Discrimination (Xenophobia)

[liquid fire]

hey wasup fam, when i got issues, poets are always the best people to be around coz they can help me express myself. I been away for a long minute, been so busy in da world out there & aint had time to write much. But recently my heart has been overflowing with grievances & i have been prompted to write. I tried writing a piece yesterday, but so much emotion was coming out & had so many things to say i could put it in a poetic way on paper.

But i got the scribblings below, it is an outpouring of the recent xenophobia issues, check youtube pics by SuundayTimes reporter here:"http://youtube.com/watch?v=-QViN7OsHRA". I was also moved by a show on SABC1 last night with Lee Kasumba & others talking about Africa & a united Africa (AU). And id like your opinions and input, in poetic form if possible. I want a 1minute poem that i can put to picture to make into a PSA.

NOTES(exactly as they are from my pad):

-My heart cries, it bleeds, it pains. I feel sorrow.

-Happiness on our faces, hatred under our skin.

-Ethnicity, tribalism, diversity? We put up walls, we break down wa Building & destroying,

-Power, greed, politics, hidden agendas, corruption.

-Black on black violence, ANY VIOLENCE, against our brothers & sisters is UNACCEPTABLE!

-Lord God, Jesus, what is the answer?

-How much can we tolerate

-Words are not enough, we gotta stand up.

-We should stop being content, stop "going with the flow", stop laughing at 'jokes' that

arent funny or fair at all. STOP!

-Start supporting, take the lead, be the head not the tail, dont take shit. The voice of the peoples is in the leader, the leader who chooses to stand. The power is in the people, the people want to speak, but cant. So YOU take the stand, grab the mind and speak. Be the voice, be the power. Make the difference.

-Break the boundaries, stop discrimination against race, gender, religion, nationality(xenophobia), tribalism.

-We will all have different viewpoints, but we needa find a common factor, something/s we

all agree with & are at unity with, & start from there, in peace.

-We are fighting our own war. Wars go on, battles end, wars dont. Our ancestors fought, our polititions fought, our parents fought. They fought for us, we got 'freedom', but are we free. We have been set free, have we been made free? Do we live in total freedom, as an individual, are YOU free?

-Stop complaining & looking at our past, errors, mistakes, etc. Forget handouts, take the lead. Its time to get up.

My conclusion: Jesus Christ came to set us free, can we receive that freedom. Yes. But war will keep going on for those that arent in Christ. They need to receive the solution.

Am waiting for a good discussion, debate, poems, scripts, anything. I wanna here YOUR VOICE as an african, as a human being.

Much love AHH!

[AddictiveSoul]

I'll get at this soon... But thank you so much for bringing it up.

And welcome back

[TeeZeR]

On the annual celebration of Africa Day in 2001, President Thabo Mbeki urged all South Africans to be vigilant against racism and xenophobia, otherwise it would undermine South Africa's young democracy.

He blamed the levels of xenophobia on the lack of knowledge about the continent of Africa, international isolation and the focus on Europe during apartheid, and the mass media for not reporting the continent in a balanced way.

He called for improved teaching about Africa in schools and institutions of higher learning, not only in history and geography but also in subjects about culture, language and current political and socio-economic activity.

Mbeki's address was fairly consistent with the ANC's public approach towards xenophobia, which ascribed the problem to the effect of globalisation, South Africa's history of international exclusion or relative economic deprivation.

*Source - Cape Argus

On the 25th of May, Africa Day, there will be a Poetry Session in Sharpeville with the subject at hand forming the theme for this session. Poetry movements from Zim, Kenya and other countries that are currently studying/working/based in South Africa have been invited to take part. The only people that can solve all these actions are the very same people that witness/experience them! Nobody knows them better than we do...for fcks sake...you can't get someone from Europe to come and solve the current attacks in SA.

Otherwise, the extract above is an address that was made by Mr Mbeki 7 years ago. I really salute the address, i just hope this can be efficiently acted upon. Clearly...this whole idea of holistically educating masses about Africa did not meet the desired objectives. There's still more to be done!

[eizzy.k]

He blamed the levels of xenophobia on the lack of knowledge about the continent of Africa, international isolation and the focus on Europe during apartheid, and the mass media for not reporting the continent in a balanced way.

He called for improved teaching about Africa in schools and institutions of higher learning, not only in history and geography but also in subjects about culture, language and current political and socio-economic activity.

True that!

Knowledge is power...

I hear the attacks on foreignerz been real bad recently, they had 2 send the army out...damn, and i was seriously concidering goin 2 SA for uni, was planning to go to NMMU in Port Elizabeth, but i hear its also quite clique-ish...

[Couzifer]

This is a political problem which needs a political solution, I feel that Mbeki is a big problem to South Africans, he's also a problem to Zimbabweans, together with Mugabe, as long as the crisis in Zimbabwe continues the current problem affecting South Africa will continue to persist. I say this because Zimbabweans will continue flocking into S.A as Mbeki continues his support for Mugabe and his wicked ways.....

