Albie Sachs.

South African human rights activist Justice Albert Sachs, a foe of apartheid and key player in overturning South Africa’s ban on gay marriage, offers a talk at 乐播传媒 at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 24, in the Edmund S. Muskie Archives, 70 Campus Ave.

Part of the Harward Center for Community Partnerships’ Civic Forum Series, Sachs’ talk is titled Ubuntu: An African Contribution to the Universality of Human Rights. Admission is open to the public at no cost.

The event is co-sponsored by the Office of Intercultural Education; the Multifaith Chaplaincy; the departments of politics, African American studies, anthropology and sociology; the divisions of social sciences and humanities; the Program in Women and Gender Studies; and the Justice for Women Lecture Series of the University of Maine School of Law.

For more information, please call 207-786-6202.

An African National Congress activist during the apartheid years in South Africa, Sachs went on to play an important role in the creation of the country’s first democratic constitution. He gained international attention again in 2005 as the author of the Constitutional Court’s holding that overturned South Africa’s ban on gay marriage.

In 1955, at the age of 21, Sachs opened a law practice. He represented South Africans charged under racial statutes and security laws, with many of his clients risking the death penalty. As a result of this work, his practice was restricted, he was arrested, and was put in solitary confinement for 168 days without a trial.

Sachs went to England in 1966, later moving to Mozambique to teach law. In 1988, while he was teaching in exile, South African agents planted a bomb in his car. The explosion killed a passer-by and cost Sachs an arm and the vision in one eye.

Though he never quit working against apartheid in exile, the bombing moved him to fully devote himself once again to effecting democracy in South Africa.

With regime change achieved in 1990, Sachs served on the Constitutional Committee and advocated strongly for the inclusion of a Bill of Rights and an independent judiciary, as well as rights to housing, health care and other essentials. In 1994, after the first democratic election, President Nelson Mandela appointed Sachs as a justice in the Constitutional Court.

Sachs led the creation of the 1996 South African post-apartheid constitution and was involved in several landmark rulings for the new country, such as the overturning of the gay marriage ban.

Sachs has traveled all over the world to speak about human rights and how to achieve them in partitioned societies. He juggles his passion for human rights with interests in art and architecture, and had a voice in the design of the Constitutional Court Building and the creation of its art collection.

He has written several books, including The Jail Diary of Albie Sachs聽(Harvill Press, 1966), published during his time in exile in England but banned in his home country. In 1991, Sachs won the Alan Paton Award for his book Soft Vengeance of a Freedom Fighter (University of California Press). His most recent title is The Strange Alchemy of Life and Law, published by Oxford University Press in 2009.

A 乐播传媒 College alumna who used her 2009 Watson Fellowship to study performance arts in South Africa and Indonesia returns to discuss her experiences at 7 p.m. Friday, Sept. 10, in the college’s Benjamin Mays Center, 95 Russell St.

An information session about applying for the Watson follows.

Sulochana Dissanayake of Pita Kotte, Sri Lanka, was one of 40 recipients of the 2009 fellowship, a $28,000 award supporting a year of independent research abroad. Driven by her ultimate goal of creating a Sri Lankan theater company and school that will examine her own country’s social and political issues, Dissanayake used her Watson year to study performance traditions in Indonesia and contemporary theater companies in South Africa. .

South Africa and Indonesia “are similar to Sri Lanka in terms of our colonized histories, and economic, social and political backgrounds,” Dissanayake explained after receiving the fellowship. “But both these countries, South Africa specifically, have discovered theater as a voice of their people — something yet to be done in local English-language theater in Sri Lanka.”

Accordingly, her goal for the Watson-funded research was to observe the creative and developmental processes from start to finish, from the conception and writing of a socially relevant play to its casting and direction.

Entranced by performing since she was a toddler, when she and her father would improvise skits for the family, Dissanayake received the Watson at the end of a remarkable 乐播传媒 career. She was one of the rare first-year students to direct a production by the student-run Robinson Players, and as a senior directed one of the college’s two annual mainstage productions — a responsibility usually undertaken by a professor of theater. All told, Dissanayake directed nine productions at 乐播传媒.

In addition, during summer 2008 she was a directing intern at the acclaimed Guthrie Theater, in Minneapolis, and during the previous summer apprenticed at the Williamstown Theatre Festival, in Massachusetts.

Dissanayake double-majored in theater and economics, deliberately coupling creative development with coursework that acknowledges practical realities. “My goal is to ensure that when I set up an independent contemporary theater company in Sri Lanka, I’ll be able to make wise financial decisions.”

