16 - An deep-rooted legacy

Summary

When you saw your father's painting through the window of the Long Street shop in 2003, didn't your hopes rise that he might be somewhere in South Africa? I dared to ask one day as the year 2012 drew to a close.

It was a clear blue December afternoon, one of the days when the starlings in the poplar tree outside my home seemed to be joyfully celebrating the sunshine with song all day. But Adolphine's gaze was dark as she looked at me steadily: “No, I didn’t”, she replied without hesitation, “because I knew all his artwork had been exported throughout other African countries when he was alive. He had good friends – many of them from Europe – who commissioned him to paint artworks. They would visit him, buy the paintings and take them home with them when they left. The shop owner in Long Street must have bought it from a dealer and when I asked where it came from, he probably thought: what does this woman want, what is she trying to do? Is she trying to get information about my sources? They don't want their business known.”

Although amazed and emotional in equal measure when she saw what she instantly recognised as Nkudimba's work, Adolphine felt emboldened enough to enter the shop and to study it up close. “I felt terribly sad when the man was so rude. I was expecting a positive response.

“My husband was also surprised that evening when I told him wat had happened. From the time my father disappeared without a trace, Sepano knew I was always hoping somehow, somewhere I would see my father again. After Sepano and I were reunited we often spoke about this, but I knew deep down that this was not to be. That is why my own family is so dear to me, the reason why I gave my little Joseph his name. My father was called Nkudimba from a young age, but Joseph is the family name and therefore part of my heritage. My husband, my children and my young brother, who was called Joseph Junior from the day he was born in Lubumbashi, are all the family I have. But still, although I will never see my father again, hardly a day goes by that I don't think of him.