Half a century ago on July 8, a handful of creatives, technical crews and entertainment devotees gathered in the town that was then called Grahamstown for the first National Arts Festival (NAF). Little did they know that they were launching what would become the country’s longest-running and most diverse arts festival, and one that would have an impact on almost all areas of South African life, from politics, grassroots development and women’s empowerment to technological innovation and, ultimately, the global arts and culture industry.
“The first production at the then Monument Theatre was a Cape Performing Arts Board production of King Lear. I was a drama student at Rhodes University and an extra in the production. It was entirely random that I took to the stage before any of the other actors to announce the arrival of the King,” remembers John Maytham, the first actor to grace the festival’s stages.
“My most vivid memory of that first festival was how small it was — how few productions there were. We had a braai at the dam on the outskirts of Grahamstown, and almost everybody who was performing that year attended. I remember making a galvanised metal washing bucket full of basic coleslaw which hardly anybody ate,” he quips.
Much like Maytham’s underappreciated braai coleslaw, the arts sometimes get relegated to the cheap seats at the back. Detractors often underplay the role of arts and culture in South Africa’s history when they should be shining a spotlight on it.
Fostering the National Schools Festival, English Olympiad and South African Science Festival
Grassroots development has always been at the festival’s core, which is why, at only its second outing in 1976 (funding constraints resulted in the event being cancelled in 1975), the NAF provided the necessary impetus for the South African English Olympiad to be established. Additionally, the arts and culture fair facilitated the founding of the National Schools Festival, as well as the South African National Science Festival.
Computicket innovation
One of the innovations perfected at the NAF was Computicket, the world’s first computerised and centralised ticket-booking system. The revolutionary scheme was invented by South African theatre and entertainment enthusiast Percy Tucker. In the early 1970s, Tucker and his associates, Des Lindberg and Michael Grobbelaar, approached the apartheid government to desegregate local theatres, as this policy had led to cultural sanctions being imposed on the country, which meant South African theatres could not use scripts from the English Scriptwriters’ Guild. Tucker cited the NAF and Johannesburg’s Market Theatre as examples of multiracial theatregoing that had been successful.
In an unprecedented move, on March 11 1978, the government agreed to desegregate theatres (but not cinemas), making them one of the only lawful multiracial platforms in the land. This groundbreaking concession meant more theatre lovers from all races could attend performances, and ticket counters subsequently became the site of by frustratingly long queues. Tucker used the earliest iterations of the NAF and the Market Theatre as a testing ground for Computicket, allowing him to fine-tune a system that would later be adopted and adapted globally.
Computicket drastically changed the fortunes of not only the NAF and the Market Theatre, but the international arts and culture industry too, as the first online ticketing system in the world meant entertainment aficionados no longer had to physically queue for hours at box offices. Today, Computicket is a vital part of other industries, selling tickets for flights, buses, holidays and other events such as conferences.
Inclusivity and diversity
In the late 1970s and the rebellious 1980s, artistic and cultural disciplines like dance, theatre, music, literature and poetry were used as surround sound to pressure the then ruling apartheid government to stop racial segregation. The likes of David Livingstone Phakamile Yali-Manisi — a Xhosa writer, lecturer and performer — used izibongo (traditional Xhosa praise poetry) and isihobe (modern Xhosa sonnets) to urge for an end to the racially bifurcated South African political landscape.
Another Xhosa poet, Melikaya Mbutuma, used the NAF’s stage to deliver a lecture on his anti-apartheid poems, and this often landed him in trouble with the authorities, who were rooting out anti-apartheid activists. Mbutuma came up with a novel solution: he creatively tricked the police into thinking he was a mere praise singer, orally passing down his people’s heritage.
The 1980s represented a milestone for the NAF in terms of its ability to showcase and promote indigenous artists. While the festival had always welcomed art and artists from all ethnicities and cultures, in this decade indigenous voices were placed firmly at the centre of the programme, and not merely relegated to the fringes of the event. This shift gave impetus to the idea that the arts could be one of the weapons used to bring an end to the oppressive rule of the then government.
Producer of household names
The NAF can also take credit for turning several talented artists into household names, performers who’ve gone on to dominate stages and screens locally and internationally. The formidable Pieter Dirk-Uys cut his teeth on the stages of various NAF outings, penning and performing plays like his audacious Paradise is Closing Down, whose title referred to the ticking time bomb that was South Africa at that time. The play called for the country to become a multiracial and democratic society — or face the collective wrath of its oppressed majority.
As the festival grew in stature and appeal, it included more creative forms, such as classical music, jazz, opera, fine arts and film. This development revealed the vast amount of untapped talent in South Africa, making actor, author, director and playwright John Kani and his long-time collaborator Winston Ntshona household names. The pair went on to win numerous accolades, including a 1975 Tony Award for Sizwe Banzi Is Dead.
Ironically, South African theatre came into its own during apartheid because the country was boycotted by artists abroad. Playwrights such as Athol Fugard and Gibson Kente would become the backbone of the local creative arts scene.
