~LIVING WITH THE ENEMY~ Abe Nouk. (A personal perspective Mini Review) I did a 3 days course about a month ago, which altered my life. Amongst the good things that I found during the course, was how I got to know this young, charismatic South Sudanese man; Abe Nouk. During the course, one way of fostering learning was through ‘sharing’ how the distinction taught relates to you. To cut this long story short, I shared with a middle age Australian woman who was working for the company that organizes Perth Poetry Slams and I was interested in knowing more. She hinted that the Slams were going on already and if I was interested, I can give it a go. So I looked it up and amongst the previous winners was Abe Nouk. Abe won Victoria poetry slam in 2013 and later became third overall national wide. I chose to review this episode on migration to let all the South Sudanese youth in diaspora learn that you can turn your ideas into something that we can all look upto. I’m not focusing on the arguments or views held in the documentary but rather on were I fit in a South Sudanese youth living in Australia. First of all, we were not the best audience for this documentary but the wider Australian community in order to embrace diversity and cultivate a functional multiculturalism rather than staged sweet tooth ‘we are one’. As we watched the episode, we all got drawn into choosing who the villain and the hero were. Of course that was a simple task to do. Abe did us proud on his insight, he very much knew that he was representing all of us, a leadership quality we lacking in our current ranks. He never asked for permission to speak for us; he simply spoke. He used his poetic touch to tackle the problems facing the Sudanese youth in Australia with ease. Abe didn’t go personal with the subject nor did he let the views held by Nick and his mentor (the professor) on people of Sub-Sahara Africa intimidate him. Abe only acted as a messenger to inform the Australian community that we are here to stay. We will walk your runways, we will cure the sick, we will build your roads, we will learn to kick your ‘Oval balls’, and we shall run your Olympic tracks and fields. I personally believe that spoken words poetry is a very powerful tool in communicating our views and I’m thankful to Abe for paving way for me and other youth interesting in performance arts. Let’s all take notes, after winning the Victoria slam; Abe didn’t just sit down and celebrate. He went ahead for nationals and became third overall. He also published a book and now here he’s on a mainstream documentary amongst many great things coming his way. He confronted his problems head on. Not only that, he kept us in his vision that these African youth roaming the streets are much more productive if you accept them and create avenues conducive enough to give back to the society. This is my call to you the Sudanese youth who read this note today to get some inspiration from Abe and change our ways in order to let the words of the people fighting for our image to have a meaning. You are the future and Chimamanda Adichie said it all “We have to raise our sons and daughters differently if we are looking for better men and women”. The fight for our place in the migration history of Australia is on and the ball is in your side of court Southern Youth; now play for greatness and be my Next Abraham Nouk. -Uncle Mesh!
Posted on: Sat, 20 Sep 2014 02:31:00 +0000
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