The Thomas J. Watson Foundation was created in 1961 by Mrs. Thomas J. Watson Sr. in honor of her late husband, the founder of International Business Machines Corp., widely known as IBM. The one-year Watson Fellowship offers college graduates of unusual promise a year of independent, purposeful exploration and travel, in international settings new to them, to enhance their resourcefulness, imagination, openness and leadership, and to foster their humane and effective participation in the world community.

At least one 乐播传媒 senior or graduate received a Watson Fellowship every year from 1985 through 2000, in 2002 and 2003, and from 2006 through 2009.

After sharing a meal at the end of a two-week homestay with a Zulu family in rural Ohwebede, my host siblings encouraged me to take out my camera for one last photo shoot. At the suggestion of one of my host brothers, we used an old side-view mirror, the only reflecting device used for miles, to capture our faces in an interesting composition of layered glasses. 鈥� Amy Lareau聽 ’09

Last Sunday, a few friends and I went to see聽 speak at a rally. Since the national election is coming up this April, heavy campaigning has begun. In South Africa, instead of voting for one person as president you vote for an entire party, who then makes the appointment. For the first time since 1994 (the year apartheid in South Africa ended) the ANC is not the clear winner, so everyone on both sides is pretty heated about what will happen in the coming months. The rally was one of the best experiences I鈥檝e had so far. Even though most of Zuma鈥檚 speech was in Zulu, it was great to be near so many who truly trusted this man with their own salvation. Throughout the day numerous phrases were chanted, including but not limited to: 鈥淰iva ANC Viva!鈥�, 鈥淰iva Zuma Viva!鈥�, 鈥淩oar Young Lions, Roar!鈥�, 鈥溾��, 鈥淛Z, JZ, JZ鈥�. Musical artists and famous comedians within South Africa made appearances that drove the audience wild.

Along with music, dancing and comedy Zuma鈥檚 appearance was prefaced with other speakers including the president of the South African communist party. Zuma鈥檚 speech (what I could understand of it) for the most part covered the basics: healthcare, education, crime, housing, and general equality for South Africans. What I was most surprised at was the entire party鈥檚 disdain for other parties. Sure, in the States we trash talk the opposition, but not without tip-toeing around hurt feelings. Our politicians are so concerned with playing face that they never flat out say, 鈥淿_____聽 _聽 ____ is an idiot and has no business running our country.鈥� At this rally though, there was no holding back on the part of Zuma and his comrades. I鈥檓 still not sure if that鈥檚 a better way to handle political beef 鈥� it seems a bit reckless. For much of his presentation, Zuma鈥檚 audience didn鈥檛 seem completely focused (side-chatter was prevalent), but when he finished and broke into his signature song, 鈥淟ethu Mshini Wami鈥� 鈥� translated into English as 鈥淏ring Me My Machine Gun鈥�, everyone was on their feet and attentive. The song was used most in the depths of Apartheid oppression as a popular rally cry against the inequality. Zuma has adopted it as his own to show his commitment to fighting oppression, I presume. It鈥檚 one of his trademarks. Here鈥檚 a picture of a man at the rally with his AK-47 made from ANC/Zuma posters and cardboard:

Clearly, not everyone is down with the song about machine guns; but honestly, Zuma has way more problems to worry about. He has lingering corruption and rape charges that lurk above and around him. I actually think he may be acquitted of at least one of the two, but most people (outside of the die hard supporters we were surrounded by at the rally) still associate him with the crimes, and some of the heinously ridiculous things he鈥檚 said regarding protection against HIV.

While I am unsure about how I feel about Jacob Zuma as a president, it was really incredible to be apart of a political rally of tens of thousands of people. Besides the size, it was kind of like one big party which included a good message and lots of singing. The fact that Zuma broke out in song and dance after his speech made some level of his popularity clear. He spent so much time making jokes about the opposition that had the audience rolling and closed his words with a performance. Bravo JZ, Bravo. Here鈥檚 a picture of his final moments of stage, breaking it down, 鈥淢shini Wami, Mshini Wami鈥�.

Peace and then some,

Naima

Author of several non-fiction books and novels, Mathabane may be best-known for Kaffir Boy: The True Story of a Black Youth’s Coming of Age in Apartheid South Africa (1986) and Kaffir Boy in America: An Encounter With Apartheid (1989), which addressed racism in America. The first Kaffir Boy has been translated into a number of languages and is frequently used in the classroom.

Mathabane publishes often in national newspapers and is active on the lecture circuit.