***Black Bead*** On Friday 15th August 2008 (a year that marked the beginning of a two-year long season of heightened xenophobic violence across South Africa) at around 7am, a Zimbabwean man in his early thirties, Adrian Nguni was found hanging from a tree along the Black River in Observatory, Cape Town. Policemen cordoned off the site with yellow tape and one hour later were still standing beneath the body, visible to all in peak traffic on the busy street parallel to the river. A few days before an unidentified body was found floating in the same river. This poem tells the story, like first Black Bead above, in lines and images that still shake my core. Black river followed me home Between breaths, thoughts, sleep Deep cut image of a silent brother Hanging from a tree Three children in my back seat So I sob quietly and drive by Drive Bye bye Newspaper tells Black river stories Two bodies, one week in August Alone One floating unknown The other with a detailed note in his backpack Telling them whom to send his body to Back home Somewhere in Zimbabwe Take him Home Black rivers all over this country All over the world I’m sure Weeping, wailing just like me In ways seldom heard Hard to see Unless you know Listening What it really means Listening to him, To her Listening To me Black river sings Black river brings me Sweet blood offerings Till I can’t breathe Like a child Almost forty Yet still can’t believe Can’t be Can’t leave Be Leave ***Green Bead*** On 9th September 2010 the one-and-only Prof. Alice Walker came to Cape Town, where I have lived and birthed my family and my still young career as a writer-poet-arts activist. Cape Town, my home since 1997. She came to deliver the annual Steve Biko Memorial lecture, hosted by the Steve Biko Foundation in partnership with the University of Cape Town. uct.ac.za/news/multimedia/sound/ Reflecting on deeply disturbing headlines and truths exposed in South African newspapers in recent years, she raised two basic yet deeply significant questions: Was this what Nelson Mandela was incarcerated for? Was this what Steve Biko was murdered by torture for? In a room packed to capacity with the most exquisite diversity of predominantly South Africans, with a giant image of brother Steve Biko illuminated on the stage, she also quoted him directly : ‘Once your consciousness changes, so does your existence.’ Tonight, 11th September...another memorial day of rage and sorrows, I have sat for two solid hours threading these words, these beads spontaneously together, for my own heaving, always re-membering heart, for my mother who remains my greatest teacher on the right to rage, for brother Adrian Nguni, for the girl –children of the 70’s with eyes and ears initially closed to the politics of their birthplaces, their families but also their bodies in the world and especially tonight...for the immortal spirit and living-inside-us mentor to many millions, Steve Biko on the eve of the anniversary of his passing...so that his life’s teachings would live on. I offer these beads to you. Add your own colours, thread your own story, revisit your unique her-and-hi-story. I believe there is healing in the telling and the going within, the listening. Perhaps these are paths that somehow can lead to our collective liberation and returning to our home, our humanity.
Posted on: Thu, 12 Sep 2013 14:11:04 +0000
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