play together
The four Lemmer children, from toddler to pre-teen, are delightful: bright, affectionate, well- mannered. We go for a walk to see the canal close to the farm in Matama.
I ask them what they miss most from South Africa. They say their friends.”There are plenty of children here. Haven’t you made new friends yet?” I ask.
They shake their heads. “Language,” says one. “We don’t know the same games,” says another.
Six months in Matama, and still no friends among the smiling Mozambican children on the other side of the barbed-wire.
We continue our walk. Right by the gate of the compound is a group of local kids playing soccer with a ball made of rags and paper, tied with string. It is quite a good ball. Softer for the barefoot kick. Its drawback is that, if the playing gets rough, the ball finishes before the match.
The two groups look at each other, sideways. The Mozambicans wear ragged cast- off T-shirts. The South Africans look neat in freshly pressed shirts and pants.
“Bom dia,” says one of the Lemmers, tentatively. He had said earlier that one of the guards, “an old black man”, is teaching him a few words in Portuguese.
“Bom dia,” smile the locals. There is no other interaction. Neighbourhood children behaving like adult strangers at the bank? Something has to be done. I suggest a soccer match so I can take pictures. It starts slowly and quickly builds into a whirlwind of dust and laughter.
Long after I have finished my roll of photos, the game goes on. Later, some tired, sweaty, dirty kids return. “We can’t beat them, they are much better than us,” they say.
Let’s plant the seed, I say to myself. “Next time somebody on the farm travels to South Africa, ask for a real soccer ball. If you practise every day with them, soon you will get to be as good. To learn faster, you could mix the teams, not every time South Africans against Mozambicans,” I say.
They could grow up as friends. Learn each other’s names and language. In time, learn to dance inyango with the sisters. Or just have a lively soccer match every weekend. Maybe if they learn to share a ball, they will learn to share the land.