unlimited global alchemy

SA Friday 28th

Opposite is a picture of the little girl who was kind enough to pose for me in Khayelitsha last Friday, on one of the bridges, as we stopped for a breather.  We spent the day there in the company of Nondumiso Hlwele and Thobani Ncpai, our gracious and capable hosts, exploring and filming and so forth.

Khayelitsha is a busy bustling family community, a township, although quite what the nautical tag signifies is still not clear to me—some notion that it could sail away into the sunset sometime if it wanted—which I can assure you it could not.

We had lunch at an eatery near the bus station.  The food is all truly excellent.  The streetside stalls sell mainly boiled chicken and pork (rows and rows of fat-looking pale birds which apparently have been blanched in hot water).  Then there are the barbeque stalls – which the figure-conscious Nondumiso Hlweli seems to see as a temptation of fairly fiendish proportions—and which therefore must be a terrible worry for her as she probably has to walk past one every single day.  If you are vegetarian you can stick to the beans and stuff, which are nice too, but I had the chicken and will try the lamb when we go back there again next week.

For those who don’t know, Khayelitsha stretches for miles, a town of very tightly packed-in and modest but beautifully cared for family homes constructed mainly of salvaged corrugated iron sheeting.  It was sunny when we were there, but I am sure that when it rains it floods, and that in the winter it is cold.  The town is established, and served now by, I think, three railway stations, plus some hospitals, clinics, schools, etc.  Truly, the homes would not pass muster in the UK, if even a single one existed in the London Borough where I happen to live it would be shut down – fairly sharpish – and the occupants re-housed.  And this as I understand it is the avowed intent of the South African government.  But as Bishop Winston of the Church of Life Ministries (Nondumiso’s church) pointed out to me last Sunday, suddenly all in one go the government has found itself with a very big family indeed to meet the needs of.  What I can say is that of course we were made to feel truly very welcome by all the people living there.

As I am sure you know, the project Rachel Gadsden is engaged in here in the Western Cape is Art and HIV ( – loosely! – and my description! – ) – the link between Rachel and Nondumiso and the Bambanani group being art and the shared experience of daily reliance on life-maintaining medication.  The group’s final portraits are all underway by now, and already there exists a body of fine initial charcoal sketches, monochrome studies and expressionist artwork and depictions on paper.  The results of the collaboration have exceeded expectations.  Viewers must judge for themselves at the final exhibition, but the individual paintings produced so far are mature and moving and of a highly expressive quality.

We have not had time for much sightseeing, but we have visited Robben Island, which is a chilling place, however you care to look at it; and the Cape of Good Hope, where the oceans meet, which is thoroughly beautiful, and where there are ostriches – really – walking along the road; and to a wetland and bird sanctuary not a stone’s throw from the studios in Muizenberg where the group is at work – and which costs…wait for it…about seventy five pence to get in.  I am a (sometimes) birdwatcher; and as it is the spring here there is plenty to see; including Reed Warblers (African) – a first for me – Sacred Ibis and Glossy Ibis, and the brilliantly named Yellowrumped Widowbird.  And yes, I do have a photo, but best you Google an image – only if you really want to – and all will be revealed.

Something of a cliché, but it is a wonderful country, and it is full of wonderful people.

(Tim Hayton)
 

Posted by Rachel Gadsden, 03:10pm 31/10/11