Spring into SomeSay with Geoff Bond: Stories That Remind Us South Africa Can Flourish

There are plenty of people who will tell you what is wrong with South Africa.

Geoff Bond has decided to find the people who are quietly doing something about it.

This week, Geoff Bond, our former pastor at The People’s Church, officially launched SomeSay, a new long-form interview platform dedicated to telling the stories of South Africans  and others across our region who are quietly moving the needle, strengthening communities and making society a little better.

I had the pleasure of being at the launch at The People’s Church on Wednesday evening, and it was beautifully curated.

Through video, conversation and crisp explanations of the vision, Geoff made a compelling case for why these stories need to be told.

When he handed the pastoral baton to Hans and Laura, who now lead and minister to the congregation with great wisdom and authority, Geoff could quite easily have decided that it was time to retire to the couch.

Instead, he has started something new.

And perhaps that is exactly what SomeSay is ultimately about: flourishing where you are and recognising that none of us is simply here to fill space.

https://www.youtube.com/@SomeSaySA

Challenging the pessimism

There is no shortage of pessimism about Africa.

Geoff speaks openly about the school of thought sometimes described as “Afro-pessimism”  the belief that the continent’s history and social challenges mean failure is almost inevitable.

He chooses to see something different.

Green buds on the tree.

People building businesses. People strengthening families. People serving communities. People overcoming circumstances that could easily have defeated them. People whose names may never appear on the front pages, but whose actions are changing lives.

SomeSay intends to find those people and give them a platform.

The concept is wonderfully simple: Geoff sits down with people from different walks of life for thoughtful, long-form conversations. Some guests will be well known. Others may be people most of us have never heard of.

But the common thread is that their stories are worth hearing.

The plan is to publish a new conversation every second week.

And what a story to begin with

The first SomeSay guest is Kenny Felix, and his life provides a powerful demonstration of exactly why this platform deserves our attention.

Kenny grew up in Constantia, Cape Town, as one of thirteen children in a family where there was sometimes barely enough food to go around.

He recalls evenings when supper amounted to a teaspoon of mayonnaise shared around the fire.

His family was later forcibly removed to Lotus River under apartheid’s Group Areas Act, arriving with almost nothing.

Yet that was not where Kenny’s story ended.

He tells Geoff about arriving for a job interview without an ID document and armed with little more than a baptism certificate.

That opportunity ultimately became a remarkable 40-year career at Nestlé.

And retirement did not mean retreat.

Kenny turned his attention to a run-down community park, helping transform it into a garden and a place of dignity. He also became involved in a Tuesday morning breakfast for local bin pickers an initiative that now feeds hundreds of people each week.

One sentence from Kenny perhaps sums up not only his story, but the spirit of SomeSay:

“I am not here to fill up space. I am here to make a difference.”

That stayed with me.

Redemption and lift

There is also a strong foundation of faith beneath Geoff’s vision.

He describes an alternative to pessimism as “Redemption and Lift”  the belief that when the Gospel takes root, churches flourish and people are well discipled, the effects ripple beyond Sunday services.

Families can become stronger. Communities improve. People take responsibility. Education, productivity and social wellbeing can move forward.

Geoff uses the wonderful image of a rising tide:

As the tide comes in, all the boats in the harbour rise.

SomeSay wants to document the people helping that social tide to rise.

It is not about pretending South Africa doesn’t have enormous problems.

We know it does.

It is about refusing to believe that our problems are the only stories worth telling.

Now SomeSay needs us

A YouTube channel only develops momentum when people watch, subscribe and share.

https://www.youtube.com/@SomeSaySA

That is where all of us come in.

If we continually say that South African media needs more constructive stories, more depth, more humanity and more examples of people actually making things happen, then we should support platforms that are trying to provide exactly that.

Subscribe to SomeSay.

Watch the Kenny Felix conversation.

Share it with somebody who needs reminding that extraordinary things are often being done by seemingly ordinary people.

Then come back for the next conversation.

Geoff’s long-running Dear Fellow Pilgrim will continue, while SomeSay creates another avenue through which he can enrich lives, challenge thinking and introduce us to people whose stories deserve a much wider audience.

At the launch, I was reminded that changing a country doesn’t always begin with grand speeches, big institutions or famous names.

Sometimes it begins with someone restoring a neglected park.

Sometimes it begins with breakfast for a bin picker.

Sometimes it begins with sitting opposite another human being and simply asking:

Tell me your story.

That is what Geoff Bond is doing with SomeSay.

And I think it deserves our support.

Spring into SomeSay with Geoff Bond. Subscribe, watch, share — and help these stories travel.

SomeSay: Flourish where you are.

https://www.facebook.com/somesaySA