THE BIG READ

South African stories told through objects

Stuff is just stuff till it becomes something that once belonged to someone we love. Then the inanimate becomes memory and sentiment, an object of longing and loss. It invokes our personal heritage, hints at a genetic code that is our blueprint, or just the exquisite alchemy of human connection. The lingering residue of that person – gone or far away – is summoned in that item and, in our custodianship, breathes a little life still. Four South Africans tell Sunday Times LifeStyle about the things they’ve inherited and how their heritage story is revealed in these items