There once was a man with really tough feet. When a car rolled over it he felt nothing. When broken glass cut it, he still felt nothing.
One day, the man said to another, “Come with me. I want to see this thing that everyone calls a train.”
His friend went with him. When they arrived at the train station, they saw the train approaching. The man with the tough feet put his one foot on the tracks and waited. The train drove over his foot and chopped off his toes. He turned to his friend and said, “This thing is sharp.”
From that day on, the train is called uloliwe – “the sharp thing”.
This is one of the stories in an award-winning book written by four teenagers from the Kayamandi township in Stellenbosch. Our Stories: Amabali Ethu is written by Sizeka Nobuntu, Lucky Mahlaba, Feziwe Matiwane and Zolani Sinxo, learners from Kayamandi High School.
Vision K, an organisation striving to inspire youths to overcome poverty, unemployment and poor education, tasked the teenagers with documenting Xhosa folk tales from the area and then, in conjunction with the Stellenbosch Academy of Design and Photography, helped them produce a book.
The book is made up of nine tales that were told to the authors’ grandparents when they were young. With talking animals, the tales expose the beginnings of Xhosa myths and the wisdom of old people.
“We are just following in the foot-steps of our parents and grand-parents in the art of storytelling. Tales like The Sharp Thing were told to us by our grandparents. But it is easier to tell than it is to write,” says Zolani.
“Here in Kayamandi, we live near the station and lots of people have been killed there. And this particular story [The Sharp Thing] was told to us as children to warn us about the dangers of playing near the train line. It is a simple story, but it has a strong message.”
Rouleaux van der Merwe, a third-year student at the Stellenbosch Academy of Design and Photography, worked with the children on the book.
“The book was originally designed with the idea of entering the Sappi Ideas that Matter competition. After a month, we were notified that we had won the competition and were given a grant of R300 000. Sappi financed everything and gave us the opportunity to make the publishing of the book possible,” says Van der Merwe.
“The children told me the stories and together we decided which stories we would like to put into book form. We put the stories on paper and started to illustrate them. Between the four of them, they came up with the most amazing illustrations.”
“It was a joint effort where all these things were put together to show the stories in the best possible way,” says Van der Merwe. “It was very exciting to work with the children and I learnt a great deal.”
“When the book came out for the first time, it was an unbelievable experience,” says Sizeka. “We couldn’t picture or conceptualise that what we have written could be compiled into a format of a book.”
“It is a celebration of our culture and contains the wisdom of the old people,” says Feziwe of the book.
Lucky says that writing the book has inspired him to believe in himself. “I now feel that anything is possible and I hope that one day I will be able to write another book on my own.”
Zolani says the process has not only educated him, but also inspired him to further his studies. “I thought that writing a book would be difficult, but I realise now that all you need is something to write about … It is easy if you write about your own experiences.”
Vision K believes that this kind of project can be launched in townships around South Africa.
Vision K chairperson Unathi Loos says: “The organisation seeks to motivate and encourage the youth to widen their horizons, to take responsibility for their lives … The book is an attempt to close the cultural, educational and economic gap between the races of South Africa. Our vision is that not only should every child in Kayamandi primary and high school get a copy of the book, but also every child throughout South Africa should get a copy.
“It is great achievement and pride that the publishing of the book has evoked in these children. Imagine the impact similar projects could have in townships all over South Africa. There are so many stories that still need to be told.”