Photo by: Media for Justice
If we and our children cannot see ourselves in the architectural design around us, then we subconsciously remain visitors to the only corner of the world God gave us.
Europe, we visit, Africa we live in. We must never underestimate the psychological effect of foreign occupation, the occupiers seal their conquest with their language, signage, images, statues, art, all of which is the deliberate ongoing miseducation of us the conquered and the obscuring of our memory and identity.
Food on the table of a people who have lost their land, identity, culture language, etc, will not answer their deepest quest and deepest longings for freedom. . To equate Black pain with poverty or lack of food is to reduce Black people to an animalistic existence of eating defecating and dying
One of the lessons we have learnt over the last few weeks is that a revolution is unpredictable, it may lie dormant for the longest time and erupt when it is least expected. We have also learnt through the courage of students here at this university that ivory towers and corridors of white power are not untouchable. The heroic act of Chumani Maxwele which sparked a tidal wave of solidarity from UCT to Oxford University, from Rhodes University to Colombia University, this act has helped demystify colonial enclaves of white dominance.
All disguises of white power and the preservation of white privilege must fall
Black people all over the world are emboldened by what the students have been able to accomplish here and and we are assured once again that black pain will not be left to fester indefinitely, freedom for black people will not be postponed forever
Black pain, whether in those rat infested hellholes we call townships or in academia, all its many dimensions and manifestations, it is a direct consequence of persistent white power. There can be no healing of black pain without the dismantling of white power
This victory is for Chantel Hoffmann, who was called a Kaffir and shocked with a Taser device in Harfield Village, on the 3rd of January 2015 by the 22 year old TALANA Jo HUYSAMER
This victory is for the 52 year old Manenberg cleaner, Delia Adonis, brutally attacked and racially assaulted by five white boys – 19 year old Chad de Matos, 19 old Aaron Mack, and 20 year old Mitchell Turner, in front of her son in Claremont, on the 17th of October 2014
This victory is for the 44 year old Cynthia Joni, the domestic worker who was attacked by Tim Osrin
This Victory is for the 22 year old Muhammed Makungwa, sjambokked by Jan Van Tonder in Claremont while on his way to work simply because he is black and therefore a criminal
Well, there are those who say we are exaggerating our pain, they say so because we have not yet told the story of black pain in an uncensored way
TODAY WITH THE FALLING OF RHODES, WE ARE TELLING OUR STORY AND REVEALING OUR SCARS
WE MUST RAISE OUR VOICE AND TELL OUR STORY
LEST THE WORLD FORGET ABOUT US
LEST WE BE BURIED IN THE HISTORY BOOKS WE DID NOT WRITE
OURS IS A STORY OF RESILIENCE
OURS IS A STORY OF HOPE AND DESPAIR
OURS IS A STORY OF FAITH FOOLISHNESS AND SUPERSTITION
OURS IS A STORY OF BELIEF AND DISBELIEF
OURS IS A STORY OF LIFE AND DEATH
THE WORLD MUST KNOW HOW WE HAVE SURVIVED YEARS OF SERVITUDE
THE WORLD MUST KNOW HOW WE REMAIN SCARRED BY THE WHITE POWER STRUCTURE AND THE PRESERVATION OF WHITE PRIVILEGE
OUR ENTIRE EXISTENCE HAS BEEN ALTERED IN WAYS WORDS CANNOT TELL
WE HAVE A MESSAGE, WE HAVE A STORY TO TELL
IT IS OUR STORY
WE MUST BE THE ONES WHO TELL IT
TELL THOSE WHO COLLECT STORIES BY THEIR BIG BANK ROLLED CAMERAS THAT THIS IS OUR STORY
