Adwoa, Abena, Akua, Yaa, Afia, Ama.
Akosua, raped by Mr. Frank. Akosua, who stabbed the burly man with a pair of scissors. Akosua, who spent 10 hours a day mining for the red faced Chinese man who rescued me from jail. Akosua, pregnant at 21 for one of the four men. Akosua, who murmurs names of her sisters like a prayer at midnight,
Adwoa, Abena, Akua, Yaa, Afia, Ama.
May the morning bring you a little light In death.
UTYWALA BE LANGA LOKUFA
Written by Vangile Gantsho Performed by Vangile Gantsho
Ngelanga lam lokufa, Umakazi arrives a week early to see me through the rains. She brews two barrels of utshwala while managing a relentless cough. My goat does not stop crying. They say your goat will do as you did throughout your journey.
Ubaba asks that I be allowed to cry. That I cry all my tears finished, so I can heal. There are many lifetimes returning to relive their unhealed wounds. And I understand why the unions say injury to one is injury to all.
( Speaking Xhosa)
There is a town at the meeting of two ley lines built on a burial ground. Someone has put a house on top of another someone’ s grandmother. A cafe on a different someone’ s uncle. To learn the bones, we must sleep on them for three days. But you cannot rest if you are always sleeping on bones. And to be tired is to be separated from peace.