An interview with Lucy Bushill-Matthews, published on Fairlady's website

Keeping the faith

Fiona Zerbst speaks to Lucy Bushill-Matthews, author of ‘Welcome to Islam - a convert’s tale’, about balancing the realities facing Islam with humour.

I wrote the book because moving back to South Africa two years ago changed everything. In England I was engaged daily and practically with my community. Uprooting and moving to South Africa gave me the mental and physical space to write about a subject that seems to be of global concern. I wanted to write a book that would be informative about Islam, and realistic about some of the issues Muslims face, but in an accessible way.

We are living in an era where certain experts are talking about the insurmountable differences between “them” (the Muslims) and “us” (everyone else). This attitude can carry down through the generations. When I visited one school in the UK to talk with the children about the Muslim experience of Ramadan, a child who had five Muslim schoolmates in his classroom asked me innocently: “What’s the weather like in their world?”

The best way to break down barriers between people who come from different communities is to get to know each other. And for me the best way to break down barriers is over a cup of tea in the kitchen! This book is the result of numerous cups of tea, and equally numerous conversations.

I have tried to show in the book the ways in which Muslims differ from each other in their practice of Islam - and how it’s okay to be different. I have also come across Muslims judging non-Muslims (eg a mosque committee decreeing they did not want a playground in the mosque grounds in case non-muslim women came to use it wearing mini-skirts) as well as the reverse (eg a taxi driver asking me what it was like being oppressed). So let’s all just relax a little bit and see the common humanity in each other!

Humour makes it easier to make a serious point. It’s more memorable when you do it in a light-hearted way. But the BBC asked on its website recently “Does Islam have a sense of humour?”… I think if I didn’t laugh about it, I would cry.

I was interviewed by The Sun newspaper, but my interview was replaced at the last minute with a two page spread about an English woman captured by the Taliban in Afghanistan, headlined ‘The Taliban banned my nail varnish’.

In South Africa, people openly admit they know little about Islam, and they usually do not have the prejudice against the faith that is so prevalent in the UK. It helps that South Africa is a genuinely multi-cultural society and that Muslims are seen as South African as anyone else. South African Muslims are interested too: converts seem somewhat of a rarity here.

My favourite books about Muslims include the fictional novel by Khalid Hosseini, A Thousand Splendid Suns. Whilst it didn’t exactly portray men in a very good light, it explored the depth and strength of character hidden within the dark all-encompassing burkas of two very different Muslim women. I have also enjoyed The Meaning of the Life of Muhammad by Swiss-born European scholar Tariq Ramadan. He focuses on applying how Muhammad - peace be upon him - lived to the lifestyle we live today. Did you know he refused two dinner invitations on the grounds that his wife wasn’t invited? The third time she was invited too and he finally accepted.

In the UK, there was an understanding that 9/11 was the action of a few, not of Muslims as a whole, but the tube bombs in July 2005 changed that. The “them” and “us” rhetoric from fundamentalists on both ends of the spectrum eventually filters into the mainstream. A recent large-scale Gallup survey showed that while 98% of Iranians polled identified aspects in the West to admire, just under a third of Americans believed there was nothing to admire in the Muslim world.

Being in South Africa as a Muslim is like being on holiday. Our relocation agent tells me one area is up-and-coming as Muslims have moved into it - I thought I had misheard. The newspaper features a woman wearing a scarf on its front page - and the story is about her comments as an HIV/Aids expert, not about her dress sense. Woolworths puts notices up wishing its Muslim customers Happy Ramadan. Halaal restaurants are everywhere and non-Muslims are happy to eat in them. I also appreciate the opportunity here to make a difference - however small - in the lives of people in some of this country’s poorer communities. I wanted to write about South Africa too, but there wasn’t space, so that will just have to be in my next book…

A review of Random Violence by Jassy Mackenzie, published by Fairlady

Random Violence

by Jassy Mackenzie (Umuzi)

Reviewed by Fiona Zerbst

Mackenzie’s debut novel is a gripping thriller that puts sassy private detective Jade de Jongh through her crime-busting paces. Jozi-flavoured and fairly fast paced, the book is a hugely creditable foray into a tricky genre.
Divorcée Annette Botha is murdered in what appears to be an attempted hijacking, but Jade and newly promoted police superintendent David Patel are suspicious. As they investigate Annette’s murder, they become targets themselves. They also have their own problems to contend with – Jade’s investigation into the unsolved murder of her policeman father as well as her undeniable attraction to David, who has his own dark secret. Best of all, Mackenzie doesn’t give away the ending until, well, the ending, which makes for an exciting last 50 pages.
Don’t miss this book if you’re a fan of crime-writing or South African fiction.

