With South Africa still being governed under a State of Emergency, the continued celebration of the National Arts Festival was a complex matter. Without wishing any festivities to appear insensitive to, or detached from, the immense hardships being experienced around the country, the Festival was mindful of the opportunities that it was able to provide – not just artistically and financially, but by providing a platform for diversity and free expression. 

In introducing the 1988 programme, the Chairman of the Festival Committee wrote:  

“Grahamstown, because of its topography and the plight of the less privileged in the depressed Eastern Province, gives more immediate evidence than most places of the disparity in our society and we find ourselves asked: How we can be so uncaring as to “celebrate” in the face of such adversity, How we can conduct irrelevant capers within sight of such misery. 

There is no uncaring celebration on our part nor is what we do irrelevant. Those who level this accusation have not understood or do not wish to understand the rationale behind the Festival. The Arts, in any society, reflect the hopes, the fears of that society today and their aspirations for tomorrow. Our society is no different and what the 1820 Foundation provides once a year at the Monument and in the City of Grahamstown is a neutral platform… for all opinions and persuasions to gather to express their particular point of view. We consider this important and stick aggressively to our neutrality.

Perhaps in what we seek to achieve there is an echo of the old Olympian ideal. For if once a year differences can be set aside and all who come together be given a hearing, we may well find we speak the same language and have more than a geographical locality in common. In giving voice and expression to the pain and confusion of our time, we may also further a better understanding of the causes and point towards the solutions…  Let us show true goodwill and ensure we shut no one out.”

Prominently featured in the programme for 1988 was a Guest Artist Exhibition from John Muafangejo. Not originally intended as a retrospective, but as a celebration of one of Southern Africa’s foremost linoprint artists, the nature of the exhibition changed as a result of the artist’s sudden and untimely death late in 1987. The exhibition became a commemorative retrospective, with the collection of prints offering a narrative portrayal of life in Africa.

Other productions included Asinamali, making a quick stop at home in South Africa whilst on an international tour, and Reza De Wet’s Nag, Generaal. Tucked away in the programme, though familiar to all South African theatregoers, is the name ‘Gaynor Young’, performing in Private Lives at the Rhodes Theatre. Sadly, this was to be one of her final roles before the tragic accident that ended her promising career in 1989.