John Kani: fighting for truth in post-apartheid South Africa
John Kani shares his experiences with Uchenna Izundu on theatre and apartheid in South Africa
Award winning John Kani , political activist, playwright, and actor, is an influential force in South African theatre, particularly as the nation struggles to reshape its identity post apartheid and to build relations between its indigenous Africans and white communities. In 1976, he was imprisoned in solitary confinement for 23 days and monitored by the South African authorities because they were furious about the impact of his work on South Africans because it challenged the country’s racist regime.
Award winning John Kani, political activist, playwright, and actor, is an influential force in South African theatre, particularly as the nation struggles to reshape its identity post apartheid and to build relations between its indigenous Africans and white communities. In 1976, he was imprisoned in solitary confinement for 23 days and monitored by the South African authorities because they were furious about the impact of his work on South Africans because it challenged the country’s racist regime.
Visiting Nottingham and Cambridge with his playwright debut, Nothing But The Truth , Kani explores festering hurts between two brothers who handled apartheid very differently in South Africa. Kani plays Sipho, left behind in South Africa to face the daily and debilitating racism, who is jealous and betrayed by the favourable treatment of his brother Themba and his escape into exile to fight apartheid in South Africa. Can the family stay united despite an exposition of dangerous secrets that have been buried for over 20 years?
What inspired Nothing But The Truth?
I missed the story telling aspect; I was doing so many roles and so I went back to dealing with the issues in my heart. My brother was shot dead by the security forces in South Africa in 1985 during the uprising of protests against apartheid and there is reference to this in the play through Sipho and his son. I was pleasantly surprised when Nothing But The Truth came out as a play rather than as a short story.
The play is on national tour: how have you found that so far?
The tour has been going brilliantly. I wasn’t expecting it to be so busy and to get such a good reception. I was last at Nottingham Playhouse in 1974 so I’m looking forward to seeing Sherwood Forest. It was mind-boggling to see the castle – it’s like one that is straight out of the movies! I want to see the work of other artists. Development is destroying things older than 20 years in Africa and it’s marvelous that outside of Africa things can be maintained and you can have something to pass onto the next generation.
Healing and reconciliation is an important theme in this work. Why did you want to explore this using the Truth and Reconciliation Committee which was established at the end of apartheid to hear victims and perpetrators of violence and broker peace between them?
The play is a family drama about missed opportunities and families addressing the rot that they sometimes refuse to acknowledge. The play says reconcile while there is still time. I found it easy to talk about truth and reconciliation and I went through these issues of reconciliation myself. Forgiveness is the opposite of the revenge. It’s not worth going on the journey unless there is healing. Those who were in exile come home to find that things are not the same; they’ve romanticized it and it shakes them up when they return because things have changed so much.
Why do you think theatre has been an appropriate platform to challenge apartheid in South Africa?
The environment dictates the nature of the day; now one of the big issues is global warming. With apartheid, we didn’t want to write against the society – it was about reflecting our society. So, for example, when Mandela was released, we pulled out of our plays demanding his release. Art is the weapon of change and it identifies new challenges in our lives. We told stories that weren’t told before looking at what people were talking about. What does the new democracy mean to people on the ground? I was very happy when apartheid was over – now I can just be a storyteller and tell the stories of my grandparents and the international community.
I’m a fairy tale kind of person: my grandfather had 3 wives and I was told about the history of the Kani clan. This made me believe I was a defendant of a great clan and it made me proud, almost arrogant even.
African stories are parallel to Greek mythology and Victorian and Elizabethan stories. We didn’t have time to research these because we were fighting apartheid.
What are the challenges facing South African theatre now?
The audience for theatre has changed radically because theatre before was one of conscience. Shakespeare, for example, was seen as escapism or irrelevant prior to 1994. Now these audiences have traveled and they are demanding more for their money. There are more spectacles and now South African theatre survives if it’s good. Some audiences have asked when are we moving on from AIDS and things like that. So, now we do plays like the Odd Couple, but others are saying ‘I want to be challenged and see what’s happening in this country’. We’ve learnt to vary the menu so there is something for everybody.
Nothing but the truth is on tour until June 16 in Nottingham and Cambridge. See www.ukarts.com for details.