BEE Caucus: Sam Nhlengethwa

Day 16 of South Africa's The Lockdown Collection is centered on Sam Nhlengethwa's oil painting, "BEE Caucus" (2012). Three substantial, prosperous men of color in black business suits and ties stand in a large room, clustered together, talking. The central figure faces towards us, the gentlemen flanking him are in profile. The background wall behind them is red. In front of the them is a couch with white pillows with a few dark shadows,  and to the right is a large, closed white door.  To their left is a cylindrical hanging modern-style lamp. The work is part of the artist's 2012 Conversations series, addressing the future of democracy in South Africa.

Artist's comments:  This work is an ironic commentary abut the disappointment of BEE [Black Economic Empowerment].  We thought with the new Democracy BEE would benefit the poor. We haven’t achieved those goals. The nation and the poor have not benefited from BEE,  just the few elite; and what do they do? They scramble for more money and power...This virus does not discriminate between race or gender, rich or poor, thin or fat…it’s hitting the entire world. We need to hold each other’s hand in defeating this pandemic.

From Wikipedia on Black Economic Empowerment:  "Black Economic Empowerment (BEE) is a racially selective program launched by the South African government to redress the inequalities of apartheid by giving black (Africans, Coloured, Indians and Chinese) South African citizens economic privileges that are not available to White South Africans, in essence wealth redistribution. It is a form of affirmative action."

Pamela Allara:  The work's title, "BEE Caucus," highlights the program known as "BEE" (Black Economic Empowerment), an affirmative action program introduced with the hope of offering South Africa's black majority a serious share of the nation's economic wealth.  Implemented in 2003, BEE has been criticized for benefiting only a narrow stratum of historically disadvantaged groups. The result has been that race has become the determining factor in employment in a country whose Constitution is based on the equality of all races. Recently, BEE has been criticized for enabling corruption by providing the means for inflated tenders to “preferred bidders.” One might even say that the central stolid figure, whose white shirt is the same color as the closed door, is bodily barring the passage to opportunity by others.  Nhlengethwa has enabled us to see what goes on behind closed doors!

Such lack of transparency is a serious liability in times of crisis, but South African President Cyril Ramaphosa is demonstrating the kind of leadership during the global pandemic that we can only wish were evidenced  by the current U.S. President.

Mark Auslander:  Unfortunately, as the artist's notes. the BEE initiative benefited only a relatively small percent of the county's black community, leaving the majority still in low income, precarious conditions,  primarily residing in sprawling, impoverished urban townships or in the rural hinterland with restricted access to productive land.

Sam Nhlengethwa. BEE Caucus. 2020

The artist's compositional choices highlight the new black elite's separation from most of their fellow citizens of color. They are flattened, and stand close to one another, in animated conversation, but are clearly cut off from others. The large room is otherwise empty, and their separation is highlighted by large red background wall and the closed door. The large dimensional couch may serve as a kind of protective barrier against the rest of the community.

The modernist lamp lighting the scene highlights these men's class privilege, as does the weighty sofa and white carpeting. Speculatively, the dark shadows on the couch pillows of the foreground may hint at all those left behind, living as it were in the national economic "shadowlands."

The work of course was created long before the pandemic; the businessmen are standing near one another and are hardly practicing what we now think of safe "social distancing." Yet, the work is a particular resonance in the current crisis.  The artist's choice of BEE Caucus (2012) for The Lockdown Campaign highlights a central paradox of our moment: the novel coronavirus itself does not discriminate between rich and poor, but society does discriminate, with at times deadly consequences. The infection opportunistically can spread to any human individual, but it would appear that viral loads may vary according to economic circumstances: those living in townships simply cannot practice, in most instances, social distancing and thus may well have increased exposure risk for heavy viral transmission.  Many of the diseases that are associated with urban and peri-urban food deserts, including Type II diabetes, obesity, and hypertension, as well as some pulmonary disorders exacerbated  or compounded by charcoal smoke, high smoking rates or employment on the mines, constitute underlying conditions that limit the body's capacity to fight the infection adequately. Lack of clean water makes frequent hand washing challenging or impossible. And the poor are less likely to have access to high quality medical treatment, including ventilators and fully staffed ICUs that may make the difference between life and death.

Thus, the image of three portly businessmen, in a room in which the door has pointedly been barred to future entrants, highlights the modern national crisis unfolding beyond the room's closed door: poverty remains pervasive and thus, so does the current risk of Covid-19 morbidity.

Looking at the painting, it is interesting to reflect on why the color black, culminating in the modern business suit, has for centuries been the uniform of the global financial elite. Well into the early modern period, wealthy men depicted in art usually wore colorful clothing, their attire, including fur, jewels, and richly dyed cloth, signaled that their wealth was anchored in control over land. The Protestant Reformation and the rise of mercantile and industrial capitalism occasion an interesting shift. In an aesthetic move  sometimes referenced as "the great male renunciation," elite men in effect gave up on bright colors, transferring in effect brilliant hues, stoles, and jewels to the women whom they, in effect, controlled. The banking and financial elite, who constituted the new priesthood of modernity, gradually adopt black, the old uniform of the old clergy, as their favored color. The tightly-tied necktie, in turn, seems to signal the modern elite closed-in body, guarding the ultimate mystery of the modern order, capital itself. The mystery of capital, money which begets money through largely opaque financial transactions, is appropriately hinted at through the color black, which absorbs all light and repels all scrutiny.

Nhlengethwa's three privileged male figures are heirs to this long, gendered fashion history. Their only flash of color is their neck ties, including, in the central figure, a red tie that matches the imposing red wall behind him; they are otherwise dressed in black, the homogenized uniform of capitalism. Their wealth, as the artist notes, begets more wealth, while the rest of society is left far behind. The poor  themselves find themselves with scant defenses, facing the mounting tsunami of the pandemic, with no safe chamber to offer sanctuary in these perilous times.