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| Esbe morphs out of coat of arms. | ||
| ESBE: Universal franchise. One person, one vote. | Dissolve to the hand of an old person ticking in a square. | Freedom song… |
| ESBE: For centuries, we have struggled to achieve this right. | Dissolve to same hand putting folded rectangle of paper into a ballot box. | continues… |
| ESBE: On Freedom Day, we celebrate the long struggle that led up to April 27, 1994, when for the first time, all South Africans over the age of 18 could vote. This struggle for freedom goes back a long, long way… | 1994 footage of long lines of people waiting to vote. | continues |
| ESBE: The history of our country is the history of the struggle for all colonised people to free themselves, no matter where they came from or how they got here. | Dissolve to archive montage of slave auctions both here in Africa, the Americas and the Caribbean. | |
| ESBE: From the moment the Dutch decided that the Cape would make an excellent halfway stop for their trade with the East, there were people who lost their freedom. Slaves were taken not only from the local population, but were brought in from other countries - Bali, Batavia, Macassa, Timor, Burma, the Malayan Peninsula and China. | Track over old paintings of Dutch ships in Table Bay, Van Riebeeck, trade with the Khoikhoi and San peoples, the British, the French Huguenots, the Voortrekkers. Dissolve through the words in an early pamphlet: TO BE SOLD & LET by public auction. On Monday 18th May, 1829 under the tree. For sale, the three following SLAVES… | |
| ESBE: Yet from Thomas Paine’s ‘The Rights of Man’ in the 18th century to the Freedom Charter in the 20th, we have expressed the desire to be free. | Image of Thomas Paine.
Dissolve to the words from Paine’s ‘The Rights of Man’ pamphlet; ‘These are the times that try men’s soul’s’. |
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| Esbe: These words were written over 200 hundred years ago in defense of the American War of Independence. | Visual: ‘A long habit of not thinking a thing WRONG, gives it a superficial appearance of being RIGHT, and raises at first a formidable outcry in defense of custom. But the tumult soon subsides. Time makes more converts than reason.’ | |
| Esbe: And although these words are separated by the centuries, they have their roots in the same desire, the desire to be free and to live in harmony as a nation. | Dissolve to montage of Mandela and these words:
‘We, the People of South Africa, declare for all our country and the world to know: that South Africa belongs to all who live in it, black and white, and that no government can justly claim authority unless it is based on the will of all the people’ |
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| ESBE: And although slavery was eventually abolished in 1834, it was by no means the dawn of freedom. Only the lowliest work was deemed appropriate for former slaves and for the increasingly dispossessed indigenous African people. | Dissolve to archive photos of early gold mining activities. | |
| ESBE: And while Black people fought for their place in the sun against the British and the Boers, Indian labourers were brought in to work the sugarcane fields and later, Chinese to work in the mines. | Archive photos of plantation workers and working on the railways and in the mines. | |
| ESBE: And although the mix of different cultures and races in South Africa may have been exotic to the European eye, there was no respect for anybody who wasn't white. And the darker your skin colour, the fewer rights you had. | Montage of images of people from different cultures through the 19th century. | |
| ESBE: Black people were seen only as a source of cheap labour. And on the gold fields, Africans were refused licences to prospect. They couldn't trade in minerals, or even open shops. | Archive. Native Labour Passport 1905. Richard Msimang's document about evictions and hardships following the Natives Land Act 1913. | |
| ESBE: And in spite of the increasing disenfranchisement, our people never stopped struggling. Eventually the ANC was formed in 1912 and over the years other organisations representing oppressed sections of our society and those who battled to change the conditions of the oppressed, were created. | Archive pictures of John Dube, Pixley ka Isaka Seme, Sol Plaatje, Ghandi, Robert Sobukwe, Albert Luthuli. | |
| ESBE: But throughout the 1920s and 30s, Afrikaaner power over the state and its institutions increased. By 1948 with increasing Black resistance to white domination, the Apartheid system was born with its roots in the infamous racial theories of Nazi Germany. A system which entrenched the privilege of white, Afrikaans speakers. | Pictures of poor whites after the Depression. The Broederbond. Henning Klopper. Jan Smuts. Barry Hertzog. | |
| Esbe: What British colonialism had initiated, the Apartheid state codified into a complex system of laws that separated the ‘races’ into a ‘pyramid of power’ with the whites of course, at the pinnacle of the pyramid. | Danie Malan after the election in 1948. ZK Matthews. Protests and celebrations - contrasting pictures depicting the jubilation of the Afrikaner and despair of other South Africans. Sharpeville. | |
