Siphokazi Jonas Celebrates Walker Bay in ‘History Lesson’

We are excited to share another teaser from Siphokazi Jonas’s poem video, ‘History Lesson’, written for Grootbos Foundation to highlight conservation, community and culture in the Walker Bay Region.

There is no place on earth like the Cape Floristic Region. Our natural biodiversity is so unique that nearly 70% of the plants found here are found nowhere else in the world. No plant is so iconic to the Walker Bay Region as the Erica irregularis, or Gansbaai heath, which covers the hills between Gansbaai and Stanford in pink each winter. Stanford is about to burst into bloom this September, thanks to both the incredible fire-triggered 'superbloom' and Leon Kluge's Life after Fire display, which will be recreated in Stanford.

Siphokazi's poem reminds us to celebrate the beauty in the grand and the small things, from the insects to leopards and bulbs to forests which call this landscape home. Keep an eye out tonight, Friday 14 August, at 8pm for the full video launch. Poem Snippet: "In the unique dialect of Erica Irregularis whispered in these wilds and nowhere else in the world. On the wings of hummingbird hawkmoths, carpenter bees, and Cape Sugarbirds flittering from branch to petal. Swaggering across the veld in pincushion pinksI am leopard trail unrestricted by fences, deep in the veins of milkwood trees, passing 800 years of gossip from root to root. "You too can experience fybos both in the natural wild and also through Leon Kluge's spectacular fynbos exhibit called 'Life after Fire' which will be on show from 12-27 Sept in Stanford. Tickets are available on Webtickets.