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Launch of the Texture of Shadows by Mandla Langa at

Rhodes University in Grahamstown (eRhini) on

Thursday the 5th of March 2015 at 17:00pm.

Good afternoon ladies and gentlemen. Greetings to

Academics and Students. As has been mentioned, my

name is Mwelela Cele and I am the Librarian at the

Steve Biko Centre Library and Archive, where our

concern is with both the past and the future, honouring

the legacy of Steve Biko, and facilitating the application

of his philosophy to help improve the current conditions

and prospects of the disadvantaged, and the prospects

of future generations. The Steve Biko Centre is situated

in Ginsberg King Williams Town (eQonce). I greet you

all, and all protocol observed.

I would like to begin by thanking Rhodes Universitys

Unit for Humanities (UHURU) for organising this

launch and giving me the opportunity to introduce

Mandla Langa. Similarly I also thank most sincerely

Siphokazi Magadla from the Rhodes University Politics

Department, and Dr Richard Pithouse for inviting me to

this launch, and for giving me this honour.

As a brief aside, while greeting my friend Dr Richard

Pithouse I will take this opportunity to say it is a

pleasure to be with Richard and his wife, my friend

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Vash, here at Rhodes University, because we all come

from far away in terms of distance, and from way back

in terms of time. We come from KwaZulu Natal, and we

have known each other since the days when the

University of Durban Westville and the University of

Natal existed independently, before the establishment of

the University of KwaZulu-Natal. I have known Richard

from the year 2000 when he used to organise the Frantz

Fanon Memorial lectures, bringing respected

international scholars like Professor Mahmood

Mamdani to the University. I have known Vash from

the days when I was working at the UDW

Documentation Centre and she would come there to do

research, and from our participation in the famous

UKZN History Seminars. And I was at their wedding

celebrations in mid-2007. Hence I am saying our

friendship goes a long way back.

Thus I have been given the honour to greet and

introduce Bhuti Mandla Langa. I would like to begin

this formal introduction by recalling his days within the

South African Student Organisation (SASO) and

remembering that he was a participant in the post-

Sharpeville cultural and political renaissance that

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became associated with the rise and spread of Black

Consciousness.

According to Professor Saleem Badat in his book,

published by the Steve Biko Foundation and STE

Publishers, entitled Black Man You Are On Your Own (I

quote) At the 1971 General Students Council (GSC) a

lengthy resolution was adopted which defined culture

as dynamic [occurrence] involving all activities of a

people and asserted that [Black Consciousness] BC was

a supremely cultural fact. The resolution called for a

cultural orientation that made blacks realise they were

united by a common experience of political and

economic oppression and insult to human dignity, and

for the appointment of an organiser who would be

responsible for organising and promoting black cultural

activities and disseminating literature SASO and BC

played a major role in stimulating and facilitating black

cultural production during the 1970s. In 1972 GSC

included an art exhibition, a poetry reading, and a

drama and music festival, and cultural activities were to

become a vibrant on-going feature of SASO national and

local meetings and events, and of campus life. SASO

forums provided platforms for BC cultural production

and exposure for emerging black artists, while SASO

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publications carried numerous articles on culture and

also featured black poetry. SASO members were

instrumental in establishing a number of cultural

formations, played an active role in various theatre, art

and music bodies, and a number of them were to go on

to establish national and international reputations as

novelist, poets and playwrights. 1 (Unquote)

During this period of heightened politico-cultural

awareness and activity, Bhuti Mandla Langa, from 1972

to 1976, was Director of SASO Cultural Affairs,

responsible for organising and promoting black cultural

activities and disseminating literature. Indeed, Bhuti

Mandla Langa is one of the distinguished alumni of the

SASO Black Consciousness movement era who were

instrumental in establishing a number of cultural

formations, played an active role in various theatre, art

and music bodies, [is one of the poets and writers of the

black consciousness era that] established national and

international reputations as novelist, poets and

playwrights.

