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Thursday, June 8, 2017

Here is the list of art destroyed on UCT

David Goldblatt and Breyten Breytenbach condemn “censorship”

By Natalie Pertsovsky
9 June 2017

Photo of people burning art — Protesters on UCT carry artworks to be burnt in February 2016. Photo: Ashleigh Furlong

In addition to a list of 75 art works removed by the University of Cape Town (UCT), GroundUp has now obtained a list of artworks destroyed in the Shackville protests last year and a list of works deemed to be problematic by student representatives on the Artworks Task Team (ATT) in 2015. The list was obtained from the university via a PAIA request (Promotion of Access to Information Act) submitted by William Daniels, a UCT staff member.

The university refused to reveal the titles to GroundUp, but we have, with assistance, worked out most of the titles.

Various artists, including David Goldblatt, Willie Bester, and Breyten Breytenbach, have criticised UCT’s response to student pressure to remove statues, busts, and other works of art from campus.
“In September of last year I wrote to Max Price and said that I wished to revoke my contract with the university,” said Goldblatt, a world renowned photographer whose work exposed the oppression of apartheid. Goldblatt’s decision to remove his collection of photographs from the Libraries Special Collections, a centre that he helped to establish, came after “the throwing of shit onto Cecil John Rhodes’ sculpture… following that the burning of over 20 paintings and the burning, in particular of two photographs by Molly Blackburn.” Blackburn was an anti-apartheid activist who died in a motor vehicle accident that some suspect was caused by the apartheid government.

Goldblatt said that the events signaled a new tide in the development of anti-democratic thought in today’s youth. “Differences are settled by talk. You don’t threaten with guns. You don’t threaten with fists. You don’t burn. You don’t destroy. You talk. These actions of the students are the antithesis of democratic action,” he said.

“For me, the essential issue was that [the university] was in breach of my freedom of expression. I couldn’t leave my work there… to leave my work there would be to endorse that policy,” said Goldblatt.

Breyten Breytenbach, whose Hovering Dog is on the list of works identified as unacceptable by students on the task team, has had three paintings removed and put into indefinite storage by the university.

Breytenbach wrote to GroundUp: “I fully support the decision of David Goldblatt and others to withdraw / remove / take back / take elsewhere (preferably out of the country altogether) whatever material or artworks they may have had at UCT, or were kept in custodianship by the university.”
He said: “If I could do the same, I’d do so.”

Unlike Goldblatt, Breytenbach’s works are part of the Hans Porer Collection at UCT. “None of these parties – collector, owner, executor or executioner – bothered to even have the simple decency of informing me,” he added.

One of the main concerns for both artists is what they call the university’s disregard for the protection of the freedom of expression guaranteed to all South Africans under the Constitution.

“The freedom of expression means the freedom of expression. You are free to express. And if you don’t have that, you don’t have freedom of expression,” said Goldblatt. “We do have laws in this country that allow the censoring of work if it’s regarded as being harmful in some particular way.”
Goldblatt insists that the university’s actions differ from the curatorship that takes place in museums around the world. Rather, he says that the administration is blatantly censoring selected works. “It’s different fundamentally [from curatorship] because they did so selectively. They selected certain works. Now, to select certain works is to censor. You cannot do this selectively; either you do this to all of them or none of them.”

He thinks UCT’s actions are dangerous. “At the end of the day, if this kind of attitude persists in the university, what will they do when a group of students come to the archive of photographs and say: ‘You’ve got photos there of Muslims. We’re not prepared to tolerate that. No Muslims, no Jews, or the Anglicans, or people with green eyes’,” said Goldblatt.

“But, if I’m a painter and I choose to show Jacob Zuma with his penis showing, then the question arises – am I to be censored for that?” he asked.

“I strongly urge all South African artists, researchers, recorders of public life etc., and as well those of foreign origin whose products may end up at South African universities, even if inadvertently so, to make absolutely sure your work is not allowed to be acquired, loaned or otherwise used by South African universities,” Breytenbach wrote to GroundUp. “You have no chance of it (the work) being seen for what it is intended to be, no guarantee it will survive the orgies of destruction these institutions foster and no responsibility or accountability (let alone preservation) will be forthcoming from the ethically and aesthetically spineless but oh so glib ‘collaborators’ running the universities.”

