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Fight with Our Eyes. We
Plant Seeds with Our
Hands. We Will Watch the
Wheat Fill the Valley:
The Fiftieth Newsletter
(2023)</span></span></span></strong>
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<span
style="font-family:lato,helvetica neue,helvetica,arial,sans-serif">
<div id="attachment_90592"
class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img
aria-describedby="caption-attachment-90592" decoding="async"
fetchpriority="high"
class="wp-image-90592 size-full img-responsive mcRssImage"
src="https://thetricontinental.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/D71_Image_3.jpg"
alt=""
srcset="https://thetricontinental.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/D71_Image_3.jpg 950w, https://thetricontinental.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/D71_Image_3-250x300.jpg 250w, https://thetricontinental.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/D71_Image_3-854x1024.jpg 854w, https://thetricontinental.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/D71_Image_3-768x921.jpg 768w"
sizes="(max-width: 950px) 100vw, 950px"
style="max-width: 100%;width: 100%;padding-bottom: 0;display: inline;vertical-align: bottom;border: 0;height: auto;outline: none;text-decoration: none;-ms-interpolation-mode: bicubic;"
moz-do-not-send="true"
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<p
id="caption-attachment-90592" class="wp-caption-text"
style="margin: 10px 0;padding: 0;mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family: Helvetica;font-size: 16px;line-height: 150%;text-align: left;"><span
style="color: #ba2025;">Medu
Art Ensemble (Botswana),
<i>Shades of Change</i>,
1982. This two-man play,
set in a prison cell,
was written by Mongane
Wally Serote. Credit:
Medu Art Ensemble via
Freedom Park</span></p>
</div>
<p
style="margin: 10px 0;padding: 0;mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family: Helvetica;font-size: 16px;line-height: 150%;text-align: left;"> </p>
<p
style="margin: 10px 0;padding: 0;mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family: Helvetica;font-size: 16px;line-height: 150%;text-align: left;">Dear
friends,</p>
<p
style="margin: 10px 0;padding: 0;mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family: Helvetica;font-size: 16px;line-height: 150%;text-align: left;">Greetings
from the desk of <a
href="https://thetricontinental.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=6a79324d3b4acfde1e7e546c6&id=83316e5b52&e=d206d0a40d"
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moz-do-not-send="true">Tricontinental:
Institute for Social
Research</a>.</p>
<p
style="margin: 10px 0;padding: 0;mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family: Helvetica;font-size: 16px;line-height: 150%;text-align: left;">In
the ancient time of national
liberation, when partisans
walked among the people in
rural hamlets or small
towns, they carried their
message forward in the palms
of their hands, their rifles
slung over their shoulders,
newspapers and pamphlets in
their bags. Given the
prevalence of illiteracy in
the colonised world,
partisans often gathered
people around small fires
and read these texts aloud
(it is fitting that the
Latin word for ‘fire’ is <i>focus</i>).
This literature of national
liberation shared theories
of exploitation and
oppression that made sense
to the people and encouraged
them to join the struggle in
their own way.</p>
<p
style="margin: 10px 0;padding: 0;mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family: Helvetica;font-size: 16px;line-height: 150%;text-align: left;">The
newspapers and pamphlets
shared not only information,
but also important analyses
of the ongoing struggle,
with original poems, plays,
stories, and drawings woven
throughout. Such imaginative
works were published
alongside texts of didactic
instruction in periodicals
like <i>El Moudjahid</i>
(‘The Fighters’), the
newspaper of the National
Liberation Front of Algeria,
<i>Cờ Giải Phóng </i>(‘Liberation
Flag’), the newspaper of the
National Liberation Front of
Vietnam, and <i>Al Hadaf</i>
(‘The Goal’), the magazine
of the Popular Front for the
Liberation of Palestine.</p>
<p
style="margin: 10px 0;padding: 0;mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family: Helvetica;font-size: 16px;line-height: 150%;text-align: left;">In
<i>Al Hadaf</i> and in his
novel <i>Umm Sa’ad</i>
about a Palestinian woman
who encourages her son to
join the <i>fedayeen</i>
(‘guerrillas’), Ghassan
Kanafani (1936–1972) showed
