History in the making

By Charles Dumas
professor emeritus of the Penn State School of Theatre
 

The first time I visited South Africa was in 1978, during the height of the racist apartheid regime. I was a former United Nations legal researcher and international corporate attorney. I was in the country to observe the trial of the Soweto student protestors. Many had been in prison since the uprisings of 1976. Some had not seen any friendly faces except their lawyer since then.

I wrote about the incident in I Too, Am an African:

“The scene was somber as one might expect, fearful, apprehensive. No one knew what condition the children were in. As the buses carrying the children approached, I could hear muffled singing. The closer the buses came, the louder and more militant, even joyous the music became. The kids were singing struggle songs! As they came closer, the parents joined in and began to toyi-toyi. The police were perplexed and intimidated. It was then that I came to understand that these were people who would not long be subjugated under apartheid.”

I returned to South Africa nearly twenty-five years later as a Fulbright fellow at the University of Stellenbosch, a former white Afrikaner University. It was after the first democratic elections in 1994, the release and presidency of Nelson Mandela, and the ascendence of the African National Congress to political control of the country.

We were there during the Truth and Reconciliation Commission hearings, organized by Bishop Desmond Tutu. The country was attempting to heal itself through forgiveness and reconciliation, instead of vengeance and violence. That approach had never been tried before. It proved essential in teaching former sworn blood enemies how to live and work with each other peacefully.

I witnessed an example of that process. In 2011, I returned to teach at another former Afrikaner school, the University of the Free State. The faculty was still predominantly white; the student body was two-thirds Black. The university was led by a premier Black educator, Vice-Chancellor Jonathan Jansen. Soon after he took office, he had to steer the university through a scandal that became known worldwide as the “Reitz Four” incident.

Four young white men, members of the Reitz Club, which had been founded as a whites-only residence, had humiliated four Black domestic workers at the university. The students had even forced the workers to consume urine. The students videotaped the incidents and broadcast the tapes on YouTube. It caused a major uproar. Some thought the incident signaled a return to the white supremacy of the apartheid past. People demanded that the students be severely punished — expelled, even jailed.

Professor Jansen took another approach. He brought the students and workers together. He provided translators, since the workers were primarily Xhosa speakers. They dined together, visited the township homes, came to know each other. A year later there was a “forgiveness ceremony.” The boys asked for forgiveness from the workers. The workers said, “We forgive you because you are our children who we must embrace and teach.”

With Angelo Mockie and other artists, we created a dance/poetry piece called Race, Reconciliation, and the Reitz Four, which we performed with a mixed cast of University of the Free State students. Angelo and I were blessed to bring the presentation to Penn State. Working with Elisha Clark Halpin, then head of the Penn State dance program, and Penn State dance artists and actors, we performed the show for a State College audience.

Our State College community will soon be blessed by another visit from special young artists from South Africa. The Center for the Performing Arts will host the two-time Grammy Award-winning Soweto Gospel Choir as they present Hope: It’s Been a Long Time Coming. This is a not to be missed gala. It is joyous history in the making.