Annette Du Plessis

Home is where the art is for white New Brighton woman

(By Karen van Rooyen)

ANNETTE du Plessis was named “Vuyiswa”, Xhosa for happiness, by her new friends when she first moved to the Port Elizabeth township of New Brighton.

Today, nearly 17 years later, she is still happy to live there even though few, if any, other whites have followed her example.

Du Plessis, a multi-skilled artist whose work includes sculpture and collages, moved to the township after spending a weekend there in 1989.

Now she is looking forward to the official opening of the Red Location Cultural Museum in September. She said: “It’s so amazing that the spot where the museum has been built is where I made the decision to move to New Brighton.

“When I went into that museum two months ago, I was overcome with emotion because I saw that doors were opening for other developments in New Brighton and South Africa.”

Du Plessis, 50, had been visiting the township on an exchange programme arranged by an organisation called Koinonia and the National Initiative for Reconciliation during 1989 which saw different racial groups switching homes for a weekend.

The following week she decided to move there permanently.“I was shocked that I’d been so apathetic,” she said.

But Du Plessis’ apathy soon turned into passion for her community, a place she describes as “farm life congested into the city”.

Between fighting for basic municipal services to be restored in the area and raising her 13-year old son, Khaya Mfo, Du Plessis also runs the Siyaya Centre for Young Arts, which she founded at the local Arthur Nyobo Primary School.

She met Khaya’s father while the two were activists in the community and while no longer in a relationship, they are still friends. Du Plessis, who also has two grown sons, Yucca, 22, and Keran, 21, says she had to put up with accusations by people that she had turned her back on whites.

However, the change she has seen in her chosen surroundings has made any negative reactions worthwhile.

“It’s wonderful to see the tarred road. Before, the roads here were full of stones, and shoes did not last. It’s awesome . . . wonderful how this area’s been developed. There are playgrounds and I’m so proud.”

Du Plessis has learned Xhosa and although she doesn’t speak it much, she understands it – and loves being in a place where “nobody’s ever been rude to me”.

“The people here are very spontaneous, they have no inhibitions and for me as an artist, that’s amazing,” she said.

Her young pupils at the Siyaya centre are working on a paper maché cow – “because cows are so popular”. The cow will form part of an exhibition for the museum’s opening celebrations scheduled for mid-September.

Du Plessis regularly brings in Swedish artists to conduct workshops with the children following a one-month stint in Gothenburg three years ago.

Her years in New Brighton have allowed her to voice her opinions on every topic under the sun and while she once encouraged other white people to go into the townships, she has nothing against those who stay away.

“If a person can afford to live next to the beach, let them.

“I often have people here who say: ‘Why did our comrades move out’, and I say if they can afford to, then let them. They don’t have to remain in areas where they were once oppressed.”

Du Plessis, who was born in Cape Town, comes from a family of artists and thanks to her eccentric yet “extremely conservative” father, moved around and lived in Namibia before moving to Pretoria.

It was while hitch-hiking around the country that she ended up in Port Elizabeth – and she hasn’t looked back. “I just loved it here.”

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