Blue, Green, Red and Purple: Bushman Saga
In this moving and richly nostalgic prose-poem Betty Collins remembers an Empire Exhibition held in Johannesburg in 1936.
I remember the Empire Exhibition in Johannesburg
In l936
I went with my father.
I remember the water switchback
And the coloured fountain on the lake
And wondering how they dyed the water.
At one of the stalls I bought a present for my sister
A celluloid doll dressed in feathers, on a stick.
I remember the Bushmen.
It was night,
And we walked on a boardwalk, I think.
It was fenced, and behind me a crowd jostled.
I stared at the Bushmen. I was eight years old.
There were fires burning in the fragrant glowing dust
And the Bushmen danced. At least they said they were dancing;
Old old men and women padded in a line, in a circle,
And old old men and women sat at the side and clapped their hands.
Their faces told me nothing.
Over my head the crowd threw cigarette stompies
And old old children picked them up and smoked them
Holding them between thumb and forefinger.
I looked up at my father and saw that he was laughing,
While others cheered.
When I gave the feathered doll to my sister
Carrying it carefully on the train ( where we ate paw-paw)
Carrying it carefully all the way to Cape Town
When I gave the feathered doll to my sister
She pulled the doll from the stick
And it was never the same.
