Seniors Project - Autumn 2007 – March 2008
Apartheid – The politics of Apartness

Our Senior Young people (11-18 year olds) are working towards writing producing and performing a play led by Dramatist Ricardo Mensah and supported by Actor Sagan Daniels. Playwriting is an art form that requires a building process and the young people will be prepared for developing the play by KORI’s practice of studying the history through Guest presentations, visuals, films and theatre trips over the first few months. The learning that results is transformed into creative writing and devising, the skeleton from which the play will emerge.

 Presentations:
Week 1- The experience of Apartheid in South Africa – Ricardo Mensah
Week 2 – The Soweto Uprising – Tony Warner (100 Blackmen)
Week 3 – The Politics of Resistance and empowerment – Sola Adebiyi (KORI ARTS Programme Leader)
Week 4- Devising Characters and Script development – Ricardo Mensah
Week 5 – Workshop and Watching Play ‘Respect’ at Unicorn Theatre
Week 6- Southern African Guests Interviewed by Seniors
Week 7- The Politics of Apartness – Germany, Rwanda – Odiri Ighamre
Week 8- Script development and Performance Development – Ricardo Mensah

Outline sketch of Further development through trips.

  • The Unicorn Theatre’s presentation of ‘Respect’ a German Play looking at the ravages of cultural division between the Turkish and German community provided an ideal opportunity to develop the work through engaging with workshops.  This provided a format which was adhered to through other plays like
  • ‘Truckstop’ also presented by the Unicorn Theatre.
  • Performance by the poet ShortMAN (who has worked with KORI many times) at the new Tottenham Bernie Grant Arts Centre .
  • The ‘Freedom – Breaking the Chains’ event at the same centre, run by the United Nations to look at children’s rights. The event enabled our young people to share with others from Palestine, Brazil, South Africa and other parts of London.

Apartheid Assignment
A Political system of keeping people apart

During the course of the period the young people were set the following writing assignment:

Compose a prose or poem with the understanding you have gained from the sessions so far?
What part of the information will also stay with you?
How has the system of Apartheid affected people all over the world?
How would you explain the damage caused by this system to world leaders?
Begin your composition by writing down your thoughts and feelings – take from these and construct your piece. It needs to be clear and reflect your personal response to the subject.

Here are two of the resulting poems:

We Are All Equal

Racism equals ignorance so which fools will be the new “chumps”?
I laugh at these “loose punks” who live lives so cold that their souls get Goosebumps,
They never grasp the concept that we are all equal in character,
Whether from Europe or Africa our lives amount to the same caliber,
Life is a race, and though we may not all possess the same stamina,
All becomes irrelevant when we’re dead and deceased,
Whether we’re a criminal, racist, medic or priest,
We are all judged fairly.
But I will say this; God will not compare me to those who have treasured the least,
Things in life but instead took for granted every present received,
For those who discriminate they will never see peace,
Unless they repent they shall be sent to the devils and beasts.
It’s sad to say but some will not realise their mistakes in this lifetime,
Blind to all of life signs, this sinful world pressures them like pipelines.
But hope, some of them might find, and it will free their mind from Satan’s tight binds.

This is the same hope that black slaves possessed in abundance,
When taken from their family and stripped of their humanity thus facing a reality suffocated in calamity,
The same hope they possessed despite living in anarchy,
Scorned upon by their slave owners who sought to cause them agony.
Despite everything they endured they still hoped for life to get better,
And after centuries of suffering their lives improved beyond measure.
Because today slavery has ended, and those who promote equality are commended, And for those racial oppressors who escape justice on this earth, in God’s court they will be apprehended.
In the same way I was taught to not judge books by their covers or case,
I have learned to not judge a person by their colour of face,
Regardless of race we are all equal,
Because Earth is a place where we are all people.

Ezimma Chigbo – 14years

Apartheid

A-par-theid
Meaning
Apart-ness
A system of classification
Ground into us by the
Boers so much that it has become
A part of us
For we stand a people divided
Lost in a sea of injustice and separation
A sea created by the Dutch and English Settlers
Nearly 400 years ago
They’ve taken everything from us
Our education, our history, our language
Our freedom, our mindset
Things won’t ever come back
The whites have trodden us into
The dirt with their power and twisted lies
But like the very dust
That they’ve turned us into
I swear to you we
An educated people shall Rise!

Laurie Fitzgerald – 12yrs – KORI ARTS 07

After this intense primary feeding period the devising and rehearsing will begin in earnest. The final production will be performed in Northern Ireland and locally.