Nic, my brother in law and fellow soul traveller invited me to join him on this adventure to Afrika Burns in the middle of nowhere.
The first thing I should say is the last thing. I returned home feeling better about myself, more complete and aware of having been celebrated. And.. full of wonder at all the people I met who are so worth celebrating. One can do a lot worse than that.
It was absolutely right to hold an event like this in the middle of nowhere. What a wonderful holding, welcoming and generous space full of beautiful people. While this euphoric level of community is unlikely to be sustainable it shows alternatives to the lives most of us lead very clearly; where celebration of one another as inherently good, divine creatures just goes without saying. This was starkly brought into relief when I returned to Johburg. Every lamp post shouted problems at me. Every intersection had somebody wanting me to know about their problem – and fix it. Traffic pushing and shoving, services we pay for that don’t get delivered and of course the barricades of privacy and security all around. Radical self sufficiency – once again I realized how much we are in the grip of intermediaries in our daily lives.
I scrambled down to Cape Town checking in with my baggage an empty 25l water container, symbolic of the empty largely unconsidered space within me that I was taking to this event.
While connections I made were fleeting they were rich and affirming and full of light. The collective connection was profound for me. To visit and be visited, welcomed and welcome. To just wander in and out of people’s spaces and have others do the same at our camp was worth the trek just on its own. To be recognized and acknowledged and reciprocate to others – a part of our natural inherent goodness that has to be locked up in our highly mediated, embattled, consumer lives.
I find myself falling over words and deleting and re-writing, trying to do justice to the space, the experience, the stimulation and variety. I feel more comfortable just reflecting my view through these pictures. Its going to take more more time than I have now to give an intelligent account. The others in this synchroblog have said much of it for me much better. And… resolved firmly to be there again for there must be a next one and bring you all with me to make more magic.
Afrika Burns Synchroblog participants:
- Photographs on Signs of Life : Rob Mills and Mike de Freitas
- John W Morehead on Moreheads Musings : Afrika Burns Synchroblog: Burning Man Regional Burn
- Tim Victor on Tim Victors Musings : Afrika Burns
- Ant Paton on CapeConversation : Wondering about the wilderness, by Ant Paton
- Rob Mills : Signs of Life
- Emerging Africa : Afterburn: A Karoo Flowering
- Mike de Freitas on CapeConversation: Afrika Burns, a Christian response, by Mike de Freitas
- Nic Paton : a baptism of joyful fire : Afrika Burns synchroblog
- RuZl on Liquid Light : a desert underground
- Roger Saner on Future Church : An oasis of silence
Other writings of note:
- From the mouth of the Man himself : What is Burning Man?
- BA Facebook site
- John W Morehead: Burn, Baby, Burn, Christendom Inferno: Burning Man and the Festive Immolation of Christendom Culture and Modernity
- John W Morehead: Apocalyptic Man Ablaze: The Hope of Burning Man’s Effigy Fulfilled in the Risen Holy Fool
- Overtone Music blog : Afrika Burns: Backwater Art Back In Fashion
