Reach...

Several of the new plays debuting at the Grahamstown Arts Festival revolve around a similar theme, testing the delicate balance of race relations in this country. In Reach a woman, Marion Banning, is wasting away in her old farmhouse, waiting to die when a young black man, Solomon Xaba, visits her with a message. We are unclear for the first half of the play what the message is that the young man brings, but he is the grandson of a woman that worked with Marion at a hospital. Through a series of conversations between the two, we discover that Marion’s life has been on hold since the death of her son six years before. She and her husband have since divorced and she is seemingly estranged from her daughter and everyone else who reminds her of the past. Solomon begins to visit her daily and teaches her to feel again. The two create a bond that allows them to reach across the racial, cultural, and class lines so tightly drawn in their society. Ultimately, Solomon reveals that the message he carries is from her dead son. He was present at her son’s murder and delivers her sons dying words… “Tell my mother I was not afraid.” The reveal is not surprising, but ultimately still quite moving as the two are abruptly disconnected by the stark reality. Race, fear, and the tensions of the world they live in come racing to the surface as each character tries to find solid ground in the fallout of their friendship. The play concludes with the two “reconnecting” as they eventually decide that life is a little more full with each other, than without. As cheesy perhaps as the ending sounds it didn’t feel entirely pretentious.

It is clear from this year’s festival that the tensions between black and white South Africans are kindling for the creative minds. Timely and controversial in a passive aggressive way, this play seems endemic of the unspoken fears and the uncertain, tenuous path South Africa has to travel. There was a slightly affected sympathy for white South Africa in Reach as well as several other new plays in the festival, which I think belies the history of oppression and belittles the price we all pay for such tyranny. Another common theme is the South African Land Reform, which seems to be an issue of great debate and quiet controversy in the country. It is merely alluded to in Reach but takes center stage in Dream of the Dog.

I am very interested in finding out how this complicated and controversial hot button is being received. The background I have found on the new South African land reform policy is as follows:

The Strategic Goals and Vision of the Land Policy

Land, its ownership and uses, has always played an important role in shaping the political, economic and social processes at work in South Africa. Past land policies were a major cause of insecurity, landless citizens and poverty in the country. They also resulted in inefficient urban and rural land use patterns and a fragmented system of land administration. This has severely restricted effective resource utilisation and development.

Land is an important and sensitive issue to all South Africans. It is a finite resource that binds all together in a common destiny. As a corner stone for reconstruction and development, a land policy for the country needs to deal effectively with:
§ The injustices of racially-based land dispossession of the past
§ the need for a more equitable distribution of land ownership
§ The need for land reform to reduce poverty and contribute to economic growth
§ Security of tenure for all; and A system of land management that will support sustainable land use patterns and the rapid release of land for development.

The Land Reform Programme

The central thrust of land policy is the land reform programme. This has three aspects: redistribution; land restitution; and land tenure reform.

Redistribution aims to provide the disadvantaged and the poor with access to land for residential and productive purposes. Its scope includes the urban and rural poor, labour tenants, farm workers and new entrants to agriculture.

Land restitution covers cases of forced removals that took place after 1913. This is being dealt with by a Land Claims Court and Commission established under the Restitution of Land Rights Act 22 of 1994.

Land tenure reform is being addressed through a review of present land policy; administration and legislation to improve the tenure security of all South Africans and to accommodate diverse forms of land tenure, including types of communal tenure.