An exhibition paying tribute to Americans who protested apartheid is being curated at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in partnership with Howard University’s Republic of South Africa Project and Sister States of Maryland.
The exhibit dubbed “America’s Voices Against Apartheid” has been displayed in the Hall of Nations since Sept. 14, with its run expected to end Nov. 5.
“This exhibition is not only a celebration of our shared history but also a testament to our renewed commitment to mutual engagement and cooperation, extending to the broader African continent,” said Jean Bailey, project director and co-curator, in a news release.
Bailey, who is also a graduate professor and chair of the Howard University Republic of South Africa Project, told The Informer that this exhibit was “especially meaningful to [her] because [she] was a product of the segregated South.”
Like others, she said, she didn’t think segregation would end in the South, nor did she think it would end in South Africa.
“Fast forward 20 years later, I still never thought we would be able to see a peaceful transition for South Africa, but it finally happened,” she said.
South Africa and the U.S., The Kennedy Center
The Kennedy Center and South Africa have a long-standing relationship, said Alicia Adams, the center’s co-curator and vice president of international programming.
“[The relationship] began with the African Odyssey festival in the late ’90s and continues through our World Stages programming and international festivals,” Adams said.
According to the U.S. State Department, “The United States and South Africa share vibrant educational and people-to-people ties, significant economic and political interests, as well as common development objectives throughout Africa.”
One tie is attorney Gay J. McDougall, an African-American woman who dedicated her professional life to tackling global human rights issues and racial discrimination.
On Apr. 27, 1994, McDougall stood beside Nelson Mandela, an anti-apartheid activist and South Africa’s first president from 1994 to 1999, as he voted for the first time in the country’s Democratic election. The moment was monumental for the country and Mandela following a 27-year imprisonment for his anti-apartheid endeavors.
The exhibits at the Kennedy Center’s Hall of Nations show a “timeline of American and South African cross-cultural moments.”
For example, in 1986, Congress passed the Comprehensive Anti-Apartheid Act in the United States, overriding President Ronald Reagan’s veto. This act authorized a complete withdrawal of U.S. financial support and implementation of sanctions against the South African government.
The exhibit weighs in on the moment. “A mass resistance to apartheid escalates across South Africa and is met by increased state repression. Pass laws are repealed,” the exhibit displays.
During apartheid, artists played a major role in speaking out against the racist rules. The exhibit shows musical artists like Zenzile Miriam Makeba, affectionately known as Mama Africa, who used her voice to speak out against apartheid in front of a leading world organization.
The Tie Between African American Culture and Africa
Bailey emphasized that “continued mutual engagement,” with African Americans and African cultural diplomacy is key – particularly when considering a national arts organization such as the Kennedy Center.
“We just had, at the Kennedy Center, the program Africa Brass with Charles Toliver and Camille Thurman and Afro Blue, and they ended with a tribute to the motherland,” Bailey said. “This is a great example of the ties in terms of our music, the jazz that we enjoy today.”
Bailey said so much of Black American culture comes from “African roots,” adding “if you look at hip-hop, in South Africa and Africa, they’ve taken it and made it their own adaptation… with the culture transcending all of our countries.”
The co-curator says the division of African Americans and Africans was a strategy manufactured by colonizers as its goal “was to divide and conquer.”
Intentional division led to division within races in the U.S., South Africa and other countries on the continent.
Research shows Rwandans were also divided by colonialists with identity cards, leading to violence over superiority. Reporting shows both South Africa and Rwanda have rebounded and are still growing, with the former having the third-largest Gross Domestic Product in the continent and latter viewed as a top tourist destination, according to reporting from Bloomberg.
However, such division, in some instances, has also led to self-hate.
“You see it here in our society where you have different classifications of individuals and skin colors, and they gave greater access so that there was this lack of unity,” she added.
In the exhibit, Bishop Henry, a leading voice for Black Americans returning to Africa, said, “As long as we remain among whites, the Negro will believe that the devil is Black…and that God is white and the Negro bears no resemble to him…the effect is contemptuous and degrading.”
