Early Life and Origins

Silamour Philander was born on 19 January 1961 at Somerset Hospital on the V&A Waterfront, Cape Town. They grew up in Elsies River (Elsiesrivier), a working-class Coloured township on the Cape Flats - a community that would remain the deep cultural and emotional reference point of their artistic identity throughout their life. They attended John Ramsay Secondary School in Bishop Lavis, where they completed their matric.

Chintsa is a village in the Wild Coast region of the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa. It is situated 38 km north-east from East London, at the mouth of the Cintsa river.