Medu and the culture of liberation

26.01.10 22:04 Uhr

South African History Online

this article is part of SAHO's online library

Medu and the culture of liberation

In 1977, a group of cultural workers from the townships fled into exile in Gaborone, Botswana; including Molefe Pheto, from Mhloti
Theatre. Thami Mnyele followed in 1978. In Gaborone they established the cultural organisation Medu Art Ensemble (Medu is a
SePedi word meaning roots). Medu ran units specialising in music, theatre, graphics and visual arts, photography; and research and
production (writing).
Over the eight years of its existence, Medu varied from 15 to as many as 50 members. Most were South Africa exiles.
The visual arts unit of Medu included: Thami Mnyele (exiled 1978), Miles Pelo (exiled 1981, left Botswana 1982 for Cuba, Tanzania,
England), Heinz Klug (1979 1985 in Botswana), Judy Seidman (American-born, in Medu 1980 - 85), Gordon Metz (in Medu 1979 1985), Albio and Theresa Gonzales (Swedish/Spanish, in Gaborone from1979 - 1985), Philip Segola (Botswana citizen, occasional
Medu member), Lentswe Mokgatle (in Medu from 1982- 85). (Zimbabwean artist George Nene was not formally a member of the
group, but was in Gaborone Central Prison during this period, where he studied in art classes run by Medu for prisoners.)
Other cultural activists in Medu included: in literature and drama, Mongane Wally Serote, Mandla Langa, Pheto Serote, Bachana
Mokwena, Keorapetse and Baleka Khotsitsile, Marius Schoon, Patrick Fitzgerald and Thele Moema; in photography, Mike Kahn and
Tim Williams; and in music, Jonas Gwangwa, Dennis Mpale, Steve Dyer, Hugh Masekela, Livy Phahle, Tony Cedras and journalist
Gwen Ansell; other members included Muff Anderson, Mike Hamlyn (SA draft resister) and Uriel Abrahamse.
Medu members preferred to call themselves cultural workers rather than artists. The term implied that art-makers should not see
themselves as elite and isolated individuals, touched by creative madness or genius; but simply people doing their work, whether
painting, music or poetry.
Medu saw its aesthetic and cultural approach as rooted in the strands of South African resistance and Africanist culture, building upon
the work of cultural organisations such as Staffrider (which was barely a year old in 1978) and recently-formed community arts
structures. Thami jokingly referred to Medu as Staffrider in exile.
These strands came together in principles proclaiming: our art should speak to the immediate community, to the people who brought
us up, who speak to us, who are living through what has made us as we are. The arts should build self -awareness and self-image,
link our people's experiences, create new understandings of our lives, and pass on these understandings. From this should come a
vision of how to take our community and our people forward.
This approach to the arts underpinned the forms as well as the content of Medu's cultural production. Images and symbols grew
through collective discussion and participation; discussions to which individual artists might bring their own vision and inspiration.
Discussions regularly drew upon all Medu members including those with little visual arts background - to work through the
message of posters and graphics. Each artist should actively develop skills and techniques for expression and production, but also
each individual would work with others of their community to find ways to express themselves.
Gaborone was also a mere fourteen kilometers from the South African border. Ideas and principles were cross-hatched with groups
inside the country: from the discourse around Staffrider magazine, to the newly-formed Cape Arts Project and Junction Avenue in
Johannesburg. Artists continually moved between these groups and Medu.
Perhaps Medu in this period had some small advantage in developing this discourse over groups inside: the war was (mostly) over
the border; there was time for discussion; there was less fear of a crack-down. There was less overt censorship, and less need for
self-censorship. (By 1982, the South African regime routinely assassinated people in neighbouring countries; the Botswana
government put more pressure on Medu: official Medu posters for a time did not show guns and armed struggle. Medu still produced
these, but unsigned.)
Poster production
From 1979, Medu produced political posters. The first posters were silkscreened, with the assistance of Basil Johns and Adrian
Kohler, two South African artists working for the Botswana National Art Gallery (later, they formed the Handspring Puppet Company in
Cape Town). Over the next six years, Medu produced over 50 posters.
Poster-making was a well-conceived and nurtured child within Medu's artistic arms. Members argued that few people in South Africa's
townships would see or interact with fine art displayed in suburban (white) galleries or well-off private homes. But many people
would take to heart images, symbols and slogans that they did see, that spoke to events around them. Thus, the form would be
printed posters, slipped into the country, stuck up on walls at night, or in offices. These would be seen and valued by people walking
past, even if they were ripped down later by the security police. These would become our messagers.
Function and aesthetic in Medu
Medu posters were intended to fill a function. But this function was not merely to fulfill a short-term objective to inform people about a
specific event, but to build a broader sense of community and of direction. This was equated to the functionalism of pre-colonial
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