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Showing posts with the label Advocacy and injustice

Scars of War - The Juneck Livi Story (I was only 5 years old)

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South Africa was caught in a civil war – the mob petrol bombed our home.  Machete armed men fighting for justice and peace. Aflamed torches seeking change.  Our home represented too many crossover elements. Too much education gained from the white man.  Teachers influenced by white education. I was five years old with no idea of the storm that raged in the hearts of my people who saw us as the enemy. The faction fighting and brandishing arms were displays of undisguised abhorrence that ignited and flared into a towering inferno.  I was the innocent victim and those who fought to rid their town of “traitors” melted my bones, my dreams.... my skin. My home.   but then again, there are no victors in war. And men give their lives for freedom.  In their distaste of all that was white they hastily took mine. A black 5 year old boy.   The scars were deep and disabilities hard to behold.  Skin grafting sessions were my second home throughout high school.  When my classmates refused t

Peeves, Perspectives and The Flag

They gag on our flag -   the old was "better".  how was it better being thrown off beaches;  out of trains,  buried in drains - barred from restaurants;  forced to enter side gates;  fed 2nd rate education;  kicked from our homes;  forcibly moved and  imprisoned for crossing the  "immorality act";  beaten and tortured;  murdered;  kicked and head-butted  for not having a pass;  playing music in secret places;  stealing away to indulge in the arts;  punished and  whipped when caught;  earning painful salaries;  called supervisor not  original designer; transferring your skills for nought.  How was it better  when bodies went missing;  domestic workers raped and harassed;  mixed babies born; not by men black or brown;  how was life better when we couldn't move beyond our space after 6. what joy was derived when  unable to fulfil your desired ambition because your colour wasn't right

Joseph

Zimbabwe 1984 - I was a young girl who had a relatively easy and privileged upbringing in a middle class suburb in South Africa. We walked into a water crises - a system shocker. We bathed in each others water - whites, blacks, Indian. The team. We represented various nations of the world - the Zimbabwian rifles did not enjoy our presence - I was introduced to political strife as one regime positioned itself to overthrow another. It was my introduction to war outside of my own countries borders. We were hated and I didn't understand why, because our message was one of love. I sat with a "man-servant" (as they were called then), and heard his dry mouthed anxiety for the future - bread and butter; His next job; unwittingly a victim of a socio-economic alcatraz. A little blonde-haired girl crawled onto my lap and asked why I had such curly hair - Amongst my black sisters my hair was "white". Indians embraced me more because they saw my gra

8 Forked Serpent

love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you - the Jack in the beanstalk who strangles, rapes and exterminates mankind - To love as Christ loves us; this is our highest mandate. In my despairing war and cry, I mourn, "What kind of justice God is this to love  an animal that plunders and butchers; that chops the head from a human frame. How do we love a Chimera who gobbles the meal of the famished; the Orochi who wears the labour of the people as embroided gowns; then parades her adornment of gold and precious stones; the warlock that mangles then exanguinates the victims - how can we be asked to show mercy to a beast who preys on the vulnerabilities of the defenceless. God if this love is at all possible please fill us now so that we may live the remainder of our lives in peace, even if now is then - let the nights rest set in for our hearts love not them whose deeds we loathe - and faces we spit on. What bittersweet love is this that you sho

My Prayer

My prayer. .. Another Tuck Magazine insert. ... poets in unity - http://tuckmagazine.com/2017/11/03/zimbabwe-we-want-poetry-campaign-10/ #jambiya #1000poetsforpeace - Zimbabwe #tuckmagazine

A City Under Siege

Vusi Thembekwayo wisely said, "nothing is guaranteed it is gifted". Why then do leaders control earth's gifts - water and vegetation; destroy what is sown by working hands and fertilized by soil. They lord over springs nurtured in stone The people blame the H20 crises and famine on political manipulation and lies - human maintenance and monocracy - perhaps they are right, Yet their bloated egos and guzzling rob the poor of each drop by which they live. "Damn the bloody law", they shout. Conspiracy theories take precedence, driven by an insatiable hunger for justice, views on land repartition; the rights of the Khoi and San. Global warming, population explosions and no rains but to hell with the white man who caused Africa's pain - May the black man rot as he insists brown must be black. Blame government for gangsterism and depravity - while the inhumane kill and plunder. Damned apartheid that stripped Africa's sparkle