Pictures speak louder than prisoners

Scrawled across a carefully assembled cutout collage of pristine landscapes and an old martial artist are the words: “I’m fine with health but deep inside I’m broken into pieces.” This is how 25-year-old prisoner Luthando Nunu chooses to describe himself on his body map recently exhibited at Word of Art studios in Cape Town.

Nunu is part of a group of sentenced juveniles participating in a creative life-skills programme run by Project Phakama and Young in Prison (YIP). The exhibition was the culmination of a series of creative workshops facilitated by Clinton Osbourn and Julia Merrett who, over the past year, have provided a safe and non-judgmental space for young men such as Nuno to express themselves.

Both Osbourn and Merrett are passionate about addressing the limited opportunities for prisoners to be heard, or to reflect on and process their life experiences. “In this environment, they tend to deal with their situation in a self-destructive manner and instead of turning away from crime, many of them get sucked deeper into a spiral of destruction”, says photographer Merrett who believes that this is only perpetuating the problem of crime in South Africa.

Osbourn initiated the project in October 2008 with funding provided by photographer Mikhael Subotzky and developed workshops that engage the young men physically, emotionally and intellectually. “We use different kinds of activities from drama, to drawing, to singing, which also enables us to find out more about them”, explains Osbourn. Osbourn is a member of the Phakama arts-exchange programme involving arts practitioners and young people in southern Africa, Britain and India.

Although the programme is more process rather than outcomes-based, Nuno was pleased to be given the opportunity to offer the outside a glimpse of what it is like to be on the inside: “I’m happy for people to get insight. It’s not easy to speak with pictures but I feel that it takes me out of the wrong because everything you do is positive.”

Triggerfish featured on TV

Triggerfish animation studio (and our film, Zambezia) was recently featured on a TVC showcasing the projects in which the IDC (industrial development corporation) have invested. Check out the video here.

Khumba on the big screen!

The promo for my animation film, Khumba (co-written with Anthony Silverston) was screened as part of International Animation Day. Read more about it here.

Zambezia featured in Screen Africa

The animated feature, 'Zambezia' which I have co-written and is currently in production was featured in the magazine 'Screen Africa'.

O -The Oprah Magazine's monthly Hot Topic: Polygamy

“You’ll never get women you’ve just met to speak openly about that!” exclaimed a fellow journalist when I told her that I was taking to the streets to find out what South African women think about polygamy. Boy was she wrong. Most women were more than eager (sometime with a little coaxing) to share their views, their gripes and even their preferences when it came to marital relationships. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that we now have a president with an entourage of ‘first ladies’!

Apart from a few Christian groups like the Mormons, today, the practice of marrying more than one spouse is found mostly amongst traditional African and some Islamic cultures. According to recent studies polygamy is falling out of favour with South African women but is still very much a part of a rural life. As a single, university-educated woman I have my own cultural and ideological baggage when it comes to polygamy so I was expecting to hear heated arguments about issues like gender equality, tradition and Afrocentric versus Eurocentric ideology. But as it turns out, the women I spoke to were mostly concerned about the financial implications of polygamy. I’m not sure if it’s because of the uncertain economic climate or that South African women have always had to be pragmatic and resourceful, but money was an issue that came up in many of the discussions. Most women felt that an average man wouldn’t have enough money to support all his wives and their children so it was likely that some women in a polygamous marriage would come off second-best. What was particularly disheartening was the ‘at-least-you-know-where-he is’ argument. Quite a few of the women I spoke to assumed that men, by nature, were incapable of fidelity so they felt that polygamy was a better option than risking their husband having an affair or being promiscuous . Although, as one woman pointed out – it didn’t stop Jacob Zuma, our national poster-boy for polygamy, from having sex with an HIV positive woman.

Of course, there were those who were against polygamy because of their specific religious or cultural upbringing but generally, the sentiment was one of open-mindedness when it came to polygamy. But is this a sign of a progressive, tolerant society or are South Africans afraid to speak their mind for fear of being culturally insensitive and dogmatic when it comes to their lifestyle choices? I was puzzled as to why almost all women, including myself, do not oppose polygamy in theory, or when it comes to others, but would find it difficult and even oppressive to marry a polygamist and be one of many wives. Why is it okay for “them” but not for “us”? The reality is that for many poor, rural women with little education, a polygamous marriage is their only guarantee for a roof over their heads and food on the table. Does that make them, as one woman questioned, any more disempowered than urbanised women who are also in monogamous marriages for financial security? “Exactly!” cried out feminists who believe that the issue of polygamy exposes the inequalities between men and women in our society. After all, why it is only acceptable for men to have more than one partner? To the amusement of passers-by, one young woman was particularly vocal about expressing her interest in having more than one husband because she didn’t think it was possible for one man to fulfil all her needs as she grows and changes.

But where does the heart fit into all of this? Isn’t love what marriage is supposed to be all about? Almost all the women I engaged with on the issue conceded that it was unlikely that a man would love all his wives equally in a polygamous relationship. Some women were adamant that if a man really loved his wife, then he wouldn’t feel the need to marry another woman which is why they objected to their husbands taking on another spouse. While others said they were willing to accept it because they loved their husbands and didn’t want to lose them.
Gender equality and the right to practice one’s religion and culture are enshrined in our constitution. Trying to achieve both is, clearly, proving to be a juggling act in a diverse and new democracy so it was reassuring to interact with women from different cultural and economic backrounds who felt they could speak openly about an issue like polygamy. The experience left me feeling that as long as we continue to cultivate a culture of tolerance and debate that all South Africans can contribute to, then we might just be halfway there.

