Making Sense

“Art is a tool to ask new questions, open new possibilities”

Ai Weiwei



Ai Weiwei’s installation Sunflower Seeds consists of over a 100 million individually handmade porcelain replicas of the seed weighing over 150 metric tons and covering 1000m² of the Tate Modern’s Turbine Hall in London.

The seeds create a grey carpet from a distance but up close it is evident that each one is different. The installation challenges the conceptions of mass produced consumption linked with the notion of ‘made in china’ and the knowledge that each one of these seeds was delicately painted stroke by stroke by men and women, old and young, in Jingdezhen, China – a once flourishing porcelain industry.

The installation poses pertinent questions:

• What does it mean to be an individual in today’s society?
• Are we insignificant or powerless unless we act together?
• What do our increasing desired, materialism and number mean for society, the environment and the future?

What does a Canadian philosophy student have in common with a photographer from Lithuania,  a medical student from Germany, a wandering backpacker from Sweden,  a Pilates instructor from Portugal and an array of students from South Africa, Chad, Poland, Sweden and Australia. All of us had gathered for a week at Taizé on different journeys, with different questions, but with a desire to seek communion with God, to be still and create some open and free space for God to move and speak.

In August 1940 (during the 2^nd World War), Brother Roger, at the age of 25, came to live alone in the village of Taizé, in the south of France. He was preparing the creation of a community within which reconciliation could be lived out in daily life, a place where he welcomed refugees, in particular Jews. The community of brothers has grown and now includes over 80 brothers from both Protestant and Catholic origins from over twenty five countries. From 1957/58, growing numbers of young people have been welcomed at Taizé. Today, as many as five thousand young people per week come to Taizé in their search for meaning in their own lives and for peace, trust, and reconciliation in the world.

The daily rhythm of Taizé

The daily rhythm of Taizé is centered on common prayer three times a day. The bells ring welcoming all to gather in the morning, noon and early evening to pray, sing, and be silent together. The songs of Taizé are sung in many different languages and are made up of simple phrases repeated again and again in a mantra-like quality. The songs express a simple yet compelling reality that is easily grasped by the mind, gradually penetrating the whole person, evoking the response of being fully present. When the music ceases, the community gently enters into silence. In this silence, there is a solitude that is not emptiness, but fullness.

I was overwhelmed with a sense that God longs to dwell with us, he longs to restore us to himself and with one other. Every morning during common prayer the Eucharist was shared which helped me understand that the Christian faith is not an individualistic endeavor but a shared life which satisfies the deepest desire of human hearts – to be loved and to love with no restrictions of time and space. The Eucharist is not an isolated or separate thing, but one connected to all of life, all of faith. The Eucharist is rooted in something very human – having a meal together – we become the body of Christ through the Eucharist. Therefore, the Eucharist affirms that Christ remains present in the world through the shared life of his followers. This speaks to our social responsibility –if ‘we are one body’ – we need to give to give to those who don’t have.

I found the relationship between solitude and silence and community crucial. When I am more aware of self, when I have an inner space where I know God dwells, I feel more a part of the community, able to relate and live in a way Christ desired. Community does not require an organization or institution it requires a collection of people who have a sense of their spiritual belonging.

The life of the Taizé community extends beyond common prayer to a shared existence you gather for meals together, participate in a sharing group after a short bible introduction with a brother each morning and participate daily in some aspect of cleaning or cooking. Taizé  provided me with an authentic opportunity to meet with God, to just ‘be’, to make friendships from across the globe that validated something I had heard a few months ago:  ‘What is most personal, is most universal.’

See www.taize.fr for more information and upcoming meetings!

There were multiple reasons why I decided to take a trip to Maputo, 1) A goal for 2010 was to travel countries bordering SA, 2) my friend Hannes was living there as a freelance journalist providing an easy entry point and 3)  I was aware that very few people view travelling Africa as they do Europe – avoiding the cities with the hope of  escaping to the tranquility of nature, escaping the presumed chaos, difference, dirt and busyness…I was interested in experiencing another African city to Joburg – my home!

Day1

After an 8 hour bus journey from Park Station, Johannesburg where I finished a must read called Power and Love (by Adam Kahane) and had a conversation with a fascinating Mozambican, a hair dresser come entrepreneur, who created a space to discuss the challenges of really finding someone to love and spend a life together in-between flipping through the bible and talking with the gentleman who sat next to us, a Jehovah Witness. A 2 hour conversation unfolded providing an opportunity to really learn where the key differences and similarities exist in our understandings of faith, salvation, the trinity and eternal life. The border was a breeze and Billy (entrepreneur) and I were waiting for bus without realizing it had gone on without us and was waiting for us… As we entered Mozambique I was struck by how much I remembered from my last trip in 2007. I arrived and met Hannes who had been having a drink across the street…a friendship which was now been given the space to expand beyond the university context…an opportunity to intersect into each others lives at quite pertinent points in both our journeys! Hannes lives with Doug ( a dutch Phd student) and Elize ( a Norwegian intern at the Embassy who has just finished an MA in development studies). We headed straight to Casta Do Sol (a big art deco building overlooking the ocean) where we had a beer and unwound and caught up… I was struck by the number of white Afrikaners who were there…We then met up for dinner with Doug and Gabriella (an intern at the Swedish embassy)…..after a seafood platter of prawns, mussels, fish and calamari I felt as if I had really arrived in Maputo.

