Cradock seemed further than two hours from Grahamstown. The R350, a bit of a dribble through pothole at times, winds north, past the quaint town of Bedford and paparazzi-shy monkeys, through canyons and across the Great Fish River.   We have been blessed to have Nyameka Goniwe's support to introduce Soccer Cinema to Lingelihle. Through her, we met primary school teacher Sandile Sepeni and soccer coach Mxolisi Ndatya, both biiiig soccer fans, at the Lingelihle Stadium.

The annual Easter Tournament, in its ninth edition, drew 17 teams competing for the R12 000 prize money. Braving an early cold front, local supporters came out in strong numbers, some staying into the early hours of the morning - the last game on Saturday finished at 3AM!

 
Competitors have travelled from far away - we see many groups here an there in the streets.

Before heading up to the Lingelihle Community Hall on top of Sikulu Street, we pay tribute to Matthew Goniwe, Fort Calata, Sparrow Mkonto and Sicelo Mhauli, the Cradock Four by visiting their gravesite memorial. It will be 25 years ago in June this year that the four activists were killed... We stand, humbled, deeply moved, in front of these black marble headstones, on the day white supremacist Eugene Terre'Blanche was killed, surrounded by a sea of headstones, crosses, metal hearts, make-shift graves. The sight silences us, swallows question marks.

  
  
The Cradock Four - Photo courtesy of Iris Films 

We drive past a fence turned washing line where a dozen or so soccer shirts are hung up to dry. As Luke gets out to take a picture, a group of boys rushes to the fence, grabs and pulls - often oversized shirts over their heads - to pose, like real pros.  

 

Sandile tells us about the now defunct drive-in Cradock used to have. Up to 1997. Or so. We venture through, eventually out of town, in search of the drive-in. Sandile is nostalgic as he recalls: "We'd sit there, listen to the film through the radio. White people and black people. If you were not careful in the dark you'd loose your girlfriend to another guy..." The site where the drive-in used to be is now fenced up and has become a dog training unit for the police. "A bioscope would be good. People drink too much here. Too many taverns. But when we have the Soccer Tournament on, they don't drink that weekend," Maanie explains.

Sandile, Maanie and a young spectactor watching
Drogba Fever at the Soccer Cinema Drive-In