that there can be no head
without a heart. There can
be no conceptualisation of
the revolutionary tomorrow
without a leap of the
imagination to make the
journey. Culture is the
space not only to transmit
the message, but also to
visualise the future.</p>
<p
style="margin: 10px 0;padding: 0;mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family: Helvetica;font-size: 16px;line-height: 150%;text-align: left;"> </p>
<div id="attachment_90807"
class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img
aria-describedby="caption-attachment-90807" decoding="async"
class="wp-image-90807 size-full img-responsive mcRssImage"
src="https://thetricontinental.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/D71_Image_6.jpg"
alt="Medu members Lulu Emmig and Thami Mnyele (seated at the table in the front, from left to right), and others attend a Woman’s Day function at the Swedish Embassy in Gaborone, Botswana, 1981. Credit: Sergio-Albio Gonzalez via Freedom Park"
srcset="https://thetricontinental.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/D71_Image_6.jpg 952w, https://thetricontinental.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/D71_Image_6-300x246.jpg 300w, https://thetricontinental.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/D71_Image_6-768x629.jpg 768w"
sizes="(max-width: 952px) 100vw, 952px"
style="max-width: 100%;width: 100%;padding-bottom: 0;display: inline;vertical-align: bottom;border: 0;height: auto;outline: none;text-decoration: none;-ms-interpolation-mode: bicubic;"
moz-do-not-send="true"
width="952" border="0">
<p
id="caption-attachment-90807" class="wp-caption-text"
style="margin: 10px 0;padding: 0;mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family: Helvetica;font-size: 16px;line-height: 150%;text-align: left;"><span
style="color: #ba2025;">Medu
members Lulu Emmig and
Thami Mnyele (seated at
the table in the front,
from left to right)
attend a Woman’s Day
function at the Swedish
Embassy in Gaborone,
Botswana, 1981. Credit:
Sergio-Albio Gonzalez
via Freedom Par</span></p>
</div>
<p
style="margin: 10px 0;padding: 0;mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family: Helvetica;font-size: 16px;line-height: 150%;text-align: left;"> </p>
<p
style="margin: 10px 0;padding: 0;mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family: Helvetica;font-size: 16px;line-height: 150%;text-align: left;">Culture
is a vital centre of
struggle. It is where people
see who they are, learn what
they are capable of, and
dare to imagine what they
would like to build in this
world. Art itself does not
change the world, but
without bringing imagination
to life through art, we
would resign ourselves to
the present. Radical artists
allude to reality, trying to
raise the consciousness of
people who might otherwise
not have considered this or
that aspect of their
relationship with others. It
is the role of art to focus
the people’s attention and
build their confidence to
struggle against the misery
inflicted upon the global
majority. Building this
focus and confidence paves
the path for people’s
organisations to carry this
new consciousness forward
and build a better world.
The nineteenth century
slogan of ‘art for art’s
sake’ is a cry of despair
against the actual purpose
of art in our society: to
breathe in the ugliness that
surrounds us and breathe out
the beauty that inspires us
to change that dreadfulness.</p>
<p
style="margin: 10px 0;padding: 0;mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family: Helvetica;font-size: 16px;line-height: 150%;text-align: left;">The
latest dossier from
Tricontinental: Institute
for Social Research, <i>Culture
as a Weapon of Struggle:
The Medu Art Ensemble and
Southern African
Liberation</i>, adopts
this stance toward art and
culture. Medu (which means
‘roots’ in Sesotho) was a
collective built by artists
involved in the southern
African liberation struggles
from 1979 to 1985. Among the
sixty or so artists who
belonged to the Medu
collective were the
influential poets Keorapetse
William Kgositsile (South
Africa’s first poet
laureate) and Mongane Wally
Serote (South Africa’s
current poet laureate),
writer Mandla Langa,
musicians Jonas Gwangwa and
Dennis Mpale, and visual
artists Thamsanqa ‘Thami’
Mnyele and Judy Seidman. The
dossier weaves together
original interviews with
many of the surviving
artists and research that
brings in the voices of
those who did not survive
the brutality of the
apartheid regime. Based in
Gaborone (Botswana), these
artists came from a variety
of political traditions,
