A Tale From The City - St Brennan’s Building, Mahatma Ghandi Road. In 2014, my research company began working on a very interesting project regarding buildings in the city of Durban. Part of our research was to visit various buildings in the city – in various degrees of disrepair. One of the buildings was particularly bad and it was a complete eye opener for us to see that people are living in what I would describe as the worst type of...
Stories From My Dad - Who goes there? Part 1 We all have unbelievable dad stories to tell, but I’m betting very few of you have dined out on a “remember when dad was chased by two rhino?” tale. By goodness. It is the stuff of legends! There he is…intrepid Irishman now living in a small Zululand town, with my adventurous Irish mother. The ‘wilds of Africa’ are literally across the fence and life could not be more different. He’s no longer...
There she goes; woman of the sky. My name, Ashling, is of Irish origin (Aisling is the original Gaelic spelling). The name means ‘a vision’ or ‘a dream’. It wasn’t until I learnt of my name’s meaning, that I came to love it. As a child, I’d have appreciated a ‘normal’ South African name, like those of my friends, instead of an unheard of oddity of a name. Now I know that my name represents, if not, shaped, who I am as...
I recently read the most depressing article entitled, Why writing books, is not really a good idea*, by author, Ellie Griffin. Had I read this article when Down at Jika Jika Tavern was a mere mote of dust, wafting on the eddies of my mind, I likely would have abandoned the project. Griffin reveals that during 2020, just over 2.6 million books sold online. But only 268 of these books sold more than 100 000 copies! That’s right, 2.6 million titles only sold...
“Jesus was not born here but sometimes, he comes in through the little holes in the walls, and sits on that chair” Sandile Dikeni (Shack Chic) An old man sits in a shaft of light at the front of the small mud hut; his brown hands clasp the spine of his battered bible, motes of dust gently orbit his head and the butter-yellow sunlight sets his hair aflame. This one-roomed, thatched mud hut is a church located in Nyathi, situated roughly an hour outside of...