Cape Town

I've spent the last week in Cape Town, South Africa with Dom Coyote who is working as musical director on an incredible dance/theatre project with South African integrated dance company Remix and dancers, choreographers and performance artists from the UK. You can see what they're up to here: http://boundlessblog.posterous.com/

So whilst the group have been busy working during the days, I've been getting stuck into learning and seeing Cape Town. A lot of what I've discovered has really inspired the 'Home' theme of the next album. Here are a few photos and quotes from the week gone which highlight the beauty and the sadness of this place (to me.) The quotes were found on the walls of the District 6 museum.

"The loss of place, of neighbours, of Table Moutain...we must recover our memory. This is the only way to healing and justice."

Stan Abrahams

"...streets that died a long time ago, choked to death by neglect."

La Guma

"We wish to remember, so that we can all, together and by ourselves, rebuild a city which belongs to all of us. In which all of us can live, not as races, but as people."

Former community member of District 6

"I can forgive anything almost else, but I can never forget the agony and the pain of my pigeons; and my own agony and my own pain. Try as I might for years after I was kicked out, I simply could not get my pigeons trained to come back to Manenberg. Unerringly, they would fly back to the District, which- to them, was home. What can I do about this? Is there any compensation for this kind of thing?"

Former community member of District 6