There Are No Words…

We are living in a time of anxiety, uncertainty, loss, grief and  isolation.

In 1969 Elisabeth Kübler-Ross defined the five stages of grief as DENIAL, ANGER, BARGAINING, DEPRESSION and ACCEPTANCE.

These stages are experienced by those who have lost a loved one, but can also be caused by loss of work, rejection, the end of a relationship, the onset of an illness and more.

Nigel Vermaas (yes, the very same host of Connected 2 Jazz and the Arts Update, broadcaster, actor, mentor to Bush Radio trainees etc etc etc) presents THERE ARE NO WORDS.

Nigel created the audio dramas as part of the (Un)Infecting the City Public Arts Festival 2021 in collaboration with Bush Radio – the Mother of Community Radio in Africa.

There Are No Words consists of five short (very short!) audio dramas which portray the five stages with minimal dialogue and feature the talents of actors Royston Stoffels, Bianca Flanders and Chris Gxalaba.

Says Nigel: “It’s really an experiment. I look forward to listeners’ response. If they wish to hear an episode again, they can go to www.infectingthecity.co.za and find it there.”

There Are No Words will be broadcast on Bush Radio 89.5FM from Monday to Friday from the 7th June at 1:10pm.

The Actor, the Canadian and the journalist

This past week at Bush Radio was filled with several reunions at the station.

On Tuesday well-known stage and television actor Vinette Ebrahim popped into the station to talk to Denisia Adams about her current play “My Naam is Ellen Pakkies“, which is on at the Baxter Theatre.

Vinette Ebrahim and Denisia Adams

Vinette is most popular for her role in the soap opera 7de Laan, but we at Bush Radio remember her as the narrator of a series of
programmes we produced in 1998 with Molo Songololo, the national children’s rights network, called Silent Shame, Silent Crime which dealt with incest.

We pulled a recording from our archives and played it for her. Click here to listen

John Tottenham, Wesley Wessels (centre) and Janelle Nichols

We then had another visit from someone who was last at Bush Radio in 2004. John Tottenham was a participant in a programme run at the station with a group called Canada World Youth. John was a student at the University of Waterloo at that time and during the project he was teamed up with former Bush Radio trainee and now editor of The Dankish, Wesley Wessels, who also came along for the visit.

John is currently working for an engineering company in Canada and came to show his wife, Janelle, South Africa.

Rhode (6th from left) with some of the Bush Team

Also this week, former trainee producer and newsroom intern Rhode Marshall, now a content producer for the Mail and Guardian, came to say hi.