Tough times for southern Africa but enjoy the chirps of optimism

When the power cuts struck last Saturday, I took my camera and went to the park. It had already been raining for five days.

A photo excursion works best when you are not looking for anything; when your mind is an open canvass, waiting for nature to leave its impressions on you.

I walked around the park for more than four hours but covered less than 2km.

I heard the birds chirp all around me, but I think they had decided that they were not going to pose for me on that day.

I found some fallen trees and tried to photograph them but they were in a bad mood, deliberately lying on the wrong side.

And even though they could sense my plea, they did not offer to turn around and lie the right way.

“The world does not exist for your convenience,” they probably said, laughing.

“Work with it and not against it.”

At night, I reviewed the photos, wondering how I could have made them better. At 6.30 the following morning, I was back in the park.

It was still raining, and I was determined to test the limitations of my equipment and my body. We both quickly reached them. My toes were wet and cold and I later paid through the nose, literally, sniffling throughout the night.

When I reviewed the photos later, some were underexposed and so I coveted the R200 000 lenses that I knew could solve my creative problems.

I am weary of the urban legend that during the space race, the US spent millions of dollars developing an anti-gravity ballpoint and the Russians solved the problem by using pencils.

It wasn’t true because pencils are made of wood and, as a precautionary measure, astronauts do not carry any flammable materials.

On the third day, when power-outages hit again, I went out again and this time I used my 25-year-old tripod. The pictures were pleasingly better.

My R200 000 problem was solved by old technology.

I saw endless fights between birds of a feather, quarrelling vehemently about who should sit on which branch, even though the park is so vast, the trees are tall and there is room for everyone.

Makes you think about the winner-takes-all instinct that is destroying lives even in the highly developed human species.

I kept on walking and finally found a nest that was hidden in the reeds beyond the reach of cats, dogs and humans.

It was a marvel of engineering — two reeds joined together, strands of grass woven together and firmly fastened to the reeds.

When the winds picked up, the reeds swayed, the nest rocked gently up and down, sideways as well, and to think that the bird built this only with its beak and without any scaffolding.

I stood at the same place for two and a half hours, taking pictures as the bird left the nest. It came back with more grass, probably to plug the leaks.

It went out again and came back, sat outside the door and fed its chicks. It then went inside and gradually the chirping ended. The birds went to sleep.

Every journey is taken one step at a time. We do not look at our feet but at the road ahead.

Let’s look forward to 2020 and let this year go with all its trophies, mishaps and disappointments.

Remember you are only the sum of all your experiences, both good and bad, as well as the profound and the mundane.

Focus on the steps ahead.

In the past few years the whole of southern Africa has experienced tough times. Many Zimbabweans have had to leave home.

There is political strife in Namibia and South Africa is staggering in the darkness of power outages, racial intolerance and many other problems.

Enjoy the chirps of optimism.

Kuzwayo is the founder of Ignitive, an advertising agency

Get in touch  City Press

+27 11 713 9001 news@citypress.co.za Media Park, 69 Kingsway Road, Auckland Park

Rise above the clutter | Choose your news | City Press in your inbox

City Press is an agenda-setting South African news brand that publishes across platforms. Its flagship print edition is distributed on a Sunday.