“I have a name” is an incredible photo series showcasing everyday South Africans in the most phenomenal way. Proudly South African… one story at a time.
The stories are told by the incredible South Africans… raw & unedited. It’s a showcase of humanness, a reminder that behind every face, is a name.
Meet Susan… an incredible South African.
A few days ago as I was driving out of our complex early one morning, one of the domestic workers was running up the road in a real hurry. I stopped and asked her if she wanted a lift in the direction I was going,
“Yes please! ” she said, out of breath ” I’m just going to Design Quarter.”
Being a somewhat curious soul, I asked her why she was in such a hurry.
“There is a lady who sits outside the Toyota showroom on Leslie and sells fresh bread every morning, it’s the best bread ever, I’m afraid she might have sold out!”
I knew that morning , that I’d have to come back, buy some bread and do a story on her.
Susan is wrapped up in lots of layers against the morning chill, she’s listening to music on her cell phone, and has a welcoming smile on her face. I’ve arrived too late for bread she tells me, she sold out long ago, but still has a few vetkoek left.
” It’s my grandma’s recipe! ….my grandma… she LOVED baking. The smell of fresh and baking bread is her smell. She would always give us tea…and then fresh bread to eat with it. It is thanks to her that I am able to make a living baking bread. I wake up at 3 am every morning and make 3 loaves of bread and a bucket of vetkoek to sell. I sell the bread by slices – 4 slices for R5.
I have 4 children, my husband passed away so I am the one supporting them. My one child is at university studying tourism, I am such a proud mama!
My youngest, a boy, is 10 years old and he attends the Rabasotho Combined School in Diepsloot. He tells me he is going to be a helicopter pilot when he grows up! Sho! I don’t know if I want to be up in the air with him flying! ” she laughs.
“I have been selling my bread and vetkoek here for 20 years! All of this… ” and she waves her arms around at the office buildings across the road, Design Quarter, and the Toyota show room, ” …all of this was not here, and Leslie was a one lane street back then. I sit here from 7am, until I’ve sold out around 9:30 and then I go back home to Diepsloot to do some cleaning, washing, and take a little nap because I am up at 3am . In the afternoon I sit at my little stall in Diepsloot near my house selling sweets and chips.”
I ask her what a dream come true would be for her,
” To have a Defy Malahla Stove…Yo! Can you imagine the baking I could do with that?!”
“How do you bake your bread at the moment?” I ask her
“The bread I bake using a prima stove, and the vetkoek over the fire.”
Susan’s cell number is 078 5766594
How you can help:
- Susan says that she will happily bake a whole fresh loaf of grandma’s special recipe bread if you order it from her ahead of time.
- Stop by Susan on Leslie Road and get your breakfast on the run. I’ve tried out her vetkoek and my whole family approves.
- How great would it be for this single mom entrepreneur to get her dream stove so that she can expand her business! The Defy Malahla stove is a coal stove with chimney -would anyone be willing to gift her one? I had a look and there are quite a few second hand coal stoves online …can you just imagine the look on her face!
“I Have A Name” is a space where an anonymous photographer (we’ll call her J) is taking photos of everyday South Africans to showcase their incredible stories.
How do we bridge the great South African divides? Black vs white, young vs old, rich vs poor, men vs women? The divides that keep us from making eye contact with the beggar standing on the street corner, or the stranger in the lift.
CS Lewis said, “There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal. Nations, cultures, arts, civilizations – these are mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat. But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub and exploit – immortal horrors or everlasting splendors. This does not mean that we are to be perpetually solemn. We must play. But our merriment must be of that kind (and it is, in fact, the merriest kind) which exists between people who have, from the outset, taken each other seriously – no flippancy, no superiority, no presumption.”
Come with me on a journey…the stories and names behind the faces of everyday South Africans living their life in your neighbourhood, on your streets.
I think you will discover that we have a lot in common.
Have something to add to this story? Share it in the comments or follow “I Have A Name” on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram & WordPress to keep up to date with good news as it happens.
by 