Thinking of my Cape Town experience, is thinking about a complex fractal structure combining the common fate of South African people and their country as an entity, and their individual fortunes with all the ingredients of a major tragedy, which narrative pattern is shared by most enthralling stories.

First Act: The dark ages of violence and racial segregation

Visiting District 6 museum has given us a feeling of the violence made to these people who were forced to move out of their communities in several waves from 1901 (first removal of black South Africans) to 1982 which closed this vibrant community story, forcibly emptying it from its 60’000 souls. Being born in Vietnam during the war, being “forced” to move because of the war itself killing relatives, disrupting communities, this violence echoes my own subconscious legacy built in the same ages, but in another place, at a different scale.

This violence was also very significant when visiting the National Gallery museum. I was particularly impressed by Diane Victor’s drawings in which violence was everywhere when you looked at them in detail from a narrow distance… but in which violence, maybe because of its ubiquity, could be missed when looking to her drawings from some distance [see here for some pictures of her drawings]. The impressive “Butcher boys” sculpture representing the brutal dehumanizing forces of Apartheid was as disturbing as Diane Victor’s drawing, reminding me that the beast is still lying within us, just waiting for dark ages to awaken [see here].

Eventually, Pr Lalu’s evocation of the Trojan Horse episode completed the scene of the “dark ages”. Trojan Horse massacre happened on 15th October 1985, when members of security forces (Security and Railway police) shot and killed three young people crushing a gathering of youth who were protesting against the Apartheid [see here, beware actual images of the massacre]

These were years of racial violence and tough segregation, during which your phenotype limited your freedom to become whoever you would like to become and could deny you the access to the most basic rights. Strategists of the National Party, the villains, created the Apartheid ad a powerful means to enforce their control over the economic and social system (possibly over reacting to the previous domination by the English during the Boer’s war).

Second Act: A hero was born, one man to inspire them all and unite them all

It is impossible to think about South Africa modern history without thinking about M. Nelson Mandela and his long walk to freedom.

Visiting the Robben Island prison was a very emotional moment which enabled me to touch the immense moral strength of South Africa former president from my fingertips as I was learning about his incarceration conditions for 28 years! As stated on the webpage of the Robben Island museum, it became the powerful and inspiring symbol of the triumph of the human spirit over adversity.

In the same way, it was really emotional to listen to M. Angelo Gobbato speaking about these dark ages and his tough alternative: should I stay or should I go (to paraphrase another musical style). It was really obvious that this question has tortured him for years. Hopefully he eventually chose the right option: he chose to stay and attempt to change the system from within.

Nelson Mandela through his national reconciliation vision did a miracle, a moment of grace in the violent history of South Africa to turn it into the “Rainbow Nation”. And I have the feeling that M. Angelo Gobbato also did a miracle (fractal pattern) which led to the creation of the University of Cape Town school of Opera. A new hope was born, a momentum was created to unite them all, a path out of the dark ages.

Third act: Where is the Promised Land? New momentum is required!

Our specific work around the sanitation services access issue within the township has revealed something that Pr. Lalu mentioned as possibly being a new version of the Apartheid, more efficient and less visible: the momentum created by M. Nelson Mandela had somehow vanished, obfuscated by tough economic conditions and weak institutions, leaving space for a living mythology of modern South Africa.

These are the times of the merely honored promises. The Reconstruction and Development Program (RDP) failed to inspire informal dwellers and the “Promised Land” rhetoric of the African National Congress is a new mean of population economic and social control, which might also find its expression through the strong religious community and their group catharsis every Sunday.

These are the times of opportunities also. Our visit of the school with the singing performance of these young people after the church services was really inspiring to me (we even suggested that a “Soap Opera” could be done which narrative would focus on the daily life in the townships as a mass conveyor of vicarious experiences and best practices). Obviously, the recital given by (almost) former UCT School of Opera professional clearly demonstrated that in this modern South Africa, talented and hardworking guys (even those born in the townships) could succeed, thanks to the hard work done by the UCT School of Opera staff. Maybe my personal history of being a kind of “world citizen”, a humane being belonging to the Man Kind before belonging to any sub-community gave me that feeling, but I did not have the feeling that those talented singers were thinking about whether it was “good” (or “bad”) to sing western Europe operas (an art form of the former colonist)… but just that they enjoyed singing these operas, just like a top performer who enjoys (singing) performance.

(Photo credit: Lenny Kessler Vaschetti)

Fourth act: Now and then?

The hero has defeated the villains. A new hope was born… and then promises were merely honored. What is the end of this global tragedy? What should it sound like? What would South African people would write in History?

The UCT School of Opera has achieved the “vernalization” of talented seeds and enabled them to bloom on the international stage. These seeds have somehow the exact opposite choice that M. Angelo Gobbato had: Should I stay (abroad) or should I come back to my homeland.

At the individual scale, all these talented people fortune completed the tragedy pattern promised to a successful life on the international opera stages.

At the country scale, we should hope that the same fortune awaits for South Africa… and that maybe some instant seeds in the wind will fly back to South Africa to develop the roots of a modern true rainbow nation. Like in the book “Instant in the wind” of M. André Brink who recently died, writing about “dust” and “renaissance” it reminded me about the “nickname” given to children of war who were from mixed race (US and Vietnamese): we were known as “life dust” (meaning insignificant) but like chimeric seeds, we just needed the appropriate environment to bloom and I was blessed enough to be transported by the winds of hopes to the appropriate environment… and looking to all these talented seeds, they should not be wasted, it is our common responsibility to provide them with the right ecosystem.