Book contents
- The Cambridge Companion to International Theatre Festivals
- Cambridge Companions to Theatre and Performance
- The Cambridge Companion to International Theatre Festivals
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Contributors
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction
- Part I Contexts and Methods
- Part II International Festivals Around the Globe
- Chapter 5 European Festivals
- Chapter 6 International Theatre Festivals in the UK
- Chapter 7 Under the Radar Festival, New York
- Chapter 8 The Australian Festival Network
- Chapter 9 Theatre Festivals in Post-Arab Spring Countries
- Chapter 10 Staging East Africa through Global Exchange
- Chapter 11 The National Arts Festival in Grahamstown
- Chapter 12 Reckoning with Historical Conflicts in East Asian Theatre Festivals
- Chapter 13 Festivals in the Francophone World as Sites of Cultural Struggle
- Chapter 14 International Festivals in Latin America
- Chapter 15 RUTAS | ROUTES
- Appendix List of International Theatre, Performance, and Multi-arts Festivals
- Works Cited
- Further Reading
- Index
Chapter 11 - The National Arts Festival in Grahamstown
Culture, Economics, and Race in South Africa
from Part II - International Festivals Around the Globe
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 22 May 2020
- The Cambridge Companion to International Theatre Festivals
- Cambridge Companions to Theatre and Performance
- The Cambridge Companion to International Theatre Festivals
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Contributors
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction
- Part I Contexts and Methods
- Part II International Festivals Around the Globe
- Chapter 5 European Festivals
- Chapter 6 International Theatre Festivals in the UK
- Chapter 7 Under the Radar Festival, New York
- Chapter 8 The Australian Festival Network
- Chapter 9 Theatre Festivals in Post-Arab Spring Countries
- Chapter 10 Staging East Africa through Global Exchange
- Chapter 11 The National Arts Festival in Grahamstown
- Chapter 12 Reckoning with Historical Conflicts in East Asian Theatre Festivals
- Chapter 13 Festivals in the Francophone World as Sites of Cultural Struggle
- Chapter 14 International Festivals in Latin America
- Chapter 15 RUTAS | ROUTES
- Appendix List of International Theatre, Performance, and Multi-arts Festivals
- Works Cited
- Further Reading
- Index
Summary
The National Arts Festival (NAF) in Grahamstown – now Makhanda – is South Africa’s largest, longest-lasting, and most prestigious festival. Although other post-apartheid festivals have launched new work, only NAF hosts African, European, and American work alongside local fare mostly in English and in national languages such as Xhosa, Zulu, or Afrikaans. It has also developed training and employment to offset inequality in the Eastern Cape. While these endeavours to enrich artistic practice, please audiences, and ensure the well-being of ordinary citizens are praiseworthy, NAF sponsors do not fully acknowledge the history of this inequity, which dates from Grahamstown’s founding in 1812 and extends through Anglophile pageants challenging Afrikaner cultural dominance but not the political economy of apartheid in the mid-twentieth century to initially cautious genteel efforts to diversify the festival in the 1980s, which provoked anti-apartheid boycotts. Despite advances since the 1990s, systematic representation of South Africa’s many cultural forms – from African variety through testimonial theatre and township musicals to performance art – was achieved only in the twenty-first century.
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- The Cambridge Companion to International Theatre Festivals , pp. 178 - 191Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2020