Changing Attitudes: An Overview of Awareness Raising about Disability in South Africa
By Shelley Barry, Media Officer, Office on the Status of Disabled Persons, the Presidency, Republic of South Africa (shelley@po.gov.za)
On reflection:
My time spent in Moscow (International Disability Film Festival) marked my life in some way. Attending the film festival on disability inspired and refueled my dream to be a film maker, to be contributing to the shape of images of disability and to create a different way of seeing and being seen for young people with disabilities. It is a realization that here we stand on the brink of new bold developments and that change is within our grasp, with all the tools we have to mold a new screen. Film, being such a powerful medium, has limited itself in its current choices of who is fit to be seen, whose lives are worthy enough to be depicted and whose histories should be told. What would happen if there were no need for specialized festivals on disability, gays and lesbians, black history? What if the periphery becomes part of the mainstream? We would simply have a richer, wider, more representative film industry whose silver screen, like a mirror, would reflect a world more accepting of diversity. In Moscow, I met people who had begun to enter places I had only fantasized about and it is their bold steps that will leave footprints for us who want to watch fresh ground being imprinted. I will remember my resolve to make film that matters, as much as I remember sitting in Red Square in the pouring rain. It was another kind of revolution that began in Moscow during September 26-29, 2002.
Panel Presentation:
Greetings from Africa! I'd like to commend Perspektiva and Rehabilitation International for having the vision to host an international film festival on disability. I believe that film has the potential to be crucial to the global disability rights movement. Today, I will be sharing some of my country's history regarding the portrayal of disability in the media and some of the current developments and visions.
I grew up under apartheid in South Africa, categorized in a racial group that identified me as coloured, neither black, nor white, more privileged than my fellow black citizens and less privileged than the white citizens. The media, a major propaganda tool of the apartheid government, taught me as a child that white people were infinitely superior and that my dreams as a coloured girl should not be too ambitious.
Parallels between propaganda
The parallel between different forms of propaganda is interesting. It was later, in my adult life, when I became a wheelchair user, that I realized how the media used its power to belittle or exclude whole histories of people. When recovering in hospital, I had nothing much else to do, except watch TV, read and wonder what I was going to do with the rest of my life, living with a disability. I've since become aware that my perception of disability had been based on what I had learned through public attitudes, the media and education.
Images of people with disabilities in South Africa's media, prior to democracy, were divided along racial lines. The media portrayed a welfare approach, depicting people who were burdens on the state and in need of charity. Public Service Announcements called for donations to various service providers for white people living with disabilities. The image most associated with black people living with disabilities was that of a beggar on the street. Disability grants from the welfare department were unequally divided along the racial categories, with black people receiving less than all other racial groups and white people with disabilities receiving the best end of the welfare stick. Special schools under apartheid were designed to give black people the most inferior education possible, i.e., if they were lucky to get to school in the first place.
Activism began in 1980s
In the 1980s, there was increased activism against apartheid and in that time, a group of disabled activists, looked at the issue of oppression and how it affected them as people with disabilities. They regarded disability as a political issue and aligned themselves to the broader struggle for liberation. The organization, Disabled People South Africa, was born. As a result, when South Africa became a democratic country, disability was placed on the national agenda of the new government and a major breakthrough was made in the disability rights movement in our country.
In 1996, South Africa's highest law, namely, the constitution, was passed. In this constitution, discrimination was outlawed on the basis on race, gender, disability, religious affiliation and sexual orientation, making it one of the most progressive constitutions in the world. In 1997, government released a white paper on an Integrated National Disability Strategy (INDS), after a long and extensive consultation process with people with disabilities (www.anc.org.za). These guidelines essentially moved away from a welfare/medical approach towards a more human rights approach, looking at how every government department, from transport to education, has to transform to include the rights of people with disabilities. In the same year and for the first time, Nelson Mandela's state of the nation address was interpreted in sign language and people with disabilities formed the presidential guard of honour. I also had the opportunity and honour to have worked with the late Maria Rantho, who was the first disabled member of Parliament in the national assembly and together, we worked towards raising awareness on disability at Parliament, targeting the key decision makers and raising their consciousness.
