The Robben Island Bible

Birthday present for Nelson Mandela

2011-09-08T15:00:00.004+01:00

In July of this year I was asked to sign copies of my play, The Robben Island Bible, to be among the gifts presented by David Cameron to Nelson Mandela for his 93rd birthday. A further copy was presented by the Prime Minister to Archbishop Desmond Tutu.

My play involves interviewing former political prisoners of Robben Island in Cape Town, South Africa who had annotated a smuggled copy of the Complete Works of Shakespeare. Disguised as a religious text in order to deceive the guards, the book became known as the “Robben Island Bible” and was passed from prisoner to prisoner each of whom marked passages of particular significance to their own lives.
This verbatim play is based these selected texts and on interviews with a number of these ex-political prisoners who survived the harsh regime of the prison and the system of apartheid.

It was a great honour for my play to be chosen as a gift for Nelson Mandela. I interviewed the most gentle of men and their stories had a profound effect on me.

friday 19 february

2010-03-05T15:50:00.003Z

after a lovely evening at the local pub drinking hansa pilsner on tap (only TWO bottles, aida!!), i thought i might need to lie in a bit longer before our last day. but i was up and ready quite early this morning. filled with excitement and a fair amount of fear of what is to become today.
we will do the reading at 3pm, so between now & then we have a lot of work to do.
we soldier on in the small rehearsal room just making sure that we understand as best as possible the texts that the actors are speaking - both the shakespeare & the transcripts. sometimes both are steeped in meaning that needs unpicking and the joy, and sometimes horror, of dealing with strict transcripts of speaking, is the natural traits that each of the men have. so sometimes, the train of thought changes mid-sentence. sometimes much of what is said was not understandable & some times it needs a visual cue to make sense.
all of this the actors have to deal with and make their own. over the last two weeks, they have seen short pieces of the interviews in order to get a small sense of the men whom they are portraying. i dont know how much of the mannerisms or speech patterns they are able to pick up with such a short amount of time to work, but it is a bit errie how similar some of the interpretations are. i guess that is the skill of the actor - try to pick up on the little things that the men do in order to ground their characterisation, but then sell it as well. dont 'apologise' for the protrayal, but revel in it so we begin to think that, 'yes, that IS how michael speaks or andrew or kathy.....'

we make it to the main stage for a speed through rehearsal. we dont even get through the entire script before we need to clear the space for the afternoon's reading. saths is back to view the play as well as participate in a second interview with the drama students.
i hope he enjoys the show......

i briefly introduce the piece and the actors take the stage. although i KNOW they have not rehearsed it often, as skilled actors, they make it look as though it has been throughly rehearsed. they are constantly in tune with each other to make sure the piece works as best as possible and to service the script. they do an excellent job with a rough script.

i briefly speak with saths afterwards who, for now, only has one note - and that is the pronunciation of sonny's last name, which i have never been able to get right so was unable to definitively tell dan (who portrays him).

thursday 18 february

2010-03-05T15:39:00.003Z

now it feels as though we are rehearsing something. the days go by so quickly now. as always, i guess, as you edge towards the end of the period here, time does seem to go faster.
the day is spent rehearsing the play. it is running at around 45 minutes, which is nice. the through line is sonny and his bible, though we don't want him to be the complete focus of the play, so we let the men's lives shine through as often as possible. this is one difficulty faced - how to edit down the transcripts. there is so much to choose from - what is the strongest and what is the best to link with the other men?

we have come up with reoccuring themes within the transcripts, stories & shakespearian quotes. they are:

unsung heroes
religion
betrayal
leadership
collective amnesia

we have a few stories about mobbs gqirana, who we have agreed is an 'unsung hero' of the struggle. one point of this play is to get the names of the lesser known vetran of the struggle known. but we can also reflect on the reason why the men are not as well known. one interview that i conducted in november 2oo8 mentioned mobbs & how he disappeared without a trace. it was with ahmed 'kathy' kathrada, kwede mkalipi & andrew mlangeni:

Kwede:
Have they confirmed that Mobbs is dead?

Kathy:
Yea, Mobbs is dead

Kwede:
Ohhh

Kathy:
Actually, he disappeared from the face of the earth.

Kwede:
Ohhh,

Kathy:
So the suspicion was that while he was being smuggled out from Port Elizabeth to Lesotho, they captured him & killed him.

Andrew:
He was killed by the police

Kwede:
Ohhh, shame. But was his grave, Where was he grave found?

Kathy:
No, nothing…

Andrew:
We know that he was dead, but we don’t know where he was killed.

Kathy:
This is just one of the speculations.

Kwede:
Mmmm,

Andrew:
He was definitely killed by the police….

Kathy:
Every now & then we are reading of people’s graves who are being unearthed –

Andrew:
Mmmmmm...

Kathy:
- last, about two weeks ago, they found about 11 graves?

Kwede:
Yes

Andrew:
We were dealing with a vicious enemy…

Kwede:
Oh, yes.

Andrew:
And the enemy had to be ruthlessly destroyed too. But we were not fortunately enough to destroy the enemy ruthlessly, (laughter). Because we ended that by by negotiations. But our intentions was to destroy the enemy ruthlessly when they were oh so ruthless to us.

--

mobbs deserves to be spoken about. in our little way, we hope to do that.

wednesday 17 feb

2010-03-05T15:26:00.003Z

this morning, i let the actors off so that i can have a concentrated meeting with vice & dan regarding the script structure.
i think with all of the actors around, i am putting to much pressure on the producing of work, when actually, i should let breath what we can created so far. so, we consoladated our work this morning and produced a stronger outline of the script. we have been able to sit and think about the work that we have produced and how that is shaped into a script. it is good for me not to feel pressured as though i am wasting the actors' time due to the fact that i dont have a vision of the next stages.
this morning has helped me clarify and find a way forward. it is also just nice to sit back & reflect on what is being done.

the afternoon the proves to be much more productive due to this morning's work. i could not have done it without the imput of dan & vice. they have proven indespensible in this process.

we come up with a script and present it to the actors. although rough, it is certainly a step or two beyond the work that i did for the reading in march last year. plus it is solidly grounded in south african artistry. i may have come to many of the same conclusions if i was writing alone back in london, but it would have not the resonence nor the foundation of being build in south africa.

i am now more confident in my contributions to the project because i have worked with these artists. we have a, more or less, common vision and nothing that we discussed this morning contradicts my long term vision of the play.

having had a bit of confidence restored, i direct the actors in a reading of the script - going through any edits that they feel it needs, then we get up on feet.

we now have the problem of the space - we are in a tiny rehearsal room which has been absolutely excellent to develop work in so far. but now that we are rehearsing the play, we need to have a space bigger. in two days time, we will be performing on the mainstage of the market theatre so we need to start to get used to it. but, this space is no where near the size, so everything is squeezed together.

but the reading & the actors' contributions really strengthen the play. the staged reading rehearsal goes over pretty well. again, i am pleased at the progress & development of the work considering that we have only be at it for 7 days. in my heart, i had hoped for something a bit more developed, but in my realistic head, i realize that this progress is good.

we have produced a lot of work but not really edited it down. this morning we did some editing, but it is going to take much more time to really hone the script. the point of these two weeks is to produce work as vice & i wont have the opportunity to work with these actors again, so we need to use our time wisely.

i feel better today than the previous two days. i felt out of it for monday & tuesday, but now feel as though i have regained my focus & direction.

in the evening, we have, once again, a wonderful dinner with masie's familiy. i am going to miss these meals!!

tuesday 16 february

2010-03-01T14:17:00.003Z

back again and still, for me, a day of struggling with the work. we carry on with the further developement of the ideas from yesterday. this does seem to work well, but i am still trying to somehow figure out how to shoehorn young people from today into a story that is tight enough without them.
i have an idea and wont let it go. even if it isnt working. i need to just abandon it, but am having a hard time doiong that. it is so important to me taht this play is not a history play, but rather has some resonance in today, that i am trying to get these 'young people' as characters, but not finding a way in.
i really need to abandon it and hope (and assume) that the play will find relavance with today's young people whether or not they are represented on the stage.

the outline that vice & i had has almost all been forgotten - ah, the halceon days of old.... wasnt it just two days ago that i thought he & i had the play's strucure cracked? yes, well, i was wrong......

with that abandoned outline, comes fresh ideas. i am no longer battling to find a way in, but rather letting things develop naturally. and this has legs.
the actors are great, mixing the shakespeare with the transcripts & improvisation.

the afternoon's session is short due to the fact that saths cooper has graciously accepted our invitation to speak with the Lab students about leadership, Shakespeare & his time on Robben Island. this is the third interview that we have conducted with him. all of the artists involved with this project so far agree that they like sath's view on things. although in his early 60's, he seems to have his ear firmly to the ground to what the young people of today are searching for. he takes no delight in the fact that the older generation has let down these younger ones and makes no bones about it. he accepts that more could and should have been done for those who are not fortunate enough to be politically or otherwise connected in order to have a semblance to monetary success.

he got out of politics because, as he says, he didnt want to work for 'nincompoops.' he adds that, because of that, he might be less well off in terms of money, but he feels as though he hasnt given up the struggle, but taken it on in a less political light - working with people who have suffered because of Apartheid and its affects.

Monday 15 Feb

2010-03-01T14:05:00.004Z

after a firely & exciting meeting with vice yesterday, i guess i should have prepared for my crash.....
nothing deadly, but i seem to have no energy today. we have two shakespeare facilitators who had come over from london to work with the drama students at the Lab Theatre. they contribute to the further disection of the chosen texts, but for me, i don't know where to go or what to suggest to the actors to further develop the work.
as usual, i guess, the outline that vice & i came up with yesterday proved to be weaken than we had thought. we began to improvise around it and soon found out that it was going no where.
our last attempt using our script outline as a basis is a robbery of sonny's home in durban seaching for this valuable 'bible' that the two young robbers had heard about. sonny then intervienes and 'teaches' them the lessons that stem from the bible. i am biting my tongue, hoping to get inspiration from it, but it is bravely up to tod to point out the obvious, 'We shouldnt start out our play with a robbery of Sonny's house. That isnt a good idea.'
Yes, he is right.
i felt a bit like banging my head against the wall to get something to start clicking between my ears, but the actors pull through with dan suggesting that we stage a scene from a tour our robben island as it is today with a flashback or ghost of sonny haunting his former cell. this set off a hilarious scene with one of the actors taking on the role of the tour guide who couldnt be understood, but still is overly reverentiable to 'madiba' island, as he called it.

things finally begin to flow, though without much of my help.
but finally something sticks. unfortunately, it is now the end of the day and so we have to leave any further development to tomorrow. but at least we end on a positive note.
the artists participating are great. though we all ebb & flow in our creativity, i never sense that they dont want to be here and that they are contributing as best as possible.
tonight, it is home early for dinner and then for me to try to straighen myself out. i have got to be more front footed tomorrow in my contributions to the development.

Sunday 14 February 2o1o:

2010-02-18T07:40:00.001Z

I have arranged to meet with Vice this afternoon to see if we can bash an outline for the play out today. Taking from our notes, but also our impressions from the last five days of rehearsal, it is my sincere hope that he and I are thinking along the same lines. I don't really thinking it is as bad as I am making it out to be since he & I have established a good working relationship since the first day and have been talking through our ideas throghout the rehearsal period. So , I am not anticipating any bombshells or a completely different take on the play.

I spend the morning working on my own version of an outline and present it to him over lunch at Steers, where every inch of their menu is devoted to all things meat related, where there are pictures of giant 'steak burgers' that were voted 'Johannesburg's favourite burger 2oo8 and 2oo9. The décor is Texas / New Mexico flavoured with pictures of animals of the cow variety decorating the walls & windows. Quite how two vegetarians arrived at this restaurant and thought it was a good idea is beyond me, but Vice suggested it so I figured he knew what he was doing

We sit down & do not immediately order, we break out our notebooks and both of our computers. We look so urbane in Steers, with our laptops clicking away whilst everyone around is licking their lips and digging into another pound of flesh.

We both break out our outlines and, lo & behold, we are on the same track. But it is interesting how we have presented our work. My outline has very little text, but completely tracks the entire play. His has snipbits of texts and how he would edit the transcripts. Like director & playwright......... but they fit together quite nicely. We finish our meeting in under three hours with a rough, but solid play outline.

By this time, the kind waitress would really like us to order, so skimming the menu quickly as 98% of it is obviously beef-friendly, we both settle on the salad bar. Again, how urbane. I am surprised that we weren't run out on a rail.......

Back at home, I relax with my Chris Hani book and spend some time working on the outline. I also begin to prepare for tomorrow's rehearsal. After a couple of days off, I am looking forward to getting back into the rehearsal room. I am excited to see how the actors react to our work and to see how they can improve it. They are a giving bunch, without an ego amongst them. They are really giving of themselves to this project. I could not have been luckier with choosing my colleagues.

Saturday 13 February 2o1o:

2010-02-18T07:39:00.002Z

Today is a lovely day – though still hot & humid, I have learned not to complain too much as it is snowing in London and New York & DC are apparently shut down due to snow. So, I will take the humidity with humility.

Yesterday I purchased a new book on the life of Chris Hani. He is a former freedom fighter who was assassinated in 1993. But before then, he said:

'Socialism is not about big concepts and heavy theory. Socialism is about decent shelter for those who are homeless. It is about water for those who have no safe drinking water. It is about healthcare, it is about a life of dignity for the old. It is about overcoming the huge divide between urban and rural areas. It is about education for all or our people. Socialism is about rolling back the tyranny of the market. As long as the economy is dominated by an unelected, privileged few, the case for socialism will exist.'

I have carried that quote around in my wallet (I know an odd place for such a quote) for over 6 years. I found it during my first trip to South Africa in 2oo3. I was here in April, on the 10th anniversary of his death and their was much news coverage of him. I had no idea who he was (exactly like the 30 plus names who signed Sonny's 'bible' – I knew 'the big four' – Kathrada, Mandela, Sisulu & Mbeki). But this quote spoke to me. Absolutely.

I don't know much about Marx or Engel, but I do know that I am absolutely angry that we don't have universal education or healthcare, that the gap between the rich & poor has never been wider. And that so many people don't care what happens outside of their white picket fence.

I was asked at the last rehearsal why the story of Robben Island and Sonny's 'bible' interested me. I babbled incoherently because I have lived with it for so long, it has just become a part of me. I should have said, 'Because I am angry. And these men give me hope.'

Read about Chris Hani. He deserves, like all of the men who signed the 'bible,' to be know and admired.

Friday 12 February 2o1o:

2010-02-18T07:39:00.001Z

Last day of transcripts & chosen quotes. We finish off with Eddie Daniels, who begins to recapture our passion of the Struggle saying, ' the Apartheid government has to attempt to please 4 million people, the democratic government has to attempt to please 40 million.'

This gives us the perspective that change is a long process, but it still does not excuse the actions of politicians who believe they deserve their bling lifestyle because they gave years of their lives to the Struggle – what about those who lived under Apartheid in shacks and still are? Surely they 'struggled' as much as you, but have not received the benefits, the accoutrements as Saths calls it, of political office?

We also read through Shakespeare's Sonnets that were chosen by some of the men. My appreciation and love of his Sonnets have grown throughout this process. As seen through the eyes of a South African revolutionary, these Sonnets takes on a whole new meaning:

Sonnet no: 25:
‘Let those who are in favour with their stars
Of public honour and proud titles boast,
Whilst I, whom fortune of such triumph bars,
Unlook'd for joy in that I honour most.
Great princes' favourites their fair leaves spread
But as the marigold at the sun's eye,
And in themselves their pride lies buried,
For at a frown they in their glory die.
The painful warrior famoused for fight,
After a thousand victories once foil'd,
Is from the book of honour razed quite,
And all the rest forgot for which he toil'd:
Then happy I, that love and am belov'd,
Where I may not remove nor be removed.’

or this one,

Sonnet no 30:
When to the sessions of sweet silent thought
I summon up remembrance of things past,
I sign the lack of many a thing I sought,
And with old woes new wail my dear time’s waste.
Then can I drown an eye, unus’d to flow,
For precious friends hid in death’s dateless night,
And weep afresh love’s long since cancell’d woe,
And moan th’ expense of many a vanish’d sight.
Then can I grieve at grievances foregone,
And heavily from woe to woe tell o’er
The sad account of fore-bemoaned mona,
Which I new pay as if not paid before.
But if the while I think on thee, dear friend,
All losses are restor’d, and sorrows end.'

it is a humid & hot day. And we are in a stuffy rehearsal room. And it is a Friday. So, needless to say, there is more yawning than usual and the scenes created are a bit more absurd -

One is taken from a story of Eddie's when he and Kwede dreamt up the idea of a helicopter rescue of Nelson Mandela whilst on Robben Island. The actors have transformed the scene into a children's fantasy (not a stretch from the original idea, I must say) where Mandela is pulled out of his cell and put onto a waiting escape helicopter.

Mnedesi says, 'When I was growing up, we didn't play cops & robbers, we played freedom fighters who flew helicopters onto Robben Island to rescue Mandela & the others.'

We finish for the week. I am looking forward to the weekend to a day off to let things process a bit. I have also arranged to meet with Vice for a long lunch, with plenty of beers, on Sunday to discuss how the play is shaping up.

We have one week left.... Gulp.
I just have to keep on remembering that creating a crisis is a good thing..... right....

Thursday 11 February 2o1o:

2010-02-18T07:38:00.000Z

Another monumental day in South African history. I feel very fortunate to be here on the 20th Anniversary of the release of Nelson Mandela. But strangely, the country itself isn't nearly as excited as us foreigners are.
There is plenty of news coverage, stories and remembrances, but the young actors with whom I am working along with everyone else I meet, isn't terribly interested or excited. This sense of deflation is also evident in the devising of The Robben Island Bible.

There is a palpable sense of let-down within the community who voted in the ANC in 1994 & in each election since. Little has changed for those who live in townships & shacks around the country. Saths Coopers speaks eloquently about this let-down especially for young South Africans,

My two sons, the one is 20 and the other is 22 and my daughter is 16 and all of them know that if you want to get anywhere, if you want to get the lucrative contract, and tenders, the join X organization now so that you will take care of the future in a few years time. And that has, in a sense, developed a cynicism amongst youth that is dangerous because youth cannot afford to be cynical about anything. Sceptical yes, because you are questioning – you want to know what so and so is saying is correct or not. They want to challenge, but the cynicism that is developing is a legacy of leadership that has tended to look after itself, has tended to look after those who are close to them and then created a terrible model for youth to follow.

