Purple

Purple Snow

It is spring in Gaborone, and the jacaranda trees are in full bloom, carpeting the steets in purple snow.

A friend and her partner plan to retire to his family farm, outside Francistown.  They are thinking of planting some jacaranda trees now, so they will be fullly grown when they are ready to make the big move.  My friend likes the idea of waking up to purple snow each spring.

Purple Rain

I never meant to cause you any sorrow
I never meant to cause you any pain
I only wanted to one time to see you laughing
I only wanted to see you
Laughing in the purple rain
Prince, 1984

  

Marchers weren't laughing when purple dye from a police water cannon rained down on them at an anti-apartheid protest held in Cape Town on September 2, 1989.  The police were using a new water cannon with purple dye whose purpose was to stain protestors for later identification and arrest.

After the protest, the phrase, "The purple shall govern", appeared as graffiti throughout the city. The statement is a play on words of the Freedom Charter's declaration that "The people shall govern".

I learned about Cape Town's Purple Rain while chatting with a woman named Kate at St. George's Cathedral, Archbishop Desmond Tutu's church.  She sells beaded jewellery there to supplement her income.  She had been "relocated" 7 times during the height of apartheid, and found refuge in the cathedral, a place she still calls home.