There’s just something about a warm cup of coffee which soothes the soul while enveloping the senses in delight. People say a yawn is a silent scream for coffee, while we say a cup of coffee screams a story. From a small fruit on a tree, to a grounded bean filling your coffee machine, each cup has a story, and so does Mzansi.
Wild Bean Café’s newest campaign – A Story in Every Cup invited you to tell your stories about Mzansi, making your unique voice heard. We want to highlight the goodness of Mzansi, its hopes, where dreams flourish or even about unity found within our diversity. After collecting stories on various platforms, including Twitter and texts, MetroFM has selected the top five stories, each winning a Wild Bean Café hamper.
@nicolle_rams : “We can speak three different languages in one sentence. For example, I mixed Tshivenda, mixed Sepedi and I also mixed Zulu and in all, it all made sense. So I can speak three different languages and you can understand. We cross those cultural boundaries through language.”
@cecil_mahlangu : “If you go to Khayelitsha in Nyanga, you’ve got those small taxis – the Cressida and because you find there are a lot of them at one time, they decided to call them “amaPhela” because they are almost everywhere like cockroaches. So if you were stopping a taxi in KwaThema you would have signs, you have to specify before the taxi even stops. There is a place in KwaThema called Rest in Peace, so the taxi sign to got to Rest in Peace is the Peace sign.”
@dorcas_mahlatse : “I have millions of reasons on why do I love South Africa so much to start with I love the spirit of Ubuntu, I love the nature attractions we have, our bushveld, our incredible landscapes and of course our famous bunny chow”
@Chantel_90236 : “When it comes to Mzansi Music everyone gets moving, it’s a contagious beat. We produce some of the best music & artists including that unique dance move, it's THAT CAPTIVATING, it's always such a VIBE.”
The second chapter to A Story in Every Cup highlights the young artists of our country. Last year’s Design a Cup campaign was launched and partnered with Vega School to give young designers a chance to showcase their visual talents.
This year, A Story in Every Cup is widening its borders, opening up the design portion of the competition to visual communication and graphic design students throughout the nation. The five top stories will be sent to fifteen participating design institutions where students will be tasked to select a story to illustrate on a Wild Bean Café cup.
Students can draw inspiration from any of these five stories in creating their cups of art, such as the spirit of Ubuntu and diversity in both ethnicity and language, taxi amaPhela and their hand signals, and even from our booming music industry.
“I am trying to teach them to take pride in our culture.”
This gives students within visual arts a chance to design something incredibly unique in their style, and also gives them a chance to visually represent a Mzansi story. This initiative in itself gives students a platform to make their work known before stepping into industry while emphasising the talented of South Africa.
Wild Bean Café is bringing together Mzansi through the art of storytelling.
“We cross those cultural boundaries through language.”