(Tselane
Tambo with NAF Artistic Director, Ismail Mahomed)
The role of the arts in transforming South
Africa from an apartheid state to a constitutional democracy will be under the
spotlight at this year’s NAF.
Over the years, the Fringe programme at the
National Arts Festival has been an open access platform for artists who have
engaged the arts for social and political advocacy. During the 80’s State of
Emergency in South Africa, the Fringe programme was volatile and the work
represented the political tensions of the time.
As South Africa celebrates two decades of
democracy, the National Arts Festival will this year introduce an award that
recognises artists who continue to engage in the arts as a platform to advocate
social change and to entrench South Africa’s human rights culture.
The Adelaide Tambo Award for Human Rights
in the Arts will honour an artist or company whose work on the Fringe programme
embodies Adelaide Tambo’s passion for the arts and her deep commitment for
human rights. The Award has the support of the Tambo family.
Adelaide Tambo – who shared a birthday with
Nelson Mandela – was a champion of human rights. “The arts are a channel for
dialogue and expression on human rights issues. She fought for the freedom of
her people and she loved the arts. She was a patron of The Ballet. She was a
consumer of all art forms,” says her daughter, Tselane.
An actress herself, Tselane Tambo - the
youngest of three children of Adelaide and Oliver Tambo - directed For Coloured Girls Who’ve Considered Suicide
When The Rainbow is Enuf at the National Arts Festival in 1994. Some 20
years later, Tselane will return to the Festival to present this award in
honour of her late mother.
“I think that my mother is the perfect
person to carry the name of an arts and human rights award - it embodies the qualities
that she exemplified and is remembered for,” says Tselane. “To my parents, the
arts were an essential part of their being. They insisted that we be cultured.
The ANC choral group, Amandla, was the brainchild of my father whose passion
was choral music. He recognised that, as a people from such rich cultures, it
was important to express our struggle through the arts, through music. My
mother was an artist. It wasn’t her job, but it was her passion. I think were
it not for the rigours and demands of political life; had she been born into a
world where she could have chosen any profession she liked, she would have
chosen something artistic like design. She had a creative life that very few
people know of. She took us, as children, to opera and ballet and theatre. Our
home was filled with music.”
Artistic Director Ismail Mahomed says: “South
African artists have a long history of claiming their political voice and using
it to advance many causes. The Fringe programme at the National Arts Festival
is a beacon of innovation and creativity that is characteristic of South
Africa’s cultural landscape. The Adelaide Tambo Award for Human Rights will be
a wonderful catalyst to advance excellence and the determination to continue to
build a nation in which all South Africans can enjoy their constitutional
rights. We are grateful to the Tambo family for aligning Adelaide Tambo’s
legacy with the National Arts Festival.”
The Adelaide Tambo Award will include a
cash prize for the winner as well as a production incentive to extend the run
of the play. The winner will also be invited to create a new work for the 2015
Arena programme at the Festival.
The Adelaide Tambo Award is supported from
a grant from the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands which will enable
the Festival to present a bouquet of events on the Festival’s Main, Arena and
Development programmes. The Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands is the
Festival’s overall sponsor of Think!Fest.
Human rights are a central element in Dutch
foreign policy. In particular, combating violence and discrimination against
LGBTI people, women, and human rights defenders are major priority areas for
the Netherlands. There is much to be learned from South Africa’s remarkable
struggle for freedom and human rights and its 20 year democracy. The Embassy is
honoured to partner with such auspicious institutions to celebrate the
tenacious commitment to human rights and art of Ma Adelaide Tambo.
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