An opportunity to-understand-fellow-south-africans
Vollenhoven: “I am the child of the Khoi and the San.” “The illness started unobtrusively, but within a few years, I was partially bedridden.
And some days the lack of a name for this illness made me wish I could die.” This is how well-known journalist Sylvia Vollenhoven’s book The Keeper of the Kumm, begins. It’s the subject of one of more than 20 talks on the Hermanus FynArts programme (8-17 June).
The cure for this debilitating illness has proven to be a journey to unearth her “kumm”, a word used by the bushmen of the Northern Cape for “story”. Vollenhoven, in the book, links her life with that of an ancestor, a respected Khoisan storyteller, and describes how the journey to find her roots brought about her eventual healing. She writes of her experiences of being too black for her coloured schoolmates, of working as a journalist at the height of apartheid, of being Nelson Mandela’s favourite media personality and, above all, her lack of belonging, of knowing who she really is.
“With a birth certificate that says simply ‘mixed’, I have grown up in the damaging reality of being coloured,” she says. “A nowhere South African. A people who don’t matter because they are not really a people. Nations have land and language. South Africa has taken hybridity to a level of cruelty that erases people from the national discourse.”
Listen to Sylvia in conversation with media personality Shado Twala on Wednesday 13 June, and when she reads from her book (on Thursday 14 June), and learn what led to her finally being able to state “I am Sylvia Elizabeth Petersen Vollenhoven (one-time Seddon and another time Appollis), daughter of Ebrahim Braima’ Hendricks and Eileen Magdalene Petersen Vollenhoven. A descendant of Bushman visionaries. Child of the Khoi and the San. A Boesmankind. A Bushman first and last.”
Listen to Sylvia in conversation with media personality Shado Twala on Wednesday 13 June, and when she reads from her book (on Thursday 14 June), and learn what led to her finally being able to state “I am Sylvia Elizabeth Petersen Vollenhoven (one-time Seddon and another time Appollis), daughter of Ebrahim Braima’ Hendricks and Eileen Magdalene Petersen Vollenhoven. A descendant of Bushman visionaries. Child of the Khoi and the San. A Boesmankind. A Bushman first and last.”
This spiritual and political book provides valuable insight into a section of the South African population. This FynArts discussion shouldn’t be missed by those who yearn for a country where all its people respect one another and try to understand the cultures that make up their nation.
For a full FynArts programme: hermanusfynarts.co.za. Bookings: webtickets.co.za, or Hermanus Tourism, Station Building, or 060 9575371.