UCT reply

We sent UCT the quotes by Goldblatt and Breytenbach and asked for the institution’s response. We were sent the same statement written by Vice-Chancellor Max Price in response to Professor Belinda Bozzoli, previously published on GroundUp.

List submitted to the University by the Artworks Task Team in 2015

The descriptions are by the students who objected to the works. GroundUp has added the artist and title of the work. (All images republished as fair use.)
Oppenheimer Library:
1. Hovering Dog by Breyten Breytenbach (Student description: Portrait of white man with black woman on his lap having sexual intercourse)

2. Saartjie Baartman by Willie Bester

3. A Passerby by Zwelethu Mthethwa (Student description: Black woman sitting on a rock with three children with her all in their underwear in a plastic basin with an impoverished surrounding)

Otto Beit Building:
4. Pasiphaë by Diane Victor (Student description: Portrait of a bull inside it is a black man with his genitals exposed)

Kramer:
5. Dialogue at the Dogwatch by David Brown (Student description: A number of sculptures depicting black men with their genitals exposed)

Installation of one of the Dialogue at the Dogwatch pieces at UCT. Photo from David J. Brown’s website.

6. Unknown (Student description: Black people with HIV)
Hoerikwaggo:
7. Similar to the sculptures on the Kramer lawn by David Brown
Chemical Engineering Building:
8. A township scene by Vusi Khumalo (Student description: Portrait of poor black people)
EGS Building:
9. Courtyard outside tea room probably by David Brown (Student description: black man with genitals exposed)
Michaelis:
10. Dayaba Usman with the monkey clear, Nigeria by Pieter Hugo. (Student description: Black boy sitting next to a monkey made to replicate the monkey)

List of works destroyed in protests

1. James Eddie, Portrait of Mrs Joan Gie
2. Carli Hare, Portrait of Sue Folb
3. Harriet Fuller Knight, Portrait of Dr Rosemary Exner
4. Edward Roworth, Portrait of Mrs Barnard-Fuller
5. Edward Roworth, Portrait of Mrs Doris Spencer Emmet
6. Edward Roworth, Portrait of Mrs Anna Maria Tugwell
7. Roeleen Ryall, Portrait of Mrs Arlene van der Walt
8. Roeleen Ryall, Portrait of Mrs Rosemary Taylor
9. Rupert Shephard, Portrait of Mrs Marie Lydia Grant
10. Bernard Hailstone, Portrait of Harry Frederick Oppenheimer (1908-2000)
11. Neville Lewis, Portrait of Albert van de Sandt Centlivres (1887-1966)
12. Edward Roworth, Portrait of Jan Christiaan Smuts (1870-1950)
13. John Wheatley, Portrait of Edward, Prince of Wales
14. Richard Keresemose Baholo, Graduation Day
15. Richard Keresemose Baholo, Extinguished Torch of Academic Freedom
16. Richard Keresemose Baholo, Release Our Leaders
17. Richard Keresemose Baholo, Rekindling the torch of Academic Freedom
18. Richard Keresemose Baholo, The girl witch
19. Kirsten Lilford, Intimacy
20. Nina Romm, Twee Jocks and a Lady
21. Robert Broadley, Portrait of Prof Theodore Le Roux
22. Stanley Eppel, Portrait of Prof Owen Lewis
23. John Wheatley, Portrait of Prof Alexander Brown
24. Molly Blackburn Collages (not identified by UCT, but confirmed)

Published originally on GroundUp .

The end of coconut water? The world's trendiest nut is under threat of species collapse

“Orange juice for breakfast is over,” an investor interested in creating large, fair trade coconut plantations recently joked to me. These days, coconut water is king.

For the trendy and the wealthy, including celebrities such as Rihanna, Madonna or Matthew McConaughey, rarest coconut water extracted from the aromatic varieties of the nut, is the “it” drink and even a source of income.

Coconut water is being sold by luxury brands, at up to US$7 for 33 cl, about the same price as basic champagne.

A booming market

There is no doubt that the coconut market is exploding. Coconut water currently represents an annual turnover of US$2 billion. It is expected to reach US$4 billion in the next five years.

In 2007, a 25% stake in Vitacoco, the largest brand for coconut water, was sold for US$7 million to Verlinvest company. Seven years later, another 25% stake in Vitacoco was again sold to Red Bull China for about US$166 million.

