Forty years ago, almost to the minute, Ingrid Jonker filled her dress hem with stones and walked to her death into the sea off Three Anchor Bay. Until this morning, I had no idea who she was or why, indeed, I had been invited to a dinner in her honour at Mesopotamia Restaurant. Baran Kalay, the owner of Mesopotamia, is a friend so I agreed to attend the evening because of my connection to him, without really knowing what was going on.

The place was jam-packed by the time I arrived and I usurped Steven, a photographer, to get a seat next to Anoeschka von Meck, who is fabulous and a senior reporter at Rapport. She is ebullient and friendly and introduced me to the crowd - Peter, a psychologist (working in the analytical psychology paradigm) on my left and Cape Town's Afrikaans cognoscenti around us. Madulet du Plessis, a famous copywriter from Jo'burg, Tanya Metlerkamp, a model and Dozi's first wife (?), Manta Brosck (a writer from 7d Laan) and a string of others. Many had written their own poems based on Ingrid's Die Kind, which I'm told Mandela quoted in his first speech as a free man. 

Hauntingly beautiful

The evening reminded me of two experiences - attending a presentation of work by Bertolt Brecht (German poet, playwright, and theatrical reformer, and one of the most prominent figures in the 20th-century theatre) and finding the entire evening conducted in German and, some 20 years earlier, listening to Jennifer Ferguson at Shaft 58 in Hillbrow. Chris Chameleon (who I had not seen or heard before) performed songs from his latest album Ek Herhaal Jou. His music is both hauntingly beautiful and wryly amusing. The event was arranged by Krisjan Fourie who, I'm told, invented Afrikaans condoms. 

Aside from the smiles and delicious food there was an air of sadness that seemed to bind the crowds. Anoeschka (Snookie for short) was mourning the death of a close friend who killed himself recently and the tone of many of the poems and much of the songs was sad.

I rushed home to write this while the others headed to the sea to lay a wreath and remember a sister in suffering.

RIP