South Africa

Here is collection of South Africa Memories in no particular order

On coming out as an artist

• While my Ouma (Grandmother) and Oupa (Grandfather) Haskins were great people they worried that Sam was gay when he declared his intention to becoming an artist.  So they had a relative have a "chat" with him on that subject.  The humor is that they did not know he was already engaged in heavy petting with a girl down the road.
   

• Our house in South Africa was in the Johannesburg suburb of Northcliff.  It consisted of a large garage, a brick two story home my parents built and up the hillside a pool with a large covered patio for Braais (Barbecues.)  My brother broke his nose diving in the shallow end of the pool, twice.  I spent so long in the pool I'd come out with prune skin.  When Sam was travelling taking pictures for African Image he had burglar bars installed on the house.    One of our favorite places for take out in Northcliff was Lou Segal's Fish and Chips, I can still remember the taste and have never had better chips (like steak fries.)
   

• While shooting African Image he rolled his Volvo, got out and took a picture of the rolled Volvo in a ditch.  Volvo in Johannesburg bought the car and the picture from Sam as a display to show how safe Volvo's were.
   

• My mom's family founded (and later sold) several of the famous cape wineries.  I remember at about age twelve  going to a Braai at one of the Cape wineries.  The used grape fines as the fuel for the barbecue and the wine barrels were the old huge European style.
   

• The early days of Sam's studio included doing whatever it took to pay the bills.  This ranged from taking passport pictures to making advertising movies that played before the main feature at the drive-in.  I starred in one as a baby, it was me with a spoon eating a big tub of ice cream.
   

• It's my experience that many people who were born in South Africa or lived there before the first all race election claim they were in Zimbabwe.  That is a tactic that avoids awkward and judgmental conversations.  These same people when they find out your an Afrikaner from the Transvaal will tell you the real story.
   

• South Africa was the good life for us.  We had a pool at our house with abundant sunshine.  Sam was engaged with the family with regular Braais (Barbeques) and Vintage car activities.  I remember going to see Formula one racing at the Kyalami race track.  The move to England found us living in an apartment and the end of all the social and recreational activities the family loved.  There was a high point just when we arrived in Europe.  We picked up a VW camper van and toured Europe the continent before settling down in London.

 

 

Steam Ship S.A. Vaal

Leaving 1968

We left South Africa in 1968.  Sam's studio was in Johannesburg and we lived in the suburb of Northcliff.  The family had been trying to emigrate to the US but after a long delay in paperwork we moved to England.  When we arrived in England the US paperwork was waiting but Sam was fed up at that point and decided to stay in London.  The S.A. Vaal is the ship that carried us from South Africa to England.  My only memories of the trip are crossing the equator and being woken up for a lifeboat drill. Both my parents tell me when we arrived in England at age five I said I'd leave as soon as possible.  I don't remember saying that but at 21 years of age I left for the United States.  My parents took very good care of their African staff.  When we left and people found out how relatively high our staff was paid many including some in the press call my parents communists.  In the 60's the worst thing you could be was gay or a communist.  My parents were neither but they did care about taking care of their staff.

Invictus the movie

The biggest problem with this movie was the lack of a Braai. Braai (pr. br-eye) means barbequed and is short for braaivleis (vleis = meat) it means both the food and the activity.  To leave out this biggest component of South African culture out is a typical Hollywood omission.

District 9 the movie

My daughter, Sam's granddaughter takes great pleasure in telling me she knew this movie was set in SA before seeing it, I did not.  I went in to see Invictus expecting a well made Clint Eastwood feel good movie and he delivered.  I went to see District 9 because I'm a sci-fi fan clueless it was set in Jo'burg.  It showed my home town in a disturbingly realistic way which was emotionally shocking to me.  The headquarters building was a hotel that we stayed in on my last ever trip to SA around 1975.  It did showcase our IED resistant troop transports that were decades ahead of the US, a long standing source of SA pride for me.

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© Konrad Haskins 2009 konrad@konradhaskins.com

Last Updated 04/16/2010