African Ecomedia: Network Forms, Planetary Politics by Cajetan Iheka (review)

Abstract

“place-making” (116) but, in light of the economic and domestic obligations of the local women, could not resolve the asymmetry between them and the full-time artists, even if the latter included black women such as Chuma Sopotela who spoke Xhosa alongside English. In contrast, MTP’s work with the Langeberg Youth Arts Project (LYAP), led most recently by multilingual director-therapist Makgathi Mokwena, took account of the ethics of intervention as well as the aesthetic dimension of “curating care” (180). Her success in training and inspiring disconnected rural youth to express themselves with confidence and to find and keep remunerative and dignified employment beyond farm labor was confirmed by participants who credit their achievement to the skills that they learned (113). LYAP members share thoughts in their own words on the website at https://www.mothertongue .co.za/, but the editors could have highlighted this resource by adding the URL to the introduction and the cover of the book. The editors acknowledge the difficulties affecting the work of art and social action by dedicating their book to a LYAP member who died in his twenties. The conversations in the book provide ample testimony of the social and artistic force of participatory dramaturgy for sustaining democratic action in South Africa and should also speak to readers interested in the art and the application of curating care at other locations in the Global—and glocal—South.