HELP ME PREACH NOW, ” SAY OUR STORY”
TELL THE EDITOR IN THE NEWS ROOM, THIS IS OUR STORY
TELL THE WRITER WITH AN iPAD IN HIS HAND THIS IS OUR STORY
TELL THE TOURIST WITH A SONY DIGITAL CAMERA, THIS IS OUR STORY
TELL THE JOURNALIST WITH THE DEADLINE TO MEET, THIS IS OUR STORY
TELL THE PUBLISHER AND THE NEW YORK TIMES BEST SELLER, THIS IS OUR STORY
TELL ALL OF THEM, TELL THEM THAT THEY ARE THIEVES, THAT THEY HAVE STOLEN OUR STORY OF PAIN
TELL THEM THEIR CAMERA LANCE HAS OBSCURED OUR STORY
TELL THEM THEIR PEN HAS WATERED DOWN OUR PAIN
TELL THEM THEIR FILM MAKER AND ARTIST HAVE MOCKED AND TRIVIALIZED OURSTORY
BUT OUR COLLECTIVE VOICE IS RETURNING
OUR COLLECTIVE MEMORY IS COMING BACK
OUR COLLECTIVE FAITH IS STRONGER NOW
OUR COLLECTIVE HOPE IS HIGHER
OUR COLLECTIVE SCARS ARE HEALING
THIS IS OUR STORY
WE WILL TELL IT AS IT IS
AND WE WILL WRITE IT AS WE LIKE
HELP ME PREACH PEOPLE
OUR SERMONS WILL TELL OUR STORY
OUR SONGS WILL TELL OUR STORY
OUR DANCE AND OUR RYTHEM WILL TELL OUR STORY
THE SCARS OF OUR OWN FLESH WILL TELL OUR STORY
OUR TEARS WILL TELL OUR STORY
OUR ARCHITECTURE WILL TELL OUR STORY
SIGNAGE WILL TELL OUR STORY
PUBLIC IMAGES WILL TELL OUR STORY
OUR STATUES WILL TELL OUR STORY
YES WE ARE SURVIVORS OF A BRUTAL SYSTEM (black pain)
WE ARE REMNANTS THAT ARE LEFT BEHIND
SONS AND DAUGHTER WHO COME FROM A RAPTURED WOMB
WE SUCKLED THE BREAST AND DRANK THE MILK OF MALNOURISHMENT (BLACK PAIN)
THROUGH NEVIRAPINE , WE NARROWLY ESCAPED HIV INFECTION
THOSE OF US WHI DID NOT, LIVE TODAY WITH COURAGE AND FORTITUDE
WE DARE TO DREAM THOUGH WE ARE LIMPING
WE SURVIVED OVERCROWDED CLASSROOMS FULL OF INFECTIOUS AND CONTAGIOUS DECEASES
WE SURVIVED DR DEATH BASSON’ S BIOLOGICAL WARFARE OF GENOCIDAL PROPORTIONS.
WE LIVED THROUGH A POLICE STATE OF EMERGENCY
ON OUR WAY TO SCHOOL, WE JUMPED OVER CHARRED BODIES OF BLACK PEOPLE NECKLACED FOR SELLING THEIR SOUL
BEFORE WE SAT IN THE CLASS AND FED FROM BANTU EDUCATION, WE STARED AT BADLY BEATEN BODIES OF SUSPECTED INFORMERS
ON SATURDAYS WE BURIED BODIES OF THE INNOCENT, MISTAKEN FOR THE ENEMY
IN CHURCH HALLS, WE MOURNED CHILDREN WHO DIED IN A HAIL OF BULLETS BY AN UNSYMPATHETIC POLICE FORCE
IN BEER HALLS OUR FATHERS DRANK THEMSELVES INTO A STUPOR, TEMPORARILY NUMBING THEMSELVES FROM THE PAIN OF BEING A BOY/MAN. A BOY BY DAY AND A MAN BY NIGHT
WE ARE SURVIVORS OF THOSE CAUGHT IN THE CROSSFIRE OF BLACK ON BLACK VIOLENCE
THIS IS OUR STORY
WE HAVE FOUGHT AND LOST MANY BATTES
WE HAVE RUN THE RACE AND LOST MANY ALONG THE WAY
MANY HAVE BEEN OUR AFFLICTIONS
AND OUR STORY IS YET TO BE TOLD
THOSE WHO DARED TO TELL, COUCHED IT IN THE LANGUAGE OF PEACE AND RECINCILLIATION
THEY ROMANTICIZED OUR STORY
AND PAINTED THE SCARS OF OUR FLESH ON ARTIFICIAL CANVASES
WHILE SIPPING WINE IN DINNER TABLES PREPARED BY OUR OWN MOTHERS
OUR STORY IS YET TO BE TOLD IN BOLD LETTERS
IT IS THE COLLECTIVE STORY OF BLACK PAIN
STORED AWAY FOR TWENTY YEARS
BECAUSE OF ITS INCONVENIENT TRUTH
HIDDEN AWAY FROM THE CAMERA
BECAUSE OF ITS GRAPHIC AND GRUESOME DETAIL
IT HAS BEEN WHITEWASHED
BECAUSE, WHILE IT LIBERATES GOD’S BLACK CHILDREN
IT IMPLICATES GOD’S WHITE CHILDREN
THIS IS OUR STORY
FINISH WHAT YOU’HE STARTED CHILDREN OF MARCUS GARVEY
FINISH WHAT YOU’VE STARTED CHILDREN OF THOMAS SANKARA
FINISH WHAT YOU’VE STARTED CHILDREN OF FANON
FINISH WHAT YOU’VE STARTED CHILDREN OF ROBERT MUGABE
FINISH WHAT YOU’VE STARTED CHILDREN OF ROBERT MANGALISO SOBUKWE
FINISH WHAT YOU’VE STARTED CHILDREN OF STEVEN BANTU BIKO
FINISH WHAT YOU’VE STARTED CHILDREN MAMA ASSATA SHAKUR
FINISH WHAT YOU’VE STARTED CHILDREN OF MAMA WINNIE MANDELA
#RhodesMustFall
