Since Rhodes University has urged its students to build the community around them, the words “community
engagement” have become incredibly sexy.But for most students this kind of calling can be quite daunting.
Since Rhodes University has urged its students to build the community around them, the words “community
engagement” have become incredibly sexy.But for most students this kind of calling can be quite daunting.
There are relatively few who are able to embrace the challenge and immediately get down to devising the kinds of projects that will leave a lasting legacy for this city.
One such student who has successfully done so is Richard Antrobus. A young man with a diminutive body and a small voice, he is in fact, a man of few words and graceful action.
To most of the Rhodes University community and for the citizens of Grahamstown, Antrobus is celebrated as a mime artist, dancer and part time drama teacher.
Yet he has helped four men to stand up and to learn to walk tall – literally and figuratively. During June 2009, Antrobus gathered four unemployed young men from Grahamstown’s township community and put them through a hectic skills-transfer programme which culminated in the establishment of Phezulu, the first-ever South African theatre company whose core expression is performing on stilts.
Phezulu meaning “upwards” in Zulu made their debut at the National Arts Festival last year. The novelty of black men on stilts grabbed the media’s attention and Antrobus and his four stilt-walkers suddenly became favourites with interviews on radio, television and even a photo scoop on the front page of the festival newspaper, Cue.
For the four men, getting on their stilts and learning to stand tall was the start to a life changing journey. The sudden media attention that they were receiving was an affirmation of their worth.
The invitations that followed to perform at the Hilton Arts Festival and at events in Port Elizabeth and East London is a challenge they accepted with enthusiasm and dedication. Since the launching of this community engagement initiative last year, the four men have not stopped working.
They have been able to secure regular performances and have been able to continuously earn some money. Already, the four are planning their repertoire for this year’s National Arts Festival.
Little did Antrobus know that his project would have a ripple effect across the country. For the first time last year, black stilt-walkers began to appear in street parades in Johannesburg.
Others are making their debut in Cape Town, Durban and in other festival cities across the country. If Antrobus lived in the US, he probably would have received an award from the city’s mayor for his contributions.
In South Africa, the kind of contribution that he has made is likely to go with even less recognition from politicians and community leaders because he is young, white and male and he doesn’t have any of the tenderpreneurial spirit or vocal hollowness that grabs the kind of attention from politicians in a way that Julius Malema does.
The city’s leadership must not remain aloof from these new change agents. Rhodes University has pushed its students to take on the challenge but the new challenge now remains for the city’s leadership to devise visionary plans which will allow students to be absorbed in the city’s community building campaigns.
Initiatives which are supported by a city’s leadership are likely to inspire a greater number of people to become active participants in the economy.
It is this kind of partnership which will shift community engagement from the realm of face painting and soup kitchen projects (which in themselves serve a useful purpose) to initiatives that have a more measurable impact on the way the beneficiaries face their daily realities one which leaves both the beneficiaries and the students feeling more empowered.
If every one of the six thousand students at Rhodes University changed four more lives through their community engagement initiatives, there will be 24 000 community beneficiaries at the end of this year able to put bread on the table.
And as for the students, this will be their legacy which will not escape celebration in the narratives written about our city’s history.
Ismail Mahomed is Director of the National Arts Festival. He writes in his personal capacity.
