Recently published articles

I wrote a few articles over the past months and two of them have recently been published.

On the WEG website there is a story of our travels through South Africa. It tells about the African Flower Chain trip and is written in Afrikaans.

Merise is a magazine published in Australia, aimed at the South African diaspora living in Australia and New Zealand. I wrote an article about my new hometown, Adelaide, for Issue 5. Merise is published in both Afrikaans and English. The article was originally written in English but a translated version also appears in the Afrikaans edition.

African Artifacts close-ups

Remember the African artifacts I told you about earlier?

They are all piled into a corner waiting to be packed. 

Here are some more close-ups.  

In a War someone has to Die

I few weeks ago I came across the website of Hanne Bang, an artist from Denmark.  

She is working on a project called "In a war someone has to die" 

Hanne says: "A couple of years ago I happened to zap by a TV program, in which a journalist was interviewing a professional African soldier. To the soldiers great disappointment he was out of work at the moment – because there was no war in his region. 

The interviewer asked the soldier if he was afraid of dying, and the soldier said: “No I am not afraid of dying. Are you afraid of dying?” The interviewer answered: “Yes I am afraid of dying”. Then the soldier said, without any sentimentality: “In a war someone has to die”. 

This little dialogue, and the words “In a war someone has to die”, returned back to me over and over again. Of course I knew that in wars people die, but suddenly I saw the essence and the reality of it very clearly." 

She then goes on to invite people to participate in a project inspired by these harsh words: 

"I am going to find women from all over the world. Many women from each country.

I would like to invite you to embroider/sew the text "In a war someone has to die" on a handkerchief. The text has to be in your own language. You may supplement with a symbol ore something else if you want to.

The handkerchiefs (hopefully 200-300 pieces) will eventually be sewn together into a great wall blanket. One universal voice. A commentary on the war and an act of solidarity to all those who must send husbands, fathers, sons, daughters and sisters into war.

In a war where someone has to die."

This is my contribution.  Written in Afrikaans.

If you want to be part of this project visit Hanne's website for more information.

African details

We own a collection of African Artifacts which we collected while living in Uganda.  

I spent the morning photographing the lot as I plan to compile a catalogue.  

Here are some close-ups.