John Kani, renowned South African theatre-maker, playwright, actor and Apartheid activist won a lifetime achievement award at the kykNET Fiesta Award, held on 14 February 2019 at the Artscape Theatre Centre, Cape Town. Dr Kani addressed the audiences by giving context into his experiences growing up as a black child in New Brighton, Port Elizabeth, and how this moulded and shaped his desire to create theatre.
“I grew up with the desire to tell truth, to follow stories. Things that interest me are the lives of other people”, he says. Kani explained that his acquaintance and subsequent work relationship and friendship with Athol Fugard and Barney Simon were catalysts for his successful storytelling journey.
Kani’s thoughts on his acceptance of holistic Africanness left the most notable impact on audiences. “I want to go home and tell my children there’s another part of my life that I’m discovering. That part in me that makes me holistically African”, says Kani.
Kani then reflected on the on South Africa, and his opinion on how disconnected the nation’s population has become due to racial segregation: “We have been denied each other. We grew up in the same square mile. We are now beginning to see each other, to find each other. To talk to each other. To see how similar, not dissimilar we are. The lies our fathers and grandfathers taught us are deep in our DNA, and it’s not going to happen through osmosis or some form of evolution. We are going to make an effort to find each other”, he says.
Kani concluded his acceptance speech by sharing his view that the arts is the primary driving force in achieving social cohesion, and that it can achieve unity better than sports or politics can. “Now that we have found each other, we will only achieve reconciliation. We will only achieve social cohesion and nation-building through the arts. In the arts we are one big happy, strange, and excited family”, he says
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Marketing and traffic co-ordinator at Suidooster Films, Moenier Hendricks, says that Kani’s view on reconciliation gives way to a new way of thinking: “If we knew each other’s stories, then hatred wouldn’t thrive in the way that it does. We would control our own narratives and our humanness would come to the fore”, says Hendricks.
In contrast, Arnold Appolis, former Internal League co-ordinator for the Netball Club at the University of Cape Town offers a view that sports has the potential to build a nation and achieve social cohesion much greater than what the arts can. “If we look at the live sports as a Sunday-afternoon phenomenon, it brings people together, it excites people. The spirit of unity and socialism was present when South Africa won the 1995 Rugby World Cup, and when we hosted the 2010 FIFA Soccer World Cup”, says Appolis.
The kykNET Fiesta awards yearly recognizes achievements in the fields of Afrikaans Theatre. Kani’s award was bestowed to him by Sandra Prinsloo, a fitting tribute to their working relationship through the years. Prinsloo, alongside Eduard Greyling also received lifetime achievement awards for their contributions towards Afrikaans acting and the development of Ballet in South Africa respectively.
Performing/Performance Politics 