Insight - Stephanie Reith

My father came to what was then Southern Rhodesia in 1949. It was there that he met my mother Hope, who was born in Bulawayo, a descendant of an English settler who arrived at The Cape of Good Hope in 1787.

My father applied for a job with East African Railways and Harbours and then risked a bet on a horse to fund his trip to Tanganika. Being the daughter of a railway man, we moved around Tanzania a lot - Dodoma, Dar-es-salaam and Tanga, the place where I was born. I was educated by the Loreto nuns in Nairobi. As a teenager my father nicknamed me Twiga, Swahili - meaning giraffe.

We moved to Kenya and on leaving school I entered the Kenyan Art Society College. I was encouraged by Dora Betts, a wonderful artist and dedicated teacher. It was Dora who fired my interests in life drawing. Setting models on the platform, draping them with cloth or stripping them and filling the room with warm lights. My favourite model Ticky - I remember you well.

Some fond and early memories of East Africa … MGM were making the film Bushbaby staring Lou Gossette Jnr and Donald Houston. I was a look alike for the young actress Margaret Brookes. Into my lap fell the opportunity to be her understudy. So at the age of 12 I travelled throughout Tanzania's Game Parks - Lake Manyara, Ngorongoro Crater and the Serengeti. The animals, the scenery and always … the people. I remember vividly the heat and the Acasias. The White hunters' old green Landrovers. I remember threading Impala droppings on strands of my hair to make necklaces. I was given two bushbabys and then sent home to school and to another reality at the end of it all.

I am particularly fond of the coastal people of East Africa, the Kiswahili. The villagers my "aiyah" took me to… the doughnut-like Maandazi and large friendly mamas smelling of coconut oil, their hands painted with henna. Jikos, paraffin lamps, ferry crossings and pili-pili, I love them to this day. The Kanga, my nightdress for as long as I can remember. In Kenya my father established loving relationships with his workers - accompanying them on the drums as he had once done for Louis Armstrong's tour of Tanzania. Before his departure my father was made honourary member of the Luo tribe.

In 1975 the winds of change brought the family to Rhodesia. This was a wrench for us all. We searched amongst the Mozambicans and Zimbabweans for those that were Swahili speaking. Constantly greeting the Ndebele in Swahili - hoping to make contact. And then the war years, a stormy time for all. Armed soldiers, hungry and unpaid, held up people at gunpoint - desperate. As fate would have it my father ran to assist a woman in such a hold up and was shot in the stomache at point blank range. He died six weeks later - his murderer later hung. There was no consolation in this - only sadness. My father taught his children not only tolerance, but also a respect for all God's people and that cultural differences make for an interesting world - not a divided one.

Africa gives her beauty to behold, but if you love her and take her to heart there will be an element of risk. You ask yourself "How stable is she? Though she gave birth to me - a white African - will she reject ME? Will she look after me in my old age when all I have left are the fond memories or will she force me to cold and distant shores? Betray me while welcoming forgeiners to her coastal paradise and ex-patriots and diplomats to her capitals?"

Still I will take the risk and continue to live in Africa with my husband Atholl and our two children Sara and Peter. We are committed to Africa. On my father's grave the words "Give us now and then a man, and life will crown him king, who dares to face the consequences just to risk the thing."

My work upholds the old cultures and traditions, and is a tribute to the many tribes of Africa.

In March 2005, it was with sadness that I packed up my family and left Zimbabwe to move to Plettenberg Bay. But there were other emotions that were stronger. Joy and relief. Excitement too at the start of a new chapter in my life. The people of Africa are my passion. But how will my work be received? Will it be appreciated? I hope So. I have much to learn of the material culture of the people of South Africa. I hope I can do them justice in recording their beauty.

God has Blessed me and I am glad to be able to play a part in 'the way forward' to a New South Africa.

What do I establish with my paintings?
I can stop the African clock. I can capture people in time ...
Here is time stood still for you.