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CONTENTS
07 | PEEPLE 08
The Sister of the Seed
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Home is a Feeling Cover Feature
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Transcending Phases
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A Multi-Faceted Light-Bender
23 | PAIN & JOY 24
Africans Do Not Fall in Public
28 | EARTH 29
Empty Silos: The Harvest Chasers
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The Electronic Waste Monsters
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Understanding The Past to See The Future
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Consume
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ILIWA Consultancy
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A Visual Story Teller
EDITOR’S NOTE: HAIKUS NATHI DASS Editor-In-Chief
1 New season, new us Trees awaken and blossom Together with us 2 When I hold you and You hold me we grow taller Than the warm sunlight 3 Lay in the Spring sun. Become one and two - the world And you; dasien shine
WINTER / SPRING
ISSUE SEVEN
1 SECTION ONE
PEEPLE
THE SISTER OF THE SEED words by SHANICE NDLOVU Shanice Ndlovu is a twenty five year old Zimbabwean writer. She also started and runs a poetry podcast called the Poedcast. Ndlovu has previously published short stories in anthologies such as Botsotso and the K&L Prize. Her debut collection of short stories, The Pride of Noonlay, is set to be published by Modjaji books. She was recently crowned the Hadithi ya Africa Ultimate Storyteller for the year 2020.
IG: @shaniceaaliyahsnow
down the slope. She dipped her gourd into the water and felt the river sweep over her ankles. And her feet merged in the mud. The river was awake, the flowers were like generous eyes behind the trees; wondering, and not knowing eyes, fresh in the world.
The cold had fled for the hills, the coward of the north left nothing but frost in its wake. The girl was glad for this new feel, this warmth in the air, and wished there were a name for it. It did have a name but not one that was its very own. Intwasahlobo was a borrowed name, before the summer. This warmth deserved one of its own.
The gourd fell from her hands and sank into the water as the girl turned and ran home. She fell panting into her mother’s hut and the older woman stared startled through the fire
The dizzying heat that came after this warmth they named ihlobo. Then the sun and the thundering rains took turns on their fields. This was also the sister of the harvest crops, they carried the same name and saying it made the girl smile and salivate at the thought of leagues of watermelons and maize as high as her father.
“Have you seen the dead... child?” the mother asked. “No, ma,” the girl panted. “I know what the name is, I know what we are to name the warmth.”
A cool breeze - the echo of the coward they named ubusika - whispered through her hair and over the nemesias that struggled awake with the morning. The girl kicked stones into the grass as she walked and continued to wonder. After the heat came the fall, ikwindla, when she got to feast. The maize was boiled with pumpkin and drunk-warm when the wind forgot itself and blew cold. A lot of the food was stored in deep granaries of mud and grass, but the watermelons were devoured on site.
“What are we to name it?” the mother sighed, smiling in spite of herself. “Inzalo’’, like the seed, they shall be sisters. Everything is born now, everything is new, everything has a chance to start again,” said the girl. “Inzalo, the sister of the seed.”
The girl smacked her lips and grinned, she could hear the river now and ran
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Cover Feature
PULENG MONGALE Puleng Mongale was born in 1991 in Orlando East, Soweto. She matriculated in 2009 and went on to attain a General BA, majoring in English and Communication Science at the University of South Africa. In 2015 she enrolled at Umuzi, a creative hub based in Jeppestown, and pursued copywriting, earning herself jobs in several reputable advertising agencies. Although constantly surrounded by photographers, Puleng only picked up a camera in September 2019. Currently, her favored medium of expression is digital collages fused with self-portraiture.
IG: pulengmongale
Puleng Mongale, Lord
d Lift Us Up, digital collage and photography
Puleng Mongale, Encounters with the Departed, digital collage and photography
Puleng’s artistic expression is mostly influenced by the life stories of the women in her life; women who raised her and women in her family who she has heard about but never met- such as her late great grandmother who she is named after. She also draws inspiration from the black, working-class women she encounters daily in the city. Puleng’s digital collage work is a search for identity through an internal dialogue that revolves around a re-imagined history, the establishment and maintenance of ancestral relationships, black womanhood, and re/claiming her heritage.
Puleng Mongale, Cravings of a City Girl, digital collage and photography
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Puleng Mongale, Home is a Feeling, digital collage and photography
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Puleng Mongale, Manyeloi a Phelang, digital collage and photography
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TRANSCENDING PHASES words by OFENTSE MODUKA Ofentse Moduka is a 25-year old Black creative born and bred in Johannesburg, South Africa. The Rhodes University BJourn graduate is the second born and eldest girl of five. She enjoys using various mediums to create varied pieces of work- when she is called she answers. Employed as a Multimedia Journalist, she is still not sure what she would like to be when she grows up.
