A FITTING tribute to iconic sociopolitical activist and poet Ingoapele Madingoane unfolded spectacularly in Johannesburg at the weekend.
The public literary awareness and appreciation session of the Miriam Tlali Reading and Book Club gave Madingoane his most appropriate position in South Africa's liberation struggle by honouring him at the South African Literary Awards.
The literary awareness and appreciation programme honours novelist Tlali.
At the same time, Madingoane was reintroduced to those who have admired him and suckled from his inspirational and motivational literary vision of unity, brotherhood and goodwill among all Africans.
Madingoane was also introduced to those who might only have heard about him and wished to know the man within the context of his selfless contribution to the country's total liberation.
Organisers Sindiswa and Morakabe Seakhoa of wRite Associates featured a profoundly-appropriate panel of Duma ka Ndlovu, Walter Chakela and Maishe Maponya to pay tribute to Madingoane, who is arguably the doyen of modern political oral poetry, part of which is the famous Africa my Beginning, which was published by Ravan Press in Johannesburg in 1979.
The work was banned by the apartheid authorities soon afterwards.
On a platform they magnanimously shared with the younger set that included Kgomotso Mtshemla, Toto Mubenga and Natalia Molebatsi - veterans Ka Ndlovu, Maponya and Chakela - enthralled and challenged the diverse, albeit youth-dominated audience as they courageously contended with nostalgia and sentimentality to unravel a virtually, grossly-misunderstood gentle giant of the sociopolitical arts and culture canvas of the seventies and eighties, who inspired most of the current crop of "people's poets".
Each panelist presented unique dimensions of the Madingoane persona, generally viewed as a loud, highly emotional person, who strung together slogans instead of poems and highlighted and presented a true, emancipatory version that is truly worthy of a place among other liberation giants.
Chakela made several scholarly presentations from which he extrapolated that the only recurring words from Madingoane's poems were Azania, and Africa, not necessarily because he was a Black Consciousness Movement of Azania adherent, but because he was passionate about Africa and South Africa's place on the continent and the unity, brotherhood and goodwill that is the African people's social, political, economic and cultural "trademark".
After adding that Madingoane's poetry writing and recitals drew from traditional praise-singing techniques, idiomatic expressions, traditional hymns, Chakela said: "He was very clever, but still got arrested and bashed (by the police)..."
Ndlovu decried the disappearance of black intellectuals from the public stage.
He said they had made way for the "white world" to prop up the romanticism of Sophiatown, and somehow allowed for the collective eradication of the defiant youths of the 1970s, who had defied racist oppression with poetry and stones, making protest literature a formidable liberation struggle tool.
Ka Ndlovu also took the opportunity to honour Mothobi Mutloatse. Both Ka Ndlovu and Mutloatse separately received honorary doctorates from the universities of Venda and South Africa. Ka Ndlovu described Mutloatse as the industrious back room worker and genius behind the formation of the Allah Poets.
Maponya was his usual fiery self. He honoured Madingoane as a unifier in word and deed and a peerless motivator.
"I recall the most powerful invocations, including: 'Freedom is the law of nature; Justice is deeply-rooted in the order of things ...,' and 'I am because you are, and you are because I am...'" he said.
Maponya said Madingoane had inspired generations yet remained humble.
Ka Ndlovu encouraged the youth in the audience not to let the powerful, yet tragically-forgotten memory of Madingoane to lie strangled and unused.
Ka Ndlovu mentioned his collaboration with Maponya in which they bid to preserve the work of the black township theatre doyen in book form.
Ingoapele honoured
A FITTING tribute to iconic sociopolitical activist and poet Ingoapele Madingoane unfolded spectacularly in Johannesburg at the weekend.
The public literary awareness and appreciation session of the Miriam Tlali Reading and Book Club gave Madingoane his most appropriate position in South Africa's liberation struggle by honouring him at the South African Literary Awards.
The literary awareness and appreciation programme honours novelist Tlali.
At the same time, Madingoane was reintroduced to those who have admired him and suckled from his inspirational and motivational literary vision of unity, brotherhood and goodwill among all Africans.
Madingoane was also introduced to those who might only have heard about him and wished to know the man within the context of his selfless contribution to the country's total liberation.
Organisers Sindiswa and Morakabe Seakhoa of wRite Associates featured a profoundly-appropriate panel of Duma ka Ndlovu, Walter Chakela and Maishe Maponya to pay tribute to Madingoane, who is arguably the doyen of modern political oral poetry, part of which is the famous Africa my Beginning, which was published by Ravan Press in Johannesburg in 1979.
The work was banned by the apartheid authorities soon afterwards.
On a platform they magnanimously shared with the younger set that included Kgomotso Mtshemla, Toto Mubenga and Natalia Molebatsi - veterans Ka Ndlovu, Maponya and Chakela - enthralled and challenged the diverse, albeit youth-dominated audience as they courageously contended with nostalgia and sentimentality to unravel a virtually, grossly-misunderstood gentle giant of the sociopolitical arts and culture canvas of the seventies and eighties, who inspired most of the current crop of "people's poets".
Each panelist presented unique dimensions of the Madingoane persona, generally viewed as a loud, highly emotional person, who strung together slogans instead of poems and highlighted and presented a true, emancipatory version that is truly worthy of a place among other liberation giants.
Chakela made several scholarly presentations from which he extrapolated that the only recurring words from Madingoane's poems were Azania, and Africa, not necessarily because he was a Black Consciousness Movement of Azania adherent, but because he was passionate about Africa and South Africa's place on the continent and the unity, brotherhood and goodwill that is the African people's social, political, economic and cultural "trademark".
After adding that Madingoane's poetry writing and recitals drew from traditional praise-singing techniques, idiomatic expressions, traditional hymns, Chakela said: "He was very clever, but still got arrested and bashed (by the police)..."
Ndlovu decried the disappearance of black intellectuals from the public stage.
He said they had made way for the "white world" to prop up the romanticism of Sophiatown, and somehow allowed for the collective eradication of the defiant youths of the 1970s, who had defied racist oppression with poetry and stones, making protest literature a formidable liberation struggle tool.
Ka Ndlovu also took the opportunity to honour Mothobi Mutloatse. Both Ka Ndlovu and Mutloatse separately received honorary doctorates from the universities of Venda and South Africa. Ka Ndlovu described Mutloatse as the industrious back room worker and genius behind the formation of the Allah Poets.
Maponya was his usual fiery self. He honoured Madingoane as a unifier in word and deed and a peerless motivator.
"I recall the most powerful invocations, including: 'Freedom is the law of nature; Justice is deeply-rooted in the order of things ...,' and 'I am because you are, and you are because I am...'" he said.
Maponya said Madingoane had inspired generations yet remained humble.
Ka Ndlovu encouraged the youth in the audience not to let the powerful, yet tragically-forgotten memory of Madingoane to lie strangled and unused.
Ka Ndlovu mentioned his collaboration with Maponya in which they bid to preserve the work of the black township theatre doyen in book form.