THE POLITICS OF SOUTH AFRICA'S NATIONAL ARTS FESTIVAL: SMALL ENGAGEMENTS IN THE BIGGER CAMPAIGN

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PART OF THE STRUGGLE for democracy in South Africa involves mobilizing diverse segments of the progressive population to reform and if possible to revolutionize private as well as public institutions. Progressive in this context refers to all of those individuals and groups that identify with and to some degree work toward an end to minority rule and racial superand sub-ordination, and toward the establishment of a nonracial society founded on the principles of majority rule and opportunity for all. They are a disparate lot that includes radicals and liberals, reformists and revolutionaries. The common theme for all is a determination to end apartheid in all its guises and to establish an order that seeks to further universal economic and social opportunity regardless of birth and provenance. The centrepiece of their struggle is the political systemgovernment, parties, bureaucracies, and the institutions that government controls and manages. But there remains a multiplicity of ostensibly private or 'independent' organizations and institutions, and changing them contributes to the wider political transformation. The annual National Arts Festival (NAF) is one such independent institution. Established in 1966, it has blossomed into a gigantic, multidimensional enterprise. Today it comprises eleven days of theatre, music, film, cabaret, dance, mime, arts and craft exhibitions and shows and a 'winter school' of lectures and readings a veritable feast of the arts. The 1992 NAF included nearly 2,000 perforrnances for which 170,000 tickets were sold. In addition there is a myriad of non-official performances and free activities that coincide with the festival. Altogether over 50,000 people are attracted to Grahamstown for the festival and they pump around R37.6 million into the badly depressed local economy.l It purports to be