Athens, Ohio - Barbara Masekela, ambassador to the United States from South Africa, will speak on "South Africa: Ten Years of Democracy" to open the festivities for International Week at Ohio University at 8:00 p.m. on Monday, May 10, 2004 in Irvine Auditorium. A reception for Ambassador Masekela will follow.

Ambassador Masekela had a long and varied struggle to get an education and to assist in creating a free and democratic South Africa before she could return to her homeland.

Masekela, AB '71, English, was a Cutler scholar, who studied previously at Fordham University in 1964-65 and the University of Zambia, 1967-69. Masekela graduated with honors from Ohio University's Cutler Program. She returned to Ohio in 1974 as a graduate student in English Literature.

Edgar Whan, professor emeritus of English, was instrumental in creating the Cutler Program for students who wanted to design their own major. They were required to write an essay for admission detailing what their intentions were and why their proposed curricula could not be met by existing programs. The Cutler Program, which was independent of any particular college, later became the Bachelor of Specialized Studies. Whan states that "he is getting lot of questions on the Cutler Program now because its students are all getting famous."

In 1960, Masekela graduated from the Inanda Girls' Seminary in Durban. It was a turbulent and dangerous time with political demonstrations resulting in deaths, incarcerations, and government crackdowns. Of that time Barbara was quoted in the Weekly Journal in 1995 as saying, "It was very clear that opportunities were beginning to narrow and anybody opposed to apartheid was in danger. One had to choose to remain or find opportunities somewhere else." Masekela did not return to her homeland for 30 years.

During the continuing struggle for liberation from apartheid rule in South Africa, Masekela attended the Lesotho campus of the University of Botswana, Swaziland. In 1965 she enrolled in Fordham University, returned to the University of Zambia for two years. While in Zambia, Masekela was badly injured in an automobile accident, had to abandon her studies. She recuperated at her brother's home in California and then matriculated to Ohio University to complete her undergraduate studies.

Masekela taught English at Staten Island Community College for a year following graduation and then joined the faculty of Rutgers University where she taught English literature.

During this time, South Africa experienced economic sanctions and isolation as its former allies, Zimbabwe and Mozambique, gained independence and began working against the apartheid system. The African National Congress (ANC) was gaining greater visibility in its struggle and Masekela decided it was time to get join the fray. She became known as a serious activist by through her speeches at anti-apartheid demonstrations in the U.S.

In the early 80's the African National Congress began to use the arts as a tool for protest. While most forms of expression were censored in South Africa, some success was gained through music. The African National Congress held an arts festival in 1983 in neighboring Botswana to use music and the performance arts to express political sentiments. By holding the event in Botswana they were able to avoid the stringent South African Publications Control Act (1963) and the Publications Act (1974).

The success of this venture as an educational and political tool resulted in the ANC's creation of the Department of Arts and Culture, headquartered in Lusaka, Zambia. Masekela joined the new Department and was asked to head it up a year later.

Masekela is a gifted and politically savvy administrator. As Director of the Department of Arts and Culture, she managed a very heavy workload offering support for black composers, playwrights and novelists. When an economic boycott was imposed on South Africa three years later, Masekela was instrumental in creating a cultural boycott as well. The United Nations supported the cultural boycott by maintaining a list of performers and entertainers who dared to visit South Africa. The ban was effective in getting the message to high profile celebrities that work in South Africa would have associated personal costs.

Unfortunately, the ban prevented the new South African music from gaining a wider international audience. Fortunately, as most of us now know, Paul Simon effectively worked with Hugh Masekela, brother of Barbara and jazz trumpet for Ladysmith Black Mambazo, to produce the album Graceland in 1986.

Masekela helped organize another highly successful festival and conference, "Culture in Another South Africa," in Amsterdam in 1987. Participants were to decide if artistic expression or political protest should be the priority for anti-apartheid artists. The point that art and politics could not be separated was amply illustrated by the more than 200 ex-patriot South African photographers, fashion designers, actors, and musicians who exhibited or performed during the week-long festivities in Amsterdam.

When Nelson Mandela was released from his 27 year imprisonment in South Africa, he visited the U.S. and India to give thanks to his many supporters. Masekela was asked to accompany him, handle travel and scheduling, and assist in raising funds for the organization of multiracial, democratic elections. Mandela recognized Masekela’s administrative skill and asked her to join him as head of staff.

At about the same time, Masekela made several public speeches in which she made clear the notion that art and culture express the values of cultures and that suppression of black South Africa's artistic expression could not continue. She described South Africa's leadership in a 1990 issue of Scenaria as ... "the apartheid ruling class which holds the reins of power but is unable to govern."

Finally, in 1994, the African National Congress became a registered political party in advance of the first South African elections open to citizens of all races. It won over 60% of the vote in the elections, and Mandela was elected president of South Africa. Masekela joined the new parliament but was shortly thereafter requested to serve as ambassador to France.

As ambassador, Masekela successfully increased France's trade with South Africa and established relationships with French-speaking African nations with whom South Africa had little previous contact. Masekela said, "I think it is utterly disgraceful that we are on the continent and know so little and do so little with the other Africans who speak French on the continent."

Masekela returned to South Africa in 1999 and held a number of executive and non-executive directorships at Standard Bank of South Africa, the South African Broadcasting Corporation, and the International Marketing Council, among others. She also served as a trustee of the Nelson Mandela Children's Fund and the Nelson Mandela Foundation.

Her retirement in March 2003 from the Executive Directorship for Public and Corporate Affairs for De Beers Consolidate Mines was short lived. In June 2003, Thabo Mbeki, who succeeded Mandela as head of the African National Congress in 1997 and then as president of South Africa in 1999, appointed Masekela as ambassador to the United States where she continues to serve.

Masekela is a published poet who enjoys reading, gardening, and the fine arts.