by MaschataDiop
“Malta? You’ll get bored there after two weeks,” said the language school counsellor. I had a year of educational leave ahead of me and wanted to escape the dark, cold winter in Vienna. “How about Cape Town?” At first I didn’t realise that Cape Town was in Africa. But it sounded promisingly like sun and warmth. I no longer considered any other place in the world to improve my English.
Then, in September: Cape Town welcomed me with cool temperatures. I had not expected that. The South African winter lasted a few more weeks, and I left the first host family before it ended. From the balcony of the second one, I could see Lion’s Head. I climbed it with my host mother Mare for the full moon. And every day I walked in flip-flops through the streets of the city I had fallen in love with on the very first day. In the museum shop of the “National Gallery” I discovered photobillets by Lindeka Qampi. They showed life in the township. Each photo told a story: a woman standing proudly in front of her pink-painted house, her necklace the same dark green as her blouse. A man practising drinking beer from a 10-litre plastic bucket. Massive sangomas, traditional healers, whose imposing bare backs deny a view of the initiation ceremonies inside their circle.
The museum shopkeeper Lorin gave me Lindeka’s contact details. I didn’t dare call her. There was no reply to my email. Three days before my departure, she called me, suggested a meeting at KFC. For more than two hours I waited for her in the smell of cheap grease.
Her searching, my waiting eyes met, we recognised each other immediately. And Lindeka told me about her life. That her name in her mother tongue isiXhosa means “You have to wait”. That she was married, but lived separately from her husband with her four children. She has no work. To bring “food on the table”, she takes photographs and sells the pictures. I was deeply impressed by Lindeka’s smile, her friendliness, her strength. It often happens to me that strangers tell me intimate things about themselves. But usually they disappear from my life very quickly. Not so Lindeka.
We stayed in contact. Every year I travelled from the Viennese winter to South Africa, where it was summer. I got to know her family, was allowed to accompany Lindeka on photo shoots and had the opportunity to photograph in townships myself. In Vienna I curated exhibitions for her.
For some years now, Lindeka’s photos have shown her herself. Strong and self-confident. She received a prestigious award in South Africa, had exhibitions in Italy, Germany, in Scandinavia, in the USA and led workshops. “Healing wounds through artistic expression” is Lindeka’s mission. She inspires me. I miss her. Will we meet again this year? She would have an exhibition in Hamburg in July.
© MaschataDiop 2021-04-29