Launch of Sigh the Beloved Country

Bongani Madondo, aged 45, is a curator, amateur filmmaker and writer. He is author of the book ‘’Sigh the Beloved Country.’’ He has extensively written on subjects centring on art, rock and roll. His written other books such as Hot Type: Artists, Icons and God-Figurines, and I’m Not Your Weekend Special: The Art, Life and Politics of Brenda Fassie. Suffice to say, he is the first Black South African writer to write about Kwaito music. Madondo said at a book launch in Grahamstown yesterday, that he was motivated to write about kwaito music because of the distinctiveness of the genre and that he wanted to be the first black writer to give an account of Kwaito music. ’’The growing popularity of kwaito music was rapid in the 1990’s and l wanted to be the first to tell the story as an indigenous African writer, often such stories are told by white people for black people, which l did not want to happen because as a black person, l felt duty bound to give a detailed account of the uniqueness of kwaito music as a genre that associates with African identity,’’said Madondo. Interestingly, as a journalist, he treats interviews as a ‘ritual’ which he finds boring and less thought provoking. Madondo believes that people do not often tell their full version of their stories because the spaces they engage in, tend to dictate what they are compelled to say. As a result, they engage in performance in the way they tell their narratives. In turn, this influences the way their views are constructed and represented in their various accounts. Madondo ‘s views resonates with Goffman(1969), who is of the view that individuals engage in performance on the front stage as what they portray does not necessarily reflect who they are because of the way they express themselves and the positions they hold out of their personal convictions.He is of the view, that the reason why journalists end up with incomplete articles is because of the stiff deadlines they need to adhere to, which compromises the quality of interviews as they are not able to get the best out of their interviews. However, he prefers a more ethnographic approach that allows a writer to spend more time with their subjects to learn more about them in different spaces, only then can views that truly reflect their accounts be extracted and reflected in various articles. Madondo argues for this position because it enrichens histories and accounts that people are able to tell. Madondo highlights capitalism and race in his book as problematic and calls for an immediate panacea in order to have a better society. He also points out that some of the models proposed by some of Africa’s great thinkers and writers such as Fanon, Kwame Nkrumah among others, are old and not applicable in this age because their ideals and proposed solutions, admittedly, are not feasible because they do not adequately contribute to reformation of the system neither do they offer better solutions that can address the magnitude of societal problems in this era. He argues that structural concerns such as capitalism and its systemic problems that continue to perpetuate inequality in society are based on ‘whiteness’ and ‘blackness.’ Capitalism privileges ‘whiteness’ over ‘blackness’ because of the structures that allow this phenomena to prevail, which has resulted in very uncomfortable tensions. Madondo stresses that 'whiteness' also involves 'blackness' because its origins are as a result of the complex relations that have led to white domination over blacks. Madondo is also of the view that ‘whiteness’ needs to be dealt with by whites themselves and ‘blackness’ also needs to be dealt with by black themselves because none of the concepts are ideal for societal progression. Rhodes University Media Studies Professor Jeanne Prinsloo posits that people are not born racist, it is the structures that they are socialised into that naturalises racism and makes them racists. And Philosopher Stuart Hall postulates that race is a social marker that orders society. However, Hall emphasis is centred on race creating orderliness through differentiation and not necessarily creating racism that embraces discriminatory tendencies such as apartheid, which has been practised and perpetuated through colonialism over a historic times. Recounting Madondo’s views, it has to take the will of the people to reform capitalism. Clearly, capitalism is not an ideal model that benefits society because of it's degree of alienation in terms of the ‘have nots’ as Karl Marx refers to them. It clearly perpetuates a class system that culminates in domination, and falls short of equality. As long as there is no willingness to deal with capitalism and race, these ills will remain thorny issues in society. Therefore, there is need for continued scholarly engagement that will seek to address and contribute to social change in society.