Capetown,

Time is love, that is time.

Poetry evening in cafe Madness, Capetown, march 9th

On a monday evening, a crowd in the garden, laughter en talks and drinks. We are in Cafe Madness. The place where writers, poets, musicians , artists come together. I walk with my friends Willem and Susan through the garden , up the stairs where even more people sit around a bar, behind tables and standing , talking. We are heading for the room, yes also with a view , where the poetry recital will be held. High windows, drawings of europeans on the wall with heavy clothes on. It could be the room of one of the old Dutch houses of the Prinsengracht. It isn't. It is Cafe Madness. The room is crowded with people, standing and sitting. It is hot , the windows are open but still. I zip my kaapse red wine. The evening starts with the 'poet of the evening'. A beautiful young woman, standing in front, singing, speaking. The words grow bigger as they flow into the room. Two languages are spoken, woven in to each other, by mannini mokirotu and Anki Krog. It is not just words but the creative form in which these words are brought to us. The crowd is enthousiastic, free in expressing what they feel towards the speaker, to what they hear. The whole room is vibrant, is filled with the creative spirit of the people in it. Creativeness flows, form speakers to crowd , from crowd to speakers. englisch, isixosa, zulu, afrikaans, Surinamese, Dutch, Middle Englisch, American English. Singing , guitarplaying, and the sound of a rainmaker. I am warmly welcomed and eyes are waiting for my words . I feel my mother, my grandmother and my great grandmother on my sholders, they enjoy. I brought them here with me. And i speak. The Poem 'Suriname', in Dutch, and the poem about South Africa 'Yu kondre teki mi skin' (I feel your country as the wind beneath my wings) in Surinamese. It is sharing and receiving that makes this evenening a very inpiring one, special because of the love and friendship you feel with people you can connect with. It is the blankness of just listening and feeling, without prejudice. It is time. As from the words of one of the performers "Time is love, That is Time"

No words needed, iziko apartheids museum , capetown march 10th 2009

languages to build bridges

The subject of the paper presented was to give a view on how to connect languages with each other by shared heritage. What it is that divides us and how bridges can be build to connect us.
As a start i asked the audience to answer me in the language that first pops up in their minds. This resulted in a mixture of Sotho, Sranang, Nederlands, English, Afrikaans. Suriname and South Africa deal both with issues in what language you best express yourselve and our eagerness to still reach an audience. The difficulty of speaking a mother language and the gap between the motherlanguage and published books. Reading material is essential to develope yourselve. Language is part of self esteem, part of identity. We have to recognize Dutch heritage as part of this, although the history of it all started out on a negative base. It is not how it started but what we do with it and how different cultures in one country can find a way to communicate with each other . Recognizing the meaning of language as part of our cultural heritage. That heritage is not about buildings and objects alone but about a lively spoken language connected to these objects and to keep this language alive we have to publish and need places to connect with each other. During the noon sessions the discussions defined activities to meet these issues. It was stated that it is difficult to force diverse cultures in one country to speak one language , that we should focus on the celebration of languages and encourage a broad perspective by working with both our countries. It is a connection between our continents that can free our languages of barriers, prejudice and negativity.

Active role in preserving and knowledge exchange

District Six museum

All of the material of the district six museum is donated by the people who lived in it.
The photo's, the stories. It is a people's place that tells the story of the un humanity of the apartheids regiem. I walk on a map that is a line drawing, with handwrited street names, covered with plastic it covers the whole floor. All people who had once lived in the district six wrote their name on the block where their house was. Old name plates of streets hanging in the middle of the church. Faces on white linnen clothes. Plates with different stories. People celebrating once.. before they had been moved by the government into townships. A whole district wiped away by bulldozers just because people lived happily together and showed no boundaries between religion, race, language. It was the monument of apartheid being insane and therefor all of it had to be removed, bulldozerd. It took almost 11 years to break it down . But they never could brake down the human spirit. Surviving, telling their story to this and the next generations to come.

Heritage symposium and impressions

Bo kaap musem

Heritage symposium, 'Language is not to divide but to connect on an equal base'

Celebration of languages, our tool to communicate and build bridges with shared heritage.Mother languages coming together on shared heritage ground, sotho, afrikaans, sranang, nederlands, english.