The State of the Nation address is this evening. President Jacob Zuma has chosen this date to address South Africans. Nelson Mandela is there as are other former freedom fighters (and several RIB signatories). Like other country's addresses, he is long on programmes, but short on the funding of these programmes. He rekindles the spirit of the Struggle at every available moment, but the audience is, as Saths says above, much more cynical than before.

'Passion,' one South African actor said to me recently, 'does not put food on the table.'

South Africans had the passion for change in 1994, but little has improved for the vast majority of them.

So the anniversary and State of the Nation address pass with little hoopla.

In the rehearsal room, we are continuing to develop scenes & characters. We carry on reading the transcripts & chosen texts. The actors are now looking specifically at the veterans. Their monologues go over very well & give Vice & I a lot to go on. They have found the most resonance passages of the transcripts for them & performed it.

Vice & I have a lively discussion with the actors regarding our thoughts on the framing and through line for the play. Generally, everyone is in line, though the seems to be a much more militarist view towards the interrogation by the younger generation of the older one. One that gets to ask, 'Why hasn't things changed more? Why did we compromise rather than liberate? When did self- aggrandizement become the norm of the political class & the well connected than the betterment of all? Again, Saths Cooper,

The politicians tend to collect the acoochama of power and whatever else goes with it as privilege and then justify it as 'entitlement.' They see it as something they have given a certain part of their lives for and, 'Sure enough, that is what I deserve.' And that is terrible thing. And it tends to corrode even the best of souls. So the politicians, going with that, will get fat, literally and otherwise.

This leads to a scene where a former freedom fighter (who vaguely sounds a bit like a former president), gets kidnapped and put on trial by young men who are asking these very questions. It is powerful, but frightening stuff. But this political heavyweight hasn't lost his touch and soon turns the tables on the young men in questioning their urgency and their commitment for change. He asks them, 'What are you contributing to your country? I spent 27 years imprisoned for you to have a vote and what have you done with that right?'

We leave the rehearsal room swirling with possibilities.

Wednesday 10 February:

2010-02-11T07:47:00.001Z

today was a good day. It felt 'regular' – like we are getting into a routine and we are making progress. It felt like everyone knew their jobs and it was making sense. Transcripts in the morning & scene / character development in the afternoon.

Today, we are looking at the Former Political Prisoners themselves. Just before lunch, I ask each of the actors to choose their 'favourite' two FPP's. Their assignment after lunch is to come up with a two minute monologue which incorporates some of the Shakespearian texts & the transcripts. They attack this task with gusto. I think that they are excited to have the focus on the Veterans who are the centre of this play. I give them 30 minutes to edit down a monologue, which they do exceedingly well.

Dan portrays Sonny.
Omphile portrays Saths
Mnetisci portrays Michael
&
Kabelo portrays Theo.

Having never seen the men or watched the interview tapes, all they could rely upon are the transcripts & their creativity. I dont want them to watch the tapes before committing to creating something based on the transcripts & their artistry. This, I think, prevents them from trying to immitate them ratehr than find their essential traits, which is within the transcripts.

They perform their monologues & we hotseat them to further develop the FPP characters.

Afterwards, we brainstorm all of the scenes that they remember having created over the last three days. We also prepare questions for Saths Cooper who will be coming to the theatre on Tuesday.

Their homework is to create another monologue based on another of the Veterans. I look forward to seeing them tomorrow......

Tuesday 9 February:

2010-02-11T07:46:00.000Z

We carry on allow the same schedule as before. After an exhillerating first day, there is always a bit of a let down in energy in the second. But we didnt let that affect out work. We read through the transcripts in the morning, then developed scenes & characters based on the transcripts. Once the scenes were developed & performed, I asked them to focus on the characters within the scenes. We did a physical charactre building exercise, then we hotseated the characters – getting them to sit in the chair and answer questions about themselves. This allows the actor to further develop the character he is working on. The results are wonderful – both funny and heartbreaking.
In working like this, you tend to work through the stereotyped characters before settling onto more nuanced ones. Although funny, the ones that get you are the simple quiet & determined characters. And we had all sorts of them – from a wheeling & dealing business man who can 'get you anything you want – from a new Nissan car engine to a tin of beans' all the while making ' a six figure salary' to a farm labouror who 'just needed to work to send money home' to a former MK foot soldier who was suffering from post tramatic stress disorder, was one helluva plumber, but didn't know his place in this new democracy of South Africa where the white men has had been shooting at were now his commanders. He had fought for liberation from, not compromise with the white man.

That evening, Tod & I stay late at the theatre to see the show, The Pen. Very nice – well acted, simply staged and effected. Plus not starting till 8.15pm and at one hour and 15 minutes, it gave us plenty of time between rehearsal & the performance to have a couple of ice cold Castles, which I justified as well deserved.

Masie met us after the play and drove us home. We have now graduated from mini buses to private cars. The socialist in me isn't happy, but my legs & bottom are....

Monday 8 February 2o1o:

2010-02-11T07:44:00.003Z

I didnt get a good night sleep, not really worried, but more excited about starting tomorrow. This is the part I understand, the rehearsing. This is the part that I know best, so have the greatest chance of failing. I am confident, but after 7 years of waiting, needless to say I am a bit nervous.

Having met all of the actors last week, I come to the theatre ready to work. Everyone is there on time, having done their homework of reading the transcripts & the chosen quotes and are ready to se e how this play develops.

Although they dont say it, I think that they are a bit sceptical about my process – that is, I have very few pre-consieved ideas of how the play should look. I want to stress the Leadership Qualities of the Veterans as well as the Shakespearian characters, but other than that, the sky is blue. I guess that it is a bit nerve wracking, but I believe in the pressure cooker form of creating art. Two weeks and out. I would have been bored in Russia. I want to, as Anne Bogart says, 'create a crisis' in order to get it out of the way. Plus, no matter what happens, save the end of the world, the 19th of February will come and it really doesn't care about my play. Like it or not, something will have to be presented on that day – the last day of the workshop process. So, I might as well enjoy the pressure.....

We begin the morning gently with a reading of the transcripts – we start with Kwede, Andrew& Ahmed, from the first interview conducted during the Research Phase in 2008

They had this to say at that time,

Ahmed Kathrada:
My trouble is, as I pointed out immediately, I just can’t imagine myself having chosen that passage. I don’t understand the passage. I don’t know what to say about it One has to read it in its context. I mean, I have got my Complete Works here which was with me on the island where I marked hundreds of passages - just things that I liked. This passage is not there. The passage made no impact on me. Years and years ago, I went through very hurriedly the Complete Works when I had nothing else to do, but there were passages that made an impact, which I can't off hand remember. Some of them of course I do... Off hand I remember, because I quoted it at the memorial service of Walter Sizulu, a former Robben Islander. I quoted that, 'His life was gentle; and the elements; So mixed in him, that Nature might stand up, And say to all the world, THIS WAS A MAN!

Andrew Mlengeni:
I agree with what Kathrada is saying. We were ill prepared for this interview especially because I don’t think that we were well informed as to what it is that you people want. What do you want us to do and so on and so forth. I said over the telephone this morning, I just had no idea, I said, 'What is this 'Robben Island Bible' ? What is it that people want to do? The quotation mentioned there was not chosen by me. Although somebody says that I marked it some years back. I don’t know the reason for me for choosing that quotation. But the one that I do slightly, I was trying to look for it right now and I can't find it - the one quotation that I always liked was the one that says, 'uneasy that lies the head that wears the crown.' And I understood that at that time, I don’t know if my understanding was correct but if you are a king.... today you can talk of the President... of a country.... but if you are a king, you you you don’t ever feel safe. You are always saying, 'Who's plotting to bring me down? Who's plotting against me?'

Kwede Mkalipi:
Well, more or less I agree with my colleagues here. I have also not sure what we are coming here for. So, because even this quote is not the quote that I had prepared myself. Well, ah, if I were to come in, I would also quote the same man Shakespeare, this same Macbeth that has been chosen because it always had a profound meaning to me. The passage I used to like very much was the one when Lady Macbeth, after he has done everything wrong, have to come out and then says, she says, 'All the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand.' And that sigh that says, 'Oh, oh, oh.' And then another person says, 'Oh, what a sigh is there! The heart is sorely charg’d.' So that was then that the meaning to me then that, eh, you know the teach us that Apartheid was done on the people. And then ah, I just likened it, you know, to Lady Macbeth to the type of system then that was existing. That, ah, whatever could have been done, nothing could ever purify this system of Apartheid and so then therefore, when, then she says, ' All the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand', it meant then that you could bring everything in but the damage that is done by the system of Apartheid can never be repaid. And that is why it was said, the people was saying 'Let us go and kill the people who have done this.' It makes one want to kill them in order to get out of this. Because nothing can ever bring justice to what has happened to us. SO that is the system that it was.

We spend the morning with the transcripts and, although as actors naturally they wanted to get up and 'act' I know that it is important to establish the foundation of the play which are these transcripts & the chosen Shakespearian quotes. So, I keep steady the course.

After a while, the actors begin to relax into the transcripts and begin to find the humour and sadness in them,

Have they confirmed that Mobbs is dead?’ (Kw)
‘Yea, Mobbs is dead’ (Ka)
‘Ohhh,’ (Kw)
‘Actually, he disappeared from the face of the earth.’ (Ka)
‘Ohhh,’ (Kw)
‘So the suspicion was that while he was being smuggled out from Port Elizabeth to Lesotho, they captured him & killed him.’ (Ka)
‘He was killed by the police’ (Ml)
‘Ohhh, shame. But was his grave, Where was he grave found?’ (Kw)
‘No, nothing…’ (Ka)
‘We know that he was dead, but we don’t know where he was killed.’ (Ml)
‘This is just one of the speculations’ (Ka)
‘Mmmm,’ (Kw)
‘He was definitely killed by the police….’(Ml)
‘Every now & then we are reading of people’s graves who are being unearthed –
‘Mmmmmm,’ (Ml)
Ka:
- last, about two weeks ago, they found about 11 graves?
‘Yes,’ (Kw)
Ka:
The freedom park is going systematically to track down the graves of people who, their families don’t know where they were. If they were buried at all or they were dumped at sea. We just don’t know for some of them. But they are making all sorts of efforts to track them down
MI:
We are dealing with a vicious enemy…
‘Oh, yes.’ (Kw)
‘And the enemy had to be ruthlessly destroyed too. But we were not fortunately enough to destroy the enemy ruthlessly, (laughter). Because we ended that by by negotiations. But our intentions was to destroy the enemy ruthlessly when they were oh so ruthless to us. (ML)

So after spending the morning with the transcripts & Shakespeare quotes, in the afternoon, I ask them to compose scenes based on what they read that morning. They had to use minimum words to express their scene and any words used must be taken from the transcripts.

This was the first 'shot across the bow' for me as a director – if they understood this methodology of working,then the two weeks would be a joy, if they balked or held back, we would all be in trouble.

Needless to say, any worry about 'Storytelling' that was in my mind was quickly dismissed by the creative use of the transcripts to make three very different scenes.

I then asked them to perform a chosen text of their liking. 'I dont want an audition piece, but rather I want it to be read as a South African man (themselves today) or a South African Revolutionary (the former political prisoners on Robben Island).

The results were magic.... Omphile read the following text chosen by JB Vusani as a dejected teenager who cared less about humanity, the past & certainly didn't want to hear stories about the Struggle:

(As You Like It )

Act 2, scene 7 lines 140-145:

Jaques:
All the worlds a stage,
And all the men and women merely players;
They have their exits and their entrances;
And one man in his time plays many parts,
His acts being seven ages. At first the infant,
Mewling and puking in the nurse’s arms;
Then the whining school-boy, with his satchel....

It was eye-opening to me.

I asked them to carry on reading the transcripts for perparation for tuesday.

I walked out of the rehearsal room floating. I was quiet & a bit overwhelmed. Finally after 7 years of 'talking' I am finally 'walking' and walking in the clouds.

The Weekend:

2010-02-11T07:44:00.001Z

Tod & Masie catch up on sleep and I begin to transcribe the latest interviews. I get through Saths 45 minute interview fairly quickly and begin to work on Sonny's considerably longer one on Sunday.

The entire family goes out to dinner on Sunday night to my favourite Sowetoian restaurant, Wandies. Although one of the few restaurants there, it is a great place to find vegatarian & non- veg meals, truly a find in MEAT – LOVING South Africa.
So, I fill up on my favourite Chacalaka whilst the carnivores dig into the chicken.

I go to bed early to be ready for the first day of rehearsal tomorrow.

Friday 5 February

2010-02-11T07:43:00.000Z

Masie & Tod return today from their mad whirlwind tour of South Africa. Whilst I have been in Jo' burg this week, they have traveled from here to Durban to interview Sonny to Cape Town to interview Eddie Daniels. Today, they are meeting me at Park Station so that the three of us can go to interview Dr. Saths Cooper. Sonny & Saths are second interviews, Eddie is a first and I am disapointed that I have not been able to meet him.
Years ago, I spoke to Eddie about the 'Bible.' He was the first Signatoree with whom I spoke. He wrote the most elegant of emails in response to my initial questions. Here is a edited version:

There is no connection between the feelings of despair which Macbeth expresses in the soliloquy "Tomorrow and tomorrow..." and our feelings as prisoners.

Where Macbeth expressed despair because his ambitions which came to naught, and which destroyed his self respect, were based on greed and corruption. Speaking for myself, my self-respect remained intact with a quiet sense of pride and dignity in that I was in prison because I was trying to right the wrongs which had, and was still, being perpetrated on the victims of injustice.

Reading, and in my small way, trying to analyse the words uttered by Macbeth and the context in which it was uttered. Shakespeare brought home to me the frailty of the human being (Out, out, brief candle). No matter how great we are (like Mr Mandela) or how unknown we are (like me) fate/time will eventually remove us from the stage of life (That struts and frets his hour upon the stage, and then is heard no more). Our bodies will become dust (or ash). Our names and deeds (mine far sooner than Mr Mandela’s) will eventually be erased by the sands of time.

What I found breath taking was the fact that Shakespeare could visualize with such clarity the perpetuality of human existence. I hope that you won't consider the above as a 'tale told by an idiot'.

This email was the first sign of the humble nature of these freedom fighters. I would time & time again, find this same humility in each of the men whom I interviewed.

I make my way to Park Station and meet up with Tod & Masie. They both are exhausted having had little sleep & too much running around in the Cape Town sun. But no down time for them: we are off to Haughton to meet Dr. Cooper. He is a psychologist who was imprisoned in 1976 at the age of 24. He was a member of the Black Consciousness Movement and had this to say at our initial meeting in November 2o08:

When your, ah, youth, your late teens, 20s gets constrained in that terrible fashion and you’re confined physically to a space that is, what, one and half metres by just over two metres or something like that you are going … to... be, a few things can happen. One, is you’re going to resist that physical imposition, intellectually, emotionally and spiritually. Because physically you may break your head against the wall, but otherwise you have to be there. But intellectually you don’t have to accept that.

You know that this is an imposition and at heart ours was a fight for dignity. Dignity of the mass of people that even today have not received that dignity. The constitution may scream it, but in reality the majority of our people are way beyond even a modicum of participating in an equality that they expected post ’94. And so you see a massive outpouring of self destructive behaviour of us doing things to ourselves, doing things to those who are accessible, ah, because there is no other enemy out there.

When we meet him, he looks even younger than the last time we met. Although 61 years old, he has jet black hair and doesnt look a day over 40.

Like the rest of the men, it truly is a privilege to meet with him for a second time. Although stepping out of politics after the early 1990's, Saths is as firely as ever. He has this to say,

I think that politicians & business men who tell the Youth of today that, 'Because we were in the Struggle, we deserve this high way of living', is a betrayal of everything that has been Noble in our Struggle. It has created that sleaze factor. It has led to the ignoblity of being associated with demolition of the previous system because people gave their lives. There are thousands of heroes that have gone unrecognised in our country. There are thousands who have contributed in different ways and I don't think many of them go around looking for acclimation. They don't go around with these weights on their shoulders.

It is because of that gap between Struggle & Power and how you mediate the gap between those two and you do it with integrity.

South Africa marks 20 years of unbanning of liberation movements

2010-02-02T11:47:00.002Z

Today marks the 20th anniversary of the unbanning of the ruling party African National Congress (ANC) and other liberation movements from participation in politics. Former State President FW de Klerk stunned the world on February 2, 1990 when he announced in Parliament that his Government had decided to release jailed ANC leader Nelson Mandela unconditionally and unban the ANC and the South African Communist Party.

The announcement led to the ANC suspending its armed struggle against the apartheid Government a few months later and the suspension of sanctions against South Africa. The party eventually took over the Government after peaceful elections in 1994, followed by Mandela's inauguration as the country's first democratically-elected President.

The day comes on the back of the party’s 98th anniversary celebrations which have been held countrywide. ANC officials have been criss-crossing the country to commemorate this milestone, at the same breath sharing messages of hope with the party’s loyalists.

Among issues engaged during the 98th anniversary celebrations have been the party’s stance to root out corruption among officials, to speed up service delivery, eradicate poverty as well some lambasting factionalism within provincial and local party structures. During these celebrations, party members chanted revolutionary songs, donned in full party regalia, reminding themselves of the long path they had travelled to liberation.

(http://www.sabcnews.com/portal/site/SABCNews/menuitem.5c4f8fe7ee929f602ea12ea1674daeb9/?vgnextoid=92fd3c17a8b86210VgnVCM10000077d4ea9bRCRD&vgnextfmt=default)

Tuesday 2 February 2o1o

2010-02-02T11:46:00.002Z

Today is the 20th Anniversary of the unbanning of the ANC and all other opposition political parties by then Present FW DeKlerk. What a great time to be in South Africa. Nine days from 2 February 199o on 11 February 199o, Nelson Mandela walked out of prison in Cape Town freely, the first time in over 27 years. That anniversary will also be a cause for celebration & reflection. On the news, there has been retrospection and appraisals of what has been accomplished & what needs to be further done.

I am off to the Market Theatre to meet with two of the four actors as well as with Vice. I want to give him a DVD of the videos & audio recordings of the interviews. Two of the actors participating in this script development phrase have worked with me before at the reading in March 2oo9 at the Richmond Theatre in London. I am looking forward to working with them again as well as meeting two new actors. I hope also to meet with Matjamela at the Lab Theatre today to re-introduce myself and make plans for the next three weeks.

