Art, poetry, the native as slave, the American Civil War and the promulgation of the Group Areas Act

We must look at the subtle variations of both education and philosophy, the quality of white lie, truth, the conversation which is significant, key, law, abstract, metaphor. It is going to be the poet who is going to save us, mark kismet, become Africa’s ruling-leader, Africa’s visionary-diplomat, and chief-negotiator.

Here we must think of our collective literature, the fastening of the mother tongue, freedom (and not the actor’s freedom, but our social freedom, our justice system, our tradition, heritage, culture that shapes, transcends, transforms and conscientizes us, our exit route out of colonialism that we have worshiped.

See the selfish portrait, the zoned silhouette of the hungry, and impoverished community that anchors us to the working classes, the milieu of the upper ruling classes of the elite, the political community, the petty bourgeoisie of the mixed-race descent of the middle classes. Freedom, liberty, justice is first fantasy, then probable.

Photojournalism is art. It can be stated that from Diane Arbus to Da Vinci, from the early paintings on the walls of caves, to sculpture, modern art and any other forms of abstract expressionism, that art is essentially an expression of self, of human essence and the world around us. Our people are wanting literacy, and books, and books in their mother tongue, and literature, and libraries, and language.

The native as slave challenges us at every turn. It is a mythical, powerful, temporary beast that has an uncertain future in our newfound democracy, in our living rainbow nation, in our born free consciousness, in the millennial as they translate politics into policy, diplomacy, priority, nurturing our “rainbow-children”.

So, war has followed us at every uncertain turn in world history, and soldiers have become superstars, and killing machines, and yet, yet we have still arrived starry-eyed at our destination, fulfilled our mandate, turning to our governing-daughters, our patriarchal-filmmakers, the matriarchs who defeated an apartheid-government singlehandedly.

Danto’s definition of art. According to the philosopher and art critic Danto, art is something that embodies meaning and that needs to be viewed through the lens of modern society and our societal norms and values. This is something very similar to “a person’s character, it is there, a foundational property, deeply hidden, manifesting in personality”. Photojournalism does this to a certain degree, by evoking emotions in an audience by reflecting a moment captured by the lens of a photographer. In this way, although not as free in form and creativity as a painter for example, the photographer, much like an artist, frames an intended message. So too, they frame a type of psychological reaction, sensitivity, imagination and creativity for its audience. It can provide an analysis or social commentary for the observer. It has the potential to mirror certain societal behaviours, cultures and events at a specific point in time, providing titbits of information on which the audience can reflect. Topics range from humanities and religion to existentialism any other societal norms and values. In this way, photojournalism, regardless of whether or not it can be mechanically reproduced, can be confirmed as having meaning, and at the same time, also be viewed as a form of art. It can therefore be confirmed, in line with the philosophies of Danto, that photojournalism, can be viewed as a form of art. This is reliant not only on an image and its intended message or meaning, but also on the feelings it evokes in its audience.

The importance of a strong central government. Peace, community, nation-building beginning at a grassroots level (freeing the enslaved) are all necessary for a strong government. Problems in any nation must be dealt with collectively when it comes to agenda, majority rule and policy. At the end of the day to achieve a strong central government for the people, by the people, of the people agenda, majority rule and policy must achieve unity and influence not only amongst the cabinet of the day but also the leaders of the model governing body to be a strong government with effective and consistent leadership at the helm. A powerful central government deals with issues regarding its legal network and ramifications thereof, the environment, the military, the defence, foreign and national policy, public health and administration, labour, social welfare and education.

A central government was necessary for the development of the nation.

It must strengthen issues and ties of national importance amongst its nation’s inhabitants. What happened in a post-war-America was to deal with problems of nation-building, the confidence of her inhabitants, strife in nation-building, conflict and secession. There were men who saw the potential for change. Men and women who saw that a nation had to be built. A strong central body was needed because of the estimates and implications of the economic costs of the burnout of the war.

There was a rampant demise in health and disease, and the effects and fallout of the war had affected not just slaves but also American families, soldiers and their wives. Economic influence, the personal status of every individual inhabitant, the self-assurance of America’s leaders was conditioned post-war. The end of the war promised an end to the disharmony, the disorder, the unrest, the morale of a nation confounded by the turbulence of war and it also marked a return to a tempered social unity, an empirical solidarity amongst the people after the tragic set of circumstance of the war.

The reasons and outcomes of the American Civil War. Of course, the main reason for the war was the issue of slavery, the abolitionists, the land question, Abraham Lincoln being elected as president and the stance that he took on slaves and the ownership of slaves. Amongst the downtrodden souls of the people of the post-war American nation this war warranted tragedy. It initiated a fleeting compromise amongst North and South where at first none could be seen, an examination between the North and the South’s struggles for the “concentration of wealth” (the acquisition of slaves) to survive somehow. In other words, to own slaves was tantamount to gold to the south, but for a fledgling and progressive republican democracy it had to come to an end.

In conclusion, it is easy to surmise that after the devastation and the backlash of war a season of hope and prosperity would follow for both North and South. The South felt usurped and many battled illness and health issues on both sides. In the face of tragedy and an uncertain future a central government emerged trumping the race question and the concentration of wealth in the hands of an elect few.

This government offered an end to an undeniably intellectual battle within the class system (the place of class in an apartheid system).

After the war there was a capacity for dual economic and political change at great economic cost. Thousands of men had lost their lives for this social reform, freedom and the prohibition of slavery. We can sense that one of the outcomes of this egregious nation-building of this brave new world was paved in blood, dissolution, an unsystematic reasoning of slave-ownership and “semantic” choice.

Abigail George
Abigail George
Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net nominated shortlisted and longlisted poet Abigail George is a recipient of four writing grants from the National Arts Council, the Centre for Book and ECPACC. She briefly studied film, writes for The Poet, is an editor at MMAP and Contributing Writer at African Writer. She is a blogger, essayist, writer of several short stories, novellas and has ventured out to write for film with two projects in development . She was recently interviewed for Sentinel, and the BBC.