by Richard Chidowore
When members of the Mozambique National Dance Company take to the floor, their aim is not only to entertain, but also to leave the audience with one or two messages about the culture of human rights and democracy.
The dance company is currently touring Mozambique’s provincial capitals, showing a theatrical and chorographical display of issues dealing with voter education and exercising one’s fundamental political rights ahead of multi-party general elections expected in October this year.
Among the audience at a recent performance in Maputo were participants of a conference on promoting a culture of democracy and human rights in southern Africa, who witnessed the practical side of what they had discussed in Maputo, from 7 to 11 February 1994.
During their deliberations, the participants identified dance, music, theatre and drama as some of the alternative channels of communicating human rights education.
They applauded cultural workers for helping to advance the culture of democracy which is “spreading steadily and fast in our countries”.
“If in the past artists were at the forefront of the struggle for the independence and dignity of our peoples, so are they today in our collective efforts to build democratic societies, based on strict respect for human rights,” observed Salomao Manhica from Mozambique’s Ministry of Culture and Youth.
The conference was organized by the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) Sector of Culture and Information together with Unesco and International Commission of Jurists. It brought together policy makers, specialists and representatives from the SADC region and other regions to exchange ideas on how to make culture an important tool in building democracy and human rights in the region.
Manhica told the five-day conference that culture “lies at the very heart of our lives”, that culture must be the very foundation of democracy, peace, human rights and development. “What we produce must not be bread or culture, but bread and culture,” he said.
One of the main findings of the conference was that in order for any project or initiative to succeed, it has to be carefully harmonized with the socio-cultural values and expectations of the communities those projects are intended to serve.
South African music, it was acknowledged, has long had an established reputation in the world of music not only because of the powerful message it carries but that it is this power that helped to shake the apartheid system to its very foundations. Cultural workers had a similar influence in other countries that fought for independence in southern Africa.
The conference urged SADC member states to make culture an integral part of their development planning and to promote the production, development, consumption, preservation, dissemination and protection of culture among people.
“Taking into account the inseparable linkage which exists between human rights and democracy, we feel that the same linkage exists between education for human rights and education for democracy,” said Professor Janusz Symonides, Unesco’s director of the Division of Human Rights and Peace.
Professor Symonides announced that a regional project of education for human rights will be set up in 1994-1995 by Unesco and the Danish Foundation for Human Rights.
He told the meeting that workshops on democracy and tolerance will be organized with the financial assistance of Unesco in different countries, one of them in Lusaka, Zambia, this year.
The conference also called on SADC states to include courses on human rights and responsibilities in their curricula, to promote regular exchanges of views and experiences on democracy and human rights among institutions such as parliament and the judiciary. The establishment of an inter-regional and independent body to monitor and evaluate activities in the field of human rights and democracy was also seen as one way of promoting human dignity.
South African delegates expressed hope that their country’s flag would fly side by side with other countries that make up SADC after the first all-race elections on 27 April this year. Democracy, it was noted, would be the basis on which human rights in the fullest possible sense, both political and socioeconomic, can be delivered to all South Africans for the first time.
Speaking on human rights violations by the state and its security organs, Dr Max Coleman of the Human Rights Commission in South Africa, traced the history of apartheid repression in South Africa.
He analysed the repressive machinery — the formal and legalized repression and the informal or extra-legal repression, which was created to enforce the imposition of apartheid power on the majority of the population — a machinery which still needs to be finally dismantled.
One of the strategies used by the apartheid state under informal repression is the internal destabilization which of late has been taken to new heights.
Using its security agents, the apartheid state set out to undermine the capacity of liberation movements both at the negotiating table and at the voting booth. The consequences have been devastating, with more than 12 000 dead, 20 000 injured and 30 000 arrested since talks started in May 1990.
Despite fierce political conflict, multi-party negotiations produced an agreement to bring democracy and human rights to all South Africans through the forthcoming elections.
However, not all political players in South Africa have committed themselves to participate fully in the transitional process and there are some, like the right-wing Freedom Alliance, who still wish to cling to power and privilege.
Political analysts are doubtful, however, that any or all of the extremists acting together, would have the capacity and resources to negate the results of the election as happened in Angola.
Thus, South Africa could soon be added to the list of nations in the region that have allowed a culture of democracy to prevail. (SARDC)
