1991 and The Myth of Sisyphus

Researching some history for my book, I recently watched two documentary films: Amandla! A Revolution in 4-Part Harmony and The Singing Revolution.

The first is about the South African resistance movement in the face of apartheid, the second about the Estonian resistance movement in the face of the Soviet Occupation. The stories of each were distinctly different and the style of singing also, but both shared the same theme of the power of music to bring people together and face horrific oppression. 

And there was one other interesting coincidence. Both were happening just about the exact same time! The Soviet Union dissolved in 1991 and by the end of that year, Estonia had declared its independence. In South Africa, Nelson Mandela was released from jail, various laws upholding apartheid were repealed, paving the way for Mandela’s election as President in 1994. 

 

That made me curious about what else was happening around that time and according to The Year in Review on Wikipedia, there were some other significant turns towards independence, liberation and tolerance. Amongst them:

 

• In addition to Estonia declaring independence and beginning its own self-government, Latvia, Georgia, Ukraine, Belarus, Armenia, Lithuania and the various “stans”—Kirgizstan, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan— all became independent nations. 

 

• Free elections were restored in places where there hadn’t been any for decades—Benin, Sao Tome and Principe, Cape Verde, Albania.

 

• A Haitian coup failed and Jean-Claude Duvalier was convicted for trying to overthrow the country’s first democratically elected government.

 

•  On the 50^th anniversary of the Babi Yar massacres in the Ukraine that killed over 35,000 Jews, President Gorbachev officially condemned antisemitism in the Soviet Union. 

 

• The Ukraine became the first post-Soviet country to decriminalize homosexuality. 

 

These and more seemed to point the way to a future committed to democracy, increased tolerance, the beginning of the end of government-condoned racism, intolerance, colonization and violent overthrow. Taking down the Berlin Wall just two years earlier was a massive symbolic foreshadowing of a more just, peaceful and inclusive future. 

 

Of course, just as the new directions were birthing, 1991 was also carrying on business as usual with the Gulf War, IRA terrorist bombings, the violent dismembering of  Yugoslavia, the Rodney King beating by police and yet more. Clarence Thomas, a black man appointed to the Supreme Court, seemed a promising step forward until Anita Hill revealed his history of sexual harassment, only to have misogyny win the day. 

 

So though I desperately wanted to—and still want to— believe that these events in 1991 foretold a kinder, more just and more compassionate future, here we are again. The Berlin Wall is being built again on the Mexican border and more disturbingly, built in the minds of people purposefully promoting walled thinking instead of bridge thinking. The Russians who came into Estonia and executed thousands are now in the Ukraine. Traumatized by decades of apartheid, Mandela’s beautiful vision of a Rainbow Nation where people once so deeply divided could live together in harmony remains a work in progress, hampered by corruption at various government levels. Anita Hill’s dismissal by a patriarchal misogynist Republican culture was replayed again in 2019 with Christine Blasy Ford’s sexual harassment by Brett Kavanaugh and yet again, the misogynists appointed him to the Supreme Court. The same court which overtured Roe vs. Wade, excused the various illegal dealings of our Toddler King and… well, let’s not go down that rabbit hole.

 

So it turns out that the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow that it seemed we were dancing toward in 1991 is more like the heavy stone of human cruelty we push up the mountain like Sisyphus, only to have it roll to the bottom again just when we think we’ve made it to the top. That’s the unwelcome truth we just may finally have to face. 

 

If that be so, let’s follow Irving Berlin’s advice:

 

“Let’s face the music and dance.”

 

And as the South Africans and Estonians can testify, don’t forget to sing.