Saturday 26 May saw a small group of media representatives, academics, and literature lovers assemble at Durban’s Stellawood Cemetery in remembrance of Lewis Nkosi. Nkosi’s widow, Professor Astrid Starck-Adler, was in attendance to unveil the stele which was designed by sculptor Andries Botha, known for his numerous elephant installations around he globe.
Starck-Adler welcomed those in attendance before introducing a saxophonist who was to perform some of Nkosi’s favourite jazz standards: Chalie Parker’s “Bluebirds” and the popular tune, “Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea”. The musical numbers were followed by Litzi Lombardozzi’s reading of the opening chapter of
Nkosi’s most celebrated novel is Mating Birds, in which Ndi Sibiya describes the Durban beachfront and now-renamed Snakepark Beach.
Starck-Adler followed the reading with various anecdotes concerning Nkosi’s life in Basel and his enduring emotional connection with South Africa. The stele, designed by Andries Botha stands as testament to this connection as the volcanic boulder was sourced from a river in the Midlands in which Nkosi was swum as a young boy. The birds attached to the boulder reference the birds from the opening chapter of Mating Birds. Starck-Adler pointed out that, while Nkosi and Botha never met in person, the stele – located on Terrace T56 – exists as a symbolic meeting of these to Durban-born artists that serves as both memorial and work of art simultaneously.