| ESBE: This was social engineering on a grand scale. Three and a half million people were uprooted from their homes to be re-settled in townships and eventually in the infamous ‘homelands’. | Hostels, townships, both archive and contemporary footage. Sophia Town, District Six, Martindale, Modderdam, Crossroads. PW Botha, Transkei, Ciskei, Venda, Bophuthatswana. | |
| ESBE: A vast and expensive bureaucracy was created to administer the strict separation of the races in every aspect of life: economic, political and social. (aside: A system that we are even today, still struggling to transform). | Archive montage of corridors, offices, official documents, stamps, regulations, people in cues, being stopped in the street for documents, herded into police vans. | Archive soundtrack of radio newsreader extolling the system of Apartheid. ‘Separate but equal’. |
| ESBE: And all of it paid for with the cheap labour of the millions of the oppressed ‘Hewers of wood, carriers of water’. | Archive; The gold, diamond and coal mines. | |
| ESBE: And because labour was scarce, the iniquitous migrant labour system was created, with millions of foreign workers imported from Mozambique and Lesotho. Without rights, separated from their families, they became a colony within a colony. The legacy of this infamous system haunts us even today, eight years after our first democratic election and is one of the major causes of the spread of HIV/AIDS that is decimating communities across southern Africa. | Archive: ‘Stimela’. The trains bringing migrant workers to the mines.
HIV patients, empty villages, cemeteries, AIDS orphans. |
Hugh Masekela: ‘Stimela’ |
| ESBE: Any resistance was dealt with harshly. The jails were full of people who resisted the regime. Many died there. The leaders of black organisations were seen as troublemakers and either jailed, banned or killed. | Still and film footage brutality stamped over by newspaper headlines. Steve Biko. Govan Mbeki. Chris Hani. Joe Slovo. Braam Fischer, Beyers Naude, Winnie Mandela. | |
| The struggle against an inhuman and unjust regime never halted throughout the 20th century. | Danie Malan after the election in 1948. ZK Matthews. Protests and celebrations - contrasting pictures depicting the jubilation of the Afrikaner and despair of other South Africans. Sharpeville. | |
| ESBE: In 1961, organised acts of sabotage against government installations were carried out by Umkhonto weSizwe, the armed wing of the ANC. | Stills and stock footage alternating with newspaper headlines of sabotage - Nedbank Building in Pretoria, Sasol, Koeberg, etc. | |
| After the police raid of MK's secret headquarters at Lilliesleaf Farm in Rivonia, its entire leadership was arrested and given life sentences on Robben Island. | Stills and stock footage of the Lilliesleaf raid, the personalities involved, the trial and Robben Island, interspersed with local and international headlines. | |
| To suppress the rebellion of anybody - black or white - who opposed the government, publications were banned, books and music were banned and people were banned. Those who wouldn't bow down were put in jail. | During this fast cut section, books, newspapers, magazines, records and photographs of people are brutally stamped with BANNED in red. | |
| It was clear to many people in South Africa and the rest of the world that Apartheid could not continue. Horrific torture and murder carried out by the government's police force reached the attention of the international community, who started boycotting South African exports, sport and economic involvement. | Footage of demonstrations in front of South Africa House in London. Newspaper headlines about sanctions - oil, fruit, Outspan oranges, the 'Release Mandela' campaign, the Bob Geldoff Concert, Pik Botha getting into trouble with Vorster for saying he'd be prepared to live under a Black president. Helen Suzman | |
| By the end of 1980s, the economy is was in a state of crisis. Isolated from the world, the Apartheid regime was finally forced to face reality and to negotiate with the ANC and its allies. | Footage of the war in Angola. Cuito Carnevale. SWAPO in Namibia. Conscientous objectors.
COSATU and UDF demonstrations. |
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| Finally, in 1990, Nelson Mandela was released from prison. The ANC, SACP, PAC and other liberation organisations were unbanned. | Protest marches in South Africa. The Black Sash. Wits demonstrations. The march on Pretoria. The ANC Women's movement. 'Strike a woman, strike a rock.' Buthelezi, Allan Hendrickse, Amichand Rajbansi, Helen Joseph. PW de Klerk. Van Zyl Slabbert, Roelf Meyer | |
| NELSON MANDELA:
(Selections from his address on release) DESMOND TUTU: Extracts from his Rainbow Nation service. |
Jubilant crowds over the release of Madiba. Joyful faces in the crowd. | |
| And at last, on April 27, 1994, South Africans - all South Africans over the age of 18 - went to the polls to elect the government of their choice.