Monday 1 February 2o1o:

2010-02-02T11:46:00.001Z

Monday, Masie is off to work and Tod & I stay at home catching up and preparing for the interviews and rehearsal. I give Tod a crash course in the various political parties within South Africa and their basic positions along with a basic outline of the recent history of the country. We go over the quotes and the biographies of the men whom he will be interviewing. I also continue to pour over the transcripts and quotes making more notes and links between the two. I need to be as solid as possible with this source material before Monday so that the actors can feel free to create whilst I keep them grounded in the source material.

I finally get my phone successfully registered and purchase airtime, which feels like a huge accomplishment. I send some texts, speak with my lovely wife and prepare to meet the actors on Tuesday. I also make a visit to the internet cafe to email Ahmed Kathrada several follow up questions from our first interview. I don't think that we will have the opportunity to interview him again, but he wanted me to send to him some follow up questions that he could answer in an email. That done, back home for another delicious dinner including, for the first time this trip, my favourite South African dish Chacalaka, a stew of baked beans & curried vegetables. Wonderful! And homemade....

Sunday, 31 January 2o1o:

2010-02-02T11:45:00.001Z

On Sunday, Masie, Tod & I meet Vice, the dramaturg for the project. He is a young & accomplished playwright who has worked in & around the Market Theatre and was recommended to me by Matjamela, the head of the Lab Theatre at the Market. We have a brief meeting where I explain what has happened so far with the project and where I see the project heading. He is very much in agreement and pleased to be working on the project. He knows well the actors with whom we will be working. He nor I know what we will have in two weeks time, but we are all in agreement that we can work together to fashion a strong piece of work based on the interviews & the chosen Shakespearian quotes.

After that meeting, we make another attempt at sorting our SIM cards, but with no luck. The government has recently introduced a law stating that all purchased SIM cards must be registered to a South African with proof of address. This seems to be in response to the use of mobile phones used in illegaal areas. Noble idea, but tough to accomplish (in any reasonable amount of time). The shop keepers are none too keen to make extra work for themselves and so really don't want to see two obvious foreigners entering their stores looking for SIM cards.

We also begin the major undertaking of booking Masie's & Tod's whirlwind tour of South Africa. Masie has scheduled interviews with Sonny in Durban & Eddie Daniels in Cape Town along with Saths Cooper back in Jo'burg on Friday. Needless to say booking one way tickets is an additional hassle that the attendants at Shoprite seem wary to participate. We are at the shop for almost two hours stringing together 6 one way tickets (Jor' burg to Durban, Durban to Cape Town & Cape Town to Jo'burg). Whew, another example of Masie's extreme patience & my drive to drink.......

Finally accomplished, we head home to another wonderful dinner.

Welcome back to South Africa.....

2010-02-02T11:40:00.003Z

Saturday, 30 January 2o1o

I walk out of the airplane with a smile on my face, because I truly love this country. I have a deep sense of comfort whenever I come here. Though I don't and never will fully 'understand' it, I feel a communion with it. Much more so that the States and, increasingly, the United Kingdom. There is a simplicity to it and a straighfforwardness to it. You get what you see. There is no mask in dealing with South Africans in their country. And that is not always easy to deal with when coming from countries that have a bottom line of comfort & stability. The general public don't have that comfort. Ah, what a luxury we Americans have as we haggle over whether or not we should should have a 'Public Option' on a bill in Congress that wants everyone to be required to have health insurance.

I arrive on Saturday morning to a beautiful & sunny morning. After the grey weather of London, it is a welcome sight, even if I am four hours delayed. Masie & Tod are waiting for me at the airport and we set off right away.

After paying for the parking, I notice how much more expensive South Africa has become. Not only had the Pound Sterling devalued nearly 5 Rand since I was last in 2oo8, prices in general for South Africans had greatly increased. 'All due to the coming World Cup,' Masie says. He has seen the increase from his home in Soweto and doing business in Johannesburg.

We spend the day queing for a variety of things: SIM cards for the mobile phone, food for home & a cable for our computer. Very little luck, this first time around. But Masie has the patience of a saint as he haggles and debates and questions all with a smile on his face and a chirp in his voice. Yes, he is bothered, but he knows this is the price of business, a certain level of frustation and he doesn't let this bother him, unlike me, the greedy Westerner who is used to having service (even in London) of a better standard. After queing for a SIM card that never comes about ('The computer is offline now, so we cannot process your purchase,' says the man behind the iron cage in the shop), I tell him, 'I am driven to drink,' but the inconvience just rolls off his back and we are off to another shop in the quest of this ever so slippery SIM card. I could learn a lot from his smile & his patience.

We have a wonderful meal prepared by Masie's mother soon after we arrive at his house, where Tod & I will be calling home for the next three weeks ('And one day,' says my wonderful, yet suffering, wife, 'You are gone for more than three weeks.'). Masie's mom ('Mom-Jobie' as she is affectionity called by her son) is fretting over fixing a vegetarian meal, as now there are two vegetarians living under her thatched roof. But she pulls it off with a selection of dishes from mashed potatoes & tomato gravy to beetroot, salad & cooked vegetables with curry sauce.

That evening, I go out with a friend for a quick bottle of Castle and, much to my surprise I am re-introduced to Andrew Mlangeni, MP for Soweto, Freedom Fighter who spent 25 years on Robben Island and interviewee for my research last year in Cape Town. With contained excitement, I go over to shake his hand. It is very different circumstances than the previous time we met. Then, he came around to Ahmed Kathrada's home in Cape Town before going to work in Parliament. He was dressed to the nines with famously clean glasses. Tonight, he is relaxed in his home enjoying himself and his family around him. It was a brief meeting, but I hope to see him again soon and conduct further interviews with him during my time here.

Joseph Marcell at the SAHC

2009-11-11T12:56:00.003Z

Actor Colin Salmon at SAHC

2009-11-11T12:55:00.000Z

South African High Commission - Soweto Gospel Choir in support of RIB

2009-11-11T12:54:00.002Z

Educational Outreach

2009-11-10T14:58:00.003Z

There will be an Educational Campaign to the project looking at Leadership & Citizenship through the prism of Shakespeare’s writing and the men on Robben Island who became the leaders of the democratic South Africa. This component will dovetail with the National Curriculum Citizenship module through the publication of Education Resource packs to be used as a resource for teachers, students, researchers or anyone wanting background information on this play. We are committed to making this work available for youth education. Our intention is also that young people – specifically those who are under-represented and who may otherwise have no interest in exploring Shakespeare’s works – be exposed to this story and its themes of leadership, social responsibility, courage, conflict resolution, anti-racism, anti-violence and other positive and transformative messages.
Many students from St. Mary’s University College at the reading in March who are too young to remember the Apartheid government in South Africa commented that, for the first time, they could understand & relate to Shakespeare and have now a better understanding of the Apartheid regime. These students, many of whom do not fully engage with the theatre, said that they could now understand the power that theatre can bring to social change. Judging from the increased level of engagement by both the student and non-student audiences (as exampled in the Q & A following the reading, the conversations that I have had face to face and on the phone with students and non-students about the project), the reading of The Robben Island Bible has promoted new ideas, helped people to see and use theatre in new contexts, formats & places. There will be an educational component to the project which will dovetail with the National Curriculum Citizenship Education through the publication of education resource packs. Within the education resource pack, we will highlight the Black South African leaders who serve as examples of role models and leaders. These packs will be in support with the policies and aims of the educational authority and other public organisations that target educational opportunities. During the interviews conducted last year, employees of the Robben Island Museum supported the project in a variety of ways. Currently, I am in negotiations with this public organisation to see how best The Robben Island Bible can further their mission to educate & engage not only South Africans, but also the thousands of people from the US, UK, Europe and the rest of the world who visit the prison

The Supporters & Contributors

2009-11-10T14:56:00.000Z

The project has gained the support of many prominent South Africans and international organisations which have developed it into a strong network of partners, collaborators and promoters to help realize the goal of this project. They include the British High Commissioner to South Africa, Paul Boateng; the head of the Education Department at the Robben Island Museum, Dedrie Prins-Solani; the South African High Commissioner to the United Kingdom, Ms Lindiwe Mabuza; Tony Award winning actor Dr. John Kani; Dr Sonia Massai, Reader in Shakespeare Studies, English Department at King's College London; the British Council in South Africa, the Nelson Mandela Children’s Fund UK and the Royal Shakespeare Company amongst others.
All of these partnerships will greatly extend the reach of the project and are involved at an appropriate level.
Steph O’Driscoll, an award winning young theatre director and recent graduate from St. Mary’s said, ‘I thought it was a great concept, thought provoking, and powerful. It was the first thing I have seen for a while that I haven’t fallen asleep in and it has made me excited again about theatre. John’s views on Shakespeare (not caring for the literacy figure that England has created) should feed into the play which parallels telling the story of these men’s lives through Shakespeare. It was genius the way they corrected you and you do not come across as ignorant for not knowing the correct pronunciations. It roots the idea that this is these particular men’s stories and their history, no one else could possibly understand fully or get it completely correct.’

Contributors: John Kani -Theatre credits includes Driving Miss Daisy, Othello, The Blood Knot, The Island, Waiting for Godot, Playland, Duet for One, Sizwe Banzi Is Dead, and My Children! My Africa! Several of these productions and many others have been performed to audiences across the world. The Island, which won the Toronto Theatre Award 2001 for Best Production, was co-written by Kani, Athol Fugard, and Winston Ntshona – the same team also wrote Sizwe Banzi Is Dead. Kani won the Best Actor Tony Award on Broadway for his performances in these plays. In 2004 he performed in the Greek classic Antigone at the National Arts Festival in Grahamstown and then at Baxter Theatre Centre. His films include The Wild Geese, The Grass Is Singing, Marigolds in August, Victims of Apartheid, An American Dream, A Dry White Season, Sarafina, and Saturday Night at the Palace, for which he won a Taormina Golden Award at the Milan International Film Festival. In 1993 he received a special Obie Award in New York for his extraordinary contribution to theatre. Kani’s accolades for his contribution to South Africa and culture include The Avanti Hall of Fame Award; a National African Federation Chamber of Commerce Merit Award; the Rotary Club’s Paul Harris Fellowship Award; an Honorary Doctorate of Philosophy from the University of Durban, Westville; an Honorary Doctorate of Literature from Rhodes University and the 2000 Hiroshima Renaissance Merit Award for Peace in Stockholm. Kani is a trustee of The Market Theatre Foundation and Chairman of the Apartheid Museum. In 2005 he was awarded the Order of Ikhamanga OIS by President Thabo Mbeki for his contribution through the arts to the liberation of South Africa.
Scilla Elworthy Ph.D - Scilla is founder of Peace Direct, and founder and Chair of Oxford Research Group, established in 1982 to develop effective methods whereby people can bring about positive change on issues of global and local security by non-violent means. Previously she was a consultant at UNESCO on women’s issues, a director of Minority Rights Group in France and has worked for ten years in southern Africa. In May 2003 she was awarded the Niwano Peace Prize and has three times been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. In 1976 she helped organise the building and launch of the Market Theatre, South Africa’s first multiracial theatre and parent theatre of the Market Theatre Laboratory, partner with The Robben Island Bible project. In 2002 she launched a production at the Royal Opera House theatre in London entitled Transforming September 11th; in 2004 she provided the basic material for Max Stafford Clark’s acclaimed production of “Talking to Terrorists” at the Royal Court Theatre in London; and in 2007 her case study on the siege of Fallujah in Iraq was used as the basis for Jonathan Holmes production of “Fallujah” at the Truman Brewery in Brick Lane. Currently, she is advising Richard Branson, Nelson Mandela, Desmond Tutu, Kofi Annan, President Jimmy Carter and Peter Gabriel on the creation of ‘The Elders’ an organisation created to address the current lack of independent moral global leaders.
Matjamela Motloung (Head of Market Theatre Laboratory) - Theatre administrator who has had extensive training in both performing and management. Has successfully working on Arts Alive for Soweto with MBS community theatre group as well as a part of Southern African Arts Administrators who set up the initial Southern African Theatre Initiative. Matjamela has also hosted and facilitated a number of workshops and co-ordinated a number of festivals and conferences in and around Southern Africa. Matjamela has trained with the acclaimed Royal National Studio (UK) and the Stockholm Stads Teater (Sweden), and the Peter Brook Company (France) as an actor and director. Matjamela directed four fingers by Makhosi Dlamini for the Lab Community Festival and is currently co-director of the Minuature Theatre Company for Kids in Pietermaritzburg Kwa Zulu Natal.Matjamela is one of the leading voices in the push for a transformed theatre industry in South Africa.
Tod Higginson (videographer) - Studied Drama and Theatre Arts at Goldsmiths College, where he was awarded a 1st Class BA Hons degree in 2003. During his time at Goldsmiths, he specialised in technical work, including audio, video, and lighting, as well as directing for live and recorded performance. Tod has worked extensively with DV and High Definition video formats since 2000, and has been employed at a leading DVD Authoring company, dealing with major releases for film and TV companies, since 2003.
Masie Mojela (researcher) – Has a Bsc Degree (Physics and Chemistry) from the University of Johannesburg and has worked in community development in Soweto.

Honouring the Unsung Heroes of the Struggle against Apartheid

2009-11-10T14:55:00.000Z

Through this project, I want to honour the unsung heroes of the Struggle against Apartheid. Too often, Nelson Mandela is the only name people recognize. He has been looked upon as the sole contributor to the overthrow of the Apartheid Government. It is a perception that he has fought and continues to fight to this day. John Kani said at the reading, "There's a tendency to put Mandela in the centre, and call everything 'Mandela'. In my life, I have never met a man so humble. He's a leader that would never use the personal pronoun. Always, 'the people', 'the movement', 'the government', 'the ANC', 'the people of our country'; and thus he would be the first to say, ‘It's not about me.’ " It is my goal through this play to get the names Kathrada, Mlangeni, Daniels, Cooper and many other unsung heroes as familiar to the audience as the name Mandela.
Throughout the years that I have been developing this work, I have spoken to High Commissioners, rehearsed with a Tony Award winning actor and listened in awe to political leaders who spent much of their lives in prisons. I have met with charities, theatre companies and Universities who are interested in partnering with this play. Throughout this process, I have learned that you must be absolutely passionate, determined and tenacious to break through to them and get your voice heard. I have never worked so hard on a piece of art in my life. Through this play, I have had life changing experiences and have grown because of it. From a professional & personal point of view, this project will help develop the quality of my work in the future through the honing of my work ethic, contacts that I have established, respect that I have gained for pursuing this project and emotions this play has touched. The international aspect of this play will have a positive effect on my future work and provide opportunities for people in England to engage with my work both now and in the future through the establishment of contacts in South Africa and Southern Africa, a working relationship with the Market Theatre, new ideas for work surrounding Robben Island and positive relationships between artists in South Africa and in the United Kingdom.

Anthony Sampson biography on Nelson Mandela

2009-11-10T14:53:00.000Z

In 2oo1, I read the Anthony Sampson biography on Nelson Mandela. Tit mentions the existence of Sonny’s ‘Bible.’ From that moment on, I was intrigued by the theatrical possibilities of this ‘Bible.’
In 2oo6, the ‘Bible’ left South Africa for the first time to be a part of the ‘Complete Works’ Festival in Stratford-upon-Avon. I viewed the ‘Bible’ for the first time there and from then on, I knew that I needed to do this project.
Since 199o, South Africa has intrigued me. I see in it huge potential as a young & struggling democracy. After visiting South Africa and, in particular, Robben Island for the first time in 2oo3, I fell in love with the people, the landscape and the culture. I hold the country in high regard because of the difficulties it has faced and are currently attempting to overcome.
My South African friend and fellow researcher, who grew up in Soweto, said that he was so proud to be working on the interview project with me because of what it meant to him as a South African man. When we interviewed his leaders, he could not help to hide his absolute glee and respect that he had for these men. The pride welled up in his chest when he spoke with them. That pride & respect is of huge import to me as a human being. Through the Phase 1 research, I found Shakespeare’s work to be an expression of the character of these former political prisoners and something that holds great resonance within them. I was told by one former political prisoner that, in order to be taken seriously, a South African leader must quote Shakespeare in each speech he gives. This impact of Shakespeare’s words when read by men under the oppression of Apartheid reflects its resonance beyond the English culture.

Process to Develop the Script

2009-11-10T14:52:00.003Z

I plan to use the interviews (transcripts & video recordings) from the first phase of this project, the chosen Shakespearian texts & the artists’ research as sourcework to script the multiple stories that surround Sonny’s smuggled copy of the ‘Complete Works.’ I have received a commitment from the Market Theatre Laboratory in Johannesburg for rehearsal space and artists.
My method of working has close resonance with the method that John Kani and Winston Ntshona developed with Athol Fugard in their plays, The Island & Sizwe Banzi is Dead. At the recent reading of The Robben Island Bible, John Kani said, ‘When we created, in 1972, Sizwe Banzi Is Dead, we didn't have a script, it was being improvised based on personal experience of what was happening around us and the news that we heard.’
This play needs to be developed in South Africa in order to give audiences in the United States as close to the theatrical ‘truth’ of these stories as possible. We want this play to achieve a ‘truth’ that the artists, the former political prisoners who were interviewed and the audiences will find resonance in. We are very aware of past colonialization by whites in South Africa both in the political and theatrical worlds and want to do everything to avoid even the appearance of another one. This second phase of script development represents the further progression of 8 years of work on this project.

Background

2009-11-10T14:52:00.001Z

Sonny Venkatratham was a South African political prisoner held on Robben Island in the 1970’s. The Robben Island Bible is based on his copy of ‘The Complete Works of William Shakespeare’ and interviews with several political prisoners who were also held there. Venkatratham smuggled his copy of the ‘Complete Works’ into the prison by persuading his warders that it was a religious Hindu ‘Bible.’ He then surreptitiously passed the book to a number of his fellow political prisoners in the single cells. Each of them marked his favourite passage in the ‘Complete Works’ and signed it with the date. It contains thirty-two signatures, including those of Walter Sisulu, Nelson Mandela, Govan Mbeki, Ahmed Kathrada and Mac Maharaj, all luminaries in the struggle for a democratic South Africa. These men signed passages within the text, which they found particularly moving, meaningful and profound. The selection of text provides fascinating insight into the minds, thinking and soul of those political prisoners who fought for the transformation of South Africa. It also speaks to the power of Shakespeare’s resonance with the human spirit regardless of place or time.

February 2o1o

2009-11-10T14:50:00.000Z

In February 2o1o, I aim to continue the development of my play, The Robben Island Bible at the Market Theatre Laboratory in Johannesburg with a three week development period.

