Subseries 3.1.5 - Newsletter 1981, Vol. 3, No. 1

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ZA MEDU MEDU-3-3.1-3.1.5

Title

Newsletter 1981, Vol. 3, No. 1

Date(s)

  • 1981 (Accumulation)

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39 pages

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(1978-1985)

Administrative history

The Medu Art Ensemble was formed by South Africa exiles in Gaborone, Botswana, in 1978. The organisation produced a wealth of creative work across all major art-forms; the roup further played a key role in shaping aesthetic and cultural theory and praxis within Africanist and liberation struggles. On June 14 1985, the South African Defence Force attacked the homes of Medu members and other activists in Gaborone, killing 12 people; Medu as an organisation ceased to exist.

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The central thrust behind this newsletter by the Medu Art Ensemble is the need to do art collectively and with a consciousness about community. The poetry section includes "Out of the faceless ghettos" by Bachana Mokwena. In this poem, his constant refrain to "Momma" reflects on the personal and structural pain of Apartheid through alternating between the words "momma", "mother" and "motherland". Here he laments the long history of racial oppression, the scars on Momma's back and the near-freedom which he grasps. A short story by Tebogo Mosabako entitled "Moshupa Story" relays a story of a young man in Moshupa Botswana, who through an act of goodwill receives care and reciprocity. In the section "Art Review", Dimakatso Dimakatso reviews Penny Miller's "Myths and Legends of Southern Africa", which, it is argued, reinforces the racist myths and legends of southern Africa. Es'kia Mpahlele's "Chirundu", a novel about the "entire process of life" in an (un-named) newly independent African state, is reviewed by Njabulo Ndebele. Each of these artforms presented in this edition speak to community, change, resistance and creativity.

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Permission to publish must be obtained from the Medu Art Ensemble Project.

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Publication note

There are three unnumbered illustration pages, two illustrations are done by Judy Seidman and two drawings in one page are done by Felix Lesetedi and Christopher Mosinyi. Newsletter does not have cover page and unnumbered table of content.

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