When it seemed that the apartheid establishment had

gained an overwhelming victory over its opponents,

1 Badat, Saleem, Black Man, You Are On Your Own: Steve Biko Foundation and STE Publishers,

Johannesburg, 2009, p 82

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courageous and creative writers and poets, such as

Bhuti Mandla Langa, came to the fore, inspired to write

poetry of resistance, proclaiming an alternative

philosophy against that of the dominant regime.

In his introduction to the collection of short stories

entitled Hungry Flames and other Black South African Short

Stories, the editor, Professor Mbulelo Mzamane writes

about what he describes as a cultural renaissance in

black South African writing. According to Mzamane

Black consciousness and the literature it inspired

emerged in the midst of political and cultural repression

after Sharpeville. The new wave of writers who

emerged in South Africa after 1967 appeared to shy

away at first from the more explicit medium of prose

and took up poetry, after the manner of established

literary figures such as James Matthew. Between 1967

and 1974 the cultural renaissance which accompanied

the rise of Black Consciousness produced, at an

unprecedented rate in the literary history of South

Africa, many outstanding poets of the calibre of Dollar

Brand (Abdullah Ibrahim), Oswald Mbuyiseni Mtshali,

Mongane Wally Serote, Sipho Sepamla, Mafika Gwala,

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Mafika Mbuli, Mandlenkosi Langa and Njabulo

Ndebele.2

Having pointed out these brief glimpses into his life, I

am sure you will agree with me that it is indeed a

formidable task to attempt to introduce, in a few brief

words, a person who has made so great a contribution

to the public life of South Africa, and who continues,

through his writing and through his current

commitments, to make a unique difference in society.

Bhuti Mandla Langa was born in Stanger (KwaDukuza)

(the home of Chief Albert Luthuli, Ngazana Luthuli of

Ilanga Lase Natal and Professor B.W. Vilakazi of Inkondlo

kaZulu and the Vilakazi Age in African Literature), an

area situated inland from KZNs north coast, and spent

his childhood and teenage years in Durbans vast

KwaMashu, vibrant, yet with all the challenges and

connotations of township life in mid-20th century South

Africa. In due course he moved south to this area of our

country, with which all of us here are certainly familiar,

the Eastern Cape, in so many ways the crucible of South

Africas colonial history. At the iconic Fort Hare

University, Bhuti Mandla Langa studied for a Bachelor

2 Mzamane, Vizikhungo Mbulelo (ed.), Hungry Flames: Addison-Wesley Longman Ltd, 1986, p

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of Arts degree, and thereafter became increasingly

involved in the struggle against apartheid.

In 1976, that year of such significance, Bhuti Mandla

was arrested on a charge of planning to leave South

Africa illegally, and endured imprisonment for 101 days

until he managed to jump bail and escaped into

Botswana, the beginning of a long and painful exile.

During this time he devoted his life to furthering the

struggle in various ways, including military training in

Angola, and cultural activism in numerous centres

throughout Africa and beyond. He managed to fit some

writing into his demanding schedule and he was

recognized in 1980 for his short story 'The Dead Men

Who Lost Their Bones', when he won the Drum short

story contest. He was the first South African to be

awarded, in 1991, the Arts Council of Great Britain

Bursary for creative writing. He also represented the

ANC in cultural affairs in both Western Europe and the

United Kingdom.

As well as being a celebrated writer, his output having

included a musical opera, Milestones, which was

featured at the Standard Bank Festival in Grahamstown,

Bhuti Mandla Langa has continued his involvement in

the practical realities of culture, communication and the

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arts. He has served as Programme Director for

Television at the SABC, and has been Chairperson of the

Independent Communications Authority of SA (Icasa)

(1999-2005). Bhuti Mandla Langa has also served on

numerous boards and as Chairman of MultiChoice

Africa and a trustee of the Nation's Trust, Read

Educational Trust and the South African Screenwriters'

Laboratory. Currently he is a member of the ANC

Archives subcommittee.

It is indeed a great privilege and honour to present to

this distinguished audience a truly eminent South

African, Bhuti Mandla Langa.

Mwelela Cele