such as the Black
Consciousness Movement, the
African National Congress,
and the South African
Communist Party and were
inspired by the broad
tradition of national
liberation movements from
Vietnam to Chile. Together,
the Medu collective built on
Frantz Fanon’s idea that ‘it
is at the heart of national
consciousness that
international consciousness
establishes itself and
thrives. And this dual
emergence, in fact, is the
unique focus of all
culture’.</p>
<p
style="margin: 10px 0;padding: 0;mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family: Helvetica;font-size: 16px;line-height: 150%;text-align: left;"> </p>
<div id="attachment_90728"
class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img
aria-describedby="caption-attachment-90728" decoding="async"
class="wp-image-90728 size-full img-responsive mcRssImage"
src="https://thetricontinental.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/D71_Image_9.jpg"
alt="December 16 – Heroes Day, 1983. Credit: Medu Art Ensemble via Freedom Park"
srcset="https://thetricontinental.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/D71_Image_9.jpg 950w, https://thetricontinental.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/D71_Image_9-292x300.jpg 292w, https://thetricontinental.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/D71_Image_9-768x790.jpg 768w"
sizes="(max-width: 950px) 100vw, 950px"
style="max-width: 100%;width: 100%;padding-bottom: 0;display: inline;vertical-align: bottom;border: 0;height: auto;outline: none;text-decoration: none;-ms-interpolation-mode: bicubic;"
moz-do-not-send="true"
width="950" border="0">
<p
id="caption-attachment-90728" class="wp-caption-text"
style="margin: 10px 0;padding: 0;mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family: Helvetica;font-size: 16px;line-height: 150%;text-align: left;"><span
style="color: #ba2025;">Medu
Art Ensemble (Botswana),
<i>December 16 – Heroes
Day</i>, 1983. Credit:
Medu Art Ensemble via
Freedom Park</span></p>
</div>
<p
style="margin: 10px 0;padding: 0;mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family: Helvetica;font-size: 16px;line-height: 150%;text-align: left;"> </p>
<p
style="margin: 10px 0;padding: 0;mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family: Helvetica;font-size: 16px;line-height: 150%;text-align: left;">Medu,
like other artists’
collectives rooted in
national liberation, drew
their inspiration from
popular struggles, such as
the fights to win control of
the land, create an
international anti-colonial
project (the Pan-African
movement), and build a
national liberation project
(as articulated in South
Africa’s 1955 Freedom
Charter). These were the
resources that gave
confidence to the artists in
Medu as they painted and
sang amongst the people who
took part in the Durban
strikes of 1973 and the
Soweto Uprising of 1976.</p>
<p
style="margin: 10px 0;padding: 0;mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family: Helvetica;font-size: 16px;line-height: 150%;text-align: left;">From
this energy and from their
own practice, Medu produced
a theory of art centred on
three key principles: art is
a necessary weapon of
struggle; art must be
produced in collectives that
work in communion with the
people; art must be made to
be understood by the people.
These three principles were
articulated in their
internal debates and in
gatherings such as the
Culture and Resistance
Symposium and Festival of
the Arts (held in July 1982
in Gaborone), which brought
together hundreds to
thousands of cultural
workers from inside and
outside South Africa to
advance the cultural battle
against South African
apartheid. Together, Medu
built up a distinct body of
thought and theory of
socialist art.</p>
<p
style="margin: 10px 0;padding: 0;mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family: Helvetica;font-size: 16px;line-height: 150%;text-align: left;">Then,
on the night of 13 June
1985, a military detachment
of the South African
apartheid state crossed the
border into Botswana and
descended upon the homes of
many exiled South African
artists and activists. Two
of the twelve people
assassinated that night were
Medu members, including the
key visual and poster artist
Thami Mnyele. The group’s
ability to continue their
work and advance their
thinking was destroyed.</p>
<p
style="margin: 10px 0;padding: 0;mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family: Helvetica;font-size: 16px;line-height: 150%;text-align: left;">Apartheid
regimes fear the
inspirational power of the
arts and the imagination.