Day 2

I woke up and lay in bed listening to the city come alive, cars and Tuk-Tuk’s buzzing by, Portugese being exchanged in greetings and small kids shreaking at the local school nearby. After a lazy morning I began to explore Maputo – the capital of the 35th largest country in the world. The city was previously called Lourenco Marques until the country gained independence from Portugal in 1975. It is a small, concentrated city split into two levels with wide streets and numerous trees. The city is dominated by Stalinist-looking concrete-walled boxes which provide office space or flats, with badly eroded paint and rusty security bars. These are contrasted by multiple new high-rise buildings and old colonial palaces  – some maintained, others providing a dwelling for squatters, one such house I walked past had squatters who had taken it upon themselves to paint the walls- making it their own. After a very common lunch- a prego roll, I decided to explore the streets…walking deep into the city…people appeared to be busy, not waiting for life to happen but making life happen…artist’s selling their work, street sellers ensuring they had an income…people appeared to have a sense of purpose, people are friendly, they seem satisfied with life and willing to lend a hand! One question I have is how Portuguese culture continues to be adapted within Mozambican culture, apparent and obscured within a a post-colonial space…. I made my way to the beach where I sat on a bench and made sense of the day, I observed the stories of people around me -  a lady with a beautiful big bum jogging up and down the promenade, girls after school doing their make-up, a young boy skateboarding and making the city his own, domestic workers walking their boss’s dogs, street vendor selling chips and fruit while reading his Geography text book, two Chinese business men enjoying an afternoon stroll…I like the idea of living somewhere different, the idea of making somewhere else home, to create new favorites, new routines, new social circles. That night we went to Hannah’s (accountant for Norwegian embassy) house-a luxurious apartment – where Doug made a vegetarian stir fry, we drank red wine and had a conversation which unpacked the word race, a loaded word which is viewed negatively by Norwegians, one restricted from speech, in contrast with the South African context -  a word which remains very crucial to us understanding our history and our transformation…

Day 3

Another lazy morning with tea and a book I’m reading called Spiritual Direction, by Henri Nouwen. One thing in particular struck me – “we find it hard to create empty spaces in our lives and to give up our occupations and preoccupations for awhile….we are so concerned with being useful, effective and in control that a useless, ineffective and uncontrollable moment scares us and drives us right back t the security of having something valuable to do”

Ihad breakfat at 11am, sat on stoop in sun reading chapter from book I am reading in preparation for Economics course at Oxford and then walked accross the city to meet up with Wangi, a friend of a friend, a Kenyan girl who studied law at Wits and is now doing a Masters programme in Human Rights and Democracy and is in Maputo for 6 months. We took a Tuk-Tuk, 3 wheel tin looking, open taxi, that fits my image on travelling around Mumbai…best thing about it was the refreshing breeze…we went to restaurant on the beach and had one of those conversations that evolved from who we are, to what we care about, to sharing random stories, to discussing love and marriage, to what our role in this world is…3 hours later Hannes arrived with my running gear -we had decided to jog along coast which we surely did for over an hour, watching the sun set and the palm trees blow in the wind….I felt free…. Instead of water to refresh one, we opted for Coconut milk and had 2 coconuts stripped with a machete and opened ready for sipping….what more could you ask for? We then had an ice cold beer which we bought from a street seller and had while watching the red moon rise, picked up dinner (chicken, chips and salad) and decided to spend the night in…it’s atually less about the events, thats the easiest part to write about – its more about my wondering thoughts, the images and observations, the conversation that occur over days, the mind-shifts or things that challenge or add to my current understanding and the way I feel -  the feeling of being alive!

Photo’s to come!
Ciao

I recently read an article in the Mail and Guardian written by Lawrence Hamilton, a professor of politics at the University of Johannesburg. It struck me because I remember endless defensive (and at times surrendered) conversations and debates in my first few years at Wits University while studying a Bachelor of Arts (BA). The jokes would go around….What’s the difference between a BA and a pizza?…. A pizza can feed a family of four…and this was only the beginning….

I thoroughly enjoyed my studies and purposively chose to do a BA. Why you may ask? I think I simply wanted to deepen my understanding of the social world in which I found myself in. I had realised that we are not victims of our society or consumers of the future but engineers – I wanted to be part of creating the future. Despite this knowledge and being challenged and stretched within courses as diverse as International Relations, Psychology, English, Sociology and Geography I found myself internally and in conversations in and outside of university continuously trying to convince myself and others of the value of doing a BA and not a “real degree” such as a BSc or BComm.

