I have been following this young ladys journey and she really impresses me often ... we can all learn from her - not just todays youth but everyone from all age groups, from every community, from all walks of life. Malaika Mahlatsi I started my first year at Rhodes University in 2012, doing Geological Science, majoring in Earth Science/Geography. The following year, I was financially excluded from the university after failing to settle part of my debt and battling to raise the minimum initial payment for that year (2013). My mother was unemployed and had a 10 year old son in primary school to look after. I knew I couldnt rely on her. So with my education interrupted and no qualification, I knew I had difficult decisions to make. Before I could start knocking on doors, an opportunity was presented to me by the Thabo Mbeki Foundation, which had helped establish a youth structure called the African Youth Coalition. The organisation, which I was a Steering Committee member of, needed a full-time Secretary General to do day to day administration for the organisation. Out of school and unemployed, I took the offer. It was on a voluntary basis. I received a stipend from the pockets of some committee members, mainly to enable me to buy basics like toiletries as the job required me to do extensive travelling. I was out of the country literally every month. But it is because of that job that I was able to be exposed to the African Union, and today sit on the African Youth Panel. In March of that year, with R10 000 in my account from a sponsor, I took a roadtrip around the SADC region, to reflect on my journey, personal and political. I had grown up in poverty and inability to return to university threatened to hurl me back to that dark place to which no-one must be condemned. It was upon my return from that trip that I wrote Memoirs of a Born Free: Reflections on the Rainbow Nation. At the time, I had no way of knowing that a year later, it would be a book that would sell thousands of copies within 6 months, and be used as a prescribed reading in three globally respected universities, in South Afrika and in the United States of America. Last year, I returned to Rhodes University, with the help of three comrades who paid off my student debt and my minimum initial payment. I made the decision to stay outside campus as that was cheaper. But the downside to this decision was that I now had to pay monthly rent and buy my own groceries as opposed to eating at the universitys dining hall. My mother was/is still unemployed so I knew I couldnt rely on her to help me through. I decided then that Id work full-time, two different jobs, to pay for my living expenses and the remainder of the school fees. It has been hard. It impacted badly on my academic performance, especially because most of the work Id get required me to not be on campus. At times Id get some work to do outside the country, and it boiled down to one thing: I had to do the projects and miss classes, because if I didnt, Id be out on the streets AND financially excluded again. At no point did I consider studying through UNISA by correspondence, because I know myself well enough to know Id not finish on time. Im sitting here today, having received the news that I have received full funding for my tuition this year, from a private donor. This year, I will only work to pay my rent and living costs, as my fees will be fully covered by the donor. It has been a very difficult time, a very long struggle which interrupted not only my studies, but battered my self-esteem. But with the help of the giants on whose shoulders I stand, I made it through this baptisism of fire. I take a moment of silence to reflect on this, remembering that there are millions of Black children who are not as blessed as I have been. I dont for a second take it for granted how blessed I am to have people who believe in me and invest in my future. My life, my work, my writing, is dedicated to these people, the ones we left behind in the ghettos that made us, because our responsibility as we make it out of the diabolical brutality of the Black condition, is to make sure we dont escape alone, but pull others out too. It is our collective obligation to our humanity...
Posted on: Tue, 06 Jan 2015 14:11:10 +0000
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