Son of the Wind is an exciting Multimedia Theatrical Production to benefit two impoverished San or “Bushman” tribes, the !Xun & Khwe of Platfontein.
The play tells the story of the disaster that befell the tribes during the Angolan war for independence. But it is also a story about the importance of myth and tradition and the endurance of love beyond death and reason.
The production's technical crew did a wonderful job of transforming the Lady Oppenheimer Hall at the McGregor Museum, Kimberley, into a space in which the performance could take place. Jez, Riaan, Neve and Dené set up the lights, sound and decoration and the rest of the crew helped us with decor.
With less than a week to prepare for our epic 6910K journey through southern Africa, Marius Jansen Van Vuuren, a sculptor, and I set out to cross the vast lands of Botswana and Namibia, armed with a notebook, a video camera and about 20 bags of plaster of Paris. The purpose of our journey? Body mapping.
On a thin stretch of land at the top of Botswana, near the Okavango delta there is a community of !Xun and Khwe San people. The land, know as the Caprivi Strip, actually belongs to Namibia. It is less than 70 kilometer wide, on the southern border is Botswana and the Northern is Angola.
It is on this thin stretch of land that the former South African National Defense Force (SANDF) once maintained an army base known as Omega One. Now, it is a ramshackle community of San, most of whom live in dire poverty.
When the !Xun and Khwe soldiers who had been fighting with the Portuguese fled Angola, most of them were conscripted into the South African army as the Bushmen Battalion, to fight in the Border War against South West Africa People's Organization (SWAPO).
Between 1989 and 1991 there were great political and social changes, Namibia, led by SWAPO, gained independence and Nelson Mandela was freed from prison, ushering in a new political era in South Africa.
The SANDF offered the Bushmen soldiers and their families the choice to stay at Omega One in Caprivi or relocate to South Africa. It was a difficult decision for both communities and many families were torn apart.
Son of the Wind is the story of the !Xun and the Khwe, all of them; not just those living at Platfontein. It is for this reason that Marius and I made the trip to Omega One. We went to gather stories.
