THE STORY
When a story is based on an experience, it helps to shape a life. And in Africa, a story is often formed through invention following necessity.
Volunteering at a children’s home in Madagascar, a routine trip to pick up the children from school became an emergency when the spacious 4×4 we’d use broke down. Too far to walk, a Renault 4 was the only other vehicle we had! But – necessity and invention – we all squeezed in. All the children and four adults; we even had a gorgeous young baby we had earlier collected from the police station.
It was not the most comfortable journey, and certainly not the quietest, but it was ideal preparation for the taxi brousse that ferried me around the island as my trip continued. Part bus, part taxi, this put our Renault 4 to shame. Add to the adults, children and babies, ducks and chickens weaving around our legs as we contorted to find an ounce of comfort. Oh, and let’s not forget the goats on the roof.
But that’s Africa. Nothing is impossible. Necessity fuels the resourcefulness in the mother continent of invention.
MEDIUMS
TEXTILE PRINTS, ANIMATION, SCENT
COLLECTION
TAXI BROUSSE
COUNTRY
MADAGASCAR
YEAR
2021
MADE IN
UK
THE SCENT
LYCHEE EN BROUSSE
The story continued beyond the print.
One Christmas, I travelled with the children from La Maison d’Arnaud in a taxi brousse to Amber Mountain to pick lychees.
We sang the whole journey, squeezed into the back of the taxi, laughing before we’d even reached the trees.
We picked over a thousand lychees that day and ate far more than we should have. It was unbelievably hot, and before long everyone was fanning themselves and shouting, “Tatty, mafana be, mafana be!” “It’s very hot!”
Whenever I smell lychee, I’m taken straight back to that day.
That memory became our Lychee candle.
TAXI BROUSSE
