AM I NEXT

AM I NEXT?

The prevalence of violence in South Africa is the equivalent of that in countries at war, with 110 rapes and 56 murders a day.

At war and waiting

Betrothed to the statistic

1 in 3, you or me

Current affairs- they left her for death

Iwas sitting in the window seat of a taxi on my way home after a long day when I learned of Uyinene Mrwetyana’s death. The 19 year old student from the University of Cape Town had been missing since 24 August 2019. The news came through the voice of a middle-aged man speaking in isiZulu on the afternoon airwaves. My throat tightened and tears welled up, threatening to spill and betray me.

The taxi fell silent. uMa shook her head somewhere in the front seat with an “Oh Nkosi ’yam.” The male passengers, taxi driver included, went mute. After the 5 ‘o’clock news, Samthing Soweto’s Akulaleki accompanied us home and normal, jovial programming resumed. On Friday the 13 th of September 2019, hundreds of women gathered in front of the Johannesburg Stock Exchange demanding that listed companies pledge 2% of their funds towards the fight against gender-based violence. The march was meant to be a shutdown of the richest square mile in Africa. Instead, it was a wake- for all the womxn like Uyinene who could not be there that day and those of us who must still walk around with our own ghosts. It was a womxn in waiting, a plea ignored, a call silenced and a message left on seen and read. The normalcy we tried so hard to disrupt persisted unbothered, interrupted only temporarily by our unions at traffic lights and intersections. On the day of the march, a truth I knew all too well stared me dead in the face -no one was coming to save us.

The feelings around this resulted in the project shot. A bride in waiting with no one coming for her. Seen but never acknowledged. Her bouquet a blossom of current affairs. Betrothed to the statistic – “ 4 times the international femicide rate”, “ every 3 hours…” We are in waiting, wondering #amInext?