[liquid fire]

Hey guys. Im sure most of you guys are on facebook. If you are in Cape Town, support by coming through to a gig this sunday at gugulethu, starting at 12 noon. Check out the event/group "State of Emergency sa" & join.

Peace out!

[liquid fire]

Hey guys. Here is one i managed to write. Please, keep writing and spreading that love.

Thousands have been displaced, thousands. Parents killed, people burnt... nuff said.

"We are warriors," they say.

As theyve drawn their weapons of sticks & clubs

Knifes, torches, guns and fists

Attacking foreigners, so they think

Attacking brothers, so they do

Set them alight, Flames engulf human flesh

Blood drips, nobody helps, he's just another victim.

An unlucky victim of circumstance

He wouldnt be, if you took your stance

If you spoke out from the start when you heard that voice in your heart.

Telling you stand up, that voice telling you to man up.

not man up with violence, not man up with silence

but man up with your God given voice to say STOP!

Stop killin our brothers and sisters, black on black violence aint cool

Stop killing our childrens fathers, NO VIOLENCE is cool.

Physical violence, emotional violence, Verbal violence... aint cool

Their tongues being the worst weapons.

Speaking words of hate.

Words that leaves wounds that no medicine can heal

Words that sit in the minds of the people and are passed on from one generation... to another.

Words that echo... revenge.

Words that create a... vicious circle

Round and round, it goes, hate, upon hate, upon hate.

Why not create a virtuous circle

A circle built on love

That forgives, AND forgets.

A circle that remembers no wrongs

A circle that says:

yes, you are female, and you are male

yes, you are american, and you are african

yes, you are nigerian, and you south african

you are sotho, and you are zulu

you are colored, you are black, yes, you are white

yes, you are rich, and you are poor

and YES... you are human, and so am I...

This circle, has no corners,

This circle of love starts with me, then my children

This circles of love, that doesnt end, only has to start... with you.

END

[Poetic Seraph]

Liquid, lemme start with the "bad" news first. I know ur work, am a fan of ur work, so as ur fan I need to tell u that ur write wasn't what I expected nor hoped it to be

BUUUUT

I know u feel it too. I know u aren't 100% satisfied with this. U and me often write about similar subjects, so I know how u feel. U are probably so overwhelmed with feelings concerning this whole situation of racial violence (it just keeps to move around, from country to country), there are soooo many things u wanna say about it, so many things u wanna point out and so many feeling u need to deal with (anger, sadness, feeling like there's nothing u can really do about it and hating it, feeling strong enough to set ur foot down and try to do something about it, relating to the victims, not understanding how this could happen, not understanding how the government isn't doing shit,...) - where was I? Oh yeah - so there are so many things about this whole situation, that ur mind hasn't been able to really get into that poetic zone, as I call it. Cuz if u are a bit like me, that poetic zone is like controlled chaos. It's like u lock urself in an almost soundproof boot, carefully selecting which sounds (emotions, facts, ...) u let sip in to soak urself with, so u can find the perfect angle to write the perfect poem that will grasp that overwhelming chaos inside ur head that u can't let go off untill u wrote that perfect poem

so the write in itself felt - to me - a bit forced as I explained, so take a deep breath, imagine urself on a beach with ur eyes closed, listening to the sea hit the shore. or imagine urself in the middle of the attacks as a observing ghost that cant be seen by anybody there - breath out and give us that perfect poem. looking forward to it

i know i just keep going on and on, but i just wanted to point out that, from all the poetry places I've been to on the internet, AHH is the only one where pretty much all their poets seem to have that politics critical voice that they use. can't help but love it, yall some real down to earth people and that's why yall are so inspiring to me

ok, i'ma let yall continue whatever u were doing now. my bad!

[XTERMINATOR]

i used to be a FIRM believer in UBUNTU.But that has just been smashed into smithereens by the recent spate of violence in Southern Africa.Is Ubuntu something inherent in Africans,is it nurtured or is it fought for?What has happened to those intangible sentiments that used to bind African to African?It seems we are willing to talk about our attitudes to foreigners in internet chat rooms and other ivory towers whilst neglecting it in the real world.No one person can justify xenophobia on socio-economic grounds because to me its just plain bestiality.Anyway,who are the REAL FOREIGNERS in this case?Why is that the European man(who controls 90% of the wealth) didn't suffer the same fate as Ernesto who was burnt on a stake?As Africans we need to be really introspective when it comes to such issues

[nokuthula]

ppl these barbaric acts are unacceptable.

"But if you only have love for your own race

Then you only leave space to discriminate

And to discriminate only generates hate

And when you hate then your bound to get irritate"

backeyed peas is right .im actually ashamed to be south african when i see or hear from my friends who arent south african.guys lets stop blaming other pl for our problems,stop self disruption and love one another!this isnt right