Other large players in the coconut water business include Coca-Cola and PepsiCo, but more than 200 brands are now marketing coconut water.

An essential crop

But there’s another side to the story. The coconut is one of 35 food crops listed in Annex 1 of the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture and considered crucial to global food security. In 2014, the Food and Agriculture Organization estimated global production to be 61.5 million tonnes.

It is an important livelihood crop for more than 11 million farmers, most of whom are smallholders, cultivating coconut palms on around 12 million hectares of land in at least 94 countries worldwide. The coconut palm is popularly known as the “Tree of Life” – all its parts are useful.

The main products are copra – the dried inner meat of the nut, used for oil – and the husk, which provides a vital source of fibre. More recently, as we’ve seen, there is also high demand for tender coconut water and virgin coconut oil.

Whole mature nuts are exported and sold to factories that produce desiccated coconut and coconut cream. At least half of the coconuts are consumed locally.

Genetic diversity

Over millennia, humans have slowly selected and maintained numerous coconut varieties, used for many purposes.

This has resulted in an extraordinary morphological diversity, which is expressed in the range of colours, shapes and sizes of the fruits. But the extent of this diversity is largely unknown at the global level. The huge amount of work that has gone into coconut breeding by farmers over millennia, and by scientists during the 20th century, remains greatly under-valued.

The rarest coconut varieties, for instance the horned coconut, grown and conserved on the Tetiaroa Atoll and in India, are not even recognised as coconuts by most people, especially Westerners.

Coconut conservation

The genetic diversity found in coconut populations and varieties, known by scientists as “germplasm”, is conserved by millions of small farmers.

A number of initiatives have been launched to recognise and support the role of these farmers, and to sustain them by promoting landscape management approaches, such as the Polymotu concept (“poly” meaning many, and “Motu” meaning island in Polynesian.)

The Polymotu concept capitalises on the geographical or reproductive isolation of various species for the conservation and reproduction of individual varieties of plants, trees and even animals.

In a project led by the Pacific Community and funded by the Global Crop Diversity Trust, two small islands in Samoa have been recently replanted with the famous traditional niu afa variety, which produces the largest coconut fruits in the world, reaching more than 40 cm long.

Sadly, the coconut is endangered. One of the main challenges of coconut cultivation is the existence of lethal diseases, which are rapidly expanding and killing millions of palms. These pandemics are known as lethal yellowing diseases.

The diseases ravage countries in Africa (in Tanzania, Mozambique, Ghana, Nigeria, Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire), and also in Asia (India), North America (Mexico, the Caribbean, Florida) and the Pacific Region (Papua New Guinea, and probably Solomon Islands).

Diversity under threat

Many coconut varieties that could be crucial for the future of agriculture are disappearing because of the loss of traditional knowledge, rapid transformations of agricultural landscapes, climate change and westernisation.

Due to the fragility of insular ecosystems, the Pacific Region is probably the location where the losses are highest.

During a recent survey in the Cook Islands, we succeeded with considerable difficulty in locating a sweet husk palm, known as niu mangaro locally. This is a rare, highly threatened form of coconut.

The husk of its unripe fruit, which in other species is usually tough and astringent, is tender, edible and sweet. It can be chewed like sugarcane. Once the fruits are ripe, the husk fibres are white and thin.

Our survey was conducted together with a government agricultural officer. During the work, he took a tender coconut and started to chew the husk. Then he stopped, telling me, “I do not want people here to see me eating niu mangaro, because they will say I am a poor man.”

The consumption of traditional varieties being still perceived as socially stigmatising, not embracing a “modern” way of life. On the other hand, the consumption of imported food is considered as a mark of modernity and richness.

During another survey conducted in 2010 in Moorea Island, a Polynesian farmer interviewed about sweet husk varieties, known as kaipoa there, told me:

I had one kaipoa coconut palm in my farm, but I cut it down two years ago … Over ten years, I was unable to harvest a single fruit: all were stolen and eaten by children from the neighbourhood.

So, a traditional variety remains appreciated by the next generation of Polynesians, but the farmer is not aware of the rarity and of the cultural value of the resource.

Coconut lethal yellowing disease in Côte d'Ivoire: state of emergency. A video from Diversiflora International.

The social and economic factors affecting coconut conservation have been the subject of discussion at two international meetings organised in 2016 by the Asia and Pacific Coconut Community in Indonesia and the Central Plantation Crop Research Institute in India.