Freedom at last! |
In a montage of political leaders voting and crowds of standing in line to vote, we cover the whole process up to the inauguration of Nelson Mandela as president of South Africa. The new flag surges through the scenes. The flyover of the SAA planes. Happy faces of South Africans of all colours. The swearing in ceremony
with previous white leaders. |
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| Esbe: A negotiated and peaceful transition to democracy was initiated, culminating in the 1994 democratic election. | ||
| Esbe: But is this all freedom is about, the right to vote every five years? | ||
| Esbe: Our Constitution, our Bill of Rights is in reality, a contract between us as citizens and the state and government we have elected to represent us. | ||
| Esbe: But without our active participation through all the avenues open to us, local, provincial and national government agencies, non-governmental organisations, trade unions and other civil society structures, freedom is just a word. | ||
| Esbe: Okay, we’ve won our freedom. We all have the vote but what does freedom mean in real terms? | ||
| Esbe on the street: Excuse me. What does freedom mean to you? | VOX POPS on the street, in a shebeen, a restaurant, and a school: | |
| 1st person: | ||
| 2nd person; | ||
| 3rd person: | ||
| 4th person: | ||
| Esbe: All have different ideas about what freedom means to them but what’s important is that all have the space to express these ideas, whether we agree with them or not. So how do we reconcile so many different ideas. How is it possible for differences to co-exist without anarchy and chaos? | CUT: A school debating society. Arguments, discourse. | Dialog in background. |
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| CUT: Dance studio. Bodies moving around in apparent chaos. The choreographer is leading the process, calling out directions as the action stops and starts. | Dialog. | |
| ESBE: It seems like chaos to me. All these bodies moving around apparently without order or direction? | The rehearsal continues | VO |
| CHOREOGRAPHER: Esbe, it might seem like chaos but in my mind, I have an idea which I have to translate into movement, using the dancers as my canvas. | … | VO |
| Esbe: But how do the dancers know? What if they experience the idea differently? | … | VO |
| CHOREOGRAPHER: Dance is a process. It’s not something that’s pre-ordained. Even though I have an idea, we have to work through it collectively in order to realise it. And the body has limits, limits which we continuously extend. Nothing is static. | … | Dialog |
| Dialog between dancers and choreographer. They are discussing the moves and the reasons. As the rehearsal progresses, the structure of the piece emerges. | The choreographer is working with the dancers. He is explaining why he wants a particular movement to happen. | Dialog |
| The choreographer and one of the dancers have a disagreement over a particular move with the dancer insisting that the move he wants is not possible to do. The choreographer explains why even though it’s difficult to do, it has be done this way. The dancer insists, so the choreographer says okay, let me see what you have in mind. The dancer goes through the moves and convinces the choreographer that it hits the spot. | ||
| Esbe: So you are allowing the dancer the freedom to express herself? | ||
| Choreographer: No! It’s not about allowing, it’s about the obligation of the dancer to enter into a dialog with the choreographer and vice versa. It’s about a free exchange of ideas, some of which will be used and some of which won’t. If I just issued orders to the dancers, there’d be no understanding of why I want a particular movement. Of what the movements mean. And I’m not omnipotent. I don’t have all the answers. I’m learning as well. | ||
| Esbe: Yet sooner or later, decisions have to be made. | ||
| Choreographer: Yes, regardless, even though we may disagree on some aspects, finally a consensus has to be reached between the choreographer and the dancer or nothing would be accomplished. | ||
| Esbe: Are you suggesting that there is a parallel between dance and freedom? | ||
| Choreographer: Yes. It’s like the body itself. It has limits even though as a choreographer I’m always trying to move beyond the body’s limitations. To extend the boundaries of what is possible. Sometimes dancers feel that they don’t have the capacity, the skill to realise the vision. It’s only when they try that they realise that they have the capacity to succeed. That it’s the journey not the destination that counts. | ||
| The rehearsal continues. Finally, the choreographer is satisfied that the piece is ready. | ||
| The piece is performed. Esbe flutters around, delighted. | ||
