KANI’S storytelling ability served
him well too when he wrote Nothing But the Truth, which was first performed in
2002. The play, which is now a school setwork, has received acclaim far and
wide, travelling from stages in London and the US to film. And this year has
been a big year for the film version, another project that’s been keeping Kani
busy.
“Nothing But the
Truth has already won eight awards including best actor, best picture, the
Silver Stallion at Fespaco (the film festival in Ouagadougou). I nearly fell off
the chair, I was in Stratford doing The Tempest and I got this call from someone
who speaks very little English. ‘Eez dat Jean Kanee? I am one of da directoors
of da Fespaco and we have ze pleazuure of informing you dat your Noting But de
Trut has won ze Silver Stallion for best picture. Congratulations. Bye
bye’.
“I thought: ‘Is
this a first of April bloody thing?’ Then the film went to Milan and won best
picture again plus the Catholic Church prize for peace.”
The film also
won the inaugural Ousmane Sembene Award for Peace at Fespaco in Ouagadougou,
which is awarded to an African artist whose work has contributed to peace on the
continent.
Full of
self-effacing laughter, Kani says: “It is given in the name of Ousmane Sembene,
the pioneer of African film, and I was the first recipient. It just baffles me.
I like winning best actor because I know the reason I won for that performance.
But when you get to lifetime achievement awards, those kinds of recognitions … I
wish I was a fly on the wall to hear the debate of those who motivate that I
should be the recipient, maybe I will learn something about me. It will help me
to know me better, you know,” he laughs.
Getting Nothing
But the Truth onto film was a labour of love and with the help of many it was
completed and is now in the African Film Library so that it, along with many
other great African films, can be shown throughout the continent.
“The intention
is to showcase African films to other Africans on the continent so that they can
see that we have our own Fellinis, Cecil B DeMilles, John Hustons and Steven
Spielbergs and that there are different styles that people are using to direct.
Some of them are using the rural format, just one camera capturing, allowing the
freedom of improvisation and some Africans have taken the Western concept of
structure and order and sequence.
“Everybody who
has made a movie will be shown there so that young African filmmakers can study
these movies and see how, with no money, we told the stories.”
As for his
current project, a new play, Kani isn’t saying much except that he is following
a similar path to that which he followed when he wrote Nothing But the Truth. He
says he seldom knows exactly what he’s writing about until he is finished and
the play tells him.
‘This story, well, again I begin with a
South African abroad. All I am prepared to say is whether he is prepared to come
back or not and what has happened during his stay abroad. When people come here
do they find the home they have been imagining, you know, in nostalgia? Is that
home here when they arrive, do their children – who have grown up being told
they are African though they are American, English or Swedish – get what they
imagined?
“In writing I visualise a lot and steal from my family, friends and
village. Everyone I come into contact with I just suck in and mould the
character and make it interesting and complex.
“It’s when you mix it, sort of a stew, and you see what comes out.
Would he be able to say that? No, but I will let him say it. That’s what I love
about writing. People don’t understand that my first love is writing. It’s just
that after winning the Tony Award the actor got too much for me, too much in
demand. My apprenticeship under Athol Fugard was to write. It got overtaken by
the actor.”
Kani won a Tony Award in 1975 for Sizwe Banzi is Dead and The
Island.
Though he says he doesn’t write for himself he wouldn’t mind taking
on the lead role in his new play so that he can further explore the character he
is creating. Also, next year film fans can see Kani in Endgame opposite Chiwetel
Ejifor and William Hurt in which he plays Oliver Tambo and Ejiofor plays Thabo
Mbeki. He’ll also be on the big screen in The White Lion, the story of the rare
lion and how it came to be removed from the endangered species list. These films
are among the culprits keeping Kani from finishing his new play.
“I am sitting in my house writing and someone says to me: ‘We are
shooting this movie, it’s called Endgame, it’s got William Hurt and Chiwetel, I
want you to play Oliver Tambo’. So I think, ‘Okay, I’ll go.’ So I shoot that
quickly … I finished that then someone says: ‘We’re shooting this series, it’s
called Silent Witness, we would love you’. So I put my script down, do this and
make a little money. I finish that, then someone calls me and they are filming
The White Lion …
“I put that aside and then Malcolm (Purkey) comes and tells me to
put on The Lion and the Lamb. I am hoping when we finish on the 20th I can take
the family for a holiday and then finish. I am already three-quarters done.”
Energised, professional, full of easy laughter and a born
storyteller, I could have spent all day listening to him.
- The Lion and the
Lamb is on at The Market Theatre until December 20 and you can catch the film
version of Nothing But the Truth on Movie Magic on DStv on December 2 at
8pm.