149 CHAPTER 8 “Flowers are South Africa’s silent ambassadors”: flower shows and botanical diplomacy in South Africa Melanie Boehi Flowers, posters and clerical garb fused into an impressive display of visual mix- and-match protest poetry when about 50 people gathered for a lunchtime vigil on the steps of St George’s Cathedral in central Cape Town on 27 March 2014. Thabo Makgoba, the Anglican Archbishop of Cape Town, initiated the vigil to express support for Public Protector Thuli Madonsela and to call on President Jacob Zuma to respond to her report on disputed public expenditures at his Nkandla homestead. On the previous day, a call to protestors had been made via social media to assemble with “a flower for Thuli” and “a message for the President”. 1 In the course of the demonstration the flowers became messages similar to the words written on the posters. They expressed gratitude and support for Madonsela, culturally coded as beautiful and life affirming, but also reminding of the vulnerability and perishability of all life. The use of flowers in demonstrations has been widespread throughout the 20th century around the globe, ranging from the 1912 “bread and roses” textile workers strike in Lawrence, Massachusetts, to the “flower power” protests against the Vietnam War and Taiwan’s sunflower student movement of early 2014. Diverse political movements have used flowers as communicative objects and symbols of peace and hope. 2 However, in South Africa the use of flowers in protest constituted a rather recent phenomenon. The anti-apartheid movement did not prominently 1 Bennett 2014: https://www.facebook.com/events/1520102691550031/?ref=notif&not if_t=plan_user_invited (accessed 26 March 2014) 2 For an overview, see McKay 2011