The project is divided into three phases:
Phase 1 – Interview Stage (October & November 2oo8) – This phase consisted of interviewing former Robben Island political prisoners. These interviews, along with selected texts from ‘The Complete Works of William Shakespeare,’ will form part of the foundation for the play. This phase culminated in a staged reading at the Richmond Theatre in March 2oo9 featuring John Kani and other members of the cast from the RSC’s The Tempest.
Phase 2 –Script Development (February 2o1o) – This phase will consist of working with South African actors, a South African dramaturge, a South African researcher, a videographer & a producer to develop a script based on interviews and chosen texts and an educational outreach campaign. Further interviews of the former political prisoners will also be conducted and recorded on video for a multi-media exhibition of the play – which will be featured in the reception area of the theatre in which the play is performed. This phase will culminate in a staged reading of the play at the Indiana University Union Board. It will also produce a script for Phase Three.
Phase 3 – Rehearsal & performance of the play along with the presentation of the multi-media exhibit in the foyer of the producing theatre and the launch of an education outreach programme.

I want to showcase Shakespeare’s work to a new audience and to expand the range of Shakespeare’s work in a way that has rarely been explored. I also want to expose the rest of the world, many whom may only recognize the name ‘Mandela,’ to the unsung heroes of the Struggle against Apartheid in South Africa. Each of these most gentle of men has so much to show the world about leadership, citizenship, resistance and reconciliation.
The central idea behind this project is to honour the stories of the former political prisoners who have given of themselves in their interviews. It is the driving force behind my insistence on working in South Africa with South African artists to validate the development of this play.

BLACK HISTORY SEASON – OCTOBER 2009

2009-06-17T14:30:00.002+01:00

We have agreed with Kathi Scott, NMCF UK, to present the October 2009 evening UK. This event, the Robben Island Bible Leadership Campaign Evening UK, will benefit NMCF UK and honour the lives of Robben Island’s Former Political Prisoners.

ROBBEN ISLAND BIBLE HONORS SOUTH AFRICAN LEADERSHIP

2009-06-17T14:29:00.001+01:00

We will be in South Africa in January to complete the development of Robben Island Bible with the Market Theater Laboratory and South African actors.

ROBBEN ISLAND BIBLE LEADERSHIP & EDUCATIONAL CAMPAIGN

2009-06-17T14:26:00.004+01:00

The Robben Island Bible has begun a series of campaigns, educational programmes & events focusing on the the theme of Leadership and Role Models among men and women within our communities, as exemplified the number of extraordinary and courageous men imprisoned on Robben Island, who gave of their lives in pursuit of a democratic South Africa. With this we aim to involve individuals who are looked to for their leadership role.

Pictures from the Reading:

2009-03-30T13:01:00.003+01:00

'We see a lesson which our people could learn in this great writer called Shakespeare'

2009-03-30T12:06:00.003+01:00

St Mary’s University College in association with the Richmond Theatre & the Royal Shakespeare Company staged the premiere reading of the Robben Island Bible Project at Richmond Theatre on March 24.

The reading included a performance by Tony Award winning actor John Kani who read excerpts from recently conducted interviews and selected Shakespearian texts of political prisoners on Robben Island. John Kani was joined by Atandwa Kani & Omphile Moulusi, two of the young actors from RSC & Baxter Theatre Company’s The Tempest.

The Drama department at St Mary’s University College closed for the afternoon and the stalls at the theatre were filled with students and other special guests from Richmond, the University College and from the anti-apartheid movement.

The playwright Matthew Hahn, who is a lecturer at St Mary’s University College, said, ‘The show went well and the actors quickly relaxed into the script even with only had two hours rehearsal on Monday afternoon. The audience greatly enjoyed the improvisations & interjections by the actors which showcased an African form of theatrical interaction not often seen in south west London.

‘Afterwards John Kani participated in a moving, politicised and exciting question and answer session which can have left no-one in the audience in any doubt of the power that theatre has to communicate, keep ideals alive, provide metaphors for resistance and inspire great acts of courage and humanity.’

John Kani said, ‘The role of theatre, even today, is part of, trying to bond a nation, talk about tolerance, reconciliation, rebuilding our own lives and our own country, and our society. We see a lesson which our people could learn in this great writer called Shakespeare.

‘There is an African tradition of storytelling, which is actually a method of retaining the unwritten history that the white racist minority government did not want to write down. So our grandparents and great-grandparents handed down our history orally, and people were developed into seasoned and well-respected storytellers. And that also, the stories were part of reflecting the society itself. So theatre, coming into our continent, mixed the two genres; the genre of storytelling, and the western concept of what theatre is.’

The Robben Island Bible Project has gained the support of many prominent South Africans and international organisations including the British High Commissioner to South Africa, Paul Boateng; South African High Commissioner to the United Kingdom, Ms Lindiwe Mabuza; Tony Award winning actor Dr. John Kani; the British Council in South Africa and St Mary’s University College, Twickenham, amongst others.

The play is based on South African Sonny Venkatratham’s copy of ‘Complete Works of William Shakespeare’. A political prisoner on Robben Island during the 1970s, Venkatratham smuggled his copy of the ‘Complete Works’ into the prison by persuading his warders that it was a religious Hindu text. He then surreptitiously passed the book to a number of his fellow political prisoners in the single cells. Each of them marked his favourite passage in the ‘Complete Works’ and signed it with the date. It contains thirty-two signatures, including those of Walter Sisulu, Neville Alexander, Billy Nair, Nelson Mandela, Govan Mbeki, Ahmed Kathrada, Andrew Masondo, and Mac Maharaj, all luminaries in the struggle for a democratic South Africa.

These men signed passages within the text which they found particularly moving / meaningful / profound. The selection of texts provides fascinating insight into the minds, thinking and soul of prisoners at that time.

Ahmed Kathrada, Michael Dingake, Saths Cooper, Theo Cholo, Kwede Mkalipi, Sonny Venkatrathnam & Andrew Mlangeni, all former political prisoners on Robben Island & signatories were interviewed as part of the first phase of this project in October & November 2008.

The second phase of the project will begin in the summer of 2009 when Matthew Hahn works with actors from the Market Theatre in Johannesburg, South Africa to rehearse the play.

Reading Time & Date is confirmed!

2009-02-23T08:44:00.001Z

The time & date for the reading of The Robben Island Bible has been confirmed for 3.00pm on the 24th of March at the Richmond Theatre.

For more information & to book tickets to the free event, please call Matthew on 0208 240 4059.

John Kani to participate in a staged reading of the play, 'The Robben Island Bible'

2009-02-13T12:42:00.008Z

St. Mary’s University College in association with the Richmond Theatre & the Royal Shakespeare Company will be hosting a staged reading of excerpts from the new play, The Robben Island Bible on the 24th of March at 3.00pm read by John Kani, Tony Award winning actor.

For more information and to book tickets for this free event, please call Matthew on 0208 240 4059.

This play is based on South African Sonny Venkatratham’s copy of ‘Complete Works of William Shakespeare’. A political prisoner on Robben Island during the 1970s, Venkatratham smuggled his copy of the ‘Complete Works’ into the prison by persuading his warders that it was a religious Hindu text. He then surreptitiously passed the book to a number of his fellow political prisoners in the single cells. Each of them marked his favourite passage in the ‘Complete Works’ and signed it with the date. It contains thirty-two signatures, including those of Walter Sisulu, Neville Alexander, Billy Nair, Nelson Mandela, Govan Mbeki, Ahmed Kathrada, Andrew Masondo, and Mac Maharaj, all luminaries in the struggle for a democratic South Africa.

The second phase of the project will begin in the summer of 2009, when we will be working with actors from the Market Theatre in Johannesburg, South Africa to devise a play based on the interviews & chosen Shakespearian texts.

The project has gained the support of many prominent South Africans and international organisations including the British High Commissioner to South Africa, Paul Boateng, South African High Commissioner to the United Kingdom, Ms Lindiwe Mabuza, Tony Award winning actor Dr. John Kani, the British Council in South Africa and St. Mary’s University College in London amongst others.

With experiences of working in the theatre and development fields in the UK, Ethiopia, Malawi, South Africa and United States, we share a great passion for ensuring access to the performing arts through social change.

Walter Sisulu's Signature

2008-12-17T11:30:00.001Z

Nelson Mandela's Signature

2008-12-17T11:23:00.001Z

Eddie Daniel's Chosen Text:

2008-12-03T14:32:00.002Z

Ahmed Kathrada's Chosen Text:

2008-12-02T16:09:00.000Z

Back in London....

2008-11-29T16:19:00.004Z

Well, it has been a mad couple of days since our return. I still havent gotten my head around 'real life' though it has been wonderful to see Aida again. Next time, she has to come with me to Africa..... Let's see.

I have returned to 100s of emails, most of them either out of date or spam or not for me, so it has been fairly easy to get through them. And I am back teaching at St. Mary's, which has been great. The other part of my life. I hadnt really thought too much about teaching over the last few weeks, so it was good to get back into the theatres.

David & I parted ways in the airport - he off to East London & me off to West London. I must say how easy of a traveler he is and how stress-free of a trip we had. Neither of us had any idea of what we were getting ourselves into and I think that we accomplished a good amount and I think that we did 90 percent of everything that we set out to do.

I was disappointed that we couldnt speak to more of the Comrades due to scheduling conflicts or being out of town. But I hope with the success of this trip, we can try again - via post, email or having Masie interview them in South Africa. There were two men who we 'discovered' when we went to visit Sonny, they were not on the original document as signatorees. So that is exciting.

After a few days off, David & I will reconvene to go through all that we have learned over the last 6 weeks. I am really looking forward to finishing up the transcripts and beginning to artistically put something together.

Thanks & Good Bye!!!!

2008-11-29T16:11:00.003Z

Our Going Away Party with some of the staff at the Robben Island Museum.

the performance at the museum

2008-11-24T19:50:00.003Z

well, it was an exciting day for us. we started the day in the auditorium of the Robben Island Museum to rehearse for our afternoon performance.
the actors, as previously noted, were excellent - hard working & focused on their work. and, as typical, i guess in my work, it was a shotgun performance. never enough time, but this turned the morning rehearsal into a pressure cooker of creativity and choices. it is never a good thing to have too much time in a rehearsal room. better, i think, to error on the side of 'shit, we have only 20 minutes until the performance, lets do this and this and this.' creativity out of time constraints.

As Slept In by the Famous Nelson Mandela

2008-11-24T19:49:00.002Z

on our last day on the island, masie & i walked around specifically looking for the first prison that mandela stayed in during his first inprisonment on Robben Island before the Rivonia Trials which imprisoned him for life.

dont go messin with the commander....

2008-11-23T08:46:00.000Z

the flight of the LOUD birds.....

2008-11-23T08:43:00.002Z

those dastardly Wobben Iwand wabbits!!!

2008-11-23T08:42:00.001Z

the view from the bathroom of the commander's house (and our pad for the week!!).

2008-11-23T08:39:00.000Z

first (and last) rehearsal

2008-11-22T16:00:00.008Z

ah, what a joy to be back in the rehearsal room even if it IS a lecture hall at the education department on Robben Island. Today marks our third day on the island and first full day of rehearsal with the two actors who will be performing on monday.
first off, they have worked excellently with great focus, even though they have come into this project quite blindly. but they too jumped off the cliff, which is always a good sign of a talented actor.

and it was so nice to be there posing questions to them, discussing Shakespeare and knocking out something that may just resemble a performance on monday. i just love being there and playing again.

masie joined us on the island this afternoon. he will be here until late on monday evening - flying back to jo burg after the performance. again, things are coming together smoothly for our last few days in the southern hemisphere.

we spent the first part of the rehearsal working on four of the chosen shakespearian monolouges ('once more into the breach'(Kathrada), 'How tender 'tis to love the babe that milks me (Andrew Mlangi),‘This heavy-headed revel east and west Makes us traduc’d and tax’d of other nations (Saths Cooper) & 'This above all-to thine own self be true' (Dingake)).

then we read a selection of interviews that david & i had quickly culled from the ones that we had transcribed, looking at common themes between the interviews & the Shakespearian text. it was frightenly easy & lucid.

then i quickly staged them as best and as simply as possible, reminding the actors that as long as the project & have good articulation, then let Shakespeare & the Comrades' words do the rest. there is very little need to 'add' anything else to these words.

tomorrow (sunday) is a day off. we will leave the island in the morning and will spend the afternoon at richard's home at a braai. then monday the performance and hopefully a further interview with kwede. tuesday, we hope to speak with eddie daniels & general sijake. then a 'going away (but not for the last time)' party at deidre's home. then bright and early start for an 8am flight HOME!!!!

i spent a few minutes sitting on the rock beach or robben island after finishing rehearsal. again, quoting my theatrical inspiration, i looked 'softly' all around me and tried not to look to 'hard' at anything. i saw beautiful things - from flocks of birds every few minutes 'cawing' and flying over me to the 'table cloth' covering table mountain. and a skelton of an unfortuate peguin who had a run-in with a former domestic turned wild cat(you see, the rabbits arent the first non-native animal attempted to be purged from this island, and, like the rabbits, some survived.... poor defenceless peguins).

i will miss this place both for its incredible political & social past, but also because of its quite beauty.

Back on the Island

2008-11-21T08:58:00.008Z

What a beautiful place, Robben Island is. It is just so sad that it has such a shameful past. Even before it was used to incarcerate political prisoners in the 20th century, it was a leper colony & a political prison in the 19th century.

And although it is barren (due more to those well publicised rabbits than anything else), it is an absolute priveledge to spend the night here. this place has filled my mind with contradictions.... david & i are staying in the guest house, the former colonial home of the commander of the island. so, beautiful yet it makes you want to spit on the floor. i can indulge in the beauty of the stately home, with all of its ornamentations and wonderful surroundings, but i can never forget that this man who lived here before us, was charged with a wicked wicked job.

for the first time in our trip, we can walk around at night. for the first time in our trip, there are no walls that divide the road from the homes. for the first time in our trip, there is quiet.

we met the actors for the first time yesterday morning - we will be working with three or four of them over the weekend. today has been a bit of a dashed hope day as the boats are experiencing mechanical problems and have severely delayed the actors arriving. we were suppose to start at 8.30am. it is now 11.07am. but, another first, i feel relaxed and not too bothered about it. because there is nothing that i can do about. i am on an island.

but, of course, there are all of the 21st century amenities that distract me from this beauty. internet, printers, photocopiers and the like are horrible distractions whilst i should be walking along the beach or soaking up the silence rather than hearing the tapping of the keyboard. if we find out when the actors will be arriving, then i can get away for a while. but as for now, we are in a bit of a holding pattern until we know when they will arrive. ah, africa......

i just cant get over the beauty of this place. i have taken a lot of photos which i will post as soon as i can. it is facinating as it seems caught in a time warp. after the leper colony and before the 20th century political prison, it served as a base for the South African army during the Second World War, so all around you have military homes, halls, clubhouses, postoffices built in that world-wide dull brown colour that represents military housing. in addition, there are dilapidated tennis courts and a swimming pool that still has a sign warning people to swim at their own risk even though it looks as though it hasnt been swum in in quite some time. maybe it is a warning for the birds & rabbits who now lounge around the pool sipping pina colatas.....

It is a guilty love of this beautiful place that i feel. it is like a microcosom of how i feel when i tour africa. it is a beautiful place full of possiblities and adventures - if you are white & well off. not sure if the same can be said for the most of the inhabitants of this country or for that matter, this continent. i feel very prividged to have this and so many opportunities to work and live and love africa, but it is not something that fully sits comfortably with me, it never has and may never will. i have the luxury of flitting between worlds in africa - like walking from the prison to the colonial guest house here on robben island.... i am 'allowed' to do that and there are few people who have been on this island in the past that could have had that opportunity to float between those two desparetly different worlds so close together one can walk between.

the switch....

2008-11-19T08:19:00.006Z

we arrived in Cape Town via a 20 hour bus journey from Jo'burg. something i dont think that i need ever to do again in my life. it was as comfortable as a bus journey could be.

we had planned to take the train once again, but it was sold out. so we had no choice but to take the bus. it was shorter by a few hours, but they train is just so much more comfortable.

so, we arrived two days ago a bit haggarded back at the Big Blue Backpackers. It was like comfort food, nothing had changed - still had the swimming pool & free wireless internet, luxuries that i had grown to miss in our journies around the country.

we had an excellent meeting with deidre, luvuyo & vanessa, all from the education department at the museum. besides updating them on our last three weeks of adventures, we also determined a rehearsal schedule with the robben island actors & the date of the performance on monday the 24th.

the exciting part is that we will be spending thursday & friday on the island, working with the actors. both of us are really looking forward to that.

over the last couple of days, i have had to make a conscious switch from co-ordinator of events or researcher into a more artistic practitioner role. it has been difficult as i still know there are interviews to be arranged, but now that we have a rehearsal schedule, this part is much more necessary. it is interesting putting a director's hat back on after being off for so long.

but i am enjoying it a lot. it too is like comfort food, something that i am much more confident with doing. i cant wait to get back into a rehearsal hall, even if it is on a former prison.

we are certainly in the final stretches of our trip. now less than a week left. seems strange, as it always does, that it has 'gone so fast' but i know that i am tired, worn out & i miss my wife. i am pleased to have the last few days on the island working on a performance as that we give me the energy that i need.

Performance at the Robben Island Museum

2008-11-19T08:13:00.005Z

We have scheduled a performance / presentation on Monday the 24th of November at 2pm in the auditorium of the Robben Island Museum. All are invited and encouraged to attend. It would be excellent to get as much feedback as possible in order to develop the script.

We will be presenting our findings along with how the chosen texts & interviews will shape the script.

I will be working with the Museum's actors to workshop edited versions of the interviews and splicing them with the chosen Shakespearian texts. David will be presenting how we think the shape of the play might develop.

We will also be showing photos of the 'bible' that we took whilst speaking with Sonny & Theresa Venkatrathnam.

---
Invite from the Museum:

In the late 1970’s the Complete Works of Shakespeare, Alexander edition, circulated through the B Section Prison. Owned by Sonny Venkatrathnam & disguised as a religious text, the book was circulated amongst political prisoners. They signed passages within the text which they found particularly moving/meaningful/profound. The selection of texts provides fascinating insight into the minds, thinking and soul of prisoners at that time.

With the support of the prisoners who were signatories to the book and its owner, Sonny Venkatrathnam, two British directors, supported by John Kani of South Africa are looking to explore the resonances between the Shakespeare literary works and the prisoners. Matthew Hahn and David Taylor are well known in the theatre world for the activism through theatre. With experiences of working in the theatre training and education field, forum theatre in the UK, Ethiopia, Malawi, South Africa and USA, they share a great passion for ensuring access to the performing arts.

