your community as well.
The man behind this day
Anti-apartheid activist and first democratic president of South Africa, Nelson Rholihlala Mandela, is the inspiration behind this day, because even though he was jailed by the apartheid government for 27 years, he never saw his release from prison as time for revenge. After his release on 11 February 1990 he advocated peace, reconciliation and the rebuilding of the South African nation.
According to www.mandeladay.comNelson Mandela gave 67 years of his life fighting for the rights of humanity. “All we are asking is that everyone gives 67 minutes of their time, whether it’s supporting your chosen charity or serving your local community.”
What can you do?
Creative Consulting & Development Works, as a research, evaluation and communications consultancy working in a development context, often deals with non-profit organisations and we would like to suggest that you volunteer to help some of them on Mandela Day or any other day of the year!
One of the Community Based Organisations in the NACOSA network.
NACOSA is a national civil society network of HIV and AIDS and TB role players, which includes NGOs, CBOs, FBOs and other developmental organisations, who seek to contribute to reducing the impact of HIV and AIDS.
You can contact NACOSA at info@nacosa.org.za or on 021 461 7348 and perhaps get involved in a Community Based Organisation close to you.
Adonis Musati Project
Recently, Development Works presented a Preferred Futuring workshop to the NGO for refugees, Adonis Musati Project. AMP provides clothing, blankets, food packs, medicine and toiletries to refugees and help them to compile and send out their CVs. They help refugees to access transport, accommodation and training. The Adonis Musati Project also has a halfway house for refugee children and single mothers.
You can help Adonis Musati by providing food or toiletries, volenteering to transport goods, assisting on week mornings in the refugee office, or making a cash donation. Contact AMP on 021 448 3348 or email Gayle at gayle@adonismusatiproject.org.
View the video below on the Preferred Futuring workshop that we conducted for the Adonis Musati Project as part of our Corporate Social Responsibility.
Society’s tendency to throw away the key distances us as individuals of society from the humanity of those in prison. We label them criminal and prisoner and treat them as such. This veiled lens through which we see these individuals is highlighted in the documentary that was screened at the Labia Theatre on Orange Street this last Sunday 17 May.
Finding Freedom Behind Bars follows the work of two Zen teachers with inmates of Malmesbury Prison in Cape Town. The focus is on mindfulness; being consciously aware of one’s actions through mindfulness techniques such as meditation. This initiative forms part of the Mindfulness Prison Project.
What was so powerful about their journey is that the mindfulness tools taught to them by the Zen teachers allowed them to gain an understanding of themselves. It allowed them and us the viewers, to look into their hearts and see the humanity that is present there. Their individual stories lift the veil from our eyes. Against the very harsh environment of prison, the inmates are challenged to view themselves to seek alternative ways of being that allow them to confront their past and challenge those around them to see them as human.
Despite their crimes, these individuals are vulnerable human beings who now have to face the outside world. The documentary also gives hope to finding solutions to the high recidivism rates. More than that, Finding Freedom Behind Bars calls us to embrace our own humanity and be mindful of our thoughts, feelings and actions towards those in our society who need our understanding and compassion.
The documentary Freedom Behind Bars was shown at the Labia Theatre.
Creative Consulting & Development Works is a research, evaluation and communications consultancy, servicing nonprofits, government and funders with innovative solutions in a development context.
On our blog, Development Talks, we discuss politics and social development. We are interested in the impact of politics on the ordinary citizen and the political activities of those on the ground.