Seeking Diversity, Resilience and Farmer Control (Published on Inter Press Service News Agency (IPS)

IPS - The Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) claims that its “stress breeding”, high-yield seed program and its emphasis on grassroots farmer input will boost agricultural production among poor, small scale farmers. But NGOs and environmentalists say AGRA’s Programme for Africa’s Seed System (PASS) is essentially a top-down, corporate driven approach that further threatens food security on the continent.

Like its predecessor, AGRA’s ‘new’ Green Revolution views food shortages as a crisis of demand-and-supply and has initiated what Joe de Vries, director of PASS, describes as a “farmer participatory” program that aims to develop strains of crops specifically suited to African conditions.

“It is our belief that Africa’s farmers need to move beyond subsistence farming and that by doing so they will benefit, and so will African consumers through greater abundance of food in local markets,” says de Vries.

For many NGOs working with subsistence farmers, AGRA’s model has more to do with increasing Africa’s production of commercial crops for export and opening up markets for agribusiness than it does with contributing to food security. “The need to increase yield is a neat argument that is easily swallowed by governments and citizens. It does not necessarily lead to ending hunger, especially when that yield is headed for a global market and remains inaccessible to the majority”, says Haidee Swanby, researcher at the African Centre for Biosafety (ACB).

One of the main criticisms levelled at AGRA is that it has not taken cognizance of the 2008 report by the International Assessment of Agricultural Knowledge Science and Technology for Development (IAASTD) which suggested that food sovereignty is inextricably tied to traditional and ecological agricultural models. “AGRA is not building on the systems and knowledge that already exist, they are still encouraging farmers to move to a foreign system that is reliant on external inputs and they must become reliant on corporations and expert knowledge,” argues Swanby.

The African Centre for Biosafety, along with international organisations like Food and Water Watch and the Oakland Institute are particularly concerned that AGRA’s “improved” seed program is laying the foundation for the introduction of GM crops in Africa; especially given that Bill Gates supports several other agricultural initiatives in Africa developing GM crops and that AGRA falls under the Gates Foundation's Global Development Program, whose senior programme officer is Dr. Robert Horsch - an employee of biotech giant Monsanto for 25 years and part of a team that developed Roundup Ready GM crops. Earlier this year, alarm bells were raised in the anti-GM camp when AGRA signed a five-year agreement with the Earth Institute at New York's Columbia University, which is headed by Jeff Sachs, an outspoken and avid supporter of GMOs.

But Joe de Vries says that AGRA is not funding the development of GM crops or seeds: “For now, our focus is limited to conventionally-bred varieties. We feel confident that major changes can be brought about simply by developing and deploying this [current breeding] technology.”

Rural people’s organisations like South Africa's Trust for Community Outreach and Education (TCOE) believe that AGRA has publicly steered clear of GM technology largely because it is such a contentious issue and because legislative frameworks are not yet in place in most African countries.

“Although AGRA claims that it does not make use of GMO seed, it is careful not to take a principled position on this contentious topic, thus leaving the door open to incorporate these into the plan at some future stage”, says Siviwe Mdoda, coordinator of TCOE’s Land Rights Program.

The fact that AGRA is developing seeds that are privately-owned remains a contested issue within debates about food security and food sovereignty in Africa. Funded by a large corporate network which includes chemical, seed and fertiliser companies, AGRA has helped start up private seed enterprises specifically targeting small-scale farmers in Mozambique, Mali, Malawi and Rwanda to meet, according to de Vries, the growing demand for hybrid seed.

AGRA has also been working closely with African governments who are interested in instituting subsidised seed packages with incentives like free seeds and fertilisers for the first year and subsidised packages for the next 3 or 4 years. Through these seed packages, argues Mdoda, farmers who for generations have owned their own seeds will become locked into a cycle of dependency on seeds which they have to then continually purchase, along with specific chemical fertilisers. “AGRA should be supporting seed savings and indigenous seed banks, not encouraging the production of patented varieties that are not suitable for use in the next planting season”, he says.

For Joe De Vries, the only solution to uplifting Africa’s rural poor is to increase agricultural production by helping farmers to access seeds for the 68 new varieties of crops like cassava, sorghum and maize that PASS has released which can be used together with fertilisers: “In order to access quality technology, you have to pay for it - the alternative is hunger. The way to break free from the cycle of poverty is to get better seeds and produce more food”.

De Vries, an expert in plant-breeding and genetics believes that because Africa’s soil is so depleted, it is unfeasible to grow food without increasing the use of fertiliser and claims that AGRA has being working with African agronomists, scientists and farmers to find a balance between organic and inorganic methods of sustaining soil health. “Inorganic fertilisers, used in judicious amounts which are in balance with the environment, have helped free billions of people from hunger throughout the world,” he says.

Swanby and Mdodo believe that poorly-educated and impoverished farmers have little chance of competing with large-scale commercial farmers, and that if food security was the priority, AGRA would be concerned with addressing issues such as access to land and water, fair trade and ownership of resources: “In terms of production systems, yield is not as important as diversity, resilience and farmer control over resources”, says Swanby.

Khumba goes to Hollywood

The animated film 'Khumba' which is currently in production and I wrote the script for (with writer/director, Anthony Silverston)was featured in the latest issue of Hollywood Reporter! You can watch the pilot on the National Film and Video Foundation website.