‘The shock of learning your life has been cooked in a soup of propaganda’
Daniel Nelson
Milisuthando paints a picture of apartheid South Africa that’s rarely seen on screen: there’s criticism of Nelson Mandela and nostalgia for Transkei, one of the “Bantustans” or “Homelands” created so White South Africa could pretend to the world that its racist policy was “separate but equal” rather than repressive.
Perhaps we shouldn’t be surprised, because, obviously, not all Black South Africans think alike, and because the documentary essay is directed, written and narrated by thoughtful artist-turned filmmaker Milisuthando Bongela, whose youth was not explicitly touched by the horrors, violence, or even the presence of white occupiers.
Bongela has written, “The stories that we often see represented about what it means to be Black during apartheid is that it was a totalising state of awfulness and we were all oppressed in the exact same ways. It’s more complex than that, and to admit that feels risky.
“But we don’t really engage in the narratives of people who grew up in places like the Bantustans, which complicated the classic view of apartheid. In fact, a lot of the evidence of the Bantustans just disappeared. In 1994, the flags were hidden, borders removed, most of our experiences just disappeared.
“This film is the byproduct of the personal and political shock that results from learning that your life has been cooked in a soup of propaganda”.
So the fact that part of her film and commentary is a home movie about a happy childhood offers an authentic and historical insight into how some people lived at a particular point of time. Her circumstances started to change in 1992, with the family’s move to the Eastern Cape and a huge political shift afoot.
The film gets added depth from its examination of Bongela’s close friendship with her White co-producer, Marion Isaacs.
A seemingly routine remark by Isaacs and Bongela’s knee-jerk reaction sparks a conversation that introduces the idea of Whiteness — a concept entirely alien to White Europeans and Americans living in their own countries (which is why White people usually fail to understand the psychological impact on Black fellow citizens.)
The doc is longish, sometimes poetic, soft spoken, gently piercing, but Bongela unveils subtle but revealing insights. If you are interested in South Africa and/or race, this is worth the watch.
* Milisuthando is at the ICA, The Mall, until 24 Oct; 21 Oct, West Norwood Picturehouse; 22 Oct, Picturehouses Central, Clapham; Crouch End, Ealing, East Dulwich, Finsbury Park, Gate, Greenwich, Hackney, Ritzy, West Norwood