| Esbe: How hard he’s trying. He obviously has talent but he doesn’t know how to structure the song. Where should the chorus go? How does he link the various sections of the song together? How do the lyrics fit the composition. So many unanswered questions. | CUT to the yard of a house in a township: A boy is trying to play a guitar and sing a song he’s creating. His friends are grouped around him, trying to help him compose the song, making suggestions. Although possessing talent, it’s clear that he’s having difficulty knowing how to structure the song and he’s getting frustrated but continues to struggle with his idea in spite of his lack of knowledge and skill. | |
| Esbe: Yes, we know many people teach themselves to play an instrument. Many are born with the talent of making music. | CUT: Interior of house. The same boy is sitting at a piano with the instructor standing next to him. The boy is trying to compose his song on the piano. | |
| Esbe: But it’s much easier if you have guidance. | The teacher is listening to the boy explain what he wants to do. The teacher explains how a song is structured, the key it’s in, the length of the bar, the tempo etc. | Dialog. |
| CUT: The song is taking shape. The boy is amazed by what he’s done! The teacher praises him but tells him, that he has much to learn. That this is just the beginning. | Music and Dialog. | |
| Esbe: Everywhere I look, I see people, ordinary people struggling to realize their dreams and we know it’s not easy. Yet, we continue in spite of the obstacles that confront us. In spite of the setbacks. Nobody said it would be easy. | CUT: Montage of citizens at work. In townships, on streets, in offices and schools and factories. The stock exchange. A parliamentary debate. A pre-school group under the trees. A man building a shack. A woman moving into her new house. An informal trader creating a roadside stand. | Music |
| Fast forward: Traffic. A crowded sidewalk, people walking, sitting in a café or bar. Kids playing soccer, basketball. Women talking around a kitchen table. | Music | |
| Esbe: And no matter where I go, I see people enjoying themselves as well. | CUT: A party. People dancing, laughing and talking. | Music |
| Esbe: And during the decades of struggle and oppression, we still managed to express our joy at being alive, of our creative potential. We don’t stop being human beings just because the circumstances try to dehumanize us. | Archive: Miriam Makeba from the 1950s. Spokes, penny whistle musician. | Music |
| Esbe: In the beginning we asked the question, what does it mean to be free and we got lots of different answers from many people. | Montage: Freedom Day celebrations. | Music/VOs |
| Esbe: At some point however, decisions have to made and acted on. Just as our choreographer had a vision which in turn had to be translated into reality, so too our government has to make decisions and act upon them. Some are not always popular. Disagreements boil over. We get frustrated when things don’t go our way or don’t turn out the way we expected them to. So how do we decide? | CUT to montage of: Parliament debating and arguing.
Union meetings. Neighbourhood meetings. PTA meetings Traditional law. The elders, Amakhozi discussing issues under a tree in a rural setting. |
VOs |
| Esbe: Yes, passions can often make us do things we wouldn’t normally do. Ideas can be powerful weapons that can often get out of control when we’re frustrated and don’t have an immediate solution for our problems or an outlet for our feelings. | CUT to a shebeen: People are having an intense political argument around a table. Tempers rise. It threatens to boil over into violence. People leap to their feet. One person intervenes and calms the people down, appealing to their reason. | Dialog in Zulu or Xhosa. |
| Esbe: Yet there is so much to do and we often lack the skills and resources to tackle all the problems we face. Are schools more important than hospitals? Are houses more important than clean water? How do we decide on what our priorities are? | CUT: Under construction. Housing schemes, water, schools, hospitals etc. A woman getting the key to her new house. A cholera treatment center. Women carrying water. | Music |
| Esbe: Let’s ask some people what they think: | CUT TO VOX POPS: | |
| 1st person | Dialog | |
| 2nd person | Dialog | |
| 3rd person | Dialog | |
| 4th person | Dialog | |
| Esbe: Isn’t this a scene we know so well. After all is said and done, it comes down to very simple things really. People enjoying themselves with their family and friends, enjoying the fruits of their labour. | CUT: An ordinary working class extended family picnicking under the trees. Children are playing, the braai is smoking. Music plays. | Music in background. |
| Esbe: For decades we’ve struggled to attain our freedom. Free to pursue our dreams and in spite of the obstacles and the difficulties we encounter along the way, we are in the process of the struggle to realize them and of creating a better life for all. This is why we celebrate Freedom Day. To celebrate our pain and our joy. To celebrate life. | People laze around on the grass, laughing and enjoying the heat of the day, the breeze, munching on chicken legs and drinking beer. | Music VOs in background |
| CUT: Dissolve back to the coat of arms and Esbe morphing back into it. | ||
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