The following article from the Johannesburg paper, Business Day, was seen on AllAfrica.com at http://allafrica.com/stories/200701221343.html . (NB- Prof. Mazisi Kunene, father of the man profiled in this article, is mentioned in message #366)... Don
South Africa: In His Father's Footsteps Business Day (Johannesburg) http://www.bday.co.za/ January 20, 2007 Posted to the web January 22, 2007 Johannesburg Zosukuma Kunene is on a mission to change the way society thinks, with a focus on youth, writes MONIQUE VERDUYN ZOSUKUMA Kunene, the son of one of Africa's greatest poets and proponents of Zulu culture and the written Zulu word, was born in London in 1976, the year of the Soweto riots. His parents were there in exile. It was not a place Mazizi Kunene wanted to be in, but he had little choice so he took advantage of his situation and used this time to grow people's knowledge of what was happening back home in SA. It was a role he would take on for the 36 years that he remained exiled from the country of his birth until his return in 1993, when United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (Unesco) declared him the continent's poet laureate. In the '70s, many people in the UK hardly knew where SA was. Oliver Tambo had appointed Mazizi as the African National Congress's chief representative in London, from where he began to lobby European governments, raising awareness of the issues facing black South Africans at the time. But Mazizi eventually left political activism and went on to teach at the University of Iowa and Stanford University before joining the University of California Los Angeles in 1975 as a lecturer in African literature and Zulu. He was the only professor teaching an African language at university level in the US. This was also the time he began to publish regularly, his seminal work Emperor Shaka the Great appearing in 1979. "We had a full-on Zulu upbringing," says Kunene in his LA drawl. "Wherever my father was, it remained the most important aspect of his life. He taught us from a young age that we were Zulu, and he made certain that we understood our responsibilities within that context. He was dedicated not only to his own writing in isiZulu, but also to the teaching of African literature in general." It's as a result of this emphasis on culture and responsibility that Kunene, his brothers and sister were involved in almost every youth organisation in LA while they were growing up, including Children of War, a grouping of young refugees from around the world that also involved kids from the inner city. "Activism was a strong driver in our lives and we organised some of the biggest protests against apartheid that the US had ever seen," Kunene says. "We boycotted the film Shaka Zulu, broadcast on Channel 13 in the US, because it was a piece of National Party propaganda." Kunene talks about the importance of growing up knowing he was part of a larger group. The exiled family kept their culture alive in LA by living according to Zulu norms and values, and ensuring that isiZulu was the language of family communication. "If I left a note in the kitchen, it would be in isiZulu. My father remained the patriarch of the house." Kunene returned to SA in 1996, three years after his father, and pursued studies in commerce and literature before setting up a project management and event co-ordination firm, enabling him to expand his network of connections. Today he is marketing director of the VVM group, and is involved in working with the TCT group of companies to open up call centres in the townships. Outside of his corporate life, one of his major interests is an initiative aimed at building youth camps for young people in SA. "Camp provides an ideal way for young people to find solutions to problems," he says, pointing to his own experiences where he encountered skinheads, white kids from , and Palestinian and Israeli teenagers at one camp he attended as a young boy. "When we arrived we all hated one another on sight; within two weeks no one wanted to leave. Kids learn to be racist because of their parents, so they need spaces where they can think for themselves. "My goal is to encourage some of the big companies in this country to come together and provide opportunities for kids where they can learn and experience racial tolerance." Kunene believes these camps have another important role to play in developing teenagers who are more prepared to face the world. "Unemployment is a major issue in this country, so we need to start equipping people with the skills to communicate, to put together a CV, to market themselves. "The old boys' network is slowly being broken down and we must prepare people to take their places in a vibrant new business system." He is scathing about the lack of entrepreneurial drive in SA. People tend to prefer going into partnerships with existing companies, he says, instead of starting their own new business, which would make a far greater contribution to the development of the economy. What does hold them back, though, is the difficulty of finding finance. "The South African banking system leaves much to be desired: it's almost impossible to find finance to fund a business, but it's unbelievably easy to get credit and fall into major debt overnight. This is one of the reasons it's so important to give young people a foundation that includes basic life skills." Kunene is big on the idea of what individuals can do for their country. "South Africans have become the victims of delivery. That's a word that was heavily campaigned during our transition to democracy, but it has now resulted in a level of complacency that is dangerous. "People cannot wait around to be given a house, a cheque and a loaf of bread. Our economy requires us to be aggressive in terms of self-development. Every one of us needs to be honest about what we can and cannot do, and to acknowledge that real economic change will take at least 20 years to happen; we all have a role to play in that," he says. His other interest is the Mazizi Kunene Foundation, chaired by South African sculptor Andries Botha, and established to preserve his father's legacy and to act as a custodian of his manuscripts -- which, according to Kunene, "fill an entire room" and have yet to be published. "My father refused to use a typewriter or a computer, claiming he could not type fast enough to capture his thoughts. Most of his works are in his own longhand, and the foundation is working to ensure that this material is properly preserved and archived." Publication of several of these works is in the pipeline. Like his father, Kunene is an artist at heart who is also an accomplished musician. He says it is important for him to be a voice for young people who cannot speak for themselves and he uses his music as a driver in his youth empowerment aspirations. He believes that the narrative that informs his music, with its emphasis on story-telling, is the result of the artistic seeds planted by his father. "I would not feel complete if I were confined to a corporate environment; I don't think I would be fulfilling my responsibility to others if I neglected the creative gift I have been given. "It is entirely possible to balance your corporate self with your social self and to focus on what you can do to develop your community." Copyright © 2007 Business Day. All rights reserved. P.O. Box 1745, Saxonwold 2132, South Africa 27 11 280 3000 [EMAIL PROTECTED] **************************** Disclaimer ****************************** Copyright: In accordance with Title 17, United States Code Section 107, this material is distributed without profit for research and educational purposes. 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