Daar is meer as fotografiese talent betrokke by Daniel Naudé se asemrowende foto’s waarmee Cyril Ramaphosa se nuwe boek oor die Ankole-beesras geillustreer is. Soos die nuwe President is hy nie net gaande oor Ankole’s nie, maar was dit ook nodig om die digkuns en liedere van Uganda in sy beelde te probeer vasvang.
In November last year new State President Cyril Ramaphosa published a book Cattle of the Ages, that according to Huffington Post SA explains his long-time passion for the Ankole, a breed of long-horned cattle common in Africa.
For the first time images of this cattle breed on his Mpumalanga game farm were shared. The photographer was PRG Old Boy Daniel Naudé (2002), who has already achieved fame for his ability to take breathtaking pictures of livestock.
In the book, Ramaphosa calls the breeding programme of long-horned cattle his “proudest achievement” and reveals the psychological impact of watching his father’s Venda cattle farm going to ruin after he had to leave it behind to go and find work in Johannesburg.
Naudé’s photos accompany the text, which further details how Ramaphosa introduced the breed to South Africa and what it took to get the breed registered here.”
According to Farmer’s Weekly, Naudé, shares with Ramaphosa a fascination for the Ankole and previously photographed the breed in his Sightings of the Sacred series.
He told Farmer’s Weekly he had understood what Ramaphosa planned to convey in his story and had tried to create a book that would introduce the Ankole to South Africans.
He had also tried to merge his imagery with the poetry and songs from Uganda that Ramaphosa had included in the text.
“My idea was to support his text and his story and words by creating this rhythm throughout the book,” he said.
Naudé, who has a background in farming and has started building his own Ankole herd, emphasised the historical significance of the book and told Farmer’s Weekly it was a record of the breed’s arrival in South Africa.