Prof. Hamilton states that “South Africa still remains bedevilled by the myth that the humanities in general and BA degrees in particular are the least demanding and “useful” of the degrees on offer at our tertiary institutions.” This myth persists for a number of reasons, one being that many people think that a degree is only of value if it trains students directly for specific jobs.

Many of South Africa’s greatest leaders and thinkers (Oliver Thambo, Chris Hani, Nelson Mandela) were trained in and had a deep appreciation for the humanities. The article goes on to unpack what the humanities are – academic disciplines that study the human condition using methods that are primarily analytic, critical or speculative (supplemented by empirical analysis), as distinct form those adopted in the natural and physical sciences, management and engineering. The humanities provide knowledge and an understanding of the human condition as well as a set of associated intellectual and analytical skills not for sitting in an ivory tower but for effective citizenship.

 Prof. Hamilton states that the intellectual and practical skills that a humanities training enables can be summed up on three words: critique, imagination and persuasion. A BA is not only about understanding the social and political world you find yourself in but to criticise it and imagine beyond it – transforming it according to a set of moral and political views. On reflection I am more aware now than ever that my BA helped me to understand who I am through understanding the world around me, providing me with the desire to be a life long learner and a critical citizen with a deep seated responsibility to “criticise existing norms, institutions and attitudes, to generate new ideas and institutions, to breakdown the boundaries of accepted traditions of thinking and living and to defend without pause the freedom to analyse and criticise without fear of harm or prejudice.” My BA did not train me for a specific job but has equipped me with the necessary skills to be an effective citizen who can meaningfully engage with the social and political landscape of South Africa – a process vital for the future of our country.

To read the full article: http://www.mg.co.za/article/2010-07-30-lighting-a-fire-not-filling-bucket-the-humanities-are-everything

“The desk is a dangerous place from which to view the world” (John Le Carne)

What kind of society do we want to be?

What kind of person do I aspire to be?

How do we know whether we are pursuing the right things?

What should development look like?

How does change really happen?

What does the kingdom of God look like?

How one harnesses the power of the consumer for good?

So much has happened since I last blogged, one the world cup began, two I got a scholarship and will be going to Oxford in September and feel alive in the uncertainty of my future. I think I’ve had so many thoughts rumbling through my mind that I’ve been unable to write down or elaborate on any one of them… so what I have decided to post is a few of my thoughts from a trip to Soweto the other day and a number of the other things I’m stewing over based on conversations had, stories heard and newspapers read….

Soweto

Soweto, a place which this year has become a place I feel at home in, a place where I feel more fully South Africa, more aware of the different rhythms and textures of lives interwoven into the city I call home, Johannesburg, Jozi, Joburg….

Two weeks back I had planned to take some of my friends, like me, white and middle class very comfortable in the northern suburbs, to see a place that has bombarded our imaginations from history lessons at school on June 16^th to the recent Blue Bulls Game at the Orlando Stadium. As we approached Soweto, there is in some respects surprise at the cleanliness of the pavements, the multiple flags greeting you as you make your way along old potch rd and the fresh coats of paint and signage making Soweto less of a maize to get around.

The simple act of greeting three ladies at the Regina Mundi church in their mother tongue, bringing an instant warmth to their big smiles enabled the simple humanity within all of us to be revealed. this stood in contrast to the stern interaction between us and the security guards at the power station where we were apparently trespassing. Within the same hour, two very different interactions. What was different: 1) the context, 2) our perceptions, 3) our own previous experiences….

It’s quite bizarre…amongst residents there is surprise first which could be masked as disappointment when you are acknowledged to be a South African yet soon after, that surprise or disappointment becomes appreciation, maybe because you are not more distant, more unknown but more predictable, vulnerable….

My current thoughts

• SA’s politics are predictable – ANC’s dominance is entrenched because of support it receives from  poor in return for social grants

• Focus on softer (social) things is where change happens – attitude, ideology, vision, motive… need a new vision for our society – ‘when we acknowledge and reward optimism, virtue and excellence, they will become the driving energies of our society and we will conquer the pathologies of our society’

• Fear is fundamental to being human – we need to not give fear the power to silence or stop us but push us to step forward

• We cannot know the future, but we can change it, we can design it, we can plan it and we can action it

• South Africans will never have a common identity, our history and our diversity is too complicated. But there should be a process which enables us to share and identify with the common issues that are critical to our future success as a nation. Is this the essence of our South Africaness????

“Time alone in silence in nature is one of the most reliable ways we know to become completely present-to the living generative field that connects all of humanity, to an expanded sense of self, and ultimately to what is emerging through us. As we remain completely present, in these moments, we discover a depth of wisdom far beyond that ordinarily available to us.” –Joseph Jaworski, author of Presence and Synchronicity, the Inner Path of Leadership