Trip Photos

VENDA INDIGENOUS ART TOUR - May 2008

Photos, paintings and prose by TCE traveler Renee King

South Africa Reflections

Africa. You push me. You pull me. You stretch me. You squeeze me. You make me bend (or I would break).
I love your pulse and your throbbing. I love your solid red earth. I love your wild sensuous atmosphere.
Africa. You are joy and sorrow. You are hard and soft. You are heavy and light. You are edgy and bold.
Africa. You are, oh, so big, so full, so enticing, so addicting. You are my connection to past and present.

Africa was both delicious and difficult to see and experience.
From the isolation of stone walls and electric fences in the suburbs to the openness in the shantytowns.
From sharp edges of leftover apartheid to joys of present freedoms.
From the boredom on the faces of men sitting by the road to the joy of the women working a craft.
From children eager to be photographed to adults hesitant to interact.
From crowded minivan taxis to the chauffeured in BMWs.
From assertive young men in the middle of intersections hawking wares to shy rural women exhibiting their embroidery.
From beautiful landscape to graphic front page newspaper photos of mob violence.
From fire to cook food to the deliberate burning of a man.
From potential for bitterness about the past to living contently in the present.
From shame about mob violence to blaming the government.
From openness about apartheid to denial concerning AIDS.
From rawness to finesse.
From rich red earth to clear blue sky.
From flitting birds to roaring lions.
From lonely moonlit nights to afternoons of dancing in the village.
From eating worms to drinking cappuccinos.
From giraffes to dung beetles.
From dirt studios to contemporary galleries.
From six foot wood carvings to minuscule embroidery stitches and glass beads.
From dung paper to china plates.
From averting my eyes from poverty to wanting to serve.
From material poverty to spiritual wealth.