Arts Review

Written by: Tiisetso Tlelima

In the true spirit of Sophiatown, the Trevor Huddleston Memorial Centre launched its Saturday arts programme and workshops for children aged between 9 to 12 and 12 to 15 this past weekend. Weekends will never be the same again for Sophiatown’s youngstas – every Saturday they will be immersed in activities such as drumming, dance, drama, arts and craft, and they will participate in workshops facilitated through hip-hop, pantsula and afro-fusion dance.

“We aim to use the arts to generate a movement of successful leaders or legends at the community level, leading to increased community integration, economic and social stability from across different cultural and religious backgrounds,” explains the Memorial Centre’s Arts and Culture Coordinator, Zanele Mzizi-England. And to be able to achieve this integration and inter-cultural harmony children need to be introduced to the arts at an early age.

“Arts in the widest sense enables individuals to expand their inner-selves – the part of us which connect to our very being,” she says. “Music speaks to some people; poetry, painting and writing to others; and drama enables us to experiment with other possibilities. The arts are what make us different from other human beings, where we can gain an understanding of various cultures and celebrate our uniqueness. It is therefore important for young people to be introduced to arts at an early age.”

The Trevor Huddleston Memorial Centre’s vision is to generate a fully integrated society, so the arts are an essential part of growing up and being confident in our identities, our heritage and our future. “Imagine life without photographs (even family snaps), without music, without beautifully made clothes – all this is art. In that way, we feel the arts are an essential part of life for our young people, not an extra,” explains Mzizi-England.

The Memorial Centre, established in 1999, promotes the arts as a means of connecting to each other so that we can build an understanding across groups historically separated by apartheid, and now by social, economic and geographical barriers. Although it is not a training school, its arts programmes include heritage, cultural exchanges, and performing arts for amateurs, writing skills, music, visual arts and crafts.

An art and design programme is also available which offers young people product design and marketing classes. The Centre teaches them business skills so that these young artists can lead self-sustaining lives and earn a living through their art, but at the same time they are also encouraged to cherish their heritage. In addition, emerging artists can exhibit and sell their work at the Centre.

In the past the Centre’s Saturday art schools – set up by artist and board member Bon Chandiyamba – have attracted over 40 children and eight young artists who were trained at the Memorial Centre and have all gone on to be successful artists apart from Jerry Masoleng who was tragically killed in 2007.

Currently the arts programmes in the Centre provide the platform where people from diverse backgrounds can engage in dialogue and share their experiences without prejudice. “We call them encounters with yourself, each other, and our heritage,” says Mzizi-England. “The aim is to have a space where all people can interact safely and productively in a creative environment so that we can experience Ubuntu here, every day in this historic suburb.”

Much like the person it is named after – Trevor Huddleston, a humble man who had a heart of gold – the Centre is supposed to bring the community together. British-born Huddleston worked with South Africans and overseas missionaries to set up schools, feeding schemes, churches and community services in the early 1940s, in and around Joburg. He lived in Meyer Street in Sophiatown until the forced removals of 1955.

Huddleston was instrumental in shaping Sophiatown’s arts in the 50s. He helped establish the Huddleston Jazz Band featuring Bra Hugh Masekela and Jonas Gwangwa paving a way for some of Mzansi’s best jazz musicians. Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Stompie Manana, Sally Motlana and Judge Fikile Bam were all among the thousands of pupils whose lives were touched by Huddleston.

During apartheid days he was kicked out of South Africa and went back to the UK from where he campaigned and worked with Oliver Tambo and others, against apartheid. “Huddleston spent his life fighting racism, and raising funds to give children a chance to develop their potential – academic, musical, artistic – whatever their gifts were,” explains Mzizi-England.

He died in 1998 and asked to be buried at ‘his’ church in Sophiatown. The Centre was established after his death to promote the values he and his contemporaries stood for – equality of opportunity for all people, mutual respect and tolerance, education and care for the most disadvantaged.

For more information on any of the programmes, please contact Zanele or Berlina on 011 673 1271/7238.