Oprah visit gives goosebump moments

30 June 2011 - 00:13 By Jonathan Jansen
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Oprah Winfrey fools around with a welcoming party comprising student leaders at the University of the Free State. Everybody wanted a piece of the media star Picture: RIAN HORN
Oprah Winfrey fools around with a welcoming party comprising student leaders at the University of the Free State. Everybody wanted a piece of the media star Picture: RIAN HORN

From the moment it was confirmed that Oprah Winfrey would visit the University of the Free State, a core planning team of about 30 people, meeting almost every day, kicked into gear.

There were more than 20 segments each with a segment leader who had to take charge of everything, from security to transport to invitations to food to ticket control to décor to media and communication to stage management to music arrangements to graduation planning to the public speaking event to campus grounds, and on and on and on.

Hundreds of staff worked flat out, given lead time of less than three weeks. I watched in admiration as students and staff toiled to make this Kovsie event of the century a moment of pride for the campus, the city and the country.

We could not do this alone. Oprah is a walking international brand, and her team of planners in Chicago were on the phone daily to comment and co-direct the "running programme" of more than 20 pages. This was risky for the Americans, something different from managing the stage and audience in the controlled environment of the Oprah Winfrey Show.

Hundreds of people from around the country wanted to give something to the global media icon and philanthropist. Letters came in from everywhere; kind people offered to do her hair in local salons and another group offered a free massage. Paintings and books came through the offices. A man recorded his music to be handed over to Oprah. All kinds of organisations from Johannesburg to Cape Town wanted her flight to be diverted to visit their crèche or disability group or private school.

It was difficult to explain to generous people that we could not simply give plane-loads of gifts to Winfrey, and that she could not possibly meet and greet everybody during her stay at the university.

With a mega event such as this, not only were good people attracted to Bloemfontein from around the country; criminals and other opportunists came, too. A group of Nigerians were found selling fake tickets in one of the local malls. We were prepared with the technology to check the authenticity of every ticket. We knew there might be groups who saw the cameras and the celebrities as an ideal opportunity to picket and protest. We were prepared for this as well. There were umbrellas in stock in case it rained, and medical and emergency services on stand-by in case of any drama inside or outside the main hall.

It is nerve-wracking. As we hugged and said our goodbyes to Winfrey, it was with a mixture of gratitude and relief. Imagine something bad happening on campus to one of the world's most influential leaders?

Then came the moment we had all been waiting for. The cavalcade arrived as we stood outside on the red carpet on one of the coldest days I have ever experienced in South Africa. She looked much taller than I expected, the very high heels making this possible.

"Professor Jansen," she says, and I then knew she had memorised the detailed plan for she knew most of the people by name from the biographies we e-mailed to Chicago.

I saw firsthand the genuine humanity of this great woman as she hugged the special visitors, danced with township violinists, and laughed with student leaders. I took her on a photographic tour of the transformation at the university, deciding not to tell, but to show. The small group gathered for the welcoming tea was a mix of student and staff leaders.

She asked penetrating questions about the human experience like nobody else I have ever met.

Then the graduation. As Winfrey enters the hall with the brightly robed procession, I could swear the roof of the massive Callie Human Centre was about to be blown away.

"This woman means so much to so many all over the world," I thought to myself.

How many marriages were saved, faith restored and hope revived in the lives of ordinary people?

The graduation music got to the emotions as the wonderfully diverse and talented Bloemfontein Children's Choir combined in song with the Bartimea School for the Deaf, the latter miming the words of Plea for Africa led by the inimitable Sibongile Khumalo. You felt the goosebumps.

Then that special moment as I listen to her dear friend John Samuel read one of the most touching graduation citations I've ever heard anywhere; John seizes the moment as he turns to the great woman with these words: "Ms Winfrey, you are now a Kovsie."

The crowd goes wild as they identify with the affectionate name given to every UFS student, and Oprah enters the moment with arms waving in joy.

Off the stage to disrobe, and back onto the stage, she comes to speak to the near 5000-strong audience.

Nobody moves as the newest Kovsie takes the crowd through their paces. Oprah tells the moving story of being born to an accidental couple who did not plan to have her: the man was interested in what lay under the woman's dress; "and I was born". This sets the stage for her first of many epithets: no matter the circumstances of your birth, or how you came into the world, "you are not a mistake". The crowd is delirious.

Oprah has planned this routine with incredible care as she moves between selected video-clips shown on the large screens to face-to-face wisdoms shared with the audience. Nobody moves. Everybody is touched. We are all in a bubble for almost two hours.

We end with that signature song of the civil rights struggle in America that so beautifully links to the struggle for freedom in South Africa, the Battle Hymn of the Republic. Corneil Muller and the children's choirs belt out the moving lines of "Glory, Glory, Hallelujah, His truth is marching on". As they sing, Oprah looks in my direction, and I know, we knew that in those moments of joy, everything that happened to our countries and to this campus, every ounce of sweat in the planning - everything was worthwhile.

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