Sbonelo, a working class South African struggling with questions of identity during the collapse of Apartheid, embarks on a journey back to his childhood home in Cato Ridge, KwaZulu-Natal in search of his tangled roots.
Sbonelo, a working class South African struggling with questions of identity during the collapse of Apartheid, embarks on a journey back to his childhood home in Cato Ridge, KwaZulu-Natal in search of his tangled roots.
Sbonelo, a working class South African struggling with questions of identity during the collapse of Apartheid, embarks on a journey back to his childhood home in Cato Ridge, KwaZulu-Natal in search of his tangled roots.
the story
What at first is a road trip into the heart of South Africa becomes a trek into the past — an excavation of personal and national histories, many of them deeply painful. But nestled within the sins-of-apartheid narrative is the chance for retribution in the cross-generational bond between Sbonelo and his uncle, Bongani, who has history of his own. Pairing a worldly cynic with a troubled young man, they parse through the mystery of Sbonelo's childhood, where he goes on to find a tragic truth at his birthplace.
What at first is a road trip into the heart of South Africa becomes a trek into the past — an excavation of personal and national histories, many of them deeply painful. But nestled within the sins-of-apartheid narrative is the chance for retribution in the cross-generational bond between Sbonelo and his uncle, Bongani, who has history of his own. Pairing a worldly cynic with a troubled young man, they parse through the mystery of Sbonelo's childhood, where he goes on to find a tragic truth at his birthplace.
What at first is a road trip into the heart of South Africa becomes a trek into the past — an excavation of personal and national histories, many of them deeply painful. But nestled within the sins-of-apartheid narrative is the chance for retribution in the cross-generational bond between Sbonelo and his uncle, Bongani, who has history of his own. Pairing a worldly cynic with a troubled young man, they parse through the mystery of Sbonelo's childhood, where he goes on to find a tragic truth at his birthplace.
TANGLED
ROOTS
TANGLED
ROOTS
apartheid
Twenty-one thousand people died in political violence from 1948 to 1994 in South Africa — of whom 14,000 people died during the six-year transition process from 1990 to 1994. FARM picks up just months after the promise of a new South Africa, following the life of a young man narrowly escaping the permanent clutches of Apartheid, but still not young enough to escape the lingering after-effects.
Sbonelo was nine years old at the time of Apartheid's collapse and ready to embrace freedom. But for all the legal doors that opened, attitudes took longer to change, and the economic inequality created by the nearly fifty years of segregation meant that his struggles with identity and purpose continued. Ten years later, Sbonelo's quietened demeanour speaks volumes about where has found himself — hardened against the world, and utterly alone, without any semblance of family nor the recollection of a childhood lost to the systems of Apartheid.
Twenty-one thousand people died in political violence from 1948 to 1994 in South Africa — of whom 14,000 people died during the six-year transition process from 1990 to 1994. FARM picks up just months after the promise of a new South Africa, following the life of a young man narrowly escaping the permanent clutches of Apartheid, but still not young enough to escape the lingering after-effects.
Sbonelo was nine years old at the time of Apartheid's collapse and ready to embrace freedom. But for all the legal doors that opened, attitudes took longer to change, and the economic inequality created by the nearly fifty years of segregation meant that his struggles with identity and purpose continued. Ten years later, Sbonelo's quietened demeanour speaks volumes about where has found himself — hardened against the world, and utterly alone, without any semblance of family nor the recollection of a childhood lost to the systems of Apartheid.
Twenty-one thousand people died in political violence from 1948 to 1994 in South Africa — of whom 14,000 people died during the six-year transition process from 1990 to 1994. FARM picks up just months after the promise of a new South Africa, following the life of a young man narrowly escaping the permanent clutches of Apartheid, but still not young enough to escape the lingering after-effects.
Sbonelo was nine years old at the time of Apartheid's collapse and ready to embrace freedom. But for all the legal doors that opened, attitudes took longer to change, and the economic inequality created by the nearly fifty years of segregation meant that his struggles with identity and purpose continued. Ten years later, Sbonelo's quietened demeanour speaks volumes about where has found himself — hardened against the world, and utterly alone, without any semblance of family nor the recollection of a childhood lost to the systems of Apartheid.
BASED ON
THE LIVES OF
BASED ON
THE LIVES OF
sbonelo, a man
Sbonelo doesn't seem to know who he is and yet the world does. Bullied and racially discriminated, our first introduction of Sbonelo is one out of fear, a rejection from the world as he runs away from the chaotic conformity of his environment.
