“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 Shaka Xhosa… an incredible South African poet.
I meet him at a feeding program… an artist…a poet… a sensitive soul, Ntsikelelo Solani. “I created my own brand, Shaka Xhosa – Killing Poverty ”
The label portrays the shadow of a hip Shaka Zulu in shorts . Instead of a shield he is holding a cassette, and instead of a spear, a microphone.
” I identify with Shaka Zulu, he came from a broken family, was raised by his mom, and turned rejection into something powerful …he became a warrior. All those things apply to me as well, except that I want to turn the rejection that I have faced in my life into entrepreneurship, and instead of killing people, I want to kill poverty.
I was born and raised in PE. I have always been artistic. The way that I process emotions, hardships, and grief, is through poetry. As a Xhosa boy I had to go through the manhood initiation process, ‘ukwaluka’ . I found out then that the man I had thought was my father, was not my father. It was a defining moment in my life and changed me.
I had big dreams…with the help of some friends I brought out a CD in 2011, it was called “Making Ends Meet, Positive Thinking”- a mixture of Xhosa Hip Hop songs, and poetry.
We sold the CD on the streets and completely sold out. I even have an ‘artist name’,
I’m known as Gezlah Gazette. After completing a course in beadwork, and designing leather and bead creations of my own, the NYDA (National Development Fund) gave me a grant of R10,000 to start my own business.
I was so excited!
I bought materials, and full of hope headed to Johannesburg to start my new life. I enrolled at Central Johannesburg College to do a Marketing Management course, but when money became tight I left and joined the Imbali Visual Project in New Town.”
Ntsikelelo’s dreams came to an abrupt end when, as an artist without any business background, he quickly ran out of money in the big city. Without funds to pay for rent, he moved from shelter to shelter, trying to sell the stock he had left, and eventually ended up living on the street.
” That was not my lowest point,” he tells me with a serious face.
“Some guys told me I could live in a back room with them in Kepler Park…They were bad news…”
I left and went back to the Rosebank Parks. I worked my way back up from the streets doing a business with a friend selling Jackets, and through contacts at the church, now have a room to stay in and I’m studying again- I’m just finishing a fashion course.”
How you can help:
- Is there a business man/woman willing to walk alongside Ntsikelelo, to mentor him, or even just meet him over coffee, and advise him how to make his fledgling brand and ideas into a proudly South African product? Because really that is what it is!
- Is there someone with a contact at an artisan project or store where he could sell his creations.
- A clothing designer willing to give him a chance? Below are examples of his creations: Jacket, shirts, shorts, shoes, leather wallets, etc
- Someone in the music industry willing to listen to his music and to meet with him?
Ntsikelelo’s number is: 071 6192278 And here’s a link to his music which he uploaded years ago.
“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.
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