They respond with violence.</p>
<p
style="margin: 10px 0;padding: 0;mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family: Helvetica;font-size: 16px;line-height: 150%;text-align: left;"> </p>
<div id="attachment_90817"
class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img
aria-describedby="caption-attachment-90817" decoding="async"
loading="lazy"
class="wp-image-90817 size-full img-responsive mcRssImage"
src="https://thetricontinental.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/D71_Image_12.jpg"
alt="Organisers prepare for the first session of the Culture and Resistance Symposium and Festival of the Arts, Gaborone, Botswana, 1982. Credit: Anna Erlandsson via Freedom Park"
srcset="https://thetricontinental.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/D71_Image_12.jpg 783w, https://thetricontinental.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/D71_Image_12-300x300.jpg 300w, https://thetricontinental.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/D71_Image_12-150x150.jpg 150w, https://thetricontinental.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/D71_Image_12-768x765.jpg 768w"
sizes="(max-width: 783px) 100vw, 783px"
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<p
id="caption-attachment-90817" class="wp-caption-text"
style="margin: 10px 0;padding: 0;mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family: Helvetica;font-size: 16px;line-height: 150%;text-align: left;"><span
style="color: #ba2025;">Organisers
prepare for the first
session of the Culture
and Resistance Symposium
and Festival of the Arts
in Gaborone, Botswana,
1982. Credit: Anna
Erlandsson via Freedom
Park</span></p>
</div>
<p
style="margin: 10px 0;padding: 0;mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family: Helvetica;font-size: 16px;line-height: 150%;text-align: left;"> </p>
<p
style="margin: 10px 0;padding: 0;mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family: Helvetica;font-size: 16px;line-height: 150%;text-align: left;">Thirty-eight
years later, this war
against art and culture
continues, as we are
witnessing in apartheid
Israel’s genocidal rampage
against Palestinians.
Amongst the many painters
and artists killed during
this bombardment are the
painter Heba Zagout
(1984–2023), the muralist
Mohammed Sami Qariqa
(1999–2023), the poet and
novelist Hiba Abu Nada
(1991–2023), and the poet
Refaat Alareer (1979–2023).
Alareer’s <a
href="https://thetricontinental.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=6a79324d3b4acfde1e7e546c6&id=5e2a5b565f&e=d206d0a40d"
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moz-do-not-send="true">poem</a>
‘If I Must Die’, written in
2011, has resonated deeply
with people across the world
since he was assassinated by
the Israeli Occupation
Forces on 7 December.</p>
<p
style="padding-left: 40px;margin: 10px 0;padding: 0;mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family: Helvetica;font-size: 16px;line-height: 150%;text-align: left;">If
I must die<br>
let it bring hope<br>
let it be a tale.</p>
<p
style="margin: 10px 0;padding: 0;mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family: Helvetica;font-size: 16px;line-height: 150%;text-align: left;">The
Israelis know the power of
words. General Moshe Dayan
once said that reading a
poem by Fadwa Tuqan
(1917–2003) was like ‘facing
twenty enemy commandos’. In
her poem ‘Martyrs of the
Intifada’, Tuqan wrote of
the Palestinian stone
throwers. The <a
href="https://thetricontinental.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=6a79324d3b4acfde1e7e546c6&id=c4998b9c27&e=d206d0a40d"
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itself is a stone thrown at
Israel:</p>
<p
style="padding-left: 40px;margin: 10px 0;padding: 0;mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family: Helvetica;font-size: 16px;line-height: 150%;text-align: left;">They
drew up the map of the road
to life<br>
they paved it with precious
stones and with their young
hearts<br>
they raised their hearts as
stones on their palms<br>
embers and flame<br>
and with these they pelted
the monster of the road,<br>
now is the time to show
courage and strength,<br>
their voice was heard strong
everywhere<br>
it reverberated everywhere<br>
and there was courage and
strength<br>
they died standing<br>
blazing on the road<br>
shining like stars<br>
their lips pressed to the
lips of life.</p>
<p
style="margin: 10px 0;padding: 0;mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family: Helvetica;font-size: 16px;line-height: 150%;text-align: left;">Warmly,</p>
<p
style="margin: 10px 0;padding: 0;mso-line-height-rule: exactly;-ms-text-size-adjust: 100%;-webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;color: #202020;font-family: Helvetica;font-size: 16px;line-height: 150%;text-align: left;">Vijay</p>
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