Culture and the National Struggle
“The point is that, as (Vladimir Ilyich) Lenin pointed out, in every culture there are to be found progressive elements which can be harnessed to progressive aims. It is here that the cultural workers such as writers and other artists can play a big role, because they are working in the area of culture where it is possible consciously to introduce new ways of thinking and perceiving. Because in their work the writers can look at the present day in terms of the past and also show, in the realm of the imagination, a new and different future, they play a vital role in cultural transformation.
“This is what is meant when the President of the ANC, Comrade OR Tambo, describes the cultural workers as the ‘midwives of the future’.
“A song or a poem can make us feel how it will be to live in a free South Africa, even before such a thing is a reality. And a writer or artist can show people how to ‘re-think’ their own past, bringing out what is positive and progressive and consigning to the shadows those attitudes and values that are opposed to change, or that stand in the way of a unified cultural identity on the lines indicated in the Freedom Charter.
“Let us take three examples from three different cultural traditions. In his Zulu epic ‘Emperor Shaka the Great’ Mazisi Kunene rewrites the story of Shaka to bring out the progressive aspects of that great African ruler. In his novels about the history of the Western Cape,
