1.- Sangomas, animism, sorcery. dos sangomas (healers) They sang and danced while preparing what was known as "African beer". And she, young, danzaba China Mira appointed, no matter that for her there is no later, on a live roosters pecking at the remains of the dust of the impoverished home. I dawned Africa in the face, In the midst of that immense accumulated urban misery, In the midst of that advanced country and full of good infrastructure in which there is a hole for smiles and cries. Khayelitsha, Cape Town, March of 2010.
2.- We find them there, but long, A neighborhood of Cape Cabo. They looked at us, they laughed and posed under a monument that spoke of yesterday without freedom. Today, In your present, Follow your misery and gradually dawns hope. So close everything and so far. Near, Cape Town, March of 2010.
3.-In Kruger National Park you discover the wild world, No laws, based on that natural norm that says that things are governed by force and instincts. I spent almost five years coming dozens here to confirm if it was possible for me to be so. Kuger National Park, May of 2010.
4.- And Soweto, In the monument to Freedom Charter, I stayed at a wonderful hotel, Soweto Conference Centre, in which to support my optimism about the future of this country. At night I heard the old train pass like a lament and watched from my balcon. For the day everything came to life and the world went to his things stirring everything. I found this man there, borrhracho, who played with his flute the anthem of his people to find an excuse with which to eat. Kilptown, Soweto, June 2013.
5.- Complicated and cruel. The constant flight. That town of white fans is true that he regularized horror with precision. Fuck and bastard message. But then the nuances of knowledge arrive. Con Robert, Great guy, I had the opportunity to meet Afrikáners much better. And the courage also arrived, The determination, The work and strength that those uprooted whites brought to this earth. They were able to create a fruit and wine garden dominating several deserts. South Africa are them, certainly, This is their land and their ancestors rest here, With their mistakes and also with their successes. Little Karoo, June of 2011.
6.- There is no talk of them, But the sea and the South African coast are spectacular. In their oceans the waves on whales and rocks jump. In South Africa I had the perception that everything was wild, even its sand and shell beaches. As if something dictated here, End of this continent, that is arrived to not return. Cape of Good Hope, June 2014.
7.- I never saw a town to celebrate their defeats better. He threatened to leave and underneath, Under the window of his room of his hospital in Pretoria, Thousands of people came to pray it, Cry it and celebrate it. And then someone left some flowers and one drawing while another, any, With his broken voice of laughing crying, He raised his mood singing some of the old songs of struggle and honor and all that sadness became a dance to which death was given. Pretoria, July 2013.
8.- I thought that the world would not know how. Then came his farewell and I stayed there, With a group of very humble people, who told me stories of his meetings for those meadows with the old leader. Each story seemed more beautiful and clarifying than the previous. And cars passed, motorcycles and helicopters and listened to their stories with a contained emotion. And then more sirens sounded and we understood that the time came. And they began to wave flags and sing to say goodbye as they should and felt their neighbor that not their former president. And I saw his coffin pass, a few meters from his house, In a certain final loneliness, with them, With anyone better than with them, Mandela's neighbors. Qunu, December of 2013.
9.- I could tell a thousand stories and examples of solidarity, But Zip Zip Circus seems to me that it is the one that best symbolized all. I guess because he talks about AIDS, The disease that empties Africa of bodies and consciences; And because he talks about children, victims of the horror of his parents, of their sins and their deficiencies; And because he speaks of the solidarity of who delivers, agreed O NO, part of yours and deposits it in others. It was a circus of children with AIDS. Everything was admirable not because of the sadness that diseases and poverty entails, It was admirable because everyone seemed over their hundred. Khayelitsha, Cape Town, April 2011.
10.- I have no reason that is not intimate and own. I left after almost five years of living and traveling through various and varied countries of this continent with the idea that there, South Africa, It is where my relationship with people was closer. The South Africans seem nice and brave. A town that seems to me that far from the great headlines of their miseries and defects, exemplifies a thousand virtues. Only they have been able, Even without looking, to live and forgive. I especially liked his immense and deep sense of humor. Khayelitsha, March of 2010.
