L. Ron Hubbard, the new king of Bookland. Among the 65 languages into which his books have been translated is Kiswahili, a language spoken by 120 million eastern Africans and 200 million Africans

As Contemporary dance continues to spark controversy in Africa with the definitions of terms like ‘African’, ‘contemporary’, and ‘modern’ being contested, L Ron Hubbard has squeezed past popular American novelist Sidney Sheldon and best selling British children’s ‘magic’ writer JK Rowlings to enter the Guinness World Records as the most translated author.

On the dance scene, The Centre for Creative Arts of the University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, has launched a 104-page book with an unconventional title, African contemporary dance? Questioning issues of a performance aesthetic for a developing and independent continent. The result of a conference examining contemporary dance that brought together dancers, choreographers, funders, academics, and cultural practitioners, the editors of the book, Lliane Loots and Miranda Young-Jahangeer, write in their introduction that they hope it “will spark controversy and passion” among readers.

So it is obvious from the beginning that—like any good art form—this provocative and intellectually stimulating book is aimed at raising more questions than it answers. And the controversies begin with Faustin Linyekula of Congo-Kinshasa refusing to be seen as African, and South African Reggie Danster saying his work is too complicated for an African audience! This apparent arrogance, shortsightedness and folly of despising the path they have treaded forces Elise Mballa of Cameroon to demand from Linyekula if identifying himself as African is shameful or insulting.

“I have never met an American artist who said, I’m not an American. I’m an artist.’ What is happening here? You don’t reduce your value or reduce your quantity if you are identified with a continent, with a culture, with something.” Although this leads to tempers flaring, Linyekula relents, saying he is a Congolese choreographer. Linyekula appears to be ignorant of the fact that all humans are products of their cultures and societies that feed, influence, and inform their actions. Hence when western dance critics say they see nothing African about his imitation of western dance moves and steps, they are right. They want to see steps made by an African who is well rooted in African ways. Such ways are different from European, Cuban or American ones that Linyekula appears to have internalised and delights in reproducing on western stages.

It is perhaps Linyekula’s behaviour that forces Mozambiqan choreographer and dancer, Augusto Cuvilas, to comment: “I have the impression that now artists think of themselves as intellectuals. And so, everything is thrown around and I hear things that sometimes just don’t make sense at all. For me there is too much arrogance around. I have the impression that it’s a generation of arrogant artists. I feel so much arrogance around that I have a problem identifying myself with that. Sometimes I wonder if I’m still an artist. I see artists who are defining things, who are classifying things. Young artists who are trying to find their way and look at themselves as gods.” Concluding that “a homogeneous ‘Africa’ neither exists in our dance work, nor in our sense of identity”, participants wonder how possible it is to produce “contemporary dance work that is not only for a perceived European audience, especially when this work is often funded by foreign European funding agencies.”

Theatrical dance in most parts of Africa, says Jay Pather—director of Siwela Sonke Dance Theatre in Durban—is not only new but also “a recent phenomenon, aided by non-African agents in the form of European-sponsored festivals, is exchange: The transmigration of contemporary dance teachers from particularly Europe to Africa, which is marked by an overwhelming control and filtering by non-African festival directors, selectors and infrastructure.”

African Contemporary Dance

If contemporary is meant to be about this time and this place, Pather argues, then it must live and thrive here. If it cannot, then it really cannot belong here. This observation is quite relevant on a continent struggling with audience development for contemporary dance. He suggests that the toga, ‘contemporary African’ be replaced with ‘contemporary’. Adrienne Sichel—a theatre and dance writer with The Star newspaper of Johannesburg—calls for a reassessment or abolition of western formalism in the critical approach of contemporary dance: “There is a responsibility to create a new criticism that embraces evolving aesthetics, intensive hybridities and techniques.’

She states that contemporary African theatre dance is being driven, galvanised, show-cased, networked and formalised by the French government and cultural agencies. Under-laying and underpinning the battle to reach and convince the world that Africa is no longer the ‘savage continent’ is the fact that serious theatricalised dance haunted by monumental historical baggage. The ‘dark continent’ was an endless source of ghoulish fascination and remuneration for Europeans and Americans. For over 200 years Africans have been exploited and treated as quaintly sub-human creatures whose physical and cultural differences were emphasised and exaggerated

Africans were put on stage in order to distance themselves from the rest of humanity. Sichel contends that this is exactly the issue the contemporary African dancers and choreographers have taken up. There have been and continue to be the temptations of providing quick fix choreographic thrills for competition and festivals to pander to the international market place or for dancers and dance makers to use this dance form as a way out to economic benefits abroad, often playing into the exotic stereotypes.