Discussions included the constraints and advantages related to coconut biology; links with conservation in institutional field gene banks; farmer’s knowledge regarding the reproductive biology of their crop; socioeconomic dynamics; and policy measures.

Big business, but little money for research

The International Coconut Genetic Resources Network (COGENT) now comprises 41 coconut-producing countries, representing more than 98% of global production. Its activities are focused on conservation and breeding of coconut varieties.

Coconut germplasm is represented by about 400 varieties and 1,600 accessions in 24 genebanks. Accessions are the basic units of genebanks.

In the case of the coconut palm, each accession is generally constituted of 45 to 150 palms, all collected at the same location. They are documented in a Coconut Genetic Resources Database and a global catalogue.

COGENT also works on sequencing the coconut genome, in the framework of a collaboration between research organisations in Côte d’Ivoire, France and China.

Despite the upturn in the global market, many coconut farmers remain insufficiently organised, and investment in coconut research is incredibly scarce.

A yearly investment of about US$3 to US$5 million in public international research would be enough to address most of the challenges of coconut agriculture. But private companies benefiting from the market boom are still scarcely involved in research funding.

The coconut is a perennial crop, producing fruit year-round, but it takes a long time to grow. Investors, more interested in rapid profits, remain reluctant to fund the ten-year research programmes that are often needed to efficiently address the challenges of coconut research.

In coconut-producing countries, under-resourced genebanks and laboratories lack the necessary budget, labour, equipment and technical training to conduct the controlled hand-pollinations required for regenerating the germplasm, and to implement other activities such as collecting, characterisation and breeding.

Coconut water brands will only make billions as long as coconuts are plentiful and diverse. More importantly, people all over the world rely on the security of this vital crop. Securing its future must be a priority for everyone who farms, eats and profits from the coconut.

Roland Bourdeix, Senior Researcher, Cirad

This article was originally published on The Conversation.

Wednesday, June 7, 2017

Land occupiers say “we will die fighting for our shacks”

Protest turns violent after High Court eviction order served on Ehlovini shack dwellers

By Joseph Chirume
8 June 2017

Photo of protesters — Land occupiers protest at Crossorads Taxi Rank in Port Elizabeth. Photo: Luvuyo Mehlwana

On Tuesday, at least five vehicles were damaged – two of them petrol-bombed – when land occupiers in Motherwell, Port Elizabeth, were served a High Court order to vacate the land in 48 hours.

Hundreds of protesters closed main roads into Motherwell, including the N2 highway. They gathered at Ikamvelihle turn-off, blocking the road to Addo, and they carried sticks and axes. They proceeded up to the Crossroads Taxi Rank, where they were confronted by police.

Thabiso Msuthu, one of the occupiers in Ehlovini, Wells Estate, said: “We have nowhere to go. The Constitution of the country is clear on evictions that no one will be evicted without being given a place to stay.”

Msuthu said there were now more than 800 people on the site. “We are just desperate people and there are many elders and disabled people who are living here. Who is going to assist them?”
He said, “We are also not pleased with the timing of the proposed evictions. This is the winter season and it is also raining. These people have been evicted a couple of times before and lost their belongings in the process. The people living here are very poor and they cannot afford to pay rent. The government is being insensitive to its people … We will not be bullied.”

“The other issue is that it [the eviction order] is dated 02/02/2017 and yet we are already in June. This eviction order was granted long ago [four months] and somebody was just sitting on it. It is a blatantly flawed process and no one is prepared to explain to us or even to call a meeting and inform the residents about the eviction order,” said Msuthu.

Thobela Timakwe has just completed rebuilding her one-room shack in which she stays with her three children. “I know the police will come after 48 hours to evict us. I am preparing for a fight, because this is the only place I call home. I have lost many things before as a result of evictions, but this time we will resist vehemently.”

A community leader said: “Some of our members have been on the housing waiting list since 2000.”
“The eviction order was not served to the people of Ikhamvelihle, but we know that when they are done with residents of Wells Estate, they will also descend on us. This protest is in preparation for that. We want to show them that we will die fighting in our shacks,” he said.

Police spokesperson Captain Andre Beetge said: “A bus belonging to Algoa bus company was also damaged. The protesters also damaged an ambulance in Wells Estate. No arrests or injuries have been reported so far. Cases of malicious damage to property have been opened, including seven for cases of public violence. There were also two cases of damaging infrastructure.”

