The persuasive preacher

Public transport creates interesting (if lucky otherwise it can also be abusive) interventions amongst people in a given society. By intervention i refer to its artistic meaning where there is a space and a possible audience - active or passive.

Note to thyself: Intervention in art is a form of performance art and it has the patronage of conceptual art. It may be an attempt to change economic or political situations. it may attempt to make people aware of a condition that they previously had no knowledge of. It may engage or address the public audience in which case it would be seen as a public intervention.

I use public transport to get me to my classes in the morning and from campus in the afternoons.i see new faces every single day but i also have repeat faces once in a while, here and there. I have become quite familiar with some of the taxi conductors in the main road route.... yes those cheeky fuckers that think they can cheat me out of my money just because am a woman. They overcharge( well by a rand or two but in my books that's still making you pay more) the one day and then take it back to the "normal" price the following day. It is the most annoying thing not to mention inconsistent.

Anyway moving along inching towards my persuasive preacher, i simply look to other modes of transport. Having only two options i seek the train services as my other option. The train....oh the train.Well it definitely gets you there faster than a taxi since there isn't much traffic or waiting that comes with using taxis. With a taxi one must just simply wait in silence or leave the taxi (in this case its best to stay since i properly would have already paid the fare).

The train also has its shortcoming in that i cannot get on a train at anytime that suits me. i would have to wait for the train and if its delayed cancelled or doesn't pitch up without a warning then its late for moi. Acceptance follows this where there is nothing i or the bergie standing next to me can do.

so going back to the notion of interventions that come with using public transport, a group - not actually sure who, what they are or where they come from - of religious people or if i may say Christians have stepped into the public sphere of the trains.

An interesting observation is that the trains are spaces where people want to keep to themselves yet almost all the time especially when the trains are full where people are packed like sardines, they always end up interacting one way or the other with verbal and non- verbal codes.

In the train on its way to and from town, a random person stands up with a bible and starts preaching. In some cases there are two or three people that stand up. The one preaches and the others stand representing a congregation. These people are on point...they definitely do not discriminate against, race, gender nor nationality. i have witnessed an Asian man with his speakers and mic so everyone can hear him even though the message itself is a bit broken.i have seen, white, coloured Indian, male, female, Nigerian you name it. some Scream, others cry or just sing but its never clear as to what their point is. One thing for sure when i tried to listen in a couple of times is that they always seem to contradict themselves which brings us to the audience.

The audience is always there, not by choice but in this case their is strongly felt and appreciated. Some humbly listen out of respect of God or the preacher and some just continue talking . Some have earphones ( i can say i used to be one of those till my phone got stolen, probably a sign who knows), and others just stare blankly at the speaker trying so hard to get it.

i was made aware of an intervention this morning when i came across the persuasive preacher. i was still half asleep having woken up at 6am. i was lucky to have made it in time for the train so i wouldn't be late for class but the train was full so had to stand.

if this guy had to do a persuasive speech competition, he would have won. he came on strong and prepared and immediately caught my attention. i was actually glad and happy to be entertained with somewhat a clear message for once. it wasn't long till i got the best seat in the house right next to where the preacher had been staged. He had a today's newspaper with him and he started off bringing in today's issues into his sermon. he demonstrated how pointless and careless crime and violence in today's society is. And as an award wining speech is (i exaggerate a bit here), this guy did his research, related his research to his sermon or the 1000 year old words from the bible which he contextualized in today's society. In addition he provided his audience with supporting examples and images of violence and crime.

This intervention was between the preacher and its audience, the train commuters. i could see that this preacher had affected the people that were actually listening for once, Some in horror and others in anger. There was also a couple of school kids that were humbled by this experience as they stood next to each other in silence.

this preacher unlike most i have encountered had a strong and short speech and he got off two stations away from the trains final destination in the city bowl.