It is a defiant thought A growing rebellion My deepest, happiest, most frightening secret: I love myself even when I am love and hate all at once even when death visits more than life that which I detest about myself, isn't unloveable. it is deeply intertwined with that which I love. I am flawsome Loveable... Continue Reading →
Black, Black, Blackity, Black: A Caucacious Encounter with a Becky
"the other day...you know...sit down, let me talk to you. The other day when you were dressed... in your clothes, you look very pretty, you're a pretty girl- but you don't need all of that. You don't need those big earrings, all of that (makes motion of headwrap above her head), you don't need the... Continue Reading →
Coconut Oil
I'm sitting here, on my bed, on her bed, a strange bed, it is still my first week in England.I have just taken a shower and I'm doing my daily pocrastinatory day-dream before I put cream on.I'm thinking.Thinking of my childhood, its many contradictions, my discomfort then and coming to terms with it now.In my... Continue Reading →
Personal Mastery
"Personal Mastery is a lifelong journey, you never arrive, it is a commitment to continuously improve yourself.""Personal Mastery is about:-self love-awareness of what has shaped you-a clarity of purpose"These were some of the first few words I heard upon my arrival at King's College London. I'm starting my second Master's programme, a mere three weeks... Continue Reading →
A Praise Song for the Womxn I am Becoming
A Praise SongThose moments when I catch a glimpse of myselfand marvel!I live for those momentsMy body has known few of themSo when they happenI relish those momentsI singI danceI take out my camera and wowLook at Me! Me!I am free, unburdenedfalling in love with the womxn I am becomingIsn't she a beauty?
Overcoming Subversive Violence a Lesson in Singing to the Moon
It took me falling in love to learn how truly broken I was. You never know how many messages about loving wrong are ingested from the toxic relationships you grow up seeing, until you start performing that toxicity yourself. I grew up around violence. Physical and Verbal. It was there barefaced, omnipresent. I remember swearing off toxic... Continue Reading →
Body Positivity, a Cyclical Process: because yesterday, I still cried.
“no one can define who you are without your permission”- @anisahamat_ (IG). For years, I have internalised so many harmful lessons, unlearning them is taking just as long. From family, I learnt that I was too dark, too weird, the ugly smart one, derogatorily referred to as Baartman. From toxic friends, I learnt again that... Continue Reading →
Unlearning Human Aspirations
"The function, the very serious function of racism, is distraction" - Toni MorrisonThey tell us we are apes, so we spend our time hating apes and fighting to be recognised as human.They tell us we are not human, so we use our energy telling them that we matter, re batho: Motho ke motho ka batho*. Humanity is... Continue Reading →
Escaping Here, to Me!
This is a poem I wrote on my first few days of travelling in Germany and Poland. The poem was inspired by series of events in which I found myself, as a black traveller, triggered by the essentialist views of myself and Africans in general, triggered by ignorance, triggered by the dehumanising stares, triggered by... Continue Reading →
Unfinished. Becoming
incompleteness. a fear that has become me Unfinished. starting is difficult continuing is easy but the end? its as elusive as ever Becoming Its a process Nothing is incomplete. Just completing An Unfinished Becoming.
mamello.art 