a bit about my family …
The Women …
(for the countless women, names unknown, who bore the brunt of Apartheid, and who fought the racist system at great cost to themselves and their families, and for my mother, Zubeida Moolla)
Pregnant, your husband on the run,
your daughter just a child, a few years old,
they hauled you in, these brutish men,
into the bowels of Apartheid’s racist hell.
They wanted information, you gave them nothing,
these savage men, who skin just happened to be lighter,
and White was right in South Africa back then.
You did not cower, you stood resolute,
you, my mother, faced them down, their power,
their ‘racial superiority’, their taunts, their threats.
You, my mother, would not, could not break,
You stood firm, you stood tall.
You, like the countless mothers did not break, did not fall.
You told me many things, of the pains, the struggles,
the scraping for scraps,
the desolation of separation
from your beloved children,
by monstrous Apartheid, by brutish men,
whose skin just happened to be lighter.
You told me many things, as I grew older,
of the years in exile, of the winters that grew ever colder.
You were a fighter, for a just cause,
like countless other South African women,
you sacrificed much, you suffered the pangs,
of memories that cut into your bone, your marrow,
you resisted a system, an ideology, brutal and callous and narrow.
Yes, you lived to see freedom arrive, yet you suffered still,
a family torn apart, and struggling to rebuild a life,
all the while, nursing a void, that nothing could ever fill.
I salute you, mother, as I salute the nameless mothers,
the countless sisters, daughters, women of this land, who fought, sacrificing it all by taking a moral and principled and valiant stand.
I salute you, my mother, and though you have passed, your body interred in your beloved South African soil,
you shall remain, within me, an ever-present reminder,
of the cost of freedom, the struggles, the hunger, the toil.
I salute you!
Viva the undying spirit of the women Viva!
(for the brave women of South Africa, of all colours,
who fought against racial discrimination and Apartheid)
My pleasure always ✌️
What’s your age 😁my friend.. I’m just curious
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absolutely my friend – I’m 46 and greying hair rapidly 😁
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👍😁😁😁
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👍😊☮✌
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This is so good 😍💞
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many humble thanks my dear friend. deeply appreciated and touched that is resonates with you.
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This is such an amazing tribute, Afzal. Hearing you talk about what it was like during Apartheid helps me to realize that even though the situation in both our countries is grim right now, progress has been made; but it always comes at a cost.
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thank you as always, my brother Josh – and as you say yes, progress has been made albeit at a cost but hope and struggle against toxic notions of superiority – of humans over humans and of humans against nature will always be out vanguard against the baser instincts of our beings. and yes you are so right – even though the situation in both our countries looks grim as in many other places too – progress shall be made – by the people who will have had enough of the rising tide of fascism – because it is unsustainable – and that gives us even more reason to hope and struggle ever more.
thank you brother for your words and sentiments of humane warmth and kindness
warmest wishes from a warm South Africa
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Wonderful tribute to your mother!
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thank you as ever, dear Jennie.
warmesr wishes and peace always ✌
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And to you, Afzal. 🙂
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☮
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Thanks for this. Very moving, and wise.
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thank you for your kind sentiments. deeply touching my dear friend
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