God answered our prayers
- Bottom Line
- Nov 11, 2019
- 4 min read
By Lindi Goba
After spending a year depending on drugs and rebellion for survival, Happy turned his life into one that he would have never imagined through the support of a self-established NPO.
It is an early morning at the corner of Motlhabane street in Ikageng. While many are walking swiftly to catch a taxi to work, after a heavy night of drug abuse Happy is drifting in and out of consciousness on the ground. The freezing fog is wrapped around his body like a blanket. An elastic is tightly tied around his arm and an injection which contained heroin is lying closely next to him. Happy Nkgatho was a typical 15-year-old who loved drawing, playing soccer and going out with friends. Apart from all the good things in his life, he also faced a great deal of adversity growing up. At the tender age of 15, Happy lost his mother after she battled with AIDS for more than ten years. He was left behind in Ikageng with his grandmother who was also struggling with her ill-health.
Like many other parents, his grandmother was not comfortable with watching her grandson go to trendy late-night clubs and parties but one day Happy (now 25) pleaded and she relentlessly gave him permission. “Black Lounge was one of those places that every young person went to over weekends, but I would always have to beg my grandmother to do anything that involved my friends,” he recalls. His grandmother, Violet Nkgatho, says her only condition was that he comes back home before 6pm every evening. It is a withering day in Potchefstroom in the North-West as Happy walks us into his grandmother’s home in Ikageng extension 6 where he anxiously takes us through his life as a street kid and drug addict.
His friends and him went to Black Lounge one evening with his friends and a group of other mutual friends who were much older than them. After spending time at this popular social spot, they went to a friend’s home. There he was offered a line of heroin mixed with dagga which quickly moved him into an unusual mental space.
“Everything was spinning but it felt so good. For the first time, I wasn’t thinking about the financial problems we were faced with or the passing of my mother. A few minutes later after using for the first time, I found myself quickly craving for the euphoric feelings again. In the process, I kept on reminding myself that I do not want to become an addict.”
That evening became a start to a painless yet slowly poisonous life for Happy. But eventually the drugs turned his life upside down and he found himself defying his grandmother.
“I was shocked by what had become of my grandson. I always asked myself why I allowed him to go out with his friends in the first place,” Violet says. The situation worsened when Happy stopped coming back home. “Whenever our gate moved, no matter how late it was, I would stop whatever I was doing to see who it was, hoping it would be Happy,” she adds.
While his grandmother was struggling to shake off the agonising feelings, Happy spent most of his time in hallucination without realising how much pain he had caused for the people who cared about him. Most of the time he slept on bare cement and when he was fortunate, on cardboard.
One night, after extreme intravenous drug use, Happy spent the night drifting in and out of consciousness on the side of the road until morning. He tried to call for help but many passer-by’s thought he was drunk. A taxi driver stopped and rushed him to the nearest hospital.
“I received a phone call from a nurse at Witrand Hospital informing me that Happy had been admitted to hospital. I was terrified to the point that my health deteriorated and later that day, I was also admitted to hospital,” Violet says.
Happy recalls watching other patients surrounded by their loved ones while he would sit alone because the only relative who was interested in his life was also battling with her health. “I sat there constantly asking myself why I had put myself in such a vulnerable situation. One of my closest friends, Katleho Mogorosi, paid me a visit that turned my life around,” Happy says.
Katleho said: “Happy and I went to high school together but besides that, we were also neighbours who played together in the streets of Ikageng most of the time. I bumped into him at the local shopping centre in a dreadful state.”
Katleho says he did not believe that “Happy would live for longer than a year. When I heard that he had been hospitalised, I thought that would be my final chance to help a childhood friend.”
Now, Happy, who is studying towards a degree in politics and public governance has become an active member of Youth Invasion. The Non-Profit Organisation (NPO) provided him with the resources he needed to further his tertiary education. Apart from his academic success, he is known for his award-winning sketch titled “I have scars but no fear.”
“This theme visually explores some of the challenges that I experienced as a child growing up in Ikageng. It also reflects my optimism to live my life in the best way that I can as I move forward from my past,” Happy says. Happy admits that after years, he is still in the process of coming to terms with his entire past which has not been easy.
His desire to improve his community someday motivated his choice to study towards a degree in politics and public governance. With the assistance of Youth Invasion, Happy established his own business known as Happy Graphite Art. Even with all the challenges, Happy endures as an artist. His goal is to become an internationally recognised sketch artist.
He recently had the opportunity to exhibit his work at the North-West University’s Art Gallery, Thami Mnyele Fine Arts Awards and the UJ Thuthuka Art competition. The brave young man has also given talks about his life experiences at various community centres in Ikageng and says the responses have been overwhelming. “God answered our prayers,” Violet says.
Happy says: “after all these years, I still feel like I’m learning so much about life. The little that I have achieved motivates me to go further. I always tell people that this is just the beginning.”
Podcast
Listen to the podcast to hear more about the challenges that Happy experiences as visual artists.
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