A HUMAN head that laughs and talks is making the crowds gasp at the National Arts Festival in Grahamstown.

While most stalls lament the lack of business, there has been no shortage of people prepared to fork out R6 to see the head, which is connected to a nearby corpse by tubes. “I cannot believe it ... it must be magic,” a dumfounded Olwethu Gqoboma said yesterday.

Operating from a caravan set up in an alleyway near the Village Green, the promise to see “A head without a body” is proving as irresistible to the public nowadays as the travelling freak circuses of the 1800s.

After 10 years of travelling around southern Africa in a caravan with the head of “a Soweto street child called Sipho” and his wife and two kids, Louis Marais has had to come up with other ways to make ends meet. “It used to be a very good business, but things have gone backwards in recent years. Most people only want to see the head once.”

With their father now working as a part-time auctioneer in Gauteng – between road trips with his family and Sipho the head – the Marais children still remember the thrill of a permanent life on the road. “I was only 10 years old when my dad packed the caravan and hit the road. We used to travel all over southern Africa doing magic and charging people to see Sipho,” 20- year-old Louis junior explained.

Explaining how they acquired the ghoulish exhibit, mother Leanne said the family came across the dread- locked head of “Sipho van der Merwe” after he was attacked by a jealous love rival with a panga. “Sipho had his head chopped off and it was ... connected back to his body with tubes which keep him alive. When he is not on the road with us, his head is stored at (Chris Hani) Baragwanath Hospital.”

Unable to fathom out how the unique optical illusion works, a frowning Mandisa Sentile, 34, said: “I can’t believe it ... I must go home and tell my friends and family about this magic.” - By DAVID MACGREGOR