My review of Rozena Maart's book Rosa's District 6, published in the Canadian Women's Post

Coping in the Cape

Rosa’s District 6

Rozena Maart

TSAR Publications

248 pages, $18.95

Rozena Maart, winner of the Journey Prize for emerging authors, offers five intriguing short stories in her debut collection Rosa’s District 6.

District 6, apartheid South Africa’s famous home to non-whites, children of immigrants and former slaves, is the setting of these heart-wrenching stories. Each story looks at crises of identity, race, class or sexuality in the characters’‚ lives and Maart does not shy away from drawing painful conclusions. However, the stories are lightened by the presence of Rosa in each of them – Rosa, a precocious child who sees and hears everything and who keeps a writing slate around her neck on which to record her impressions. She is the mini-author of these stories, drawing them together and standing as the not-quite-innocent witness of family heartache and striving.

Rosa’s District 6 is, after all, a place of sadness and imprisonment as much as a home for its pleasure-loving residents, who seek to blot out the anguish of apartheid’s strictures with drugs and alcohol on the one hand, and faith in God and the a sense of community on the other.

Loss and the past are plaintively evoked in The Green Chair, something of a ghost story, while the legacy of sexual violence haunts and affects two families in Ai Gadija. The Bracelet is possibly Maart’s most probing story, examining the crushing effects of a gay married man’s double life.

Maart’s realism is tempered with a fascination for tales of spirits, erotic awakenings and mental illness, exploring the effects of day-to-day pressures on people’s psyches. As such, these stories do more than offer straightforward narratives – they dig deeper, and the effect is sometimes macabre, often shocking. You will find yourself catching your breath frequently as you read these stories. The dangers and pleasures of life are laid bare and Maart reopens the various wounds of District 6 living, but in such a way as to make a new place of this Cape Town legend.

A glossary of South African idioms makes the book more accessible to an international readership; unfortunately, though, the book’s numerous typographical errors detract from the overall compelling effect of the stories.

Fiona Zerbst is a South African poet. She has had three poetry volumes published and her work has appeared in various South African and international anthologies. She works as an editor in Cape Town.

My fourth volume of poetry will be published by Modjaji Books

Forthcoming attractions from Modjaji Books for 2009

Eleven books wait in the wings to be published this year by Modjaji Books. First up is Invisible Earthquake by Malika Ndlovu, due out towards the end of March 2009. A powerful, moving journal about a mother’s journey through and with the experience of stillbirth. Malika allows us into her secret, dark place of grief and coming to terms with the terrible loss of her third child. The book speaks into the silence around this issue. Like miscarriage, stillbirth is something women are supposed to get over and move on with. The book is placed in the wider South African context by Prof Sue Fawcus, from Mowbray Maternity in which she writes tenderly and expertly about stillbirth from the point of view of a medical practitioner, and expert obstetrician.

Four books of poems are due out in time for the Cape Town Book Fair, by Joan Metelerkamp, Sindiwe Magona, Helen Moffett and Fiona Zerbst. Watch this space for more information. Modjaji has received a small grant from the Cape 300 Foundation which will go towards the printing costs of the first two books.

Also due out before the Book Fair if the right sponsors come to the table is a wonderful book called Hester se Brood by Hester van der Walt.

Hester se Brood is a charming book: part memoir, part how-to book, part journey of discovery as the writer learns about bread and bread-making and shares her journey with us. The book is illustrated with beautiful drawings done by Lies Hoogendoorn. The illustrations capture something of life in McGregor as well as offer step-by-step instructions on how to knead or fold dough in each recipe. Hester’s bread making activities have already been the subject of a Sunday Times article in 2008.

The Bed short stories by Southern African women writers, will be out towards the end of the year, if all goes well.

Collections of stories by Meg vandermerwe, Arja Salafranca, Lauri Kubuitsile and Wame Molefe are also due out this year towards the end of the year.

And Makhsazana (Khosi) Xaba’s novel - Befallen - is also in the pipeline!

Interview with Ruben Reddy

My interview with Durban-based architect Ruben Reddy:

http://www.designindabamag.com/2008/2nd/rubenreddy.htm

Copyright Design Indaba magazine

Durban architect Ruben Reddy has been accelerated into the fast lane of international sporting structures. He tells Fiona Zerbst what goes into designing the cathedrals of the 21st century.

REDDY STEADY...

Ruben Reddy's passion for designing sports facilities was probably influenced by his immersion in sport, as both a competitor and a spectator.

The Durban-based architect played cricket competitively for 20 years and later threw his weight behind the redesign of the North Stand of the Kingsmead Cricket Stadium, which is his favourite completed project to date. Interestingly, the building was originally designed by another sporting architect, Tommy Bedford, a former Natal rugby captain and eighth man.

"We added a new floor and created the world's longest ''long room' for the 2003 Cricket World Cup, which is what the VIP lounges are called at cricket grounds," Reddy said of his work on the stadium.

