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31 August 2008

Protocol

As of tomorrow (1 September 2008) the whole of South Africa will be celebrating the heritage of our nation. In KwaZulu-Natal we will celebrate heritage month under the theme "Telling the story of the Zulu people and the people of KwaZulu-Natal".

Literature is a major component of the body of things called heritage. The literary landscape of the African continent and the African Diaspora of the 20th century is occupied by prominent luminaries who are unlikely to be surpassed in the foreseeable future. From Nigeria's Nobel Peace Prize Laureate for Literature Chinua Achebe, his compatriot Wole Soyinka, to Kenya's world renowned author Ngugi Wa Thiong'o, these giants stand out as Africa's brightest stars in World
Literature.

Africa's culture of writing and reading dates back many centuries. The Timbuktu Manuscripts or Mali Manuscripts which are reams of written manuscripts dating as far back as the 13th century, are a clear evidence of this tradition of writing and reading. The manuscripts provide a written testimony to the skill of African scientists, in astronomy, mathematics, chemistry, medicine and climatology in the middle ages. Evidently, slavery and colonialism denied the natural development of this culture.

However, the twentieth century saw the re-emergence of African writers, some, creative and others recording texts and events as well as conducting an analysis of society.

In South Africa, the 20th century produced literary greats such as Prof. BW Vilakazi, John Langalibalele Dube, Can Themba, E'skia Mphahlele, Alan Paton, Don Materra, Prof. Sibusiso Nyembezi, and of course, the man we are gathered here to honour today, Mazisi Kunene, and a host of others.

During the 8th African Renaissance Summit in 2006, we as government made an undertaking to preserve the legacy of all isiZulu writers by establishing a project called the isiZulu Language and Literature Heritage Project.

This is an African Renaissance project and flows from the inputs which came from some 400 academics and intellectuals who assembled in Durban for the African Renaissance and African intellectuality summit in May 2006.

At the funeral of the late Prof. Mazisi Kunene we announced the founding of, The Mazisi Kunene isiZulu Language and Literature Hall of Fame. I can announce now that plans are well advanced to realise this undertaking. Library space has been identified at the Public Service Training Academy in Umbilo, Durban.

In the next few weeks we will be employing a librarian and researcher whose duties will focus on implementing the project. This project will see the collection, documentation, scanning, digitisation and putting on display of all old literary works in isiZulu, about isiZulu and about the people and province of KwaZulu-Natal. Writers, alive and those who have passed on will be profiled and immortalised, using the best technology available.

This Prof. Mazisi Kunene isiZulu language and Literature Hall of Fame will be every researcher's port of entry and exit for any study on the Zulu people and the people of KwaZulu-Natal.

Cosmopolitan as he was nationalistic, Prof. Kunene worked for the ANC in London during the apartheid years and for many years taught African poetry at the University of California in Los Angeles (UCLA) in the United States of America.

Prof. Kunene's works were written in isiZulu, as he believed that true African literature must be written in African languages. He believed that when writing in a foreign language, one was not in control of it and its psychology. He regarded the affirmation of an African aesthetic, especially with regard to poetics, as an important dimension of the freedom of African people on the continent and in the Diasporas from the degrading stereotypes and literary pretensions of the West.

Prof. Kunene's seminal work was perhaps Emperor Shaka the Great A Zulu Epic (1979) in which he brought Emperor Shaka, the Zulu King, back to the readers in a way that many critics said was more convincing and appreciative than the tyrant and evil war general some of the history books documented him to be. During the 1980's and 1990's Prof. Kunene was prolific, producing eight major works in both English and isiZulu, which include Anthem of the Decade (1981) and The Ancestors and the Sacred Mountain (1982).

The Role of the Intellectual in Society
According to American scholar Edward Said of Columbia University, an intellectual's mission in life is to advance human freedom and knowledge (Alan Lightman in The Role of the Public Intellectual published in Mit Communication Forum, 2008).

By its nature intellectual endeavour, especially writing, is not a financially lucrative activity. Its riches are not financial, but lie in the mental and moral stimulation that is capable of inspiring in society. And also in the legacy that it leaves to enrich and improve the lives of future generations.

Mazisi Kunene was a fine example of a career intellectual. He is best comparable to another typical career intellectual, Alexander Solzhenitsyn, the Russian Nobel Prize winning author who died last month at age 89.

But so is the nature of great writers, one of whom we are gathered here today to commemorate, Prof. Mazisi Kunene. He was not a rich man, but has left a rich legacy that will undoubtedly forever remain iconic in the history of African literature and the African Renaissance.

Intellectuals can and should continuously challenge the status quo if it runs contrary to the common good of society. Equally they should support the status quo if it is promoting the common good of society. However, the worst that intellectuals can do is to be neutral and untouched by developments in their own society. Equally, they would do disservice to society if they become detached and too involved with the pursuit of material goods at the expense of intellectuality.

In Prof. Mazisi Kunene we have a role model. During his 76 years of life he put his visions on paper while also living them, thereby putting truth to this earthly realm what only he, through his intellectual and spiritual gifts, could glean from the metaphysical realm.

We call for more people to emerge and be writers who inspire our thoughts and nurture our identity. Let those amongst us who share his gift strive to attain his ideal. This is what the African Renaissance is all about.

I thank you.

Issued by: KwaZulu-Natal Provincial Government
31 August 2008
Source: SAPA