Jafta Masemola's Master Key: Experimental Notes on Azanian Aesthetic Theory. Issue 168 (1st September 2021)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Joja, Athi Mongezeleli
• Is Part Of: Theoria. Volume 68:Issue 168(2021)
• Page Start: 160
• Page End: 195
• Publication Date: 2021-09-01
• Subjects: black aesthetics -- Azania -- Jafta Masemola -- master key -- Robben Island -- smuggling; Arts -- Periodicals; Humanities -- Periodicals; Social sciences -- Periodicals; Political science -- Periodicals; 082
• DOI: 10.3167/th.2021.6816808
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0040-5817

Abstract

Abstract: Jafta Kgalabi Masemola is the longest serving (1963–1989) anti-apartheid political prisoner in South Africa's notorious Robben Island. Although Masemola is well known in the struggle narratives, not much has been written about him and his practices as a political organiser beyond biographical and anecdotal narratives. This article considers, with a certain degree of detail, an even more unthought aspect of Masemola's life, his creative productions; in particular, the aesthetic logic that underwrites the master key that he cloned from a bar of soap while jailed in Robben Island. Looking from the vantage point of aesthetic and critical discourse, the article attempts to open up new vistas and interests in Azanian cultural praxis.