THE MAN BEHIND THE MERRY-GOROUND

Pulsing music, flashing lights and delighted screams… Every has an amusement park that always draws the crowds. Meet Keith Williams, the guy who runs the show behind the show.

Fun rides spin at dizzying speeds and children scream. Fibreglass horses go round and round. Strangers ram their bumper cars into each other and an ice-cream truck jingles in the background. Is there any sound more appealing to a child and more nerve-wracking to an adult than that ice-cream truck jingle? I’m in the amusement park at the Grootfontein Agricultural Show in Namibia. The Hyper X-Extreme ride looks like it could spin you into another blood group. But the most impressive ride is the Inverter – a monster machine that sends 24 passengers on a 360-degree cartwheel through the air. “Some kids ride the Inverter until their noses bleed,” says Deon van Blerk, vice president of the show committee. In the show office, teenager Dian Jansen says: “I’m not going on that ride again. I prayed, like, ten times!” But who are the people who keep this amusement park on the road, living a nomadic life from one show to the next? I spot a tall, thin man with curly white hair and a moustache, standing next to a truck. I can tell by the way he’s smoking that he’s someone in authority. His name is Keith Williams, he’s from Port Elizabeth and he’s been in the amusement park business for 20 years. He used to be in the construction business, but decided to buy a mobile food stall after a “labour dispute”. He sold grilled chicken, sosaties and hot dogs. In time he built a contraption with elephants, geese and ducks that went around in a circle, which he towed to Jeffreys Bay and parked near the shops. He also