Thread by @SoliPhilander

#SheIsSafe

Much has been made of my contribution to making this hashtag a reality for a little girl at risk.

I owe an explanation about how this wasn't me, but about everybody.

To do that I have to tell you about my children. I love my children. They live a heart-breaking

reality, wedged in here between the City and the rest of the country, with a fortitude and determination that echoes something vested in my cells a long time ago.

I played here as a child. Stayed here as a child. Memories of laughing together, sorrowing together, being together,

unconciously laced into the fabric of who I am, what I'm doing and why this time, this place, this particular expression.

Happines was seeded in me here. Hope. Humanity. Heart.

Here I belonged.

So when we were flung over there, wrenched from love and scattered like

so many broken pieces of pottery to be further crushed and ground into the barren sands of The Cape Flats, bonded broken slivers in the backyards of Belville and ironically fossiled in Atlantis found - it is from the other side of the Peninsula Mitchell's Plain sounds -

(As I say in NICE COAT:

'And amongst the privileged - did I say that? - close around the mountain spread
Lies only Walmer Estate, Bo-Kaap and the broken landscape of District Six as a not white alternative, like I said
And even when you go the mountain round

It's only shanty-like Imzamo Yethu, the Hangberg Flats above Hout Bay, and obscurely located Ocean View to be found')

- when we were diminished as a people, profiled as a culture and failed to make the grade, our sorrow for the world on parade, our vigour and our energy degraded.

It was then when memories of the way we were, who we were and what we meant to express sustained us.

The knowledge that it wasn't always this. We weren't always like this

We were better. We were somebody. But more. We were the fabric of this city. We were the laughter, the joy, the welcome. We really were 'The Tavern Of The Seas'

This is where they came - the people who came to look for more than what the postcards had to offer, the Mediterranean weather proposed, Mother Nature gifted standing on the backs of others.

And we welcomed them.
And made them feel home.
How we made this city ours

Do you feel pain? Do you sorrow? And suffer? How dare you. How dare you. You look at my children like they don't matter. You act like it doesn't matter the horrors they have to normalize. You have normalized the stunting of growth, thwarted the realization of opportunity, and

distorted the capacity to vision and dream.

What need of your pain and sorrow when here my children have to battle pain and sorrow expressed.

My children have asked me to represent them. I speak on their behalf when I say : It Stops

You will not look down on us anymore.

You will not look past us anymore
You will not drive through us anymore

We are not going to justify being here
We are not going to excuse being here
We are not going to live like this is our only here

We are Coloured Black (I don't the hell know, but it's a damn fine

explanation - Xhosa Black, Zulu Black, Indian Black)
We are from Springfield Terrace, District Six
And we're ready to show the whole world what an extraordinary thing that is.
Because we live in a community that was battered into giving up. Somewhere in our

insides it always ends up badly.
But in this community we've decided to take that chance.
Especially our children

There is much to say about the system and processes. In talking about them you will hear my gratitude for the individuals in this whole thing who let

their humanity be their guide.
I want to acknowledge my community though. You have to understand that we were at our wits end. We didn't know what to do anymore. We didn't know what we were going to do.

My children - it was you. This is you. You brought us here. Thank you
Now let's get our centre back

(Step Two)

Ziyaad
Nadema
Razaan
Zahier
Jasmien
Sappie
Moena
Dullah
Maurico
Joubell
Joker
Shahiedah
Five Bob
Chantall
Melda
Anthea
Adrian
Tasbo
Visser
Ilhaam
Jimmy
Ursie
Outie
Michelle
Salama
Sharon
Nicky
Ashley
Berenice
Tang
Gammat
Riefa
Fieka
Rionel
Jackie
Ben
Anna
Visser

Dia ouens wat langsaan Riefa bly, Maurico se tjommies
Masters
Mailie Koppe
Robin
Heinie
Galiema
Auntie A
Rameesa
Jep
Shanaaz
Boeba
Jean
Adrian
Uzair
Saadija
(Die hele kaboedel - I'm missing many)
Point being, you carried us to the door
En die kinners vat os oorie drumpel