Finding Fervour

Trampling through the Cape Town coast. From town through to Kalk Bay and Simonstown.

Nothing like a good ol’ train.

I recently found out that I could be heading back to Nieu Bethesda and Graaff Reinet for a brief stint as part of the epic cross country road trip my family and I are to embark upon come Christmas time.

Couldn’t be more thrilled. 

Pilgrims rest, Mpumalanga 2011

Nounouche - The Sideshow made a grand appearance at the National Arts Festival in Grahamstown in June/July 2012. The gang of ‘freaks’ and frolickers made surprise appearances across town as a troupe of happiness inviting anybody and everybody to join in their escapades.

The troupe was created by Fred Koenig, Toni Morkel and Nadine Hutton
with Roberto Pombo, Ibrahim Medell and Mmakgosi Kgabi, with more than enough laughter and fun to spare. 

In 2009, Raphaela Linders set off for Switzerland to visit her family and work for 6 months as an assistant teacher. During her time there, I visited her where we took a number of photo booth pictures to commemorate our time together. 

Dennie Davids holds up a crop of eggs among the hens farmed as part of the Phoenix Project in Nieu Bethesda, South Africa on April 29, 2012. The hens produce a collective amount of approximately 250 eggs per day which are then sold in the town.

N2 Roadtrip, from Grahamstown to Oudtshoorn 2012

These were all taken in Vermaaklikheid, the tiniest and littlest village in South Africa, and I’m used to tiny villages having chosen to spend my life studying in one.

The novelty of the place is of course its size and remote location folded into the mountains that line the South African coast as you edge closer and closer to Cape Town. There is nothing more exceptional than taking a favourite holiday with fine company and having the time to spare for a good book and exceptional conversation.

I miss the holidays. 

The Valley of Desolation, Graaf Reniet, 2012

A New Africa

The notion of Africa is a complex and diverse one filled with composites of darkness and blind optimism; barbarism and treasure; exotica and tradition. Defining Africa as a singular, one-dimensional plateau of land and livelihood is as problematic as it is erroneous, especially because it is “set always in relation to the full presence of the West” (Ferguson). I live in South Africa, at the sharp edge of it all, a country defined by its gruesome past and flourishing future, both resented and embraced as a part of Africa.

South Africa, as a stand-alone nation reflects the diversity and multiplicity of the continent as a whole. Just as there is struggle and hardship, there is harmony and serenity. Explorations of home link to ideas of heritage and Africa may be determined in terms of its history – a history of life, abundance, scarcity, fear, knowledge and freedom. Africa doesn’t begin with a location or boundary, but with an impression, captured perfectly by acclaimed writer, Wainaina. “If there is a miracle in the idea of life it is this: that we are able to exist for a time in defiance of chaos”. Africa breathes both in defiance of chaos and its lack, although some may not wish to spy the continents side of serenity. I consider myself an African not because of what my passport dictates, but because of the inherent strength, wisdom and composure gained from sheer existence here.

Although there can be no grand proclamation of an inherent Africa, as I attempted above, I know for myself that discovering home entails an open mind and the sacrifice of stereotypes “given the mischief done by depictions of ‘Africa’” (Ferguson). Literature, journalism and exterior investigation has created a breeding ground in Africa for incomplete notions of the continent and such perceptions not only “misunderstand social reality”, as Ferguson puts it, “they also shape it” . Thus, an individual may be attributed with an abundance of categorisation, being ‘South African’ or ‘White’ or ‘Female’ or ‘African’, but these methods of comprehension and labelling need to be achieved consciously so as to “overcome categorical subordination” as they encompass rank. As you move through life, you come to be defined according to particular aspects of the social realm you have constructed, be it by your family, your career or your age. We are fluid entities moving from one realm to another framed by specific transactions. There is grand variety within a short distance of Africa and it cannot be conclusively understood as a location of singular existence.

There is a mountain of misconception where Africa is concerned and specific models of understanding are thrust upon the continent in desperation to the detriment of legitimate comprehension. By models, I mean specific structures of understanding composed of particular ideas and fables. The most obvious being Africa the ‘Dark Continent’ as put forth by Joseph Conrad in The Heart of Darkness. This leads to the controversy of Africa, most commonly seen as a backward place inhabited by famine, poverty, idiocy, barbarism and outlandish mysteries.

It can be then be established that such perceptions are perpetuated through the media, external investigators and policy makers as well as enforced world value systems dictating state behaviour. Much of this stems from the difficulty in representing and defining Africa. Consequently, only stereotyped visions and ideas are considered to be authentically African. “Historically, Western societies have found in ‘Africa’ a radical other for their own constructions of civilisation, enlightenment, progress, development, modernity, and, indeed, history” (Ferguson,). In addition, any other depiction is quickly stifled and removed from popular understandings of the continent. Concerned author, Chimamanda Adichie is painfully aware of this harmful typecasting and begs an understanding of Africa as being familiar with it. Knowing, being and living African is seen to her as being legitimately so.

There are many notions of Africa, and all need to be considered to paint a balanced picture, the only problem being exactly the kind of equilibrium needed to achieve such a masterpiece. As more experiences are questioned as to their authenticity, so stereotyping prevails. Adichie points out that a story concerning the military, war and violence is perceived as more “urgent and relevant” than the pertinent issue of homosexuality in Africa. The issue of equality and sexuality is surely too ‘progressive’ for a continent claimed by “a series of lacks and absences, failings and problems, plagues and catastrophes” (Ferguson).

It is possible to authentically present and represent Africa, but it is dependent on whose terms, the definition of Africa and its perpetuated depiction.

I’d like to perpetuate my kind of Africa. 

Simplicity is camping and goodness and sun deliciousness. I had forgotten how easy and wonderful it is to go back to the basics and remember what really matters. Just a short stint in Port Elizabeth worsened my desire for holiday horseplay and provided grave insight into the lives of other leisure makers. The monkeys provide endless entertainment and are the subject of eternal banter, especially when they being pursued and tormented by an elderly man in the brightest of red running shorts clad with his katty and packet of stones. Some monkeys are pbviously more welcome than others.

In order to dispel any rising sentiments of poor outlook and hard done by situations, I need simply pack up and go. Camping is probably the easiest thing in the world to do.

Weather providing.

A wonderful friend and I made our way down to Rhodes University. This picture is one form the archives but reminds me of all that excitement, all the opportunity and all the smiles that came with it.

Scottburgh 2010, Getting Bunny Chow