Reddy and the team followed a lightweight, easy-to-erect construction methodology and the building was put up in record time during the cricketing off-season, using steel, timber flooring and fibre cement siding. The overhanging roof protects it from the weather. Together with the structural engineer, they won the National Steel Award for the building in 2004.

"Spatially, it's a grand space with a perfect view of the entire oval - there are no sightline compromises," said Reddy. "We created a long sub-divisible space that is also a very popular room for functions. It remains a good conference facility for the city."

Having built a few cricket stadia and the ICC Arena, which is an indoor facility, Reddy branched out into Olympic-sized projects - quite literally. His company is currently designing a football stadium that will host the opening ceremony of the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia, and house 45 000 people.

"Football stadia are generally considered the 'cathedrals' of the 21st century in building terms. Our job is to make them safe, functional, comfortable, family-friendly and at the same time attractive," explains Reddy.

Reddy has also been tasked with building the Ice Hockey arena, which will house 12 500 people. These two structures are the largest facilities to be built for the Olympics. As briefs go, these are enormous projects by any standards.

"Sports buildings are primarily about engineering," explains Reddy. "One of my influences is my current associate in the Organising Committee for 2010, Eugene van Vuuren. I'm also inspired by the work of Schlaich Bergermann from Stuttgart, with whom I'm going to engage with on the Olympic projects in Sochi."

The challenges of designing sports stadia are unique, as Reddy knows: "They present the challenge of a large spanning and imposing built form around a large tract of land - the competition area of the sport surface. It is all about how large forms and structures are integrated into an elegant, built form in the landscape.

"One needs to be conscious of the urbanity in which these stadia are located and there should be sensitivity to the cost and operation of the facilities so they are not, ultimately, a burden or a white elephant!"

One of Reddy's many other significant achievements includes having co-authored FIFA's official guide to football stadia, Football Stadiums: Technical Recommendations and Requirements, which is in its fourth imprint. He has subsequently also been tasked with making sure that sports stadia in South Africa meet the requisite safety requirements, which are stringent, following many stadium disasters around the world.

With this level of expertise, it's not surprising that Reddy won an Olympic tender in Sochi. But other projects keep him busy too.

A recent challenge is to design a massive complex in Ljubljana, Slovenia. Private developer Joc Pececnik, an Internet gaming wizard and founder of the Elektroncek Group, is behind the venture. The complex will incorporate a sporting stadium, a 20 000 m2 shopping area, a four-star hotel, billiard rooms, a 10-pin bowling alley, a 25 m shooting range and a boutique football stadium.

Another project closer to home, Reddy's firm is one of five to be working on the brand new R7,2-billion King Shaka Airport. Distinct from Durban International, the King Shaka Airport must be ready in time for the FIFA World Cup in 2010.

THE DRILL

When and where you were born? Where did you study?

I was born in Durban North, close to Umgeni, in 1962. My grandfather's property was affected by the Group Areas Act and we were forced to leave in 1964. This may well have influenced my family's political consciousness. I studied at the University of Natal, Durban, from 1982 to 1988 and dived straight into practice. I broke all the rules for registration that demanded I work for someone for two years. In retrospect, I should have done this! It would have given me a better understanding of the business of running a firm.

What drew you towards architecture?

I think I was looking for the perfect balance of the arts and science. I did not know any architects, so I was entering uncharted waters.

Your initial projects were politically motivated to a degree, which projects were these and what did they mean to you?

I took a conscientious decision to not do any work that would in any way compromise my political views. So while colleagues were benefiting from the House of Delegates school building programme, I refused to apply for those appointments.

Rather, I spent hours dealing with community and proposed development issues with organisations like the Umkhumbane Residents Association, a community in Cato Manor. The Cato Manor Development Association, then in its infancy, would try to engage people with complex planning proposals through a participative process and attempt to get people to respond. Someone needed to get people to understand drawings and reports - that someone was me!

That was the beginning of my involvement with non-statutory bodies and the creation of opportunities for previously disadvantaged people in the built environment.

Who are your architectural heroes?

As a book collector, it is difficult to identify one architect. Buildings I appreciate include Renzo Piano's stadium in Bari, Michael Hopkin's Rose Bowl in Southampton for the Hampshire Cricket Club, Santiago Calatrava's roof on the Athens Olympic Stadium and many others. The writing and work of Louis Kahn stands out, as well as the sensitivity of the work of Glenn Mercutt in Australia and Geoffrey Bawa in Sri Lanka.

Spending three days driving around KwaZulu-Natal, judging architecture with Jack Diamond, ex-South African, now Canadian starchitect, will stay with me forever! The man studied under Kahn at Penn, taught at Penn and held the chair in Toronto before forming his own office and winning numerous competitions across the world.

What is your favourite building in the world?

If there is an architect who could answer this, he or she should read more!