Annette du Plessis

Annette du Plessis (born October 11 1955), is an Afrikaner artist who moved into the African Township New Brighton, Nelson Mandela Bay (formerly Port Elizabeth), South Africa at the beginning of 1989 during apartheid years. She started studying at the Port Elizabeth Technikon in 1986, but never finished her degree.

Throughout 1989 the political situation in South Africa continued to be tense and a state of emergency was in place. Annette was invited through Koinonia (founded by a Dutch Reformed minister ds. Nico Smith during the 1980s) to reside in New Brighton for a weekend. At the age of 32 it was her first encounter mingling with black African people in their homes.

During that weekend du Plessis toured with a predominantly white delegation under heavy police surveillance and stepped off for a while to meet the Red Location residents.

Here she was appalled to see black people living under inhumane conditions in army barracks constructed during the Anglo Boer War (1899 - 1902). It prompted her there and then to defy apartheid laws and a few weeks later, during March 1989, she moved from her whites-only home to a black township. Dolly Buti, a Xhosa mother of three, heard about du Plessis's decision and invited her as a new "family member" into her home at Dora street (nicknamed "Cuban Crossing"), New Brighton. A year later Annette moved into her own accommodation in Boast Ville (a subsection of New Brighton) to a hostel that was originally built for Black Railway migrant workers (from 1994 converted into apartments).

The army barracks in Red Location have been replaced by a cultural museum, the Red Location Museum, which was designed by architect Jo Noero and completed during 2005. From 2004 the former residents of the army barracks began moving into new Reconstruction and Development homes, built in the Red Location and White Location areas.

Shortly after du Plessis's move into New Brighton, the African people had a welcoming celebration in her honour where she received a Xhosa name "Vuyiswa" which means happiness.

During 2001 du Plessis won an artist residency scholarship to Konst Epidemic in Gothenburg, Sweden, which inspired her on return to Nelson Mandela Bay to establish the Siyaya Centre for Young Arts.

External links

• Annette du Plessis Official Website
• Annette du Plessis on SouthAfricanArtists.com