Under the baobab: Soweto Gospel Choir to bring ‘Hope,’ history to State College

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 protesters. 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 a people who would not long be subjugated under apartheid.”

I returned to South Africa nearly 25 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 ascendance of the African National Congress. 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. UFS 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 “Reitz 4” 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 UFS. 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. Prof. 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 UFS students. Angelo and I were blessed to bring RRR4 to Penn State. Working with the Elisha Clark Halpin, then head of the PSU dance program, and PSU 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 at Penn State will host the two-time Grammy Award winning Soweto Gospel Choir as they present, “Hope: It’s Been a Long Time Coming” on Nov. 29. There will be several other events. This is a not to be missed gala. It is joyous history in the making.