MAKING THESE 16 DAYS MATTER: Arts Activist - Malika Ndlovu DAY NINE: ANENE Daughter Anene, sunflower of Bredasdorp At least 9 times in one morning I have heard your name Shuddered at the details, the desecration of your body Your temple violated by your brothers, our deranged sons 1 by 1 they witnessed, goaded, pinned and groaned Used their hardened hands for inhumane purpose Lost themselves as minute by minute your family Never knew that as night fell, they were losing you Even the sky was numb, there was no rain Except your cries and fading tears Running out Of hope Of life Of time Now reporters, police, community leaders and government Repeat their statements of shock and devastation Phrases that puzzle and amplify the situation Not of a small town but an entire nation Editing their piece of the story to platform their thoughts Their declarations of intolerance and vigilance Thousands more stunned into shaking head silence A sigh, like a last breath, stealing our words Hardening our backs as we feel the ricochet Of a history of attacks dating back further Than we care to remember, yet similar in their impact On a collective psyche so shattered, that we think This story thankfully is not our own, that your suffering The bones beneath its horrific truth are best left alone But you must know, beloved brutalised one That there are many more, who will not forget your name This traumatic vibration across our hearts, in our bodies That we will listen for what lessons we can learn and teach Deeply consider the useful questions to be asked We will weave poems, songs, dance this February 14th With onebillionrising* all over this troubled globe Saluting your courage and resilience to the end In our silence, our prayers and meditations In our speaking into this darkness Because we believe we must all mourn Just as hard as we must work to manifest A healing, a less bloodletting dawn 7th February 2013 Malika Ndlovu © * Acclaimed SA dancer-choreographer Jacki Job performed her dance-eulogy to the memory of Anene Booysen, intimately engaging the public on the historical St George’s Cathedral steps site during lunch hour traffic with performance poet, Malika Ndlovu creating an evocative dirge-like vocal soundscape. This intervention was strategically staged next to Parliament on the very day that President Jacob Zuma, a man accused of crimes including rape, was delivering his 2013 “state of the nation” address in February in Cape Town, South Africa
Posted on: Wed, 03 Dec 2014 08:31:56 +0000