After six weeks of intensive research and working with the signatories who remain alive, Matthew and David have returned to Cape Town to work with a group of young emerging performers to experiment with some of their creative ideas. We wish to invite YOU to view this still very rough production!

Monday 24th November 2008
NMG Auditorium
Clocktower
14h00 – 15h30
The viewing will include the screening of scanned copies of the “RI Bible”.

Another gentle man....

2008-11-19T08:05:00.004Z

I know that I might sound like a broken record, but once again I have been amazed & humbled by another Comrade.
Michael Dingake flew in from Botswana for just 24 hours to meet with us. We met at OR Tambo Airport and drove to his daughter's home in Johannesburg.
Like all of the other men, he spoke with a quite determination and belief in change. He spoke of a great love of literature & Shakespeare, analysising his chosen quote line by line tell us what he thought they meant. It was the first time that a Comrade had done such a through job of disecting his choice. It was an amazing moment.

Michael Dingake

2008-11-13T13:29:00.001Z

Michael Dingake in 1965 was given a fifteen year sentence on the island for inciting people to leave South Africa to undergo military training and for recruiting people to the ANC.

Michael Dingake’s autobiography My Fight Against Apartheid. Born in neighbouring Botswana, Dingake initially comes to South Africa as a student who later, because of financial constraints, works in Johannesburg in order to save money for tertiary education. Since the concept of ‘foreign native’ does not apply to him. - in apartheid South Africa, non-South African black people were ‘foreign natives’ but were as equally discriminated against as ‘local natives’. Thus Dingake feels the same daily humiliation as Africans in South Africa.

This is an angry text, for Dingake describes, in minute detail, just how invidious passes are to black dignity and self -esteem:
The pass laws are a humiliation to African dignity, a scourge to their
economic opportunities, and a shameless badge of slavery. Passes -
permits, reference books, identity documents, passports, whatever the
official form of the moment - are a nightmare to Africans in South Africa.
Nightly, they dream of raids on their homes for passes, queueing up at
the pass office for passes.

Such statutory identities are also the cause of tremendous harm to the communities. For example, should one’s pass not be in order, one cannot get employment, or even venture out of the township in which one is living. Thus, out of desperation, individuals begin to socially cannibalise those closest to them by becoming criminals and robbing other community members of their pay (46). Through a combination of anger, frustration and ‘sober consideration’, Dingake joins the African National Congress (ANC) and assumes another facet of his identity by becoming a member of the National Secretariat. He does not contemplate going back to Botswana to save himself when the Emergency of 1962 takes its toll: ‘Running home to Bechuanaland was easier said than done for me. For 16 years I had worked and lived in Johannesburg and many of my friends did not even know my Bechuanaland connections.’ (78). When he does go to Botswana, it is to evade detection by the security police. Unfortunately, during an attempt to visit the ANC in exile in Tanzania, he is kidnapped by the then Rhodesian security police and handed over to their South African counterparts at the Beit Bridge border post. Thus begins a period of fifteen years with hard labour on Robben Island. The rest of the text describes the daily grind of life on the island. Paradoxically, only here does Dingake, under difficult conditions, achieve his ambition for higher education - he leaves the island in 1981
with three degrees.

He chose:
Hamlet page 1034

Act 1, scene 3 Lines 56-81:
Polonius: ‘The wind sits in the shoulder of your sail,
And you are stay’d for. There-my blessing with thee!
And these few precepts in they memory
Look thou character. Give thy thoughts no tongue,
Nor any unproportion’d thought his act.
Be thou familiar, but by no means vulgar.
Those friends thou hast, and their adoption tried,
Grapple them to thy should with hoops of steel;
But do not dull thy palm with entertainment
Of each new-hatch’d, unfledg’d courage.
Beware
Of entrance to a quarrel; but, being in
Bear’t that th’ opposed may beware of thee.
Give every man thy ear, but few thy voice;
Take each man’s censure, but reserve thy judgment.
Costly thy habit as they purse can buy,
But not express’d in fancy; rich, not gaudy;
For the apparel oft proclaims the man;
And they in France of the best rank and station
Are of a most select and generous choice in that.
Neither a borrower nor a lender be;
For loan oft loses both itself and friend,
And borrowing dulls the edge of husbandry.
This above all-to thine own self be true,
And it must follow, as the night the day,
Thou canst not then be false to any many.
Farewell; my blessing season this in thee!’

Foiled……

2008-11-13T13:28:00.003Z

12 / 11/ 8

Having arrived at 10 in Pietermaritzburg this morning, I rang Kadir as previously arranged. But, due to ongoing illnesses, he was unable to meet with us this morning. But he did agree to answer questions via email which is excellent. So, David & I will be putting together a list of questions for him (and that will save us from transcribing!!).

So, the day off……again. This is nice, but I get a bit anxious with not enough to do. We do have a lot of transcribing to do, but after a couple of hours of looking at a computer screen, the eyes start to cross.

And I was hankering for a home cooked meal. The last couple of days, due to the fact that our Durban backpackers was in a bit of a blackhole as far as restaurants and markets go, I have been eating my fair share of ‘Bunny Chow’ – a delicious meal consisting of a hollowed out loaf of bread (or a half or quarter) filled to the brim with spicy broadbeans. Needless to say it is filling and delicious. After having one for lunch, there is no need (ever for me) to have dinner. But there is absolutely nothing ‘green’ in them.
Thus the home cooked meal quest.

Here in Pietermaritzburg, there was a ‘Super Spar’ – not my first choice of grocers, but do to the fact that I was ‘Bunny Chow’ed out, I went in and bought my weight in vegetables. I had missed cooking – the last time I did was in the early days in Soweto so it had been a couple of weeks. I home cooked nothing exciting – spag & salad, but it went down well.

We have decided to stay another day (Thursday 13 November) here as we don’t have any plans in Jo’burg until Saturday when we interview Michael Dingake. Pietermaritzburg is a bit more ‘Western –user friendly’ than the hubbub of Johannesburg.
We will arrive there at 4pm on Friday and interview Michael on Saturday. He is flying in from Botswana just to speak with us, though I would assume that he has friends here as he spent a good deal of his life in this city.

Kadir Hassim

2008-11-13T13:28:00.001Z

12 / 11 / 10

Kadir Hassim was an accused during the Treason Trial, 1956-1961. On December 5, 1956, hundreds of policemen throughout the country descended on the homes of leaders of the Congress Alliance and arrested them. One hundred and fifty-six people - 104 Africans, 23 Whites, 21 Indians and 8 Coloureds - were charged with high treason, a capital offence in South Africa. The trial lasted until 1961, when all of the defendants were found not guilty. Some of the defendants were later convicted in the Rivonia Trial in 1964.

The state versus K. Hassim and twelve others in the Supreme Court of South Africa, Natal Provincial Division. Kader Hassim and twelve others were charged with participating in terrorist activities and conspiring to overthrow the government of South Africa in 1970 as members of the African People's Democratic Union of South Africa and of the Non-European Unity Movement. Kader Hassim, a Pietermaritzburg attorney, was an office bearer in the African People's Democratic Union of Southern Africa, an affiliate of the Non-European Unity Movement. Arrested in 1971, he was imprisoned on Robben Island for 8 years. Struck off the Role of the Natal Law Society in 1976, he was reinstated in 1996.

He chose to write his name above the introduction of Sonny’s ‘bible’ not really indicating any particular passage but rather just the introduction:

Lines: It is still true in the study of Shakespeare that ‘the dispersion of error is the first step in the discovery of truth’ (The opening lines of the introduction)

We will meet him later today as we set off from Durban to Pietermaritzburg today.

'New Sandals'

2008-11-13T13:27:00.001Z

11 / 10 / 8

Today was a good day off. In the morning, I went to buy two bus tickets to get up to Pietermaritzburg, about 80 km from Durban. There we will interview Kadir Hassim, another signatoree.
After buying the bus tickets, I ventured into town. My goal was to exchange Sterling for Rand at the nearest Currency Exchange. As I was walking there, I realized that I did not have any form of ID on me, so there would be no way that I could exchange my money. So, I decided instead to have a wander around the two markets on the West side of Durban – the Victoria Street Market & the Warwick Triangle Market – my goal was to find sandals made from recycled automobile tires (a bit of an obsession on my part, I will admit – I already have one pair from Malawi, which I wear everywhere).

I start to hunt out shoe stalls in the Victoria Street Market and am quickly told that the ‘Zulu’s sell them at Warwick.’ Having skirted around that market a couple of days ago, I decided to dive it. It was an intense place, sounds, smells, the bustle of people – everywhere. Similar to the teeming markets of Malawi or Ghana. After a few more inquiries, I was directed up the stairs to another part of the market. I sure I must have been a sight, walking up to shoe stalls, pointing at my tire sandals and asking where I could find something similar. But no luck…….

But what I did find was an amazingly dense & overwhelming potion section of the market. Everything that one needs to cure all sorts of diseases – from herbs to fish and reptile skins to little refilled Smirnoff Vodka bottles filled with a mysterious black liquid. Well, it was quickly clear that there were no sandals in sight, but since I was already within the bustle, I might as well enjoy it. Entering one of the many narrow passageways, is like navigating through a rushing river (although a fairly small & safe one – don’t want to over-exaggerate my adventures). But once you are in, you don’t have much chance to ‘window shop’ as there is always someone behind you wanting to get by. And being over-cautious, I think that they might either be friend or pickpocket. So, with one eye (and hand) on my wallet and the other having a look around without being to obvious (other that the fact that I am the lone white guy within this whole witchdoctor potion area), I carried on. I can’t say that it was necessarily enjoyable, but it certainly was fascinating. I will never get bored of navigating in a world like this one.

After being spit out of the passageway and slowly recovering from the commotion and still no joy for the tire sandals, I started to walk away from the market – but stopped at one last shoe stall to test my luck.

‘Well,’ they said, ‘we don’t have them here, but the Zulu’s definitely sell them along the beach.’

Ack! The beach……. ‘Okay,’ say I and head towards the beach – a good 45 minute walk. But, as it was a day off and I wanted to see the city, why not…. So, off I went and sure enough found what I was looking for at the beach. The unfortunate thing was that I had seen these exact sandals in the market, but for some reason didn’t think that they were what I was looking for and for all of my inquiries; no one seemed to think they were what I was looking for as well. Ah, well, the beach IS beautiful and I was planning to head there anyway- and trying to buy anything at that market did seem daunting.
I plunked down my money and was now the proud owner of TWO pairs of tire sandals – though truth be told (and if anyone in Malawi is reading), I liked the ones that I got there better and could ALWAYS use another pair or two (size 10 by the way). They look a better quality and the fact that these were made from rusting nails didn’t do much for me (but since I have my tetanus shot, I bought them anyway).

Mission accomplished…….

More Pictures....

2008-11-10T19:13:00.001Z

Pictures of the Bible

2008-11-10T18:59:00.004Z

The Bible according to William Shakespeare…..

2008-11-10T18:54:00.001Z

10 / 11 / 8

Today was a good day.
Today we finally met Sonny Venkatrathnam & his infamous ‘bible.’
It was a good day.

We arrived at his home around 11am and was greeting at the gate by Sonny. Another gentle man. Kind and quiet, but determined. His was the easiest of the interviews as it was relaxed and he made us feel so much at home (plus, by this time, we are getting better at the process & the camera and audio equipment….).
We were soon joined by his wife, Theresa. She & I had been emailing back and forth over the last couple of years. It was good to finally meet the both of them.
The conversation flowed from the process that the ‘bible’ took throughout the single cells to why he was imprisoned to what he & the others had to endure at the hands of sadistic warders.

We also were able to speak with Theresa about her trials & ordeals whilst Sonny was away for 8 years (he was sent to Robben Island for collecting money for the Unity Movement because the National Party & Special Police thought he was a terrorist). Living in the Transskie, it was no easy task to get to Cape Town for the 30 minute meetings once every two months. She too was harassed by the Special Police when Sonny was imprisoned and was herself threatened with imprisonment.

She is the second wife with whom we have spoken to about their time under apartheid. It is my hope that they too get the recognition that they deserve as they are just as steely & determined as their husbands.

And then the moment came…. ‘Would you like to see it?’
Playing it cool, I said ‘yes’ but didn’t want that to interrupt our interview. So Theresa went into their home & returned with it, neatly packed away in a box to protect it. He thumbed through it and continued to talk about his time on Robben Island.
The ‘bible’ got its name and extraneous decorations of Hindu gods due to the fact that the warders had an unhealthy fear of religion & would allow holy books and would not question having one in the cell. Decorated as such, Sonny was never far away from the Works.

David & I finally got around to cracking it open ourselves and comparing what we thought the chosen quotes were with the actual book. More or less, we were pretty close (it really depended on how precisely or imprecisely the comrades marked the passages). But there were a few surprises – a couple of names that we had never heard of as they were not on our list. That was a surprise…… now we will have to see if we can get in touch with them.

It was just so enjoyable to have a relaxing day at their very comfortable home. We had snacks & lunch with them, but we were always focused on the interview. Sonny & Theresa were excellent hosts and wonderful story tellers. But with stories as compelling as theirs and the others in their situation, it would be near impossible not to be enthralled.
We were there for almost 6 hours, but the day flew by. I have no idea how much we have ‘on the record’ or ‘off.’
He spoke about his favourite Shakespearian play (Coriolanus) and his favourite Shakespeare characters (Lear’s fool). He talked about the South Africa of the past & present and the difficulties with both. He spoke about how Shakespeare can be related to both. And he spoke about his grandchildren.

Today really put the pieces of the puzzle together. We finally saw the book, double checked the chosen quotes that we had & the actual ones in it and was able to see the chosen quotes of the men with whom we had already interviewed. I can’t wait to show them the photos ‘proving’ that they had indeed signed the ‘bible.’

It has been a long journey from a couple of pints with Mark & his offhand remark about ‘this Complete Works that was smuggled into Robben Island’ to holding it in my hands 6 years later, but it has been well worth it.

Now the hard part begins, turning this compelling story into a piece of wonderful theatre……

Hector Peterson Museum, Orlando West, Soweto

2008-11-09T08:08:00.002Z

Yesterday, I had a day off - went to the Hector Peterson Museum here in Soweto. I had been there before, but found it to be such a powerful museum that I knew that I wanted to return.

The photo of Hector Peterson’s lifeless body made headlines around the world in 1976 and did the powerful job of bringing Apartheid’s atrocities to governments that had previously denied such problems existed. He was a 13 year old school student who was marching in protest of having to learn Afrikaans in school. His shooting by the South African police along with the bloodshed that occurred on the 16th of June 1976 sparked the youth of South Africa to rise up against the Apartheid government. But my paragraph does not do his story or the other youth’s stories justice, so please read more about it here.

After the Museum, I went to the local shabeen called ‘The Shack.’ Football was on – the Orlando Pirates verses the Free State All Stars. Now, judging from my little knowledge of football especially here in South Africa, I figured that since I was in Orlando West, we all must be cheering for the Orlando Pirates. Much like the fine lines that divide supporters throughout London, Soweto is just the same. You see, the Orlando Pirates are from Orlando EAST not West. Any fool knows that….. right? Unfortunately, I cheered at all the wrong times and soon realized my error. But, as they knew I was not a local, they let me get away with nary a scratch.

After abandoning the game in exchange for taking politics, I soon found a circle of friends in the back of the Shack. My new friend Moeketsi was trying to convince me that having a girlfriend and a wife or at the least several girlfriends was not only typical, but also necessary so the man could ‘shop around’ or ‘have one under my arm’ (which was neatly accompanied by a arm gesture that looked similar to miming putting a small handbag under your armpit).

Although I argued back citing HIV / Aids and children would be possible consequences of said ‘shopping around,’ he was not convinced, though he grudgingly admitted that he would like to fall in love with one woman and get married, but he just can’t imagine falling in love nor not always having ‘one under his arm.’ And he also admitted that logically, it isn’t right, proper or a good idea, but what does logic matter when you get ‘bored’ as he says…..

I looked around for support from the females in the group and although they agreed with me, there was no questioning of Moeketsi as they just seemed resigned that it was just unchangeable behaviour and attitudes….. Where oh Where is Theatre for a Change when you need it? I fantasized that the company could just swoop in, do a bit of that fancy interactive theatre stuff and kick this guy’s arse. But, alack, there was no arse kicking, no change of behaviour & no Theatre for a Change. Hmmm, might have to do something about that……

So after an extended bit of friendly sparring, what we could agree upon is that we wanted to hear some music. So, they mentioned a bar, I agreed and we jumped into his friend, Phinda’s minibus (now, a bit of backstory for all of you worry worts out there… No, neither Phinda nor Moeketsi is a Pa Joe-like character and no, I did know them from Eve. They are friends with one of the tour guides with whom I have been talking to since arriving. They are all interested in promoting Soweto and making sure that us foreigners come back with happy tales to tell. So I was taken care of; they were nothing but excellent hosts).

We went to this excellent bar in the middle of Soweto, I never having been there, but I felt like I was in a bar in Italy – huge green space (with the typical breezeblock walls and guard at the front entrance) and a thatched roof restaurant. I felt that it was miles away from what many who avoid at all costs Soweto say this place is like. IT IS NOT TRUE. TRY IT YOURSELF!! Get out of your air-conditioned macrobus tour of Soweto and see what happens.

Michael Dingake

2008-11-09T08:07:00.003Z

2 / 11 / 8

Michael Dingake called me a couple of days ago. I think that he was responding to my earlier email. I was so pleased to speak with him. He will be coming in from Botswana on Thursday to meet with us. As interesting as it would have been to go to Botswana (and it would have meant another member of the Pan African Band), it will be less expensive and time consuming for him to come here.
His book, ‘My Fight Against Apartheid’ is one of the most detailed accounts of prison life on Robben Island (along with the rest of his work with the struggle). It grabs you from the beginning and is quite a through account of his life.

Michael chose from Hamlet:

Act 1, scene 3 Lines 56-81:
Polonius: ‘The wind sits in the shoulder of your sail,
And you are stay’d for. There-my blessing with thee!
And these few precepts in they memory
Look thou character. Give thy thoughts no tongue,
Nor any unproportion’d thought his act.
Be thou familiar, but by no means vulgar.
Those friends thou hast, and their adoption tried,
Grapple them to thy should with hoops of steel;
But do not dull thy palm with entertainment
Of each new-hatch’d, unfledg’d courage.
Beware
Of entrance to a quarrel; but, being in
Bear’t that th’ opposed may beware of thee.
Give every man thy ear, but few thy voice;
Take each man’s censure, but reserve thy judgment.
Costly thy habit as they purse can buy,
But not express’d in fancy; rich, not gaudy;
For the apparel oft proclaims the man;
And they in France of the best rank and station
Are of a most select and generous choice in that.
Neither a borrower nor a lender be;
For loan oft loses both itself and friend,
And borrowing dulls the edge of husbandry.
This above all-to thine own self be true,
And it must follow, as the night the day,
Thou canst not then be false to any many.
Farewell; my blessing season this in thee!’

next week....

