No one can claim to know humanity quite like Richard Stanley, anthropologist and esteemed outsider director. From an early age his ideas were deemed dangerous, kicked out of film school after making what he describes as his purest film. Taken on excursions to discover the traditions and rituals of the indigenous people of South Africa, Richard’s childhood was exposed to things that would bewilder and amaze most adults. His mother, the author Penny Miller, wrote on the mysterious nature of our diverse land. Because he learned to foster a respect for people Apartheid had claimed were lesser beings and had the means to expose their plight, he had to flee the country under threat of being imprisoned for his radical ideals. Richard found himself firmly between the grasps of his love of the unknown and his skill as a film maker.

As a literal and spiritual nomad, Richard never seemed to find his home in any project through sheer bad luck or circumstances one couldn’t even imagine upon someone. Hardware was his debut film which aside from being panned by critics garnered a cult following that is strong to this day. But it was the legal battles from 2000 AD (the comic series dealing with stories from a grim cyberpunk future) that really seemed to mar the film’s reputation after release. Then the numerous personal tragedies of Dust Devil, which seemed cursed from the start. From car accidents, to on-set fights to budget problems, the film was eventually finished, but it failed to live up to Silence of the Lambs, the film that it was meant to compete with.

The much publicized nightmare that is The Island of Dr. Moreau could be a film on its own. Having worked on his, at the time, dream project for four years the project looked set for greatness. The cast at the time included Bruce Willis, James Woods and Marlon Brando with all the promise of a Hollywood blockbuster. Again, external forces got in the way and Bruce Willis left after his divorce from Demi Moore. Val Kilmer was brought on, but demanded his role be cut to 40% after a divorce of his own; this meant James Woods leaving the production. All this goes without even mentioning the tragedies plaguing Marlon Brando’s personal life at the time, which included his own daughter’s suicide. Richard Stanley was at this point replaced as director and the meticulously written script, based closely on the H.G Wells novel, was thrown out the window in favor of a script following the previous two remakes which were disastrous in their own right. It goes without saying the film was a disaster, panned by most every critic, going on to win Razzie nominations for worst film of the year.

However Richard Stanley is more than a mere director. As a genuine Anthropologist, Richard has also been involved with uncovering the mysteries of human Occult and rituals. In fact, one might argue Richard is more successful as an academic than as a director, but it’s impossible to separate the two roles. When one thinks of the Holy Grail we think of knights on a holy quest for their Christian king, but in recent modern times, Richard Stanley knew of SS Nazis and their obsessive hunt for power, even in the spiritual. Perhaps they thought possessing the Grail would prove them the Aryan race. He wrote about it in his e-book, Shadow of the Grail which is the story of Otto Rahn (the unofficial inspiration behind Indiana Jones and Raiders of the Lost Ark). The more Richard Stanley researched Otto Rahn, the stranger things became as rumors of faking his death and working for the CIA on secret mystical projects. The far-fetched is close at hand for Richard as he continues to pierce the veil of what is generally accepted to be truth.

Now returning to South Africa for the first time in close to two decades we asked the Anthropologist how different the new South Africa was from the old. Aside from the relaxing of censorship, “not much,” was the response. Explaining that he had just returned from the Karoo where time seems to stand still aside from farm workers being driven to live in villages to dance around ancestral land laws. When asked if he would like to stay and perhaps make a film in South Africa, it becomes clear that even with a measurable amount of success making films in South Africa from the ground up is a risk not many are willing to take. He however understands the importance of film as a medium, explaining that perhaps the reason behind the US staying a superpower despite financial debt is Hollywood. “Anything in Science that is not understood is generally indiscernible from Magic,” is something he reminds us with a glint in his eye.

We look forward to seeing more from Richard Stanley as I’m sure he has many more stories to tell, but for now he will wander on and follow his convictions to uncover every mystery from the Holy Grail to the damaged fabric of space.

After reading an amazing book on the horrors of colonisation in Africa called King Leopold’s Ghost by Adam Hochschild – specifically focusing on the brutality seen in the Congo in the late 19th Century and early 20th Century by journalist-turned-explorer Henry Morton Stanley - I began thinking about the certain ‘labels’ society puts on people… lablels that can actually be incredibly misleading.

Words such as ‘humanitarian’ and ‘philanthropist’ fly around, even today, when names like Stanley are mentioned. When, in actual truth, if closer inspection were given to the subject, one would see how deceptive it really is. Nowhere was this more evident than in the supposedly free, Congo state in the early 1900s.

In between studying, an alarming amount of stimuli has inhabited itself in my mind and has not failed to resurface at any free moment I might have. As well as King Leopold’s Ghost, I have read and seen many other things that have inspired me to ‘pick up the pen’ so to say, and get writing on the subject.

For now though, more about the book: King Leopold’s Ghost. As stated above, it is written by Adam Hochschild who is an American author and journalist. Ironically, he actually spent a summer working for an anti-government newspaper in South Africa. The book is all about the Congo and the terrible happenings between the ‘native’ and the colonialists after King Leopold II of Belgium sent Stanley, by then a famous explorer who ‘found’ Livingstone after years of absence, to map out a new colony on behalf of the king, who, ruled the colony of the Congo for almost half a century and never even set foot on the Congo’s resourceful soil. If you are anything like me and enjoy a good old rant about whether colonialism is good or bad, this is a wonderful read for you.