Most of Sbonelo's adolescence and early adulthood was spent on the farms of Cato Ridge, KwaZulu-Natal. He didn't have the money for college tuition, so he hustled for all the cash he could get; he worked at sugar cane mills, filled cars at petrol stations and kept on a treadmill of disaffection in a time of national transition.
Working to hide the less accepted, tangled roots of his past, it is only with Bongani, who years for honesty, and with Ma, resolute and protecting, that Sbonelo reveals his true self.
Sbonelo doesn't seem to know who he is and yet the world does. Bullied and racially discriminated, our first introduction of Sbonelo is one out of fear, a rejection from the world as he runs away from the chaotic conformity of his environment.
Most of Sbonelo's adolescence and early adulthood was spent on the farms of Cato Ridge, KwaZulu-Natal. He didn't have the money for college tuition, so he hustled for all the cash he could get; he worked at sugar cane mills, filled cars at petrol stations and kept on a treadmill of disaffection in a time of national transition.
Working to hide the less accepted, tangled roots of his past, it is only with Bongani, who years for honesty, and with Ma, resolute and protecting, that Sbonelo reveals his true self.
Sbonelo doesn't seem to know who he is and yet the world does. Bullied and racially discriminated, our first introduction of Sbonelo is one out of fear, a rejection from the world as he runs away from the chaotic conformity of his environment.
Most of Sbonelo's adolescence and early adulthood was spent on the farms of Cato Ridge, KwaZulu-Natal. He didn't have the money for college tuition, so he hustled for all the cash he could get; he worked at sugar cane mills, filled cars at petrol stations and kept on a treadmill of disaffection in a time of national transition.
Working to hide the less accepted, tangled roots of his past, it is only with Bongani, who years for honesty, and with Ma, resolute and protecting, that Sbonelo reveals his true self.
sbonelo, a child
We chronicle two critical junctures of Sbonelo's development. First, we meet him as a nine-year-old living in a fragmented family environment on a quiet sugar cane farm. Shy and introverted, Sbonelo is isolated from his relatives and peers when he meets Gene Rasmussen, a farmer who finds her tough emotional exterior punctured by Sbonelo's gentle vulnerability
Later, we reencounter Sbonelo as an adult. All the traumas and experiences from his childhood have come together and shaped a man who is filled with conflict and reluctant to follow his own nature. These two vignettes provide an unflinching dissection of a long-standing, rarely acknowledged emotional trauma that brings the extremism and violence of an apartheid childhood to a starkly personal level.
We chronicle two critical junctures of Sbonelo's development. First, we meet him as a nine-year-old living in a fragmented family environment on a quiet sugar cane farm. Shy and introverted, Sbonelo is isolated from his relatives and peers when he meets Gene Rasmussen, a farmer who finds her tough emotional exterior punctured by Sbonelo's gentle vulnerability
Later, we reencounter Sbonelo as an adult. All the traumas and experiences from his childhood have come together and shaped a man who is filled with conflict and reluctant to follow his own nature. These two vignettes provide an unflinching dissection of a long-standing, rarely acknowledged emotional trauma that brings the extremism and violence of an apartheid childhood to a starkly personal level.
We chronicle two critical junctures of Sbonelo's development. First, we meet him as a nine-year-old living in a fragmented family environment on a quiet sugar cane farm. Shy and introverted, Sbonelo is isolated from his relatives and peers when he meets Gene Rasmussen, a farmer who finds her tough emotional exterior punctured by Sbonelo's gentle vulnerability
Later, we reencounter Sbonelo as an adult. All the traumas and experiences from his childhood have come together and shaped a man who is filled with conflict and reluctant to follow his own nature. These two vignettes provide an unflinching dissection of a long-standing, rarely acknowledged emotional trauma that brings the extremism and violence of an apartheid childhood to a starkly personal level.
bongani
When Sbonelo decides to travel back to the farm, he's accompanied by Bongani, a warm late-40s man with a bone-dry sense of humour, who sees quite a bit of his own upbringing in the disaffected Sbonelo. There is tenderness inside him, but like some truths concealed from Sbonelo, it's covered by a metal shield.
Bongani had seen the true brutal nature of Apartheid and now makes a humble living as a petrol station attendant. He was far wiser than many of his peers and oppressors growing up and suffered the anguish of surrendering his education, feigning ignorance in order to live without punishment. His world was not born again after Apartheid; he still suffers a long, debilitating, and shameful aftermath to the oppressive system. By 1994, very little keeps him going — a small family, a meager but consistent wage, a loose cigarette — yet when he is called upon, he arrives. FARM may be the story of a particular young man seeking his own identity, but Bongani is South African history, both grieved over and unredeemed.