2008-11-09T08:07:00.002Z

It was a slow weekend, but good to catch up on organisation and also enjoy a bit of the backpacker’s life and Soweto. On Friday, I went into Jo’burg to try to figure out our transportation to Pretoria on Tuesday morning. We will be going there to meet with the Right Honerable Paul Yaw Boateng, the British High Commissioner to South Africa and also the British High Commissioner to the Kingdoms of Lesotho and Swaziland. Through our contact at the British Council, Jean September recommended that we meet with him due to his interest in literature & Shakespeare. Needless to say, we are thrilled to have this opportunity to once again speak about the project at the High Commission. There is also on veteran who lives in Pretoria (about an hour north of Johannesburg) with whom we would like to meet but as of yet have not confirmed an interview date.

On Wednesday, we hope to meet with Dr. Saths Cooper, another veteran who signed the ‘bible’ & then on Thursday, we will be meeting with Michael Dingake.

If all goes well, on Friday, we will take the train back to Cape Town or down to Durban (if we can get in touch with Sonny).

We will then need to schedule second interviews with Andrew, Kwede & Kathy and a first face to fact interview with Eddie Daniels. He returns in mid-November to Cape Town.

the weather....

2008-11-09T08:06:00.000Z

2 / 11 / 8

The weather here is wonderful. When it rains, it RAINS and hard. I think that it is magnified by the tin roofs of the houses here, but it is an excellent sound. Absolutely overwhelming and in surround sound.
And as I write, hail is beginning to fire down upon us.
The lightening too is something quite magnificent. Lights up the entire sky and appears so close to us.
And now, it is quite, just an ever so gentle patter on the tin roofs and here comes the sun (or did it ever go away?).
And now, here comes the heat again. Ah, it was a brief respite with a cool breeze but now back to the dry heat.

Kliptown, Soweto

2008-11-09T08:05:00.001Z

3 / 11 / 8
We had an early start this morning with a tour around Kliptown, Soweto. Kliptown is famous as this is where the Freedom Charter was developed and written in 1955. Our tour guide, Charmaine, was excellent and is quite an entrapanuer. She is thinking of starting a Soweto Mini Bus Tour & a Soweto version of ‘TimeOut’ – both I think are excellent ideas.
After that, we were picked up by Masie and driven to his place. This will be the first night that we have spent the night at his beautiful home. We have an early bus to Pretoria and want to leave our luggage somewhere as we will only be there one night.

We had an excellent dinner with Jane, Masie’s wonderful mother who fretted a lot about the quality of her vegetarian dinner as this is something new to her (or sort of new as she has other vegetarian guests in the past). But, she is thinking of becoming a vegetarian herself due to her diabetes, which she hopes will help reduce the pain in her legs.

I have heard quite frequently here in SA lately that there seem to be a few people whom we have met who are contemplating becoming a vegetarian, now whether or not it happens, who knows, but it is just shocking to me to even hear them talk about it.

The Right Honourable Paul Boeteng

2008-11-09T08:04:00.001Z

4 / 11 / 8
The Right Honourable Paul Boeteng, the British High Commissioner met with us today, Election Day in the US, for a brief chat & discussion about the Robben Island Bible project and how he might be able to support it.
A bit of background on him:
The Rt Hon Paul Yaw Boateng is the British High Commissioner to South Africa and also the British High Commissioner to the Kingdoms of Lesotho and Swaziland
He was born in 14 June 1951. He was educated in UK – Ghana International School, Accra Academy and in the UK at Apsley Grammar School and Bristol University (LLB Hons). He speaks French. He lists opera, former Board Member of the English National Opera and current President “Opera For All”, art history, swimming and Arsenal Football Club amongst his recreations. He has contributed chapters to books on politics and theology “Reclaiming the ground” and on Jane Austen “Harrap Collins The Complete Works of Jane Austen” and has presented a number of radio and TV series in the United Kingdom including “Looking Forward to the Past” (Radio 4), “Behind the Headlines” (BBC2) and “Nothing But the Truth” (Channel 4). He is a Methodist Lay Preacher. From 2002 to 2005, he was the UK Cabinet Minister (Chief Secretary to the Treasury) under Tony Blair.

David & I went up to Pretoria to meet with him as that is where all of the SA government offices & international embassies are located. We were both very excited at this opportunity, for me it was more just the oddness of meeting him and thinking once again, ‘how in the world did I get up here?’

He gave us some practical advice on possible development ideas and he agreed to write a letter of support for the project. We also talked about dovetailing this project with a project that they are instigating in Durban.

Feeling very chuffed, we went back to our backpackers where we had left our stuff. This backpackers and the regal High Commissioners office could not have been in two more different worlds. We arrived in the morning in Pretoria and dropped our bags off. We were greeted by the friendly staff who immediately warned us not to leave our stuff lying around the room. The place was dank and dirty and just on the wrong side of sketchy….. but we were in a hurry and agreed to stay the night there. We left for our meeting and decided to worry about where we sleep later. Neither David nor I were looking forward to returning to that place. So, after the meeting, we returned & asked for our bags as we decided to find another backpackers. With our tails slightly between our legs, we sheepishly asked them for our money back, which they graciously returned and we hightailed it to a brilliant backpackers in Hatfield I had been gagging for a swimming pool for a while after having been spoiled in Cape Town. This place, the North-South Backpackers fit the bill.

The people there are so friendly – both the staff & the other backpackers. We had an excellent dinner in Hatfield celebrating our successful meeting with the High Commisioner.

Theo Cholo

2008-11-09T07:57:00.003Z

Yesterday, we met with Theo Cholo. The little information that we could find on him proved to be greatly incorrect (never trust the internet, you see). Rather than being ‘24’ in 1973 as we thought, he was in his late 40’s. We expected someone with a similar experience to Saths, but we found someone who seemed to have more in common with the RI elders.

He was quite funny when speaking about his choice. According to the bible, he chose Sonnet 123:

No, Time, thou shall not boast that I do change:
Thy pyramids built up with newer might
To me are nothing novel, nothing strange;
They are but dressings of a former sight.
Our dates are brief, and therefore we admire
What thou dost foist upon us that is old;
And rather make them born to our desire
Than think that we before have heard them
told.
Thy registers and thee I both defy,
Not wondering at the present nor the past,
For thy records and what we see doth lie,
Made more or less by thy continual haste.
This I do vow, and this shall ever be;
I will be true, despite thy scythe and thee.

But upon reading it, he didn’t like it nearly as much as he liked Sonnet 122:

Thy gift, thy tables, are within my brain
Full charactered with lasting memory,
Which shall above that idle rank remain
Beyond all date even to eternity—
Or at the least, so long as brain and heart
Have faculty by nature to subsist;
Till each to razed oblivion yield his part
Of thee, thy record never can be missed.
That poor retention could not so much hold,
Nor need I tallies thy dear love to score;
Therefore to give them from me was I bold,
To trust those tables that receive thee more.
To keep an adjunct to remember thee
Were to import forgetfulness in me.

So, again, memory plays a wonderful trick on the mind. He lived in a township outside of Pretoria. Masie was gracious enough to drive us there. But I know that he loved every minute of it as by the end of the interview, both Theo & his wife were referring to him as ‘son’ and insisting that he return again to their home. Once again, the magic Masie smile broke out from ear to ear. He would have driven to London to meet the men that we were meeting.

We have been staying at Masie’s home in Soweto for a couple of nights this week (Weds & Thursday). The place is beautiful – the first thatched roof two story house in Soweto. Now there seems to be a few more, but his was the first. And it looks madly out of place, but it is a warm & wonderful home.

On Monday, we are meeting with Sonny Venkatrathnam, the owner of the ‘bible’. We are thrilled to finally meet him as I have been in communication with him since September 2006. We hope to be able to look at the ‘bible’ and photograph the various passages to help ‘prove’ to the comrades whom we have interviewed that they did indeed sign this or that passage.

Things are progressing well with the project. We may head next towards Cape Town if we can secure an interview with Eddie Daniels, if not we will head back to Jo’burg to meet with Michael on Saturday. We also hope to find the phone number for Kadir Hassim, another signatoree who lives in Pietermartiezburg, just north of Durban.

Saths Cooper

2008-11-09T07:56:00.002Z

8 / 11 / 8

Since returning from Pretoria on Wednesday after spending an excellent evening at the North South Backpackers in Hatfield (which I would highly recommend to anyone spending time in Pretoria), we met with Sath Cooper back in Jo’burg. Saths Cooper Is
Political Activist and Psychologist who was born on 11 December 1950 in Durban. He was the eldest child of Alimal and Appasamy Cooper. Cooper matriculated from Sastri College, Durban in 1967. The following year, he enrolled for a B. A. degree at the University College - an affiliate of the University of South Africa (UNISA) - Salisbury Island, Durban. As a student Cooper was against the motion which called for the imminent renaming of the College to University of Durban-Westville.. He saw this as another form of segregating Black people along ethnicity.

Politics gained the upper hand in Cooper's life as he soon found himself liasing with other students from various universities. He was also instrumental in the formation of the Student Representative Council (SRC) in the University College. Through campus politics Cooper met frequently with Steve Biko, Harry Nengwekhulu, Strini Moodley and Barney Pityana, and it was through their discussions that the philosophy of Black Consciousness emerged. It was also this group that advocated that Black universities move away from the radical National Union of South African Students (NUSAS).
In 1969 Cooper was suspended from the university for his political ideologies. However, although Cooper strongly refutes it, in 2003 there was a dispute on whether he was suspended for political reasons or for cheating in an exam. As an expelled student, Cooper could not take part in the launch of the South African Student Organisation (SASO) in 1969 and the following year the South African government denied him a passport to study overseas, where he had received a scholarship.
Having been asked to assist the Natal Indian Congress (NIC) in 1971, he urged other Indian activists to embrace the Black Consciousness ideology not to see it as as potentially leading to Black racism. At the launch of the Black People's Convention (BPC) in 1972 Cooper was elected as secretary. This forced him to resign his Vice-President position from the NIC, as it was increasingly difficult to balance his provincial and national positions. The following year he was banned and restricted to the Durban magisterial district for five years for his role in political activities. Cooper later took part in the Durban Strike of 1973, where he was arrested, charged and convicted for assaulting a policeman.

Cooper was instrumental in the organisation of the ‘Viva Freelimo rallies’ held in South Africa in 1974. This resulted in him being arrested under the Terrorism Act and sentenced to 10 years imprisonment in 1976. He served his prison term at various places, among other Robben Island, and was released on the 20 December 1982. While in prison he continued studying and obtained his B.A. degree in Psychology through UNISA. Upon his release he continued studying and completed his honours and masters in Applied Psychology through the University of Witwatersrand. In February 1983, he re-entered politics and was elected Vice-President of the Azanian People's Organisation (AZAPO). He was again detained, in September 1984, with Aubrey Mokoape under Section 28 of the Internal Security Act, for carrying out the ideologies of banned organisation. After his release Cooper studied for a doctorate in Applied Psychology. Between 1990 and 2002 he was a practising psychologist. In 2003 he was appointed Vice-Principal of the University of Durban-Westville and steered the merger with the University of Natal.

Dr. Saths Cooper, a ‘76’er. – the young men who were arrested & detained around the time of the Soweto Uprising in 1976. He was the perfect antidote to the ‘Rivionia Trial’ men with whom we spoke in Cape Town and a member of the Black Consciousness Movement, which Steven Biko led in the 1970’s. When he went into Robben Island, Saths couldn’t understand why these ‘old’ men were accepting of the prison rules & were working within them. The men of his generation refused to play within these rules, refused to be classified (A – D classification which allowed or disallowed certain privileges) and continuously fighting the small battles within the prison.

We were pleased to find out that, unlike the other gentlemen, Saths did remember signing the ‘bible’ and speaking with Sonny about it. As he was one of the later signatorees, he told us that he didn’t want to repeat any already chosen passage, so he found this one from ‘Hamlet’:

Act 1, scene 4, lines 17-36:
Hamlet: ‘This heavy-headed revel east and west
Makes us traduc’d and tax’d of other nations;
They clepe us drunkards, and with swinish phrase
Soil our addition; and indeed, it takes
From our achievements, though perform’d at height,
The pith and marrow of our attribute.
So, oft it chances in particular men
That, for some vicious mole of nature in them,
As in their birth, wherein they are not guilty,
Since nature cannot choose his origin;
By the o’ergrowth of some complexion,
Oft breaking down the pales and forts of reason;
Or by some habit that too much o’er leavens
The form of plausive manners – that these men,
Carrying, I say the stamp of one defect,
Being nature’s livery or fortune’s star,
His virtues else, be they as pure as grace,
As infinite as many may undergo,
Shall in the general censure take corruption
From that particular fault. The dram of eale
Doth all the noble substance of a doubt
To his own scandal.

Chillin' at Lebo's

2008-10-30T09:58:00.002Z

30 / 10 / 8

Today, both David & I are staying around the backpackers. He is catching up on the transcription of our first interview. I am compiling my notes, writing emails, catching up on phone calls, this blog and planning for the next couple of weeks.

I spoke with Theo Cholo & Dr. Saths Cooper who have agreed to meet next week in Johannesburg to be interviewed. I am hunting for Michael Dingake’s phone number along with a couple of others.

Our plan will be to return as it stands today is to return to Cape Town around the 7th of November and spend the next several days compiling our notes, returning to Robben Island, engaging with some Cape Town actors and begin to develop the work in progress for the Market Theatre.

'A Simple Freedom'

2008-10-30T09:56:00.001Z

30 / 10 / 8

We met up with Masie and his wife Percy and her brother Eric last night to go to the book signing of Ahmed Kathrada’s new book called, 'A Simple Freedom'.
We all piled into his car and set off from Soweto to the swanky Hyde Park Shopping Centre. What a world of difference between these two places.
Masie navigated us brilliantly and we arrived hot and ruffled, but made our way to the Exclusive Book store for the launch.
We arrived slightly late and halfway through Mr. Kathrada’s speech. His book is full of quotes that he chose whilst in prison as meaning something to him (interestingly similar to our quest, but nary a Shakespearian quote in A Simple Freedom (as he explained to us in his house last week, he could fill another book with JUST quotes from Shakespeare, ‘There is just too much!’ he said)).

Masie was as excited as a schoolgirl winning the ‘X-Factor’ as he was surrounded by politicos and bigwigs from the South African ANC. He got a copy of the book and nervously stood in line to get it signed by Mr. Kathrada. I introduced his as the ‘young man who persisted in calling you for an interview’ and he warmly replied that it was ‘good to finally meet you.’ Which, needless to say, made Masie squeal once again in delight.

He was also thrilled to meet (and I must say I too let out a tiny squeal) Ms. Barbara Hogan, the new Minister of Health under the new president, Kgalema Motlanthe. In her short time on the job, she has quickly reversed course from the previous minister’s path and regained the support doctors and other experts in the fight against HIV / Aids. She also happens to be Mr. Kathrada partner.

We celebrated our excellent evening at Wandie’s Restaurant, famous and copied thorughout Soweto as an outstanding place for dinner (especially for the hungry vegetarians in the crowd). It is an ‘all you can eat’ buffet of African dinner. Which meant that I ate my weight in Chacalaka, my favourite South African dish. Along with pap, other salads, potatoes, and dessert. Ah, satisfying…….

Market Laboratory Theatre

2008-10-30T09:55:00.005Z

30 / 10 / 8
Yesterday morning, we met with the Market Laboratory Theatre in Johannesburg and they agreed to host a presentation / performance on the 23rd of November. This is good news, especially I think for me, as I look forward to developing a piece of rough theatre for this presentation. It will certainly be a work in progress, but it will be nice to begin to compose some work for the stage.
I think that it will be two fold: a presentation on our findings and how they will shape the play and then a performance of selected verbatim interviews and chosen texts. Nothing fancy and quite rough, but it is my hope that the Shakespearian text and the stories of the men will be powerful enough to ‘mask’ any roughness.

After meeting with them, we had a whirlwind tour of central Jo’burg thanks to a very friendly Sowetian. We were searching for an Mobile phone shop as we had lost our first SIM card in the post and were needing to replace it or ‘swap’ it in South African lingo. So, we asked at the first shop in Newtown, but had no luck. Except of the fact that Emanuel was exceeding kind and offered to take us to the nearest Vodacom shop. Nearest….. like ‘nearest’ in ‘merica terms, no London terms. In other words, a good half hour walk from where we were. So, off we set, quickly cutting through the teeming streets of Jo’burg on our hunt for the shop. We had several false sightings which raised hopes, a couple of dead-ends but finally arrived at our destination at Carton Centre’s Vodacom shop. Went in, asked for a ‘SIM Swap,’ they said ‘yes’ they can do that but, ‘unfortunately’ their computers were down. FOILED!!

So back we went towards Park Train Station as that is where I knew there was another shop. Through the heaving markets, glancing back at David to make sure he was still there, jumping and jiving and getting thoroughly turned around. Or, at least David & I were, Emanuel knew these streets like he knew ‘the back of his hands.’

Past the Johannesburg Supreme Court – I asked him who the imposing statue was in front of it which served a shade for pedestrians & a landing spot for pigeons. He laughed and had no idea who this old bearded white man was.

We passed what I thought was another Vodacom shop so I asked David & Emanuel to stop just to see if they could do a ‘SIM Swap.’ Nope, THEY couldn’t, but if you just bought a new SIM card, you could do it over the phone. No worries. Though it would cost me ten rand. A bargin, as the other place, if their system had been running would have charged me sixty rand. So, I purchased my third SIM card of our short trip, but having little faith that I really COULD do it on my own and wanting to try my luck one last time. So,

To the train station & third Vodacom shop of the day only to find out that we ‘should have been there in the early morning as they had run out of swaps (whatever that meant….).’