Establishment of Office on Status of Disabled Persons
One of the most significant developments in government was the establishment of the Office on the Status of Disabled Persons (OSDP), now based in the Presidency in South Africa. Similar offices were established in all the provinces of the country, based in the Premiers' offices and responsible for monitoring the implementation of the INDS. Another key task of the OSDP is to raise public awareness on disability. The disability rights movement realized that negative attitudes in the public were a great stumbling block to the process of dismantling barriers. In March this year, I was appointed to set up a media office in the Presidency, with a specific focus on using the media to change and inform attitudes in the public.
Six new documentaries now in circulation
For the purpose of this gathering, I will focus on the work we have done around film, in particular: Our office produced six documentaries on the lives of people with disabilities, as told by themselves. During the production of this series, people with disabilities were trained in filmmaking. These films were all broadcast during prime time viewing on our national broadcaster, e.tv. Unfortunately, the broadcasters screened these films once, with no repeat slots. Instead of letting the films gather dust in the shelves, we took them to mainstream film festivals that were running in the country. In South Africa, in the month of August, we celebrate the contribution of women and our films on women with disabilities became part of national festivals and celebrations. Our most recent screenings were at public cinemas during the World Summit on Sustainable Development held in Johannesburg held in August. Initially we started in 2001 with a first film festival on disability in South Africa that formed part of a national arts festival in Cape Town. One of the films included was "Soleil- The Girl Who Sold The Sun" made by legendary West African filmmaker, D'Jibril Diop Mambety, who depicted a girl with a disability as the main character in this enchanting film.
Mobile film unit to tackle public education
I believe that although film festivals on disability are important and very necessary, we often end up preaching to fellow persons with disabilities and it is the public that we really need to educate. As far as possible, films on disabilities should be screened in community centers, churches, schools, and in rural areas. Next year, our office will start a project using a mobile film unit that will take our films to people who don't often have access to film. We are particularly targeting schools, knowing that in order to change attitudes, we need to teach our youth. Another project will focus on community media training, providing people with disabilities with the necessary skills to represent themselves and to challenge their representation in the media. Unless we, as people with disabilities infiltrate the media vehicles, it will continue to remain difficult to change things from the outside. Access to training is crucial.
The next phase of our film project will be on insert production, creating short inserts on the life stories of people with disabilities to be inserted during regular public programming. We believe that inserts can be effective in that they target the average viewer who will probably sit through a short insert on disability issues as opposed to a dedicated program. However, integration and visibility in all forms of media is vital. People with disabilities need to be commonly seen in regular programming and mainstream film. The advertising industry should also be targeted. After all, we are consumers - we drink Coke, buy washing powder and we wear clothes! Yet, we are rarely seen in any positive way in advertisements.
Prime time news has also been a significant target area for us. By developing working relationships with the executive producers of news there is a free flow of information going through to the news and consequently our stories are being covered. Every night our short news bulletins are interpreted in sign language, that has been established as one of South Africa's eleven official languages.
Media Development & Diversity Agency established
Another exciting development is the establishment of the Media Development and Diversity Agency whose key aim is to redress the exclusion and magnetization of disadvantaged communities and those who have had little or no access to the media and the media industry. This agency will promote diversity and support primarily community media.
Our Media Unit is also involved in several other projects such as research, media monitoring, literature, events, campaigns, theatre, visual art, photography, integrated dance and history.
The history of the disability rights movement has been captured in a book that will be launched in South Africa in November. All these projects have the same aim, namely to raise awareness on disability and to alter public perception. However, the greatest awareness raising we can achieve is visibility in society. Once people with disabilities are visible and part of public life, the public will naturally become more aware of the issues. Therefore, awareness raising cannot be divorced from access to education, transport, employment, physical environments and to information and communication systems.
Enabling legislation is a vital way forward and in a short period of time South Africa has made drastic changes to legislation that will ultimately create a true democracy.
In conclusion, a poem
I'll like to conclude with a poem I wrote and I'm dedicating it to people with disabilities in Russia:
Call to Art
if we want
to be part of this story
we have to write
our own chapters
we have to paint
our revolution
across blank spaces
we have to dance
and stomp upon
our space on the land
and make it sacred
we have to cross a stage
and speak from the centre
not the side, not the back
we have to capture
our images
and rid ourselves
from the tinshaking-streetsitting-pity-me pictures
we have to embroider our history
on coloured cloth
and wave flags of freedom
we have to name this apartheid
crush it with our art
prise open a new way
embracing the space we carve
the place we sculpt
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