Arts Prevention in Eastern Cape

We arrived in Matatiele with the aim of making something happen and we have despite everything come away having achieved that. We had a contact from the department of arts, culture, recreation and sport who we had been attempting to contact for weeks before with no response, so we just rocked up regardless.

What has become very clear in the last week is that there are an abundance of talented groups meeting all over the Eastern Cape but there is a lack of support and resources and an amount of ineptitude on the part of the officials. I have now encountered people from all levels from the new MEC (head) of arts, culture, leisue and sport for South Africa all the way down to district officials who are responsible for arts and culture activity in their area.

We finally tracked down our elusive contact and drove to Mount Ayliff and crashed a meeting, where we got to meet all the managers working in the various areas of arts and culture in this region. We got a great response they were so happy we'd come from P.E and the UK and wanted to work in this area, but were more interested in whether we were married and wanted setting up than what we wanted to do here. Luckily on that day there were a number of leaders from dance and drama groups meeting, so we ran a workshop with them to drum up some interest in working with us over the next 4 days. The problem would be transport costs for the groups, a space to work in and food and water. Arts and Culture said they would organise transport and would get us the key to Matatiele Town Hall, a great resource that sits empty most of the time.

We waited the next morning with baited breath ready for our 5 groups to show up, we waited and waited.... for 2 and a half hours... no key arrived, no groups arrived.... so we left.... then when we decided to check later we found swarms of young people sitting outside the building having made there own way as the transport hadn't turned up. Some had come from far in the rural areas and none really had the money to afford the transport but didn't want to miss out. We were stuck outside this great building, in the freezing cold, with more and more people arriving, the phones of the officials either turned off or the ones we could get through to passing blame and creating more confusion. We waited 4 hours, whilst the search for who had the one and only key to this building commenced, the security guy on the gate didn't even have a key or any idea who might have it... the Mayor was called in, security men in uniforms turned up... it was utter chaos.... and still more eager young people from all over kept arriving, word had spread and there were more than the original groups. We couldn't bear to send them home without having done anything. We went to get food and drink for them all as none had any with them. As it was almost going to get dark I just took the decision to just do it right there in the street, we made a huge circle with about 60 of us and played some high energy games to keep us warm, attracting plenty of attention.

Finally a man with a key appeared......

We used the evening to let the groups showcase their work as many had turned up in costume and had a whole repertoire of work they wanted to show. The leaders had never brought these groups together before, so it was great for them to have a platform and an audience. Again there was an astonishing amount of drama about HIV and rape, seeing 9 year olds doing drama about such serious issues is a world away from my experiences of working with young people in England. There were a few pieces that were different and a breath of fresh air, but there's not a lot of comedy!

We kept hold of the town hall key as it was the safest place for it, and there was no one in or around the building when we left, we attempted to turn out the lights and managed to turn off all the street lights in the entire block! Everything was plunged into darkness... how much chaos can we cause in this town!

The next day we arranged for Swallows to pay for the groups transport so they could come back and work with us for a full day. It was amazing all 5 groups showed up only 45 minutes late (a record when you're on African time!) And amazing how organised it was when we did our own thing, without the officials involved. We decided to work on a traditional story and tell it as a play in a day.