Slave lodge museum

South African Heritage Agency

march 6th

A vibrant session on heritage at the symposium in the Castheel of Good Hope.
Meeting with people of the maritime underwater heritage, language museum, publishers,
afrikaans skrijwers genootschap, build heritage. .

relaxing

Afrikaantjes and tablemountain

the park

city bowl

company's garden

city bowl view from signal hill

the park

Day 4 Bo Kaap

Location: Bo Kaap , moslim Area, on the signal hill
Opposite : Table Mountain
In between: City Bowl, this is the town and the waterfront with its gateway to robbeneiland
In the night the lights of the city from my view from signal hill become almost like dancing stars, a gateway of more to come , safely in the arms of table mountain and signal hill.
Temperature today 30 degrees celcius.
I exchanged my first rands, bought a calling card and got me a nice stellenbos bottle of wine.
Explored the venue of the symposium, Castheel de Goede Hoop. The Castle area is much bigger than I imagined it , from october, when i visited South Africa for the first time. This time Capetown is like a second chance to really get to know the place . It is seeing the real face after i've falled suddenly in love. I am glad is a beautiful 'real' face, this love. It is like getting the space to feel and touch , to allow thoughts and live the experience. I feel part of it but without loosing myselve. "Capetown, South African and Me " is like identities matching and making something wonderful out of that.

Day 5 Companies gardens

Route of today:

I am driving down to the company's gardens. A park in the middle of the city surrounded by historic buildings like the Slave lodge and the st. George Cathedral. A park with statues of important persons . People are lying on the grass, enjoying lunch, enjoying. South Africa constantly gets me confused in knowing where I am. It feels very english, reminds me of London, years ago, walking with friends through hide park. The statues are from important men with fierce faces and a uniform. Even without a statue I suppose they looked like a statue in those days and acted like statues . Jan Smuts, Jan van Rietbeek. Some people are talking a language I recognize the words from. Dutch heritage. Afrikaans. It is talked with an intensity that makes me feel warm inside. I sat down on the grass, on my plastic bag...you never know what comes out of the grass. And than in front of me I see them . Yellow almost orange.. I smell them.

Afrikaantjes..... lots and lots of them. And for the first time I repeat the name of this, what i have always known as the most common flower , Afrikaantjes, Afrikaantjes. As I say it out loud it gets more intense.. like the Afrikaans language. As if I hear it for the very first time. The meaning of it, Afrikaantjes, has changed forever.... here in south africa in the company's garden, the most common flower becomes precious and forever special.

day 3, A day in a aircraft.

Machu Picchu is his name, my aircraft of today.
Time 10.10 am
Flying time 11 hours and 10 minutes.
Sleep: four hours
Food: delicous vegetarian pasta.
Chair with a view: the African dessert, flows of sand, sometimes covering black rocks, shades of light orange and than again creamy colors. Passing Tripoli, tamanrasset 14.48 hour
Tv screen wit a view: Oscar nominating movie Australia.. another dessert!
Music play list: Pavarotti, Usher, and Beonce
Body exercise: drawing circles with my food and hands.
Beautiful landing with welcoming round dimmed lights of blue and orange shining on land and water.
Yes, second time around. time 22.30 pm

Day 2 Surinamese heritage in Hollandse weilanden

Overnight stay in holland and driving through this typical dutch farmer landscape,
boerderijen.. de dijk.... fietsers.... kanaaltje en een erg smal weggetje met gevaarlijke gaten langs de berm. Surinaams erfgoed? Ik ben op weg naar de manege waar mijn nicht een wedstrijd zal rijden. Hoefgeschuifel.. flinke dijpartijen, rook uit grote neusgaten, teugels, zadels en een deken voor de kou. Ik wil schrijven over de contrasten die door mijn hoofd gaan maar tegelijkertijd zo natuurlijk het beeld van de ogen vertalen. Mijn nicht in hoge rijlaarsen en een zweepje. Gedachten racen door de tijd heen. Ook deze, Gladour heette hij, mijn paard, knol, veulen. She drives a littlebit 'easy going' today. Smiling at me, maybe thinking about the talk we had about Surinamese food. Horses sniffing, en ik zie middenin een weiland tussen twee bomen een hangmat. Surinaams erfgoed?