A Poem by Wendy……Viva Zimbabwe….. Compassion…
by Bernie Bell - 08:55 on 17 October 2023
A Poem by Wendy
Which will resonate with anyone who has been in Orkney in the last couple of weeks.
And also with anyone who has struggled through life – and found shelter…
Bending in the crazy wind
Foot lifting, knee folding
Pushing through
A wall of solid air
Breath catching gasping
Open mouthed
Squinting eyes
Snatching tears
Peering bleary into the gale
Leaning, falling, stumbling
Into the shape of shelter
Suddenly there
Keep going, cajoling body
To be strong
Be strong as wind
Become the wish
Become the wind
Blow on
And on
Wendy Alford October ‘23
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Viva Zimbabwe…
I’m reading a collection of stories by someone I know who spent many years in various parts of Africa – at a time when very different behaviour and attitudes were considered to be acceptable. The author includes a picture of some rock art from Zimbabwe – which was then known as Rhodesia . I write that with gritted teeth – Rhodesia – Pshaw!
This prompted a memory of a friend, and of the time when Freedom Fighters gained independence for Zimbabwe.
Here’s the tale….
When I was at University in Mid-Wales, 1974 -77, one of my friends was known as Goldie. Goldie was from Zimbabwe – had been a Freedom Fighter there and was studying Geography and Environmental Studies with a view to returning home to teach. He had a fine collection of L.P’s – vinyl of course, at that time. Through him I was introduced to the music of the Bhundu Boys and King Sunny Ade – also the songs featured on ‘Viva Zimbabwe – Songs of the Freedom Fighters of Zimbabwe’.
Goldie graduated - did his Masters - and returned to Zimbabwe where he had no trouble getting a job as a Lecturer.
Years later he returned briefly for a visit to Wales with his wife and children. His son was a chip off the old block, with a strong attachment to his home-land.
Goldie’s wife said that something she liked about me was that she could tell me apart from other people.
I’m shorter than most folk - at that time I had a lot of curly red hair, fair skin with freckles and green/grey eyes. She said that, to her, a lot of ‘white’ people are nearly indistinguishable from each other.
I saw the irony of this, as ‘white’ people so often say of other races that they ‘all look the same’. Which is just as mistaken as her view!
It depends on what you’re used to – which is why people living in a society where they have the opportunity to get used to all kinds of people can help to produce harmony.
I wrote this…
“Race – described in the programme as the most pernicious of all myths. I’m not sure about that – some of the other myths have done, and are capable of doing, as much harm as the myths about racial inequality.
What’s referred to as racial prejudice, is often colour prejudice. If someone with a fair skin moves from, say, Eastern Europe or Ireland, by the next generation the accent has gone, and it’s harder for people to point the finger. A shading on the skin is easier of the bigots to see and react with their pet myths about it.
I grew up in Bradford, in Yorkshire, where you can get purely racially Asian people who talk with a broader accent than me!! I suppose that’s why I don’t understand colour prejudice, my friends were, and are, from all sorts of countries, like the Liverpool song says “There’s every race and colour of face, and every kind of name, but the pigeons on the pier-head, they treat us all the same”.
….in this… https://theorkneynews.scot/2020/12/09/beware-of-myths/
I’ve not had any more contact with Goldie – but he still owes me £10!
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Compassion…
On Sunday morning…
Compassion came to me. Compassion for myself, and others.
Then later I realised that I need to accept the part of me that has caused hurt – and together we can let it go. With an awareness of how sorry I am, and in the knowledge that I intend not to hurt again.
It’s the other side of the coin from embracing the part of me that was hurt, and together, letting it go.
Only hurt people, hurt.
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Here’s one I made earlier… https://theorkneynews.scot/2022/05/20/language-domination-or-one-way-to-squash-a-culture/
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