Human Rights Media Centre launches a new publication

There’s something quite remarkable about “Edge of the Table: Fourteen Cape Flats Youths tell their life stories”. It’s not just the tales of lives lived out Cape Town’s desolate and violence ridden Cape Flats, though some are quick to dispel the stereotypes; it’s not just the stories that speak about challenges overcome on the journey to adulthood and the failure of social institutions to address these, it’s the spirit of resilience and the determination to make good that shines through these narratives. As Father Michael Wheeder who spoke at the launch said, “It’s not about falling, it’s about standing up”. At heart, “Edge of the Table” is about being the change the young people want to be in the world, and it’s about getting to know and love themselves and their families - with all their strengths and weaknesses, finding the will and the support to face down obstacles, recover from the consequences of bad life choices and move on.

Operation Dagsvaerk, an organisation through which Danish scholars raise money to support educational projects in the developing world funded this project which was implemented by six local non-governmental organisations working with vulnerable youth - Workers World Media Productions, Molo Songololo, Young Women’s Chapter of the New Women’s Movement, Hands On, Youth4Change, the Western Cape Advice Offices and the Human Rights Media Centre. The publication of “Edge of the Table”, marks three years of hard work: training, interviewing, transcribing, reviewing and shaping the narrative, documenting the participants and the process and creating the exhibition.

Curated by Haroon Gunn-Salie, a student at the Michaelis School of Fine Art, University of Cape Town, the exhibition, on view at the launch, comprises a number of simple, but powerfully evocative installations. Simple domestic objects; a bed, a bucket, a two-seater couch, even a pile of milk crates are used as touch-points for the narrative.

Bonita Blankenberg’s tandem bicycle symbolises the particular challenges she faces as a blind person. As she said quite matter of factly during the walkabout, “blind people aren’t allowed to drive”.

Neziswa Vava’‘s large plastic bowl in front of a neat couch speaks to the ritual of washing her father’s feet when he returned from a long day at work. Its evident that she misses him deeply now.

Marliska, “Penny’ Tobias’ face lit up with pride as she spoke about her matric dance dress hanging in a cupboard and told how the whole street came out to see her in it!

 

 

Mabhuti Bobo’s carefully recreated shack says much about the dire housing problems that best so many, and of his hopes of one day being able to live in a house with a proper inside toilet, something that so many of us take for granted.

It’s encouraging to read, in editors Cara-Lee Arendse and Shirley Gunn’s introduction, that the publication of the book doesn’t mark the end of the Human Rights Media Centre’s engagement with the participants and the issues they raise, but the beginning of a different process. In 2011 there will be community book launches, public discussions and conversations about the many issues raised so honestly by the fourteen storytellers. It’s evident that the participants are a close knit and caring group.They’ve travelled a long road together and it’s good to know that they will continue to hold each other safe in the future.

For further information see the Human Rights Media Centre website

 

 

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