JOHANNESBURG!

June 26: That’s where I am this Sunday morning as the sun breaks through the chill of the South African winter. I have been on the go since I left New York.

Today, South Africans are marking the anniversary of the Freedom Charter, the seminal document of the democratic movement here, created during the depths of apartheid back in 1955. The document offered a populist vision expanding human rights to embrace economic and political goals. It was the goals of the Freedom Charter that so many fought and died for and I will be trying to crash the ceremony later this morning in Kliptown, Soweto.

In many ways, the ideas and hopes of that document are at the heart of the debate in South Africa between those who want a more fundamental transformation and the ANC government committed to neo-liberal policies and a market agenda. One activist complained last week that the problem with the commemoration of the Freedom Charter is that those who are organizing the commemoration no longer believe it. Some think its goals have been fulfilled.

As it turned out, there was a counter rally but nothing on the scale of the commemoration which packed the new square dedicated to liberation movement stalwart Walter Sisulu. Nelson Mandela was there along with Sisulu’s wife Albertina, a leader in her own right and, of course, President Thabo Mbeki. Mbeki reached into the history books to praise white South African writer Olive Shriner, who warned of the dangers of a racially divided society in the early years of the 20th century. (She was an early feminist as well.)

Most exciting about the commemoration were all the members of the “original cast,” senior citizens all, whose faces are engraved with the pain of the country’s history and who are now in the sunset of their lives, living in the free country they never thought they would ever see. There was terrific music there, including songs by Miriam Mkeba and other greats.

Afterwards, I was taken for an interview to a nearby community in Soweto, home of RASA (”Make Noise”) Radio, a pirate station operating on the FM band. The DJ’s allowed me to play Polar Levine’s classic “NEWS GOO,” a rap song that serves as the sound track to my book “The More You Watch The Less You Know.” It was the song’s first airing in South Africa and on an indy radio station.

I had a thrilling pre-birthday present yesterday, when I learned that our film “WMD (Weapons of Mass Deception)” won the documentary competition at the very impressive Durban International Film Festival, where I screened last week.

Last night, we had a packed screening at Museum Africa sponsored by the Foundation for Human Rights and organized by my filmmaking colleague Ben Cashdan. I was glad that South Africans see the relevance. In my remarks, I referenced South Africa’s long fight for a free press and struggle to end to dominance by state-controlled media.

Tonight it’s off to London, where I hope to find some time to write more extensively. I arrive on my B-Day.

Until soon.

Write: dissector@mediachannel.org.