adminIMAGINE this, if we were to meet an adult pushing a brick on the ground as a toy car and making car engine noises, what would be our first reaction? Of course we won’t remark that this would be an improper use of a brick by an adult, but rather, we would quickly give the brick an intensive examination, wondering how it would have got an adult thinking back on their days when they were a kid and playing games with bricks.
Bricks are an integral part and parcel of our everyday lives. We live inside them, we decorate our urban space with them, we sit on them where there are half built walls, we dance in them – they are our past, present and future.
But despite the importance of the brick in our everyday lives, few people rarely think about them, except when the time comes when they are dreaming of building, and for some crazy people, when they are contemplating throwing it at someone who has stolen their sweetheart, or are jealous of an achievement.
“Nzakufaka istina,” is a common threat of cowards.
But, despite our not thinking about bricks in our day-to-day lives, there is a special person to whom the brick is constant in their thoughts, so much so that even in sleep they dream about them.
Yes, that man in overalls often found with their faces covered in dust, and labouring over a mound of cement and sand mud with a shovel and a mould.
The brick maker is the unhailed hero in our lives, for without him, I don’t think our cities would be as we see them, unless if there was a substitute material for building.
I have referred to the brick maker as a man, for the sole reason that women in the brick making business are scarce to find as in the Kombi driving one, unless maybe if they are the owners of the business.
It is only on rare occasions to see a woman out there wielding a shovel in the brick factory.
Of course it is a different situation when building a hut ekhaya, where our beloved mothers, sisters, aunties, and last but not least, our grannies are to be found leading by doing.
But I can imagine a guy saying he is going to see his brick-making girlfriend in the township, lol, I think that would be very romantic. I would definitely click a thousand likes to that status update anytime.
Bricks come in many colours, and for the townships red is or was the most common, especially in the old townships like Old Pumula. And this red had many shades; burnt red, light red, or normal red.
Most of the various shades of the colours of our old houses that we see are from some sort of plaster, but below that, it was or is still the good old red brick.
Some old townships like Makokoba are built from pre-cast slabs, but these are the audience of our conversation today.
But with time, and I think imagination from the modern brick maker, the colour of the brick took other colours, with grey being the most prominent.
The grey brick, especially the block, has been a fast riser in the township building industry — we don’t know about emakhishini, but in the township it has risen up to be the most used, as it is the most economical: we won’t talk about it making buildings rise faster than the small bricks.
I have never in my life seen a black or a white or a yellow brick, maybe it exists somewhere, but it has never come across my attention — if somebody sees it, please send an email, and I will happily come and take a look at it.
The brick is everywhere in our lives, and not only in the construction industry. In street soccer, it is the goal post, and like I hinted at the beginning, for some kids, it is a toy car that they can drive around the world in their fantasies, and we also know what we do with the brick when we are changing car tyres.
But, if you hear your car being said to be standing on the bricks, well, that’s a story most car owners don’t want to think about.
Online Reporter