OPINION: In some defense of Naledi Pandor

This past week, Naledi Pandor came under fire after a video where she says we need a bias towards critical skills training instead of the arts resurfaced. Artists and patrons of the arts “slammed” her for her words. Florence Masebe retweeted the video with the caption “it’s the background laughter for me” and, watching the video one is reminded of our parents’ contemptuous rebuke “An artist? Come on, get a real job!”. Perhaps this condescending laughter is at the heart of the offense. But, what if, we actually need to get a “real” job?

In his book “African Socialism or Socialist Africa” Mohamed Babu suggested that the reason ancient Greeks philosophised so much was because they had slaves to take care of the material work for them. This was not hard for me to believe when I read the book over a decade ago and more recently creatives such as Anne Enright have stated “boredom can be a productive state if you don’t let it go sour on you”. This reminded me of the Marxist notion of “material conditions” (if I bastardise it – poetic license, LOL). Marx and Engels claimed that our materials conditions determine our intellectual development and desires or my personal favorite “It is not man’s consciousness which determines his existence but his social existence which determines his consciousness.” Reading Marx with Anne Enright then I want to suggest, a precondition for boredom not going sour but instead sparking creativity is that the bored person’s material conditions must be taken care of, and here I see Babu. This certainly is not boredom in poverty the fact that the ghettos of the world have produced some of the best artworks notwithstanding – that was more the inspiration of adversity than boredom.

But what does this mean for society and Minister Pandor’s words? We need to create social conditions that will allow the arts in all their varied beauty to thrive. I don’t think a country plagued by a myriad of issues, unemployment being one of them has the social conditions for the arts to thrive. And unemployment can, in no small part be attributed to a shortage of critical skills. Currently our entertainment choices reflect the ugliness of our society, here I throw Gramsci “common sense is an effect of the prevailing ideology”. Here’s the common sense, I will leave the reader to figure the prevailing ideology: the same type of songs top our charts, the same kind of soapies dominate viewership, garbage shows like uYajola 9/9 are hits, our idea of fun is crass spending big in clubs and posting our bills which really speaks to our position as consumers and not producers in this economy. The alternative is crowded out. Several socio-economic factors influence this, for example, access – Uzalo on the public broadcaster is much more accessible than any show on Netflix (which requires expensive data and a subscription) and this is a classic  example of “material conditions” determining even our taste. I argue, we will change this, not by training more artists but by creating an educated, skilled and gainfully “employed” people that will be patrons of the arts. The La Belle Epoque marked by “innovative” art is hard to imagine without the underlying economic and political activity; this article speaks to this.

To end by way of anecdote, until I met firms such as McKinsey doing recruitment on campus I never thought of talent outside the arts or sports. I couldn’t imagine for example a “talented engineer” and I wonder how many other black youths think this way, desperately trying to find their “talent” that will put them on radio or TV when they could be talented network engineers for example. And what if this is partly the cause for our overpopulation of Soundcloud instead the of corridors of Engineering/Law firms? My point is, in as much as Pandor and her mates need to respect the arts as “real” work we also need to teach Black youths that the pursuit of an engineering, law or accounting degree is equally a pursuit of one’s talent. I often think of Dave of De La Soul who penned perhaps the “realest” rap line:
“And lately (they)want to flip grammar instead of grams
Like that’s the only choice they got”