South Africa's Path to Freedom

For South Africa's Path to Freedom (Radio 4), Wole Soyinka visited the country and spoke to some of its finest writers and thinkers. It was a treat, but no real surprise, to hear him in discussion with Nadine Gordimer and Athol Fugard, but I liked the way this widely-encompassing look at post-Apartheid South Africa took in younger voices such as Karabo Kgoleng, a DJ on a local FM radio station in Johannesburg. From each came in-depth analysis passionately argued, and a sense of how thorny the new reality remains. There was optimism and pessimism in equal measure, just as some argued the country was stuck in the past, while others insisted history has to be worked through. Between these perspectives, the well-produced programme included glimpses and snippets of life in the townships and beyond. Soyinka sounded gobsmacked to see a convertible BMW parked outside a township shack, and horrified to see that a protest march about school library provision – only 7% of schools have libraries – featured mostly black children. A final contributor gave a measured view of things, noting the good ("we have avoided a revolution") but also the problems. South Africans, she said, have "300 years of malformation behind them". In that context, she added, "it's really not going so bad."