Or, if you are just simply interested in men with strange facial hair I suppose this will be a tantalizing read for you too. While reading this book, I came across a brilliant quote and I had to share it. With my (bordering on obsession) interest in photography and quotes alike, I thought this one rang extremely true, and I can only imagine that the essence of this quote is spot on in all the world’s deadly genocides and wars. The quote, which is taken from a piece of work that Mark Twain wrote during this time called King Leopold’s Soliloquy, an imaginary monologue by Leopold II of Belgium goes as follows:

After all the terrible things dug up by the reformers trying to stop the vicious cycle of colonialism and slave labour that King Leopold and his associates had buried so well, comes the inevitable and gruesome truth that a photograph always reveals, as well as conquering the test of time.

To bring this concept a little more close to home I read an article titled An eye on the shame of Apartheid by Fred Khumalo in the Sunday Times. the article was about an exhibition at the Johannesburg Art Gallery which is featuring the works of Ernest Cole, legendary photographer who ‘died in obscurity’ thousands of miles away from his home land, South Africa. One of the more poignant images was a picture taken in a doctor’s office showing lines of recruits for the ominous gold mines undergoing a group medical examination. The photograph’s absence of overt violence makes it frightening and chilling. Khumalo describes South Africa’s past as, ‘Oh, our tragic country, our tragic history.’

Admitting to shedding a few tears during the course of his visit to the exhibition, Khumalo was evidently moved by the experience and the raw reality that photography, or, photojournalism provides. South Africa’s shameful past and our uncertain future can be documented on the glossy paper of photographs. Not only candid memories stand the test of time through photography, but also a look into our past can provide historical significance to the present day.

For over a century, photography has been the incorruptible medium that Long Leopold II to Adolf Hitler to PW Botha failed to ‘silence’. It is the medium that speaks a thousand words without as much as just simply ‘showing up’.

WORDS: Jessica Jones

Even in death, Lucky continues to stand for a potent cause. His brutal murder has become a key motivator in the fight against crime. The lack of humanity shown by its perpetrators has led some to call for the reinstatement of the death penalty to help curb the country’s ridiculously high murder statistics. But this is at odds with the life of Lucky Dube, who throughout his career was a powerful voice of peace, love and understanding. Dube was born in 1964 in the town of Ermelo, Mpumalanga (what was then the Eastern Transvaal). He and his siblings, Patrick and Thandi, were raised single-handedly by their grandmother. Later in life, Lucky described his grandmother as his greatest love – a woman whose many sacrifices led him to grow into the great man he would one day become. Lucky Dube discovered Rastafarianism at school, and at 18 he joined his cousin’s band, The Love Brothers. They played mqabanga, an upbeat brand of Zulu pop, and signed to Richard Siluma’s Teal Records in 1980.

Dube was still at school and funding his ambitions by working as a car auction security guard, and so it is miraculous that despite such a busy lifestyle he was still able to find the time to record an album in Johannesburg. Lucky Dube and the Supersoul released their first album Lengane Ngeyethu in 1981 and over the following five albums Lucky Dube learnt to refine his style and hone his lyrical abilities. However, his ambitions were focussed in a different direction from the mqabanga style with which he was becoming synonymous.

Dube had seen amazing synergy between the ethos of the Jamaican reggae movement and the political issues of Apartheid South Africa.

He had received positive responses from the few reggae songs that he had played live, and so, in 1984, he released a mini solo album called Rastas Never Die. While his mqabanga records were selling well in excess of 30 000 copies an album, Rastas only sold about 4 000 units, and was censored by the Apartheid government in 1985. These hardships would deter lesser men, but Dube saw this as an affirmation of his cause and pursued it all the harder. He was right.

Over the next twenty years, Lucky’s success spanned the globe, with his albums winning a total of five OKTV awards in the late eighties and early nineties. In 1993, his album Victims sold more than a million copies. After signing a recording contract with Motown in 1995, Lucky released his seminal Trinity album, following it up in 1996 with Serious Reggae Business for which he won the ‘Best Selling African Recording Artist’ at the World Music Awards. Dube’s success grew in leaps and bounds over the next ten years, with his next three albums each earning SAMA awards and his final album, Respect, immediately snapped up by Warner Music for its international release. A prolific showman, Dube recorded 22 albums over his 25-year career and was able to cross the cultural boundaries by recording in three of our national languages: Zulu, English and Afrikaans.
Although he toured extensively, performing alongside superstars such as Sinéad O’Connor, Sting and Peter Gabriel, he was a dedicated South African, a proud father, and a stalwart of his local community. Despite being a Rastafarian,

Dube eschewed the Rasta tradition of smoking dope and maintained a health-conscious lifestyle.

However, as is often the case in this time of senseless crime, Dube’s life was cut short by murderers who neither knew who he was, nor cared about the role that he had played in bringing worldwide attention to the plight of South Africa. It was while dropping off two of his children at their uncle’s house in Rossettenville that Lucky Dube was murdered – shot by a gang of five intent on stealing his car.

The outpouring of grief was heard across the world, with the love that was felt for him in South Africa particularly palpable. Lucky was a man who personified the goodness, talent and personal power of all South Africans – that ‘can do’ attitude that sets us apart, the belief in ourselves that allows us to rise up and pursue our dreams, despite enormous adversity and difficult circumstances. His life – and death – are filled with lessons to us all: to trust our instincts, follow our passions, and remember at all times that whatever we have can be taken away in an instant.

Words: Sebastian Stent

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