Precious Cargo/Her Elements of Life

Precious Cargo

by

Ernestine White

Compiled by Njabulo Ngobese

"Nobody cares if you can't dance well. Just get up and dance. Great dancers are not great because of their technique, they are great because of their passion" - Martha Graham, American Choreographer.

Ernestine White received a Master's degree in Fine Arts from the University of Cape Town in 2004. She has participated in numerous group exhibitions and also received a Master Printer Certificate from the Tamarind Institute, Alberquerque, New Mexico.

Ernestine is currently the exhibition coordinator-curator for the Parliamentary Millennium Project at the Parliament of the Republic of South Africa.

Poem:

Her elements of life

Chantel Erfort

Face full and bright like the moon

Her dreams fly across the sky

Before bad dreams gather like clouds.

And yesterday she was just 8 years old

Now face full and bright like fire

Her eyes dart across the room

Before tears well like water

And yesterday she was just 8 years old

Now face full but not

Bright

Dulls into anger as she cries.

Ekuqakatheke ePilwenakhe

IsiNdebele translation: F Mahlangu

Ubuso obumomothekako ebuphazima njengenyezi

Amabhudango wakhe aphapha hlangana nesibhakabhaka

Ngaphambi kobana amabhudango amambi angahlangana njengamafu

Izolo lokhu ubeneminyaka ebu-8

Gadesi ubuso obumomomothekako buphazima njengomlilo

Amehlwakhe agijima kilo loke ikamero

Ngaphambi kobana iinyembezi ziwe njengamanzi

Izolo lokhu ubeneminyaka ebu-8

Gadesi ubuso buyamamatheka kodwana

Abuphazimi

Bukhombisa ilaka nakalilako

A Brief Biography of Chantel Erfort

Chantel Erfort is a writer, assistant editor at Cape Community Newspapers, co-foudner of a community arts projct the COLOUR: Spirit of the Flats, and co-owner of the community-based record label, DALA FLAT MUSIC. She oversees the DALA FLAT MUSIC’s 38 Special Words and Music project and is in the process of completing her first book The Meditation and Maths of Leaving, a compilation of short stories, poetry and letters to a long-lost friend.

At all times through her writing, Chantel strives to maintain and uphold the ethos of social upliftment through the arts as expressed by the DALA FLAT MUSIC and the COLOUR: Spirit of the Flats. Her work has been published in Women Flashing, a compilation of Flash Fiction by South African women writers (2005).