IG & Twitter: @ofentsemdk YouTube: Ofentse Moduka
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Society is glaringly obsessed with the idea of reinvention- it’s me, I’m society. During lockdown, reinvention took on a new meaning for me, a more meaningful conversation was sparked about identity and what that meant in relation to the world. In the past, I associated substantial change with visual and measurable markers of what it means to be reborn. With distance from the monotonous routine of normality, exchanged for a life more dedicated to solitude (privilege observed), there was an opportunity to meet myself in a more intimate way. As a young person still actively transitioning from adulthood-lite, to a more saturated form of adulting, I can confirm that it’s difficult, as Brittney Spears’ “I’m Not A Girl, Not Yet A Woman” shows. I was struck by how so little is done to prepare you for what adulthood actually means.
Adulthood requires a different version of youmore than what a final year varsity student realizes and sometimes it is overwhelming. There is enough confusion to confirm your naivety. This stands counterpoint to everything you think you know about life. The onslaught of more responsibility transformed me in a way that I do not have the language to express yet.
One must be and consider everything with an awareness that the stakes are significantly higher while also taking the steps to prioritise what makes you happy. What if what makes you happy is not the ‘adult thing’ or the thing that makes sense? What if waking up everyday, knowing that you have to go do that thing, releases knots in your stomach in the moments you prepare for another day? During lockdown my internal conversation became less about what I do not want, in favour of what I want and see for myselfwhat is good for me and what inspires me. Most recently, I was inspired by Cardi B and Meg Thee Stallion’s success with their newly released chart-topper “WAP”, the books I am reading and my peers who are standing up and putting themselves out there- a revolutionary act. I feel a transformation more significant than a haircut or a new device. It is something which requires gradual change as well as the daily decision to try everyday and be easier with myself and focus on what grows me and my self-esteem. It is not easy and it isn’t over. This informed major changes in how I live and think. Now that lockdown is easing, lingering curiosity has peaked to an insatiable extent. I wonder how the world has shifted and what that means for all of us in it, but whatever the case and phase, please be easy on yourself and know that you are not alone.
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A MULTI-FACETED LIGHT-BENDER UNDOING AND EVOLVING by BRANDON-LEE FREDERICKS I am Brandon-Lee Fredericks, a coloured gay guy from the Southern Suburbs of Cape Town, South Africa. I am a digital marketing strategist during my 9-5, and a creative and an LGBTQ+ activist during my out-of-office time. I own my own unisex clothing brand; Oh South. My piece is based on my love for multiple areas of my life whilst undoing and evolving in each of them. IG: @brandonleefred @ohsouth
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In the roots of human evolution, past conditioning needs to be undone. 28 November 1993, I breathed my first breath on earth – a young coloured boy born in Cafda Retreat CPT, in a household with 3 women (my mother and two sisters), a tough upbringing, and an absent dad. I discovered my story clearly at the age of 6, let me tell you how life evolved from there. It was only when I accepted my sexuality and came out at 21 that I was able to further discover more of myself and more of my identity. I had to undo all my past conditions and perceptions of what ‘gay’ and ‘my story’ meant to me to learn to love and accept myself fully. Love is at the heart of it all, it is the foundation for everything I am passionate about, everything I give light to - my love for another, my love for creativity, my love for activism and my love for evolving spiritually. LOVE FOR ANOTHER Let me tell you about my love story. For most of my teen years I was hiding my sexuality, flings with girls that lasted less than a month and a constant floating thought that was screaming “you are both emotionally and physically attracted to guys, you are gay”. I had to undo the thought of me fighting to ‘become straight’, I had to undo the thought of how society was going to react to me coming out, I had to undo the thought of gays having to be and look a certain way, all of this was necessary, all the undoing of past unhealthy conditioning about my sexual identity. At the age of 21 I dated my first boyfriend, it felt right, it felt like I was finally becoming more of myself. We were dating for nearly 2 years, and what I can tell you about that love story was that I LEARNT. I learned my ability to love unconditionally, to forgive, to build, and to evolve, to become more of Brandon-Lee. Today I am dating my best friend, my soulmate, the Taurus to my
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Sagittarius star. We often get asked what the secret to our relationship is, our response: Love, communication, understanding, a vision, evolve individually and together, and lastly, shoving the ego away. Loving is like watering a plant, to keep it alive and blooming you need to water it, even on those days when you do not feel like it; the days you become unconsciously aware – there’s art to the way you love. LOVE FOR CREATIVITY I discovered my passion for creating at an early age, spurred on by a deep wanting, a wanting to lay my hands on multiple forms of creativity and to produce with purpose. Fashion was my playground in 2013, I ran my own blog and worked with a fashion project, which aimed to support local fashion designers and models in South Africa. Fast track to 2018, I discovered my ability to sew, so I launched my own timeless clothing
for me to further voice the things I hold dear to my heart, like advocating for healthy LGBTQ+ relationships, rights, and inclusivity. I believe that NOW is the time to further amplify our community’s voices, to have more representation in all areas of life, especially within the creative space. For the African LGBTQ+ community to celebrate and share their stories with the world, and to find role models within our own African countries. We cannot celebrate our identity and community if we are not being inclusive and aware of everything happening around us. We need the gay and transgender kids growing up to switch on the TV or go on the internet and see representation in its honest form, for the next generation to not feel like they are alienated but to grow up knowing that they belong. We need our schools to educate children about the LGBTQ+ history and rights and to create safer school environments. You have a voice, use it, use that power to create change, in whichever way you choose to, whether it’s through social media, art, creativity, however you are wanting to channel that power and light.
