This is a tribute to an AfrICAN child written by the resilient, tenacious and sassy Masinga Masunga on the eve of her summiting Mount Kilimanjaro. It was relevant then, it remains relevant today, and it will still be relevant tomorrow as we continue to fight for our dignity, respect and recognition as a people…
Dear AfrICAN Child
I am writing this letter as I prepare for my journey to go and climb Kilimanjaro to reach the highest point in Afrika. The condition under which I am going are unbearable, unfavourable, harsh and even hostile, the weather where I am going is no different. There have been suggestions to postpone but I can’t because I know that postponing won’t change anything. I am going now because the conditions that I have described are the same conditions that an AfrICAN child is subjected to every day. I am going because every time you rise and want to go to higher places these conditions are used to keep you down, I am going for this climb because our upliftment is always postponed and everytime the closer we get to it vanishes like a mirage. I have decided to turn this mirage into a reality – and that is an action to be taken by me. Sometimes wo xungetiwa (when you are offered something but as you reach for it, they take it away) and your hopes are dashed. For me it is now or never because if I don’t make that stand now, an AfrICAN child will never ascend to higher plains.
AfrICAN child, I had to consider the consequences and ramifications of writing this. Will opportunities be closed for me? What opportunities? Will doors be closed for me? They are already closed and shut on my face? Will people turn their backs on me? Well, I am already excluded. I was trying to count the cost and it dawned on me that I have nothing to lose but everything to gain. Yes, I have nothing to lose because everyday the status quo refuses us opportunities – and this is my story, your story and a reality for every African Child. I also had to consider the fact that I would be said to be seeking attention and sympathy. However, that is another one of our realities, when another child throws their toys out their cot it is acceptable because they are just a child but when the African child throws their toys, they are deemed manipulative. There is always a different vocabulary, meaning and explanation to your actions AfrICAN child.
My AfrICAN child there is a ghost that haunts and wants to keep you grounded and kept under the radar. Typical of a ghost, it is in many shapes and forms (including systems, actions and attitudes). We all know it exists but no one wants to talk about it, it is everywhere, it is invisible, you cannot point it out and when you confront it, you are made to look and sound delusional because it has a way of convincing everyone of your madness. It makes you think and feel like you have been moving all night, but when the sun rises you realise that you are actually in the same place. That is the reason it doesn’t want you up there because it cannot control you when you are above, it can only do so when you are beneath.
Oh, AfrICAN child, I know how you are made to feel that you haven’t made enough effort or whatever you have been doing is wrong. That is what has been happening to me as the days of going have been getting closer. The same people ignore your calls, your emails, not even giving a decent NO. You are made to feel that you are non-existent and invincible. My AfrICAN child, you are constantly reminded that you have a choice however the reality is that you don’t have options. A choice without options is just picking whatever you are presented with, whatever someone has already decided for you. AfrICAN child you have been to school making “all the right choices” but today after years of completing your studies, you have no option of work. Please don’t despair; you have so much in you.
My dearest AfrICAN girl child, I don’t even know what to say to you. There is just so much against you, even your own are making your life unbearable. You are blocked and attacked from every direction that you have nowhere to go. The violence against you is even worse in the boardroom, where you are sometimes reduced to nothing. Now that they have realised that they can’t keep you down, they have resorted to destroying you.
Ooh! AfrICAN girl child with a disability, I wish I was a shield thick and strong enough to protect you. The arrows against you are just too many to count. There is such a mission to keep you voiceless and invisible. Even those who fight for social justice never bring your issues to the fore. They fight for everyone but you. You are the most ignored in society and even your faint voice cannot be tolerated. Whenever you rise and want to be seen and heard you are told to ‘be realistic’, but you ask yourself whose reality is being presented here? The one you have created in your mind for me? Even so please continue to be active and participate because as AfrICANs say: “Those who are absent will always be wrong.”
AfrICAN child you are so lovable, as I write this I realise why you are fought so much. In the past few days I have been so broken and defeated by the circumstance surrounding my trip; however, as I write this it comes from a place of strength, from something powerful beyond measure within me. My magnificent African child this is what you are being fought for, your strength, you power and your glowing light. You are fought for your potential and your possibility. What you are, was measured, what you are can be controlled but what you can become cannot be controlled or comprehended. That is why you are only celebrated when you are dead because then you are no longer a threat. It is for this reason I am leaving today 16 June (celebrated as Youth Day in South Africa and Day of the African child in the rest of Africa). We can no longer postpone an AfrICAN child being uplifted and reaching greater height because there is no mountain too high and being on top is the only way an AfrICAN child can be part of the global village, as an equal partner not as a servant.
Masingita Masunga
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