Spoken Words

The last time I arrived at City Hall on a bicycle, there was a man waiting with tulips. I took it as an exquisite picture of how Madiba had woo'ed the nation and how Freedom was his bride.

I was quietly expectant today as I rode to the steps of City Hall once again. Surely a second poignant moment of reflection on the legacy of Madiba and the bicycle was too much to ask for. Yet there he was.

Siyabulela (isiXhosa: Thank You) and his bicycle.

We spoke briefly while he taped images to the walls and door of the City Hall facade. To the authorites it would be viewed as a palpable act of defiance, but to Siya it is an invitation. He is a film maker and was busy pasting a stage background onto the walls of this architectural grand dame. The crude pop silhouettes unraveled from his backpack beckoning actors and artists to visit his self-made urban stage.

The unofficial Freedom Ride contingent arrived in his informal theater as he arranged the last of his props and occupied this most contested space. Neither of us had permission to be there, to ride, to display, to invite disarray. Yet there we were - in the shadow of the balcony where Madiba stood 20 years ago to give his first speech as a free man.

Today's unofficial Freedom Ride saw a growing number of riders join us as we moved from the leafy suburbs of Cape Town into and across a range of urban landscapes that we feel reflect the city we live in. The agility of the bicycle makes it possible to connect across physical infrastructural divides that hem in these enclaves of poverty and difference. We literally rode over and through these divisions that were too expansive to walk and are too expensive to reconsider.
The bicycle is becoming for me a vehicle of ecological as well as social sustainability.

My longing is to somehow overcome the devastation of apartheid spatial planning. Working on the Freedom Ride as an event to take thousands of wheels on this journey gives me such hope. To change a perspective is to change a landscape.

When my curious anarchist heart is weary, I have to ask: given that I am just one person, one designer on a bicycle, is this even possible. Is it worth trying?
Siyabulela was a gift to me today. When I asked him what his mission is, he replied: "I ride until my legs get tired to make a stage for others. The people will fill this place with what it needs."

Thank you Madiba that I could hear that in the shadow of your legacy.

Make a Stage: Tape and Plastic

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