brand, Oh South - a new-gen unisex brand celebrating the escapades of tomorrow. Spending late nights in my mother’s living room sewing garment after garment, wanting to instil a story in each piece. Oh South is my creative safe haven, a space where I allow my ideas to flow, where I’m able to tell a story in each piece I produce. This September I launched my second limited collection, it’s inspired by being grounded, it’s timeless, it’s what summer feels like. Creativity is freedom in the form of expression, rebellion in physical and visual form, it is an escape room to materialise what dwells in one’s mind. My 9-to-5 allows me to further play on my creativity as a digital marketing strategist. I studied Marketing at CPUT and now work for a digital agency where I’m able to produce innovative digital strategies for major brands in South Africa like Heineken, Diageo, Lancewood, Burger King, Pioneer Foods, Spur Group, and KWV to name a few. Being creative comes in multiple forms, and I am constantly yearning to discover every corner of its multiple dimensions. LOVE FOR ACTIVISM
LOVE FOR SPIRITUALITY
After coming out I was always drawn towards the larger LGBTQ+ community and wanting to share my story, which drove me to advocating and using my social media as a creative and storytelling channel. I recently joined Triangle Project as an LGBTQ+ activist and an ambassador (the organisation challenges homophobia and transphobia in South Africa, providing a range of services to the LGBTQ+ community, such as mental health support, clinical support, safe spaces, support groups and community engagement to name a few), which opened up the opportunity and platform
When asked what I believe in, my succinct answer is “in a higher spiritual being, in me being a reflection of God, in the universe and all of its energy force”. I am currently completing two courses, one in Mindfulness and the other in Spiritual Life Coaching. I believe that each and every person has their own relationship with God, how you wish to fulfil that relationship is up to you and should never be enforced on anyone else. As I evolved on my spiritual journey, I had to undo past beliefs of who and what God was, and what was required of me to be spiritual. I speak
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of my love for spirituality because it plays a pivotal part in the way I perceive, react, and create, it plays an important part in me evolving as a creative and vocal being. Tapping into my own energy allows me to not only be mindful but to fulfil whatever goal I have with purpose. During my Mindfulness course I’m learning and able to put to practice the essence of becoming consciously aware of all my passion points (loving, creating, and advocating) in a way that feels honest, pure and progressive. I slowly learnt what was driving the ego for quick and easy pleasures, rewards and
social approval was not fulfilling my soul purpose. Today I feel more aligned, I feel more connected, I feel more evolved.
I am a multi-faceted light-bender – a lover, a creative, an activist and a spiritual being. I am of African soil, I am gay, I am coloured, and I am Brandon-Lee Fredericks.
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2 SECTION TWO
PAIN & JOY
AFRICANS DO NOT FALL IN PUBLIC words by SITAWA WAFULA Originally from Kenya, Sitawa Wafula is a full time grad student in Lancaster, Pennsylvania and runs My Mind My Funk – a mental health and epilepsy support hub – which hosts a podcast under the same name.
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diagnosed with epilepsy which opened me up to fifteen years’ of falling due to seizures.