After quickly cursing the gods for our rotten fate, we settled down, licked our wounds and had a Coke at the ‘Chicken Shack’ fast food joint. I dutifully followed the instructions on my new SIM card package, dialled ‘173’ and spoke to an operator who said, ‘yes’ it is possible, just give me your other phone number that you want to use. So, I said, ‘07661507986.’
She asked me to repeat it so I said, ‘07661507986.’
‘Erm,’ she said, ‘that has 11 numbers.’
‘Yes, it does’ I replied.
‘How can it have 11 numbers?’ she asked.
After scrunching up my brow, wondering what in the world she meant, I found out that phone numbers here only have 10 digits and I must have written the lost number down wrong (and spent £30 on printing fancy ‘Robben Island Bible’ business cards with said number on it).

So, once again, we cursed the gods at our cruel cruel fate and finished our Coke.

So close……..so close……

2008-10-30T09:55:00.004Z

28 / 10 / 8

So close……..so close……

A day I will never forget.
So close……. So close…….

Just down the hallway and to the right. Just down the hallway and to the right.
Just down the hallway and to the right. Just down the hallway and to the right.

And here I was sitting next to the new South African president and I didn’t have anything to say.

But let me begin from the begin… I had arranged to meet the director of the Mandela Centre for Memory within the Mandela foundation. Having spoken on the phone with him last week, he had generously offered the centre’s resources to see if they had any archive material that might support our work.
We made our way up to the Centre today via two mini busses. Really quite easy. No need for a car in this town with its mini bus system second to none. We were picked up just outside our backpackers in Soweto and one hour later, deposited just outside of the Foundation’s door. Not bad for just under two quid for two people.
We were early, so we waited in the waiting room. There was a bit of a buzz around the office, the phone was ringing off the hook. Many many many people, it seems, have business to do with the foundation.
A few minutes after the minibus dropped us off and we entered the foundation, the waiting room is filling up with people with little earphones in their ears and armed men and gifts earmarked for ‘Madiba & Grace’ – what, oh what, does this mean?
Then a solitary man in sun glasses walks through the door mobile phone in one hand and sits on the couch next to David & myself. Silence. Silence.

I hear from one of the foundation employees, ‘Madiba will be with you in just a moment.’

Oh, my…… Madiba is just down the hallway & to the right of David, the President of South Africa and me. How nice……

He went to visit Madiba and we stayed on the couch. So close…… So close……..

After that initial thrill (and realisation that we were in places we never thought that we would be), we met with Verne Harris and Sahm Venter, both from the Centre for Memory. We briefed them on the project, David told them about his mother’s love of food & cooking and they offered to do a search of Mandela’s archival material to see if he mentions anything about Shakespeare or literature in his writing & speeches.
Twenty minutes later, both come back with a half of dozen samples where Mandela mentions Shakespeare – some from letters, one from ‘Long Walk To Freedom’ and several from his speeches. Most references are to Julius Caesar, it seems.

After thanking them for their time and with these precious papers firmly under our arms, we leave the building slowly with just one more glance down the hallway and to the right…. But sadly, nothing but an empty space. Ah well…….. so close……

Later that afternoon, we met up with Masie at the Train Station and tell him our fantastic story. He smiles widely (and I think jealously). We have lunch and return on the Metro to our backpackers where we begin to plan out our next 10 days or so. We learned from Verne that Billy Nair’s funeral will be on Thursday and that Kathy’s book release is on Wednesday. We make plans to meet in Hyde Park at the Exclusive Bookstore for the signing. I am a bit disappointed as I had plans to take Masie and his new wife to my favourite restaurant in Soweto, Wandies, but that will just have to wait.

We are in a bit of a holding pattern until we see which men will be attending the funeral and make our schedule around that. But we still hope to be back in Cape Town with the majority of our interviews finished in about 10 days.

Johannesburg!!!

2008-10-30T09:53:00.000Z

27 / 10 / 8

On to Johannesburg…..
David & I took the overnight 26 hour train from Cape Town to Jo’burg on Friday and arrived on Saturday afternoon where we were belatedly picked up by a driver to take us to Lebo’s Soweto Backpackers in Orlando West. It is so good to finally stay at a backpackers in Soweto. It was needed. Other places that I have stayed in Jo burg mean that you are locked up behind cement blocks & barbed wire and you are stuck unless you want to go to different areas around the town..

Now, there are the blocks & wire here as well, I guess, but at least we can get out & walk around and explore the place. It doesn’t feel as isolated as the other places, maybe that is a better way of putting it. Plus it is much closer to my friend Masie’s home where yesterday we celebrated his wedding. It was the second day of the celebrations, the first day taking place in his wife’s village and Sunday at his home. It was good to see it again and to meet his family and hers as well.

We arrived and ate, had a beer, then ate, had another beer, chatting with family, friends & neighbours who were invited or otherwise – many were attracted by the excellent food and ‘Castle-Lite’ (I cant believe that I am drinking Castle Lite……) beer and were none of the above. But all were made to feel welcome and to celebrate the wedding.

It was good to see Masie again. I hadn’t seen his since my last trip to South Africa in 2005. He looks a bit older, but still has a magnetic smile and a tireless work ethic.

We will meet up later today to catch up on the project. This will be the first time that we have spoken face to face in almost 3 years of working on it. He has done so much leg work for it and knows so much about the men and their latest developments, that it is absolutely necessary to talk today. It will be fun to compare notes about it and start to work as a team. It is my hope to steal him away for a few hours or days to help with the interviews as I know that he would be excellent. Plus, he holds the greatest respect for the men with whom we want to speak.

At the most basic level, we need to compare notes on who we need to interview. There is one gentleman, Theo Cholo, who lives in Pretoria who is next on my list. There is also Michael Dingake, who lives in Botswana, who is also someone with whom we need to speak. Then it is down to Durban & Port Elizabeth before heading back to CT. Masie seems to have a good grasp on where in the world these men are, so today’s meeting with him is essential.

On a sad note, we found out late last week that Comrade Billy Nair passed away. He was an Indian trade unionist who was imprisoned on Robben Island for his role in Umkhonto We Sizwe. Nair was born in 1930 and studied bookkeeping. He became politically active during the 1952 Defiance Campaign and afterwards was elected to the provincial executive committee of the Natal Indian Congress. He became a trade union organiser, serving as secretary of several Natal unions. He was a member of the national executive committee of the South African Congress of Trade Unions and SACTU's regional secretary for Natal. He was one of the 156 accused in the Treason Trial and remained a defendant until late 1958. He was also imprisoned during the 1960 emergency. Detained in 1963 under the 90-day detention law, he was accused of sabotage and of being a Natal leader of Umkhonto. He was convicted in 1964 and sentenced to twenty years in prison. After his release he once again became active in community issues, particularly in the United Democratic Front.
After the 1994 elections Nair became a Member of Parliament in the National Assembly.

From the ‘bible,’ he had chosen The Tempest:

Act 1, Scene 2 Lines 331-336:

Caliban: ‘I must eat my dinner. This Island’s mine, by Sycorax my mother,
Which though tak’st from me. When thou cam’st first,
Thou strok’st me and made much of me, wouldst give me
Watwr with berries in’t, and teach me how
To name the bigger light, and how the less,
That burn by day and night; and then I lov’d thee,’

I feel a sense of urgency along with a sense of helplessness when I think about these men and wanting to speak with them about their experiences in the liberation movement. This sense of urgency is also felt by the many with whom we have spoken about this project. Although a lot has been written about these men, there is so much more to discover and for us to emulate. ‘It is in our hands,’ but I am not sure if I am ready for that responsibility that has been so ably handled in their hands.

Tomorrow, we are meeting with Verne Harris of the Mandela Centre for Memory. He has agreed to look through their archives of his writing to see if that could contribute in any way to our project. I spoke to him on our second day in Cape Town and arranged to meet him whilst we were in Johannesburg.

We also should be able to solidify the time & date of the presentation / performance at the Market Laboratory Theatre in late November, either through a phone call or to meet up in person. But the priority is on meeting with Mr. Harris.

Having attempted to work on the internet today at a Café, I know see that we were quite spoiled in Cape Town with our wireless connection. I disappointedly showed my Achilles heel there, as my wife will know, about my frustration with computers. Needless to say, I will not be making any non-work related emails / internet forays in the near future.

400 Year Old Glue

2008-10-22T14:44:00.003+01:00

22 / 10 / 8

This project is getting wider than I had anticipated. It has become wider for good & ‘bad’ reasons:

First the ‘bad’ (in inverted commas because it really isn’t bad at all), due to the fact that it seems as though the men don’t remember marking the book and when shown the text that the supposedly marked, they don’t agree that they would have chosen that passage as their ‘favourite’ or one with resonance with them.

This to me the begs the question of the premise of our project. It potentially shakes the foundation of what we set out to do. And this is exciting and thrilling and blinding. Where will this lead next? As my theatrical ‘hero’ Anne Bogart says, ‘Out of crisis, comes creativity.’ She goes on to say that she purposely heads towards crisis as that will make something happen. I believe that we have created a crisis merely by coming down here and pursuing this project. There was no need to step off the cliff this time. But we have and we need to enjoy this crisis. We also need to push as many contacts as we can get and interview them just to see what happens. Who knows what stories we will get.

We don’t need to worry about not getting material as all of the veterans so far are highly steeped in Shakespeare, literature & education and how that shaped their lives whilst in Robben Island. And this material will be wonderful sourcework for a play.

The good reasons (and there are many):
There are just too many wonderful stories to be told and tell. At each meeting, we get told other people to speak to about this project. All could contribute to a brilliant performance that goes above & beyond our original simple remit of the Robben Island Bible project.

But, this means that we might lose our focus and be spread too thin - too many shiny pennies to look at but not one to grab a hold of, which can't happen. But to gather as much information through primary interviews and then sort it out later is how I think both David & I seem to think about it.

Our latest thoughts were spurred on by something that the gentlemen & Jean September spoke about: the ability of literature and the education system set up at Robben Island to keep men of a variety of political backgrounds and beliefs together and focused on the common enemy, the Apartheid regime. Robben Island has often been called the University of Robben Island due to the many men who earned diplomas & degrees whilst imprisoned and who were taught by their fellow prisoners.

A common cause that is the glue to keep these men together, educated and hopeful – Literature, Education & Shakespeare.

----

We met this morning with Jean September of the British Council (Steff O’Driscoll, if you are reading, she passes on her best to you). She seemed very pleased with the nature of the project and the progress so far. She recommended that we speak with Paul Boateng, the British High Commissioner in South Africa. She thought that he would be keen due to his strong interest in Shakespeare, literature and cross cultural exchanges. She also encouraged us to spend the night at Robben Island (yes, apparently you CAN!!! David got quite an excited shiver down his spine when offered this as did I).

Three Gentle Men.....

2008-10-22T07:15:00.001+01:00

21 / 10 / 8
These three men, Kathy, Andrew & Kwede were from the start the gentlest of men. Laughing & joking amonst themselves and allowing us into their world.
The youngest of the three, Kwede, never let the other two forget that he was merely 72 years old and the other two were at least 7 years older. This was not only done jokingly, but also showed the deep respect that he had for the older men.
Kwede came to Robben Island full of hatred for the Apartheid government and with white people in general. Through his education and his exposure to the older generation of Robben Islanders, he began to realize the error in his assumptions. As not all blacks are similar in their beliefs (he being of the PAC & them being of the ANC) neither are whites. He absolutely attributes this to his stay on the Island.

We are very pleased to have heard from the three of them that they would be more than happy to speak with us again before we leave to clarify and expand on the interviews. Music to our ears. Although they said that they did not feel 'prepared' for these interviews today, they spoke eloquently about literature, Shakespeare & their stay on the island. What more could we ask for? But, they want to review their knowledge of the bard and get back in touch so that they can tell us their favourite lines from the plays. Man, I have an easy and wonderful job!!

Tomorrow, we are off to the British Council in the morning. I want to speak to them about the project along with speaking about Theatre for a Change. Jean, the director of the BC in SA has heard of TfaC and knows that I work with them and is interested in learning more about the programme.

On Thursday, we will have a very special and personal tour of Robben Island, which I am looking forward to greatly. We will then meet some of the staff at the Island after our tour. Again, another very special moment which both of us are looking forward to.

Things are also moving along with the Market Theatre. They will be hosting a presentation / performance of our work at the end of our stay in November. Again, I am so pleased to have this opportunity.

Our first meeting

2008-10-21T20:45:00.003+01:00

We did our first interview today with three truly wonderful men:
Ahmed Kathrada, Andrew (Clox) Mlengeni and Kwede Mkalipi. Ahmed
hosted the interviews at his Cape Town Apartment. We arrived a few
minutes before 10 am. I noted a library and bookshops close by
certainly the right community for a man with such love of books. Mr
Kathrada was very welcoming and we soon sat in the lounge and chatted.
Almost immediatly he made comment that the passage he marked was not
something he remembered doing and he felt there were other passages
from Shakespeare he would have been more likely to choose[which we later discovered him to be correct. We had marked the wrong passage and Kathy spotted it]. Any nerves
I may have had quickly subsided through the warm welcome Mr Kathrada
bestowed on us. We were soon joined by Parliamentarian, Andrew
Mlengi, and again we received a warm greeting as Mr Mlengeni shook our
hands and introduced himself as Andrew. Unsure of how he might be
able to help us, and like Mr Kathrada he didn't remember choosing the
passage for Shakespeare. However, Andrew began to talk about his
experience of Shakespeare and was soon quoting Lady Macbeth. The third
Comrade Kwede Mkalipi arrived and immediatly had his comrades and Matt
and I smiling. Being the younger Comrade by a few years he was soon
teased for this by Andrew. As we all sat down it was clear to see the
respect and shared admiration the three men had for each other.
Over the next two and 3/4 hours the conversation flowed. We now have the task of transcribing the passages and for me I am
already thinking of the story to be told.
It was a remarkable start to our work and it is hard to imagine
the warmth of spirit and learning that came from all three of these
men. Humanity can learn so much from taking the time to recognise the
experience imprisonment had on these men. For Kwede, he went in an
angry man that hated all white men,but after witnessing of the
terrible treatment of one white prisoner by a white guard that hatred
was not always about the colour of a human's skin. Alongside Kwede's
personal experiences, he also told us that with the support and
learning he received from his elder Comrades including Andrew and
Kathy, Kwede realised that knowledge, patience, using your wits and
using a wide range of strategies to resist and eventual be freed from
the oppression of Apartheid. Andrew told us how he always thought a
day would come when they would be released and they could create a
democratic South Africa in which they would be able to enfranchise the
disenfranchised. And Mr Kathrada shows how important resistance to
oppression through consumation of learning can not only help maintain
ones own hope but can also support comrades through their captive
time.
There is so much knowledge and experience I am still absorbing from
today's interviews and once we transcribe the interview I will have
much to create with and share.

the first interview....

2008-10-21T15:54:00.002+01:00

From the left to the right:
Kwede Mkalipi, Andrew Mlangeni & Ahmed Kathrada

First Interviews......

2008-10-20T20:54:00.004+01:00

Well,

We have a confirmation of three of the veterans who will be meeting us tomorrow. gulp.... they are Ahmed Kathrada, Kwedi Mkalipi & Andrew Clox Mlangeni. Biggies in the ANC & in the change into a democratic South Africa. So no pressure.....
but, we have been preparing for this for two years, so I hope that we are prepared. I am thrilled to hear and see what we get.

And it seems years ago (erm, i guess, because it has been 6 years) that Mark told me about the existance of this book. I never would have believed that that off-handed remark would result in this.

The weekend......

2008-10-19T20:33:00.006+01:00

Last night David & I saw an production of Anthol Fugard's 'Hello & Goodbye' at the Baxter Theatre here in Cape Town. It was an excellent production in a beautiful space.
I hadnt seen a space like that sine living in Chicago. It was a slightly thrusted stage with sitting on three sides. Very intimate and in our faces. The entire Baxter complex is equally impressive hosting a larger space and a concert hall. Although I was slightly tempted to see the Baxter's other offering, PRISON CODES, I opted out of the prison musical and stuck with less risky offering. Which I was very glad to for many different reasons....
Today, we tinkered with 'technology' and the 'technology' almost won. I have been loaned excellent equipment by my friend Tod which did his best to explain to me his HD camera and audio recorder. I still failed at getting it to work properly today.
But, that is the reason for rehearsals. And the latest news is that it looks as though we are on for our first set of interviews on Tuesday with the veterans from Cape Town.

We are continuing to develop and fine tune our questions that we want to direct to the men. David is deep in the analysis of the text to see what connections can be made between the man and the character or text that he chose. We are continuing to dig up more information about the 'Bible' that, due to the sands of time, often are contradictory. But that is what makes it interesting. Who wants agreement in a piece of drama, which is of course exactly what we are creating.

The backpackers that we have been living in, Big Blue Backpackers in Cape Town, has proven to be an excellent hostel. Great location, a lot of room to stretch out, quiet during the day, and the hosts are very amenable to our needs. Nothing seems to bother them with any request. And as David & I spend much of our time here, on line or working, these are good things. A high recommendation especially if you want to get to the waterfront (which is where the Robben Island Museum is located & the boat to get to the Island) or to the beaches.
I must say that I am truly enjoying myself. How perfect of an opportunity is this for us? I feel very privledged. I would like to get out of Cape Town soon as I'd like to see more of South Africa again and my friend is getting married in Soweto next Sunday - we will be there and looking forward to it!!

A bit more colour to the ‘Bible’:

2008-10-19T20:32:00.001+01:00

The following is an interview with Sonny Venkatruthnam from 2002, the owner of the Robben Island Bible:

‘The warder says, “the Anglican Church is here this week.’ You see, it was a practice every Sunday; either the Methodist or the Roman Catholics or Dutch Reformed or whoever, comes there and hold services in the section. So he told me it was the Anglican Church and I said, “Anglican Church? I didn’t know Anglican Church comes here because I thought only the Dutch Reformed Church comes here.” I said, I’m playing on his English background, you see. He says, no, the Anglican Church comes there, he goes to it and blah blah blah. I tell him I’m an Anglican you know but I left my Bible in the storeroom. Okay, he says he’ll open the storeroom. He takes out his keys; opens the storeroom; and I pick out my book: The Complete Works of Shakespeare. I take it out and show it to him then, look there’s the Bible by William Shakespeare. So he let me have it, so I took it to my cell and we were celebrating. Now this is before other things happened, before the petition, now we have got this book. The problem is how do we hide it because there is nothing it’s a bare room, you see, we didn’t even have cupboards, nothing.
‘It was Deepavali time (‘Festival of Lights’, Indian Festival) and my parents sent me greeting cards. These are your typical Deepavali greeting cards. So I took those cards, cut them up and pasted the photographs on this [book] and we used porridge to stick it up. It’s the way it is since I had it on Robben Island. And I openly left this on the shelf, not shelf but on the window-sill, right behind my bed. They would come and ask me "what’s that?" And they would ask, "what's this?" And I said, "It’s my Bible." The one thing of the Afrikaner is that, there are two things he’s scared of: his God and his Bible, and a lawyer. They are very scared of a lawyer. So I had this, they did not touch it.

