The forgotten kids of Africa

I just blend in, doing what others do. I try not to look out of place, they can’t see that I’m different, they can’t see that I’m not from where they are from. I smile because I have to, I laugh because they are laughing, at what? I am not quite sure. I try to be normal but what does that mean, when I don’t have a home to go too after all that smiling and laughing, when I don’t have food to eat.

It’s difficult to think about the fact that while I suffer and struggle, there are people my age who aren’t. I wish I was one of them, those who don’t have to worry about what to eat in the morning or the evening, I wish I knew where I would go to sleep, when I’m done blending in. what if my parents were still alive, would this be my life? I guess I will never know.

I am tired of people laughing at me, I’m tired. Even though I’m tired it won’t help, I still will wake in the morning earlier then everyone else, I still have to get dressed up and blend in, with an empty stomach and a smile on my face.

I wish I could go to school, I wish I had $2 for this terms school fees, so I can be like all the other kids and go to school. For now, I will blend in and keep quite in hopes that no one will notice that I have not paid my school fees, in hopes that I don’t get kicked out.

I am so young yet because of the HIV/ AIDS virus that has killed my mother and my father, I find myself having to look after my little sister, with every cry she screams out, my heart is burdened with the fear of raising a child while I too am still only a child. Her screeching cry reminds me of the future I may never see, it’s a cry that cuts deeper than any dream I can imagine for myself, and this is my life.

Maybe one day the government will care enough about children like me and help us, by giving our families two dollars for our education, maybe the world will one day care about little African children, or the leaders of the world will sit down and think about us. For now we make our beds anywhere that does not rain, where we won’t be cold, but there is just too many of us, how will they know I’m among the crowed? Once again I have to blend in, smile with those who smile and laugh with those who laugh.

inspires by the documentary "Forgotten kids of Zimbabwe"

Comments

Critical reflections on colonial legacies in the African Academy:

Critical Reflection on colonial legacies in the African Academy. Challenges and prospects for the future : We need to understand what colonization is and what it has brought with it that Afrikans are rejecting, what is its legacy in the Academic environment. Understanding the colonial institutionalising of the education system: Definition: colonisation is an ongoing process of control by which a central system of power dominates the surrounding land and its components (people, animals etc.). – Wikipedia Western Education was an important tool in making sure that colonisation was effective and was needed to pacify the Afrikan. Education was used to restructure Afrikan communities and cultures, to make them more Eurocentric. The French used a policy called emulation that made Africans in their colonies aspire to be more like their French masters. Those who sounded and acting like the Frenchman, were given full citizenship. The idea of being like the West is one ...

A Balck Woman in Corporate

While we fight for equal pay amongst women and men, we need to separate the category of women; there are black women, then there are white women. Within these categories, there are clear wage gaps and clear value of the one, over the other, with the other being black women. I have come to realise that white people do not realise their privilege and supremacy complex, there fake fading smiles when you walk past them, almost to say, “What are you doing in my space”. I don’t think they realise that we can see right through those half baked smiles. There coldness and uninviting energy makes you self-aware and reminds you, that you are in the wrong place, this is not your space and as long as you can remember that, you will be okay. However white people are not the only problem black women face in corporate, black men also contribute to the demise of black women in the workplace. I worked for a company that was ran by black men and fell victim to the corporate abuse that b...

Taxi to eKasi

A taxi just seems so wretched and black. I prefer my car and should my car breakdown, lucky for me, there are so many options, Uber, Taxify and a good old cab. This is the new generation of black South Africans, who grew up in former white neighborhoods and attended fancy white schools or model C schools. The reality of poverty and lack, seems like a foreign subject to them. Them that speak with English that confuses even their white counterparts, “is he black or white”, you really can’t tell over the phone, but that is good, isn’t it? Now they can get better service than the black person who sounds black, just as long as they don’t use their real name, they should be find. The desire to distance ourselves from poverty, has turned to the desire to distance ourselves from blackness. There seems to be so many things wrong with being black and the further one distances themselves from this image, the better it feels for them. The “Kasi”, seems to be a foreign land to those who live ...

Activating a Thought Leader In Me

Search This Blog