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| By some of my daughter's photos in the exhibition Our Connection to Water at the National Maritime Museum. https://www.giyamakondo-wills.com/ |
Paul Simon's hit, 'The Boy in the Bubble', has been playing in my head, partly because I watched a great documentary on him and the South African musicians he collaborated with on Graceland, and partly because of how May is panning out. It's that refrain, "These are the days of miracle and wonder..." that sits in the allotment trees, that follows the big dog fox as it checks out my polytunnel, that questions the insane number of tomato seedlings I have.
The refrain, though, is also a check on despair during this month's relentless medical appointments, mostly for mum, and that it sits in the allotment trees is no coincidence. After an afternoon on hold yesterday, the allotment brought me back to earth, but particularly fire. And as I prepared a space for climbing beans, it brought me back to water. The earth is dry, it shouldn't be.
The opening lines of that song, the sun on the soldiers, the bomb and surveillance, the urge not to cry, are chilling lyrics, and of course they remind me of the lives lived by those musicians Simon worked with - Hugh Masekela and Ladysmith Black Mambazo, the band Stimela. His collaboration was controversial, challenged the artistic sanctions in place and annoyed politicians and artists. At the time I was shocked, but it's complex - the artists themselves benefitted. And indeed, my daughter was born the year of the first elections in South Africa, 1994. The country infuses her work, and the work of my son, Mrisi Makondo-Wills.
While it's hard not to be brought down by all that's happening - old woman with dementia tasered by police, teenagers chased to their deaths, waiting lists, no GPs, no dentists, one in two young South Africans out of work, war in Sudan, I'm inclined to hope art is cleverer than money, politicians and warmongers and will continue to make its point with a photo, a poem, a drawing, a soaring tune or a lyric that won't leave your head because it's there, in the trees by the path, with the blackbird's own miraculous sequence of notes.
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| Mrisi Makondo-Wills @ mrisimusic performing at Brighton Festival last year and Brighton Fringe 31 May 2023 |
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