Soweto: freedom could be
you can't be here and not think about what's happening in the world right now.
The night before, my friend Thabo accidentally spilled red wine on my white trousers. To apologise, he introduced me to his friend Eco. A wonderful man who transitioned from being a chef to becoming a guide. During the pandemic, Eco, like many others, lost his job and had to find alternative ways to make a living.
Today, Eco took me to Soweto, a historically significant township in Johannesburg, South Africa. It's the only place in the world that has produced two Nobel Prize winners - Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela and Desmond Tutu from the same place. Although I had read and seen documentaries about this place, being here evoked a completely different feeling in me.
A part of me felt like I had lost a fight within myself and I started to give up because living in Berlin started to feel like an uphill battle for equality. What's more, many people don't understand that. When we are silenced, we begin to get complicit in our silence. This is also one of the reasons why I had to leave, I felt suffocated and the lack of racial awareness and the lack of empathy was getting to me.
We stood outside the Hector Pieterson Memorial, which commemorates the 1976 Soweto Uprising.
Hector Pieterson was a young South African boy who became an iconic symbol of the struggle against apartheid. He was shot and killed by the police during the Soweto Uprising on June 16, 1976, while protesting the apartheid government's education policies. This photograph of his body being carried became a symbol of the anti-apartheid movement, drawing global attention to the injustices of apartheid. Before that, people knew what was happening, but much of the world wasn't taking action. Do you see the parallels with what’s happening now?
You know, people would go to work and go to school and never come home. Their families still don't know where they are, whether they are dead or alive. There's just no closure. It was such an awful time, and being in Soweto truly had a profound impact on my perspective of the world we live in now.
I just don't feel it's fair for me to continue on like nothing is happening when my people are still struggling. By my people I'm referring to women, people of colour, and those who want the same basic rights as your average white man. In essence, I'm saying the work isn't done. Be loud and smart about your actions; you're not just a number in this world. Make it count. This experience has made me reflect on my own experiences in Berlin. I think back to so many times when people would say things like,"Oh, he says kind of racist stuff, but you don't realise it at the time, so you laugh it off." But you know what? That's not enough. Don't laugh it off; say something. It's not enough to simply not be racist; you have to be an anti-racist.
When I walked down the street where all the kids were protesting and running from the police in Soweto, I was angry and upset because we still have struggles. We still have a long fight ahead of us. Don't let governments, jobs, or people bully us into thinking it's okay. It's not okay. Let’s start educating ourselves and making some moves. Let’s turn that anger into something powerful. I don’t really know where these feelings are going to lead me but I hope its impactful and positive.
Today I want to leave you with this track Ayonha by Hamid Al Shaeri.Â
Love,Â
Rez x