In the past, Bamako-based Haitian choreographer and dancer, Kettly Noel adds, Africans were paraded in public exhibitions almost like animals and that today’s dancers and choreographers are perpetuating that by trying to fit into the image that is portrayed of Africans. But rather than take action Noel, like a politician, poses rhetorically: How can we work in such a way that we don’t perpetuate that kind of image? Do we necessarily need to lift our legs as high as a ballerina in the world or make ten pirouettes to be dancers?

Sichel calls for a new way of looking at dance criticism in Africa, adding that western formalism should either be reassessed or abolished. To define the aesthetic rules in contemporary African dance, Sichel says, a starting point would be to define why dances are performed in Africa. Noel says, “Creating a common denominator in African contemporary dance will not be easy but I think it’s the starting point.” Adedayo Liadi of Nigeria, who says it took him five years to develop a following for his dance, says African dance can be defined as re-structuring our indigenous African dance and bringing it into a contemporary framework through research without being misled. A contemporary African dance aesthetic, on the other hand, he says, can be defined as one’s natural style and approach to contemporary African dance still without being misled. Academic definition?

As one reads the book, one finds oneself identifying with the open, insightful and probing mind of Loots (artistic director of Flat Foot Company, lecturer at the University of KwaZulu-Natal and 8th Jomba artistic director), Pather, Sichel, Cuvilas, Mballa and CCA director Peter Rorvik. Equally, one feels a revulsion and resentment for Linyekula, the Congolese who practices contemporary dance for survival and who is opposed to being referred to as an ‘African dancer’ and Danster who considers his dance to be too complicated for Africans!

Addressing participants on the relationship between funding of dance in Africa by western agencies like The Royal Netherlands Embassy, French Institute of South Africa, Pro Helvetia Arts Council of Switzerland, Human Institute for Development Cooperation, Nordic countries, and the British Council, Rorvik poses the following pertinent questions: What effect do the outside influences have and how do these outside influences shape the development of dance? To what extent does funding impact on the integrity of the artistic process? How does funding shape the artistic process? Is there the sensitivity to the conditions of Africa? How self-sustainable is dance in Africa?

Acknowledging the importance of foreign funding for dance, participants suggest that funders should not force certain artists on African performers during cultural exchange residencies. Rather, artists should be allowed to select who they want to work with. Other questions raised include: How can dance work that is funded by European agencies not be perceived as being for European audiences? Do we have dance techniques in Africa? Is everything imported? Do we have to rely on Europe and the rest of the world, or is something else happening here in the training of African contemporary dances? Back to king Sidney Sheldon’s dethronement. The Guinness World Records has recognised L. Ron Hubbard as the most translated author in the world. The new world record officially verified as 65 languages exceeds the record set in 1997 by author Sidney Sheldon and an unofficial count of 63 languages for "Harry Potter" author J. K. Rowling.

Alistair Burtenshaw, director of the London Book Fair, presented the Guinness World Record certificate to Hubbard's literary agent, Author Services Inc of Los Angeles, USA, at the ongoing Frankfurt Book Fair in Germany.

The languages in which Hubbard’s books are available are Kiswahili, Xhosa, Zulu, Afrikaans, Albanian, Arabic, Armenian, Azeri, Basque, Belo Russian, Bengali, Brazilian, Bulgarian, Chinese, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dari-Farsi, Dutch, Estonian, Farsi, Finnish, French, Georgian, German, Greek, Hebrew, Hindi, Hungarian, Icelandic, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Kannada, Kazakh, Korean, Kyrgyz, Latvian, Lithuanian, Macedonian, Malayalam, Mexican, Mongolian, Nepalese, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Punjabi, Romanian, Russian, Serbian, Sinhalese, Slovak, Slovenian, Spanish, Swedish, Tagalog, Taiwanese, Tamil, Thai, Turkish, Ukrainian, Urdu, Uzbek, and Vietnamese.

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