Bergie lighting a newpaper rolled cigarette

A2 (42x60cm) Edition of 10, A3 (37,5x25cm) Edition of 15 - Archival inks on Hahnemühle PhotoRag 308gsm.

Bergie lighting a newpaper rolled cigarette. Cape Town 2010

‘Tabak Pilletjie’ is the colloquial term for a cigarette rolled with newspaper. In this instance the tobacco comes from ‘toppatjies’ (cigarette butts) picked up from the floor. This photo was taken outside the City Hall in Downtown Cape Town on a night I attended a performance there. While standing outside smoking I was approached by this homeless gentleman for a light, which in this case was the box of matches I had in my pocket. I cheekily said to him that I would give him the matches if I could have a photo, and he agreed. Growing up we had always known the cities homeless as ‘bergies’ which in terms of its etymology is the plural of the diminutive of ‘berg’ (mountain in Afrikaans). Whether this has something to do with the fact that originally it referred to homeless people who sleep in the mountain, which basically surrounds the city or not is not clear, though what is clear is that in every community in the city there is a local ‘bergie’ known to the people of that community and who to varying extents gets fed by them. An unfortunate reality in Cape Town is that more often than not the ‘bergies’ tend to be alcoholics due to the vagaries of apartheid flavoured tribulations, and the alcohol induced tirades makes for the vehicle of passing on the most colourful swear words and curses to the next generation of Capetonians.