I think about four or five months before I left I got this complete works of Shakespeare, which I sent around and asked each one of them to choose a line or a paragraph that they can, or want to identify with. And it took about almost two months for it to make its rounds. And everybody chose a line or a paragraph and autographed it for me. Only single cells (political prisoners) got it. I didn’t have access to the general. Everybody signed, ya, you know. I have got a whole list of people that signed. You know Kader Hassim, Billy Nair, Walter Sisulu, Seake, Mobs Sikana, JB Busani, Govan Mbeki, Wilton Mkwai. Mac Maharaj, Joe Kabe, Bengu, Kathrada, Nelson Mandela, Andrew Masondo, Laloo Chiba, Andrew Mlageni, Eddie Daniels, Michael Dingakakis, Saths Cooper, Strini Moodley, Frank Anthony, Justice Mpunza, who died three weeks ago. Essop, Mohamed Essop, Neville Alexander, Cholo, Mhlaba, all of these people chose different lines. Govan Mbeki chose passage in Twelfth Night page 349.

Ya, this is Govan Mbeki. December 1977, he signed this and he told me that he always quoted this passage:
"If music be the food of love play on,
Give me excess of it..." blah, blah, blah.

That was his favourite passage because I asked him to mark it he said no that whole passage is his favourite, okay. Nelson Mandela - Julius Caesar page 980. Nelson chose lines from Julius Caesar. He autographed this on the 16th December 1977 (the anniversary of formation of Umkhonto we Sizwe, Spear of the Nation ( the armed wing of the ANC which was formed on 16th December 1961).
And the lines he chose were Caesar’s words:
"Cowards die many times before their deaths,
The valiant never taste of death but once,
For all the wonders that I have yet heard,
It seems to be more strain that men should fear,
Seeing that death a necessary end will come when it will come."

Okay. Andrew Masondo, this guy's a brigadier in the army now. He chose a passage again from Julius Caesar this is from Anthony and the passage he chose was:
"Oh pardon me thou bleeding piece of earth that I am meek and gentle with these butchers, Thou art the ruins of the noblest man that ever lived in the tide of times; Woe to the end that shed this costly blood, Over thy wounds now do I prophesy which like dumb months do hope there will be lips to beg the voice and utterance of my tongue."
Looking at this passage I think it's well chosen by Andrew Masondo because he was involved in that Quattro camp, and here he is talking about a similar thing. This is the way the man was thinking. And Anthony was now going to seek revenge over Caesar’s murderers, and that’s him.

‘It’s in our hands’

2008-10-18T10:29:00.001+01:00

18 / 10 / 8
‘It’s in our hands’
That quote just popped up on my desktop. I guess that it often will as I have a photo of Mandela with the quote above it as my background.

I spoke with Masie, a friend & researcher, in Johannesburg this morning and he has done an excellent job of arranging for a meeting with the veterans in Cape Town. He lives in Soweto and I met him the first time I visited South Africa in 2003. He said to me that he is so pleased to be working on this project with David & I due to the fact that it is such an important subject and something that needs to be broadcasted. He was disappointed that it took two ‘foreigners’ to get this project off the ground, but now that it is, he is very pleased to be a part of it.

I am a bit nervous about our first meeting. In the back of my mind, I wish that he would be with us for the interviews as I do feel like a ‘foreigner’ and would greatly appreciate his calming influence. But, he has had the nerve to get married next week and, as he says, he is ‘stressed up to his neck’ with things to do. So, I guess that it is up to just David & I. I hope that he will be able to come to future interviews as, besides the fact that he would be a calming person, he deserves to meet these fellow South Africans whom he holds in such high regard.

David and I were taken on a beautiful tour of the Cape from Cape Town around and beyond Clifton beach. We watched the sun set behind Sentinel mountain and checked out the native and foreign fauna along the road. They had closed part of the road due to rock slides, but this gave us an opportunity to stretch our legs and get really close to the land as we carried on walking a kilometre or so after parking our car.

We went with Richard Whiting, the research manager at the Robben Island Museum. He was an excellent guide and had an interesting life story which led him to the museum. Again, I am reminded of Mandela’s words that there are more people involved than the world knows. And Richard is one of them. A very potted History: He left South Africa to escape conscription into the army because, as he puts it, ‘first it will be (service) in Botswana or Namibia but later then it would be Soweto (this was in the late 1970’s after the Soweto uprising)’. So he left to Botswana. He came to the UK to study and finally returned to a democratic SA in the 1990’s.
He has given us a lot of material to mull over and digest in preparation for our first set of interviews early next week.

We are off to RIM later today – David hopes to take a tour of the prison while I stay on at the museum (I went to the prison in 2003). Other than that, a pretty lazy day. Read my beloved ‘Mail & Guardian’ newspaper whilst sipping coffee by the pool. Hard knock research project (I hope Trevor doesn’t read this…..).

We have arrived.....

2008-10-17T15:24:00.001+01:00

17 / 10 / 8

Just in Cape Town now for over 24 hours and it has been a wonderful start to our adventures. During the flight, I spent the time re-reading the brief biographies that I had prepared about each of the men whom David and I will be interviewing for the piece. Most of the information was gleaned from the internet and a variety of other sources. One thing that struck me is that everyone (including myself) is excitedly holding out hope that we might be able to interview Nelson Mandela. But as I read this bios, I am very much struck by the fact, and Mr. Mandela repeatedly states that in his writing as well, that it was not just a one man show that sheparded in a democratic South Africa, but many many people including many who signed the ‘bible.’

Just look at the following brief about Ahmed (Kathy) Kathrada:

‘Ahmed M. Kathrada is a veteran of the South African liberation struggle and one of the famous Rivonia trialists, and was a long-serving political prisoner on Robben Island and Pollsmoor Maximum Prison, and ANC leader and Member of Parliament.

In 1952, Kathy helped organize the 'Campaign of Defiance against Unjust laws', launched jointly by the African National Congress and the South African Indian Congress. The Defiance campaign targeted six unjust apartheid laws, amongst them being the Pass Laws, stock limitation regulations, the Group Areas Act, the separate representation of Voters Act, the Suppression of Communism Act and the Bantu Authorities Act.

In December 1962, Kathy was subjected to 'house arrest' for 13 hours a day. He went underground and continued attending secret meetings at Rivonia, the underground headquarters of the African National Congress. It was there that he was arrested with other leaders of the underground movement in July 1963. It was his 18th arrest on political grounds. Although he was then no longer a member of the MK Regional Command, he was tried with Nelson Mandela, Walter Sisulu, Govan Mbeki, Dennis Goldberg and other leaders and was sentenced to life imprisonment in June 1964. They were charged with organizing and directing Umkhonto we Sizwe ('Spear of the Nation'), the military wing of the African National Congress. They were found guilty of committing specific acts of sabotage. At the age of 34, in 1964, he was sentenced to life imprisonment on Robben Island where he spent the next 18 years with his colleagues in the isolation section of the Maximum Security Prison.’

And fortunately, we have an opportunity to interview this man who has greatly shaped the new South Africa.

Kathy chose the following text from Henry V:

King Henry V page 563

Act 3 Prologue, lines 2-15:

Chorus: Thus with imagin’d wing our swift scene flies,

In motion of no less celerity

Than that of thought. Suppose that you have seen

The well-appointed King at Hampton pier

Embark his royalty; and his brave fleet

With silken streamers the young Phoebus fanning.

Play with your fancies; and in them behold

Upon the hempen tackle ship-boys climbing;

Hear the shrill whistle which dot order give

To sounds confus’d; behold the threaden sails,

Borne with th’invisible and creeping wind,

Draw the huge bottoms through the furrowed sea,

Breasting the lofty surge. O, do but think

You stand upon the ravage and behold

A city on th’inconstant billows dancing;

scene 1. France. Before Harfleur.

King: ‘Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more;

Or close the wall up with our English dead.

In peace there’s nothing so becomes a man

As modest stillness and humility;

But when the blast of war blows in our ears,

Then imitate the action of the Tiger;

Stiffen the sinews, summon up the blood,

Disguise fair nature with hard-favoured rage;

Then lend the eye a terrible aspect;

Let it pry through the portage of the head

Like the brass cannon; let the brow

o’erwhelm it

As fearfully as doth a galled rock

O’erhang and jutty his confounded base,

Swill’d with the wild and wasteful ocean,

Now set the teeth and stretch the nostril

Wide;

Hold hard the breath, and bend up every

Spirit

To his full height. On, on you noblest

English,

Whose blood is fet from fathers of war

-proof-

Fathers that like so many Alexanders

Have in these parts from morm till even

Fought,

And sheath’d their swords for lack of

Argument.

Dishonour not your mothers; now attest

That those whom you call’d fathers did

Beget you.

Be copy now for men of grosser blood,

And teach them how to war. And you,

good yeomen,

Whose limbs were made in England, show

us here

The mettle of your pasture; let us swear

That you are worth your breeding-which

I doubt not;

For there is non of you so mean and base

That hath not noble lustre in your eyes.

I see you stand like greyhounds in the slips,

Straining upon the start. The game’s afoot:

Follow your spirit; and upon this charge

Cry ‘God for Harry, England, and Saint

George!’

The themes of his chosen piece include: faith, loyalty, fighting for freedom, courage, resistance to power, knowledge is power, & belief in an ideal.

It is interesting that Kathrada has also been described by members of the ANC as, ‘brave as a lion….absolutely fearless’. Interesting in the famous battle speech of Henry V, the king asks his men to ‘imitate the action of the Tiger;

'Stiffen the sinews, summon up the blood’

Both the prologue and the speech that follows would provide a sense of determination, a need for bravery and to draw on inner human strength. To read this passage when confined and your freedom to act is disabled must have given Kathrada some kind of focus and hope to continue fighting the oppressor. Arguably this demonstrates the power of the literature of Shakespeare can act as an enabling tool for the mind, when the physical body is not in a position to take action.

16 / 10 / 8

The mechanics of the interviews:

I decided that there is no time like the present and no matter how much both David and I were jet lagged (neither of us slept well on the airplane), we needed to get stuck in.

Having cultivated many relationships via email over the past two years with a variety of people, it was very exciting to attempt to speak with them person to person. My first adventure was to speak with Deidre, the education director at the Robben Island Museum. No joy….. but left a message and plan on visiting the musem anyway tomorrow.

I have just gotten off the phone with a Verne Harris, the director of the Mandela Centre for Memory. He has been the closest (one degree of separation) to Nelson Mandela that I have so far been able to achieve. I figure that a centre for memory would be very interested in working on this piece with us.

Naturally, he doesn’t believe that Mandela is able to assist us with the project. He says that even if we did schedule a meeting with him, he has good and bad days and so it may or may not happen. Rightly, they are very protective of him and repeatedly say that he has retired from giving interviews or commenting on research that is conducted. So, needless to say we are disappointed, but not surprised nor sad. He deserves to be left alone. He has given so much to South Africa and the world, that not much else needs to be done. He said to us on on 90th birthday, ‘Its in our hands now.’ Exactly.

But on a better note, Mr. Harris has agreed to assist us in any way be going back through Mr. Mandela’s writing to see if there is anything about the ‘bible’ that we might be able to use. Which is excellent news.

We took a walk around the waterfront today and spoiled ourselves with a very posh dinner there. It is a beautiful place, made even more interesting due to the fact that it is a working dock as well as a tourist destination.

Our Goals for this R&D project:

2008-10-08T15:41:00.001+01:00

We am in the process of devising a play based on Mr. Sonny Venkatrathnam's copy of The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, infamously known as the 'Robben Island Bible'. We will be in South Africa next week to develop the play with the signatories of the ‘Bible’ and South African actors which will culminate in a presentation of our findings in late November to the veterans, other stakeholders, and the general public in South Africa & in the United Kingdom.

In January, the playwright David Taylor & I met with the South African High Commissioner to the United Kingdom, Ms Lindiwe Mabuza, who expressed great enthusiasm for the project and has given us her full support. The High Commissioner contacted Dr. John Kani, who has also given his support to the project. The High Commissioner has also agreed to contact the former President Thabo Mbeki to aid us with the research and development of this project as his father was also one of the signatories. We have also spoken with Ms. Jean September at the British Council in South Africa who has agreed to assist us with the production.

The project centres on a devised play that intertwines the Shakespearian text chosen by the political prisoners with dialogue taken from interviews with them. We will use the stories behind their choices as the basis for the theatrical production.

This project has great potential not only in terms of theatrical but also educational outcomes. Working with a range of both young actors in the early stages of learning their craft and experienced actors, such as Dr. John Kani, we will be providing the opportunity to further understand the social, political, and historical significance of Robben Island in connection with the way literature served as a means of providing resistance and hope to the comrades.

We will also be providing the opportunity for those audiences who might be too young to remember the Apartheid era through a tour of the final production throughout schools in Southern Africa and in the United Kingdom. It is important to us, as the director & playwright of the piece, to find as much first person information as possible. Each person's contribution is invaluable to the production and will provide validity to the work. The genesis of the questioning will be to ascertain why they chose these passages. This might include revisiting the time when Sonny shared The Complete Works with his fellow prisoners, using reminiscence theatre techniques which will aid the comrades by providing memory ‘triggers’ such as Sonny’s copy of the plays, video, photographs, visits to Robben Island or Robben Island Museum.

Due to the nature of the project, we have placed great emphasis on international collaboration. Our aim is to seek working partnerships more of the Comrades who signed their names whilst on Robben Island and a variety of professional and non-professional actors throughout South Africa.

To date, we have the support of Mr. Venkatrathnam and Dr. Kani, the British Council in South Africa, the UK South African High Commissioner, St. Mary's University-College in Twickenham, UK and two of the Bible's signatories.

This project will:
- For the first time on stage, unite the words of William Shakespeare to the thoughts, hopes, resistance, struggle and resilience of the political prisoners held on Robben Island in the second half of the twentieth century in South Africa.
- Use passages selected by the prisoners as the backbone of the production to construct a piece of theatre that will aim to inform and entertain a wide-reaching audience.

In undertaking our research and development in South Africa, we plan the following:

Week 1
Playwright & director use available resources at the Robben Island Museum to further their knowledge
Weeks 2 / 3
Interviews with comrades at the Robben Island Museum
Weeks 4 / 5 / 6
Develop stories from the interviews and play framework with South African students and actors.
End of Week 6 Show their progress to the comrades and an audience of stakeholders and public to review the work.

Upon return to the United Kingdom, we plan to finalise the project and to work with our partners here and in South Africa who are interested in producing the play.

A bit of background.......

2008-10-08T15:16:00.000+01:00

Hamlet’s Dreams
David Schalkwyk

If you were to visit Stratford-upon-Avon this year in search of Shakespeare you would be offered, alongside the usual attractions of the ‘Birthplace’ and Anne Hathaway’s cottage, an exhibition entitled ‘Shakespeare – The Complete Works’. Intrigued, you would part with the equivalent of fifty rand, and take the narrow sixteenth-century staircase up to a low-ceilinged room that promises not merely Shakespeare, but the complete Shakespeare.

One exhibit is arresting. Given an independent case – a large, free-standing cabinet at the head of the stairway – there is a single medium-sized volume that could mark either the beginning or the end of your tour. The volume currently on display in Nash House is the 1970 imprint. What makes it so special? It is not owned by the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust which sponsored the exhibition, or the Shakespeare Institute of the University of Birmingham, which has its offices down the road, but by a South African: Sonny Venkatrathnam. It is the so-called ‘Robben Island Shakespeare’ (also known as the Robben Island Bible). A political prisoner on Robben Island during the 1970s, Venkatratham was able to smuggle his copy of Shakespeare’s works into the prison by persuading his warders that it was a religious Hindu text. He then surreptitiously passed the book to a number of his fellow prisoners in the single cells. Over a period of four or
five years (this process took a long time) each prisoner marked his favourite passage, and signed it with the date. The Robben Island Shakespeare contains thirty-two signatures, including those of Walter Sisulu, Neville Alexander, Billy Nair, Nelson Mandela, Govan Mbeki, Ahmed Kathrada, Andrew Masondo, and Mac Maharaj. The page on which Venkatrathnam’s Shakespeare is open for display in Stratford was signed on the16th of December 1979, with the name ‘Nelson Mandela’: ‘Cowards die many times before their deaths / The valiant never taste of death but once’ (Shakespeare, 2005: Julius Caesar, 2.2.32-3).

It is clear that those who made their personal marks of identification in Venkatrathnam’s book found something in Shakespeare – whether from their time at school, or before they entered the prison, or even in the prison itself, through which they could express their personal and collective voices.

There are 32 signatures in the book that Venkatrathnam circulated, a fraction of the number imprisoned on the Island in the nineteen-seventies. The signatories were members of a literate elite, separated from the vast body of prisoners in the communal cells. So to claim that Shakespeare united all ‘the prisoners at Robben Island’ is somewhat wishful, or negligent, or both. But if Shakespeare may be said to have invigorated the bleak life of the Robben Island elite, Robben Island itself also invigorates and legitimises the idea of
Shakespeare in present-day Stratford. Having been circulated stealthily as a force of memory, inspiration, perhaps even of mere piety, in the South African prison more than two decades ago, Shakespeare is himself now released in this contemporary British exhibition of cultural capital from obscurity and irrelevance by the mythical force of Mandela and his island.

The Robben Island Bible Project

2008-10-08T12:23:00.002+01:00

I am developing a play based on Mr. Sony Venkatrathnam's copy of The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, infamously known as the 'Robben Island Bible'. Theatre Director Matthew Hahn is developing a devised play with former political prisoners & South African actors to present a full production in South Africa.

The play will intertwine the Shakespearian text chosen by the political prisoners along with dialogue taken from interviews with them. It will use the stories behind the men’s choices as the backbone of the production which aims to inform and entertain a wide-reaching audience.

The project has gained the support of many prominent South Africans and international organisations including the South African High Commissioner to the United Kingdom, Ms Lindiwe Mabuza, Tony Award winning actor Dr. John Kani, British Council in South Africa and St. Mary’s University College in London. To date, we also have the support of three of the men who signed the ‘bible’: Mr. Venkatrathnam, Mr. Michael Dingake & Mr. Eddie Daniels.
If you would like more information about this project, please contact us on:

+ 27 (0) 788547929 (South Africa), +44 (0) 78`6 334 897 (United Kingdom) or visit our website.