When Sbonelo decides to travel back to the farm, he's accompanied by Bongani, a warm late-40s man with a bone-dry sense of humour, who sees quite a bit of his own upbringing in the disaffected Sbonelo. There is tenderness inside him, but like some truths concealed from Sbonelo, it's covered by a metal shield.
Bongani had seen the true brutal nature of Apartheid and now makes a humble living as a petrol station attendant. He was far wiser than many of his peers and oppressors growing up and suffered the anguish of surrendering his education, feigning ignorance in order to live without punishment. His world was not born again after Apartheid; he still suffers a long, debilitating, and shameful aftermath to the oppressive system. By 1994, very little keeps him going — a small family, a meager but consistent wage, a loose cigarette — yet when he is called upon, he arrives. FARM may be the story of a particular young man seeking his own identity, but Bongani is South African history, both grieved over and unredeemed.
When Sbonelo decides to travel back to the farm, he's accompanied by Bongani, a warm late-40s man with a bone-dry sense of humour, who sees quite a bit of his own upbringing in the disaffected Sbonelo. There is tenderness inside him, but like some truths concealed from Sbonelo, it's covered by a metal shield.
Bongani had seen the true brutal nature of Apartheid and now makes a humble living as a petrol station attendant. He was far wiser than many of his peers and oppressors growing up and suffered the anguish of surrendering his education, feigning ignorance in order to live without punishment. His world was not born again after Apartheid; he still suffers a long, debilitating, and shameful aftermath to the oppressive system. By 1994, very little keeps him going — a small family, a meager but consistent wage, a loose cigarette — yet when he is called upon, he arrives. FARM may be the story of a particular young man seeking his own identity, but Bongani is South African history, both grieved over and unredeemed.
ma
To be born on a white man's farm was the feudal reality for many black South Africans. Seeing workers lorded over like livestock, the assumption among the children became that this was the natural order of the world.
Gene Rasmussen, or affectionately known as "Ma", is the widowed farmer who becomes a temporary mother figure to the impressionable Sbonelo — a complex bond that unravels the fears and vulnerabilities of a child made to feel that he exists outside of the world he was born into.
To be born on a white man's farm was the feudal reality for many black South Africans. Seeing workers lorded over like livestock, the assumption among the children became that this was the natural order of the world.
Gene Rasmussen, or affectionately known as "Ma", is the widowed farmer who becomes a temporary mother figure to the impressionable Sbonelo — a complex bond that unravels the fears and vulnerabilities of a child made to feel that he exists outside of the world he was born into.
ma
To be born on a white man's farm was the feudal reality for many black South Africans. Seeing workers lorded over like livestock, the assumption among the children became that this was the natural order of the world.
Gene Rasmussen, or affectionately known as "Ma", is the widowed farmer who becomes a temporary mother figure to the impressionable Sbonelo — a complex bond that unravels the fears and vulnerabilities of a child made to feel that he exists outside of the world he was born into.
epilogue
FARM is a story of identity, history, and yearning. Its themes of growing up and finding oneself among a kaleidoscope of shifting identities explores an even less frequent topic; that of a young black South African coming to terms with his culture, demonised by a society over generations, while simultaneously dealing with the nuances of adolescence.
FARM is a story of identity, history, and yearning. Its themes of growing up and finding oneself among a kaleidoscope of shifting identities explores an even less frequent topic; that of a young black South African coming to terms with his culture, demonised by a society over generations, while simultaneously dealing with the nuances of adolescence.
FARM is a story of identity, history, and yearning. Its themes of growing up and finding oneself among a kaleidoscope of shifting identities explores an even less frequent topic; that of a young black South African coming to terms with his culture, demonised by a society over generations, while simultaneously dealing with the nuances of adolescence.
"Who am I?"
Sbonelo attempts to answer this with his journey back home, while having to confront memories of physical and emotional violence that have enmeshed him in silence for so long, all against the grain of the slim moments of inexplicable kindness that broke though to nurture him towards trust.
"Who am I?"
Sbonelo attempts to answer this with his journey back home, while having to confront memories of physical and emotional violence that have enmeshed him in silence for so long, all against the grain of the slim moments of inexplicable kindness that broke though to nurture him towards trust.
"Who am I?"
Sbonelo attempts to answer this with his journey back home, while having to confront memories of physical and emotional violence that have enmeshed him in silence for so long, all against the grain of the slim moments of inexplicable kindness that broke though to nurture him towards trust.
all rights reserved
WRITTEN BY MICHA ALON
all rights reserved
WRITTEN BY MICHA ALON