Leather-faced old man

First we need to set the scene properly. A gas station in the middle of nowhere, a few four-by-fours lined up at the one and only pump. Lost in the African desert, it’s the only gas available in a perimeter of more than 200 km.

An old man sits by the door to the shop, dug into his corrugated-iron rocking-chair. On his head a cowboy-hat dating from the American Civil War at least, in his left hand a wooden cane and in his right an Angolese cigar he’s been smoking since the sun came up the dunes in the morning. He greets every customer with a rotten-teethed wide grin and a silent nod from the head, two fingers on the rim of his hat. The travellers coming through know him, have heard of him before, they don’t know his name because he’s got none. People just call him Rhodesia.

His story is one of pain and suffering, grief and loss. He left Rhodesia in 1976 and came to Namibia through Botswana, settling here as a clerk in the early 80s. His son is now behind the counter, selling apfel strudels and cool drinks. His life now is one of slow, hot days in Solitaire, awaiting his destiny, the next customer might be an old friend. But they all died in the wars, his friends. His wife left him with the baby boy decades ago and ran off with a more successful businessman. In the evening of his life, he looks back and around him. He’s built houses, a hotel, a campsite and a small souvenirs shop. He’s proud but silent about it. Once a journalist came but the man didn’t utter a single word during the whole interview. Only a few pictures. An old leather-faced man sitting in his rocking-chair, his gaze fixed on the dusty road coming from the horizon in a straight line from t dunes.

His face wrinkled, sun-burnt, his eyes such a clear blue that from far they seem white. He’s all but blind, he sees all and rules everything around here. His beauty is one of a few, his skin like an old book. Leather-faced old man of Solitaire, Namibia, this is a message to you if you’re still among us: keep watching, keep listening, the world needs people like you.