Boyzie Cekwana
3 Questions for ...
I. Which item do you absolutely need to take on your travels?
My bass guitar. Not only is the bass my first attraction to any music, since my ear is attuned to low registers and the rhythm section, but I also discovered that carrying it with me softens the approach with the usually unfriendly officials when crossing borders. I suspect that every male border official is either a closet bassist or a failed guitarist. Or at least, it resides somewhere in cobwebs of their distant fantasies.
II. Which song/ poem do you know by heart?
AS by Stevie Wonder.
“As around the sun the earth knows she’s revolving and rosebuds know to bloom in early May…” This is one of the songs in the 1976 album that certified Stevie Wonder as a bona fide genius, SONGS IN THE KEY OF LIFE. I grew up hearing it boom on the radio as a distant miracle without knowing the lyrics and then I bought the CD on a tour to Basel, Switzerland in my early 20s. That’s when I finally read the lyrics from the sleeve. I don’t know if anyone writes like that anymore.
III. Which book accompanies you in your current artistic practice?
I’m reading a couple of books at the moment, which seems to be a growing, but annoying habit of mine. The one I want to show you is IN CORNER B by Es’kia Mphahlele, one of the eminent South African writers of the 20th century.
