Dead man started walking about two months ago. At age 62, he left his belongings, house, and walked away from the high end design company he ran together with the wife. You’ll have to ask him to tell the story (or read more here: https://southcoastherald.co.za/278579/watch-dead-man-walking-begins-wild-coast-journey/), safe to say he reached thát point where continueing with the life he had made no sense to him anymore. Dead to his old life, and taking with him only the clothes on his back, he set out down the east coast of South Africa.
Frank Owen now goes by the name Dead Man. Since he felt dead to his old life, he embraced the unknown and set out with two new friends, adopted dogs he named Crooksey and Sid. He kept friends and family updated through his facebook profile, but also started a page called DEAD MAN WALKING SA. Through this platform he has been sharing snippets of interesting information, naturally occurring fruit he found to forrage, his attempts at subsistence fishing, his views on overfishing, joblessness and the plastic waste issue that plagues the region. He also shares his experiences of incredible hospitality and help offered by strangers.
I first met Dead Man in Mpande village, South of Port St Johns. He introduced himself by saying he has been walking away from his old life, and he has no idea where he is going. He pointed to his ‘tent’, which is more like a miniature beach gazebo, with wind openings and an open front. Going into winter, its getting colder even in this subtropical region, especially as the further South he walks the further from the equatorial heat. But he is finding support from people and often sleeps indoors. Trusting that all will be provided, yet he admittedly has concern for the future. It’s starting to become more real, this change, and with each step he is turning the wheels of his life into something brand new.
Dead Man is walking the story of so many, some have walked before him, some people have never taken the steps he has, but wishes daily they had the guts to leave the confines of their prescribed existence for something more real.
He couldn’t have chosen a more appropriate area to walk his dead man walk. The Wild Coast stretches across the old homelands of South Africa, where many a person has run away from their old life, and historically numerous young men escaped being conscripted into the Apartheid military by settling into a new life in the hills with the Mpondo locals, a Xhosa speaking tribe that have never quite given up their stories to a colonial rule in the traditional sense.
I myself came to live in this region in my search for a new and more harmonious system of society. The inherent pride of these locals is inspiring, waking before sunrise to make fire to wash and prepare to work in the fields or around the house, singing while they cook and prepare the land for planting or bringing in the harvest. They are the custodians of tribal land which even today is under a traditional leader system of allocation rather than purchase. While people are poor in terms of financial assets, the beauty of the land, and the community minded existence paints a stark contrast with the wealth driven capitalist ways of the rest of South Africa.
In this terrain Dead Man walks on. Yesterday he left Mdumbi village, where I met up with him for a few days to share support and discuss possibilities for the future. He has ideas of driving and supporting recycling innitiatives, animal wellfare drives, and sustainable development of the region. But being Dead Man, he has embraced a lifestyle with the constant reminder that assumptions are futile, and the support of the community is vital.
Look him up on Instagram (@frank.owen.911) and Facebook (@DeadManWalkingSA). He also has a Backabuddy campaign where you can offer support (https://www.backabuddy.co.za/deadman-walking-sa).