Mayoral Committee Member for Human Settlement Nqaba Bhanga said, “Our position is very clear: that we are going to evict all those occupying land illegally, because we have learnt that it’s either they are people who want to jump the queue, or people who had houses before, or business people who want to build their businesses in those areas using poor and vulnerable to front for them. We are not going to accept that, because we have a housing plan where we are going to build houses. We are not going to allow that situation of lawlessness.”

He claimed people were brought from outside of the municipality “to do this illegal occupation”.
Asked about the outdated court order, he said, “The delivering and execution of the court order is carried out by the office of the sheriff. We are only there to have that land and develop it to the benefit of the residents of this municipality.”

Published originally on GroundUp .

Dozens of Hout Bay homes severely damaged in Cape storm

Some shacks that were rebuilt after the fires earlier this year blew down

By Natalie Pertsovsky and Lilly Wimberly
7 June 2017

Photo of two people in front of blown-down shack — Olga Kotswana and Sam Dube.

Olga Kotswana and her husband Sam Dube stand where their shack used to be in Imizamo Yethu, Hout Bay’s informal settlement. “I was sleeping when it fell,” said Kotswana. Their home was destroyed at about 10:30pm last night during the storm. “We’ve got nothing. No blanket. No food. Nothing.” Their shack was one of the temporary ones provided by the City of Cape Town after fires ravaged the township in March.

Neliswa Mbanga stands in front of her home, number 36, which was damaged after the high winds of the storm tipped the house to the side. Mbanga is also living in one of the temporary shacks provided by the City following the March fires.

Residents climb through the rubble made by a tree downed by the wind.

Abraham Shatimwene, Samuel Hiavali, and Paulis Shatimwene in front of their home, which was badly damaged by Tuesday night’s storm. They are in the process of replacing their roof and one side of their shack in preparation for more winds throughout the week.

Lovers Magwala, a resident, explained that winds had tipped the community’s toilets. He said that residents were now using the hill as a bathroom.

Residents living in shacks provided by the City prepare for more high winds as the storm continues by placing tires, branches and bricks on the roofs of their homes.

Portia Mawilk, who supports her mother, child, and two sisters had her newly built shack blown away last night and the zinc materials stolen. “I don’t know what I’m going to do now.” Her previous home was destroyed in the March fire. She is currently staying with a neighbour.

Top two photos by Natalie Pertsovsky. Remaining photos by Lilly Wimberly.

Published originally on GroundUp .

In photos: Cape Town’s tempest

At least five dead, and many lose their homes

By GroundUp Staff and Mandla Mnyakama
8 June 2017

Photo of wave crashing onto promenade — Waves splashed over the Sea Point and Three Anchor Bay promenade on Wednesday. Photo: Ashraf Hendricks

The City of Cape Town reports that there have been five deaths caused by the storm that has struck the city in the past 24 hours (see Dozens of Hout Bay homes severely damaged in Cape storm). Ashraf Hendricks photographed the Sea Point and Camps Bay beachfronts, and Mandla Mnyakama photographed Gugulethu’s Europa informal settlement.

The crazy weather inspired even crazier selfies. Photo: Ashraf Hendricks

A boy runs away from an approaching wave. Photo: Ashraf Hendricks

A man collected his long board that was locked up in storage at Three Anchor Bay. The waves broke the storage facility open. Photo: Ashraf Hendricks

Car’s got covered in sea foam. Photo: Ashraf Hendricks

The waves inspired people to play on the promenade. Photo: Ashraf Hendricks

Waves crash onto people. Police eventually escorted people away as it became too dangerous. Photo: Ashraf Hendricks

Seaweed washed up onto the Camps Bay beachfront. Photo: Ashraf Hendricks

The storm broke a wall of this building. The building flooded too. Photo: Ashraf Hendricks

While the Atlantic coast beach fronts were spectacular, as far as we are aware no one in Sea Point or Camps Bay was injured or lost their homes because of the storm. The situation was less spectacular but far worse on on the Cape Flats.

Access paths turned into watery canals during the storm in Europa informal settlement. Photo: Mandla Mnyakama

A woman deftly navigates her way across a flooded pathway. Photo: Mandla Mnyakama

Published originally on GroundUp .