One morning, I woke up to the smells of fresh water and soap, of steaming hot porridge and the sounds of clicking teeth, yawns and low sounds of music from headphones that had been on since 8 hours ago. I woke up and thought to myself, that the power of understanding is indeed powerful. If you understand things thoroughly, then you automatically have power over someone who doesn’t.

The late Steve Bike couldn’t have said it better, “The greatest weapon of the oppressor is the mind of the oppressed”. It’s simple, if you have enough knowledge about enough things, then you won’t be easily manipulated, you’ll never succumb to it because you know. I realised that, our brothers and sisters from overseas are being marginalised because they don’t have enough knowledge to overpower their oppressors.

When I realised this, I decided to dedicate 70% of my life to making myself that flower, a flower in the sense that, I would plant the roots of my brain into books, people and environments that served as nutrients and water to my growth. I would use my roots to mould my stem and soul, so that I may know when the sun shines. I shine as well, when rough turmoil hits, I stand rigid because I’m certain that my sun will come out again in the morning.

In the midst of my growth, I met my soul mate Maja, he made me understand that when you think and believe that you know, you still don’t know. He made me see that life was so much more, than we could understand and that whenever we get close to figuring it out, we get further away from it. We then discover more of life’s beauty in that way. It’s like getting close to figuring out a puzzle, only to find that there is more to life and that you should want to discover and know more about it.

Maja was raised by his single mother, who was a very beautiful woman. She had this big afro, which was fuzzy and shiny; I envied her hair so much. She wore her heart on her sleeve, you could tell when she was serious or kidding. She was also in love with Uncle Sam, which I found hard to understand. I knew that in some traditions children were forced to marry their uncles, but she was a grown woman and I thought that she knew the difference between right and wrong.

They fell in love when she was young and had been together ever since, it was indeed true love. Maje had told me that his mother’s family had disowned her and Uncle Sam because of their relationship and that he was proud of her for sticking to her guns. He said that my dedication reminded him of his mother. I’ve had the privilege of being invited to their home four times to date. Their house was always messy. There was always music that played in a room somewhere in the house, which made it seem like the house was a movie setting. I adored his family very much.

I still remember the first time I went there, it wasn’t planned. I was on my way to the Grand Park where Maje waited for me. As I strode into the entrance of the park he walked towards me to greet me.

“Hey flower,” he said with a smile.

“Hey sexy,” I said back.

“Great weather neh?” He said.

“I think it looks like God.” I said.

“You always have to have the best descriptions neh? I mean I’m the poet here.” He argued. I laughed as he grabbed my hand and kissed my fingers one by one, sending shivers down my spine. “I missed you,” he said. “This is how adornment works flower, I kiss you everywhere, tenderly.” He said with a smirk.
“Look at where we live, nothing and no one is equal,” I said.
“Well, only to those who are ignorant to knowing that inside all of us are just skeletons with a soul.” He replied.

“What is your soul like?” I asked, pulling my hand back, and then widening my fingers so that he could inter twine his with mine. Then he suggested that we sit down, so we walked hand in hand to the nearest bench. As I sat on his lap he told me that he wasn’t a bad person and that he acknowledged his faults. He told me that he wasn’t scared to show me his soul and I asked him how that was possible.

“Are we going to meditate together? Or work on our merkhaba spin?” (A process where you try to see and develop your inner spin from two “auras” within ourselves) I asked.
“No,” he said and kissed my fingers again. He then got up and told me to follow him, I had no idea where he was going but I did.

As we walked he said, “Yaz (You know), life is so simple, flower. Have you ever tried to understand why people walk around hating each other? Or why they try to act like they don’t? I was listening to the radio this morning and apparently, it was reported that people and preachers from Limpopo, and other places I don’t know, kill and sell Albinos for their organs.” He said.

I was immediately nauseous at the gruesome information, but felt sad afterwards at the thought that people would do that to other people all because of the way they looked and what they were.

***

Tell us what you think: Why do you think people kill albinos for their organs? What power do they believe will come from that?