Sello Maake ka Ncube will be starring in Can Themba’s The Suit at the NAF, after first performing the role 30 years ago.
“It’s such a privilege for me to reprise the role I played in 1994 in Can Themba’s The Suit, directed by Barney Simon and adapted by Mothobi Mutloatse. Artists always relive their proudest moments when they write their memoirs, but I get to relive that moment from 30 years ago by working with a young and exciting director,” says Sello Maake KaNcube. The setting for The Suit is 1950s Sophiatown, a Johannesburg “grey area” from which the apartheid regime forcibly removed its black residents under the Group Areas Act and the Natives Resettlement Act of 1954, so that it could become an exclusively white residential zone.
The future has always been female
In an era when women’s rights didn’t take precedence and female voices weren’t always considered, the NAF established ways for female artists from all backgrounds to express their creativity.
In the 1980s and 1990s, strong and varied programmes by women included an exhibition of handmade crafts by local Xhosa women called The Makana Handicrafts Festival Exhibition, as well as performances by Izinkonjane (The Swallows), performers who told their own stories.
South Africa’s slow-burning culture of gender-based violence, vast discrepancies in pay between men and women, and even more dangerous “codes of silence” around broader gender topics such as gender identity, sexuality and unequal power relations have often been transparently discussed at the NAF over the years. One example is Patricia Boyer’s Miss Margarida’s Way to Grahamstown, an allegory about the dangers of male totalitarianism, which uses a classroom as its central metaphor.
Another example of female talent is Jolynn Minnaar’s Unearthed, in which the filmmaker uncovers the real effects of fracking for her community, made up mostly of single mothers. She shines a spotlight on corruption, gross disregard for the environment, and how women’s voices are silenced.
It’s always been The National Arts Festival’s aim to tackle inequality head-on, and in the next 50 years, they insist this will still be the case. “The NAF has always been a space that promoted inclusion and diversity, and female creatives are an important part of that,” notes Monica Newton, CEO of the NAF.
“Women such as Janice Honeyman (Standard Bank Young Artist Award for Theatre 1982), Phyllis Klotz (who staged You Strike a Woman, You Strike a Rock at the festival in 1986), fine artist Helen Sebedi, dancers Robyn Orlin, Mamela Nyamza and Dada Masilo (Standard Bank Young Artist Award for Dance 2008), and singer-songwriter Sibongile Khumalo (Standard Bank Young Artist Award for Music 1993) shaped the narratives and dominated the festival’s stages, blazing a trail for women across the country. Women were also core to the management and development of the festival. Lynette Marais steered the festival as CEO from 1989 to 2008. Sibongile Khumalo went on to become vice-chairperson of the NAF board,” says Newton.
50 years of bridging generations and celebrating creativity
The 50th NAF will take place in Makhanda from June 20-30, and the main programme reflects universal themes that have rung true since 1974, taking in all the subsequent iterations of the festival and interrogating how much progress has been made in various spheres in South Africa. The litmus test for this year’s event will be how the creative dialogues of dance, painting, photography, videography, pottery, fashion, ceramics and others will reflect the restless era we find ourselves in, where uncertainty reigns supreme.
Says artistic director of the 2024 NAF Rucera Seethal: “To encompass all that the festival could and has ever been in a landmark year such as this is an overwhelming task. We’ve played with the juxtaposition of old and new, as well as the emergence of ambitious ideas that bring the NAF into a new era of cross-border and international collaboration.”
The main programme includes the Third Space, a series of collaborative creative dance artworks presented by the French Institute of South Africa (IFAS), the Embassy of France to South Africa, Lesotho and Malawi. “The project is an endeavour to renew audience interest and stimulate dance makers’ creativity in the contemporary dance space in South Africa, while investing in high artistic values, facilitating cultural exchange between African countries, and ultimately supporting local artists in rural and peri-urban areas,” says Sophie Boulé, cultural attaché and deputy director at IFAS.
The Fringe
As with all previous festivals, this year’s Fringe programme is an uncurated platform open to artists from anywhere in the world to present work in any genre, language or format, and with any content, ranging from pure entertainment to complex experimentation.
Fringe productions this year will include the Cape Peninsula University of Technology Performing Arts Society’s It Went Over Your Head, The Emperor’s New Clothes (where TikTok dance sensation Charlie takes on the emperor), and Opening Night by Tshwane University of Technology artists, an exploration of the intricate dance between art and mental health.
Sidebar: Highlights from the 50th NAF:
- Sipho “Hotstix” Mabuse returns to the National Arts Festival at the age of 72.
- In Nomthandazo: Amahubo, singer Zoë Modiga (Standard Bank Young Artist Award for Music 2023) offers a hymn book that celebrates the landscape as a portal to the spirit world.
- Jazz vocalist and trumpeter Mandisi Dyantyis will be returning with his eight-piece band.
- After the return of Gregory Maqoma’s Exit/Exist in 2023, Vuyani Dance will bring their epic work Cion: Requiem of Ravel’s Boléro.
Click here for more information about the NAF, which takes place from June 20-30.