Having grown up in a country that experiences warm-to-hot temperatures all year round, I am not a fan of the snow season. This past winter was my second time experiencing it. The locals described it as not being a true representation of the season because the usual inches of snow were not reached. With my novice experience, I can agree that it was not as cold, the horizon was not as white, and the roads were not as bad as they were the previous year. But just as I was getting comfortable with this revised version of winter, I learnt in a very uncomfortable way that one still needs to exercise caution - especially when the roads looked somewhat clear.
According to the World Health Organization, epilepsy is a chronic noncommunicable disease of the brain that affects around 50 million people worldwide. It is mostly characterized by recurrent seizures, which are brief episodes of involuntary movement that may involve a part of the body or the entire body.
One morning, after yet another sporadic night of snowing, I was on my usual route to the bus stop when I somehow moved from normal eye view to that of a worm’s. I had fallen in public. I got up just as fast as I had fallen and moved with such impressive speed to the other side of the platform before anyone could make out what had happened. When I was sure that no one on that side had seen my misfortune, I shared my experience with a friend. In her response, she introduced me to ‘black ice’ which gets its name from the fact that when snow melts, it becomes clear. This makes one think that they are walking on the (black) tarmac, when they are actually on slippery ice. To lighten my mood, she sent some hilarious videos of black ice falls and recommended shoe brands to help reduce future risk of falling. I might be new to the snow season and sneaky things like black ice, but I am not new to falling. If there were honors to be given, I would be a distinguished professor. At the age of 17, I was
Back then, I did not have a friend to share my experiences with and so when I questioned why I was falling, I did not get a response that either explained what was happening to me or gave me tools to make me feel better and reduce the risk of falling in the future. In our African setting, friendly conversations about epilepsy are rare due to the ignorance that surrounds it. The stigma towards those with the illness makes it hard for people to get the right information and access appropriate support. This environment made it hard for me to accept my diagnosis. To add salt to injury, my falls were not just health related as I also fell in my schooling when I had to drop out due to increased seizures and, in my career, when I was fired after having a seizure in the workplace. As a young African woman, trying to figure out life from what many perceived as a fallen pasture was hard. It took a lot of inner work for me to move from self-stigma to accepting my diagnosis.
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Through these efforts, I was able to learn my triggers and create a self-care routine which, coupled with the doctor’s directions, helped reduce the falls. It has been four years since I had my last seizure. This opened me up to trying things that had fallen through the cracks with my health. One of those things was my education. At the beginning of 2019, right in the middle of winter, I relocated to the US to restart my higher education journey. I was not worried about my transition partly because of the positive narratives given by people who had made such moves and the fact that I had conquered what I believed was my life’s greatest test. I was looking forward to sharing my own success stories after years of struggling with my health. Just as I was getting comfortable with this revised version of my life that did not include falling down - physically, I learnt in a very uncomfortable way that one still needs to exercise caution. It came as a shock to me when I started struggling a few weeks into my move. All the self-care routines that had helped me deal with the seizures were not as helpful in this new environment and my emotional as well as mental health went under as I struggled to find my footing. I was falling yet again – and I did not like it. As part of my getting-back-to-my-feet strategy, I reached inwards to evaluate myself for the stories we tell ourselves are equally as important as the stories we tell others. When concluding her TED Talk titled, “The Danger of a Single
Story” Nigerian author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, explains the importance of stories by pointing out that though they have been used to dispossess and malign, they can also be used to empower, to humanise and to repair broken dignity. In the beginning, I beat myself a lot for not being able to transition well and quickly. As Africans, we are a people who take pride in our victories but rarely talk about our pitfalls. Part of this might be the fact that our society discourages us from sharing the struggles the family is going through. Instead, it encourages us to take pride in the siblings with high ranking corporate titles or those who are married into socially respected families as we ignore siblings with lesser standing. During my fifteen years of living with epilepsy, I interacted with families that went to the extent of hiding their epileptic children or other forms of illnesses and disabilities in spaces, all in the name of maintaining an ‘upright family name’. Those with friends and relatives living abroad, always see a gallery of ‘the good life’ and rarely hear about the struggle that comes with transitions. In a way, our society moulds us to tell a single story – a story in which we as Africans do not fall in public. It creates systems that promote this story making it hard for us to see the other side. Unfortunately, we internalise this structure of telling a single story to the point that that is how we tell ourselves stories. As I look back to those initial days, the issue was less about my transition and more about the single story I was telling myself based on this background. I did not want to fall in public.
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I have been in the US for 20 months now and I am still trying to find my footing. I am in a better place than I was last year and I do not see this process of finding my place as a hindrance but more of an invitation to dig deeper into the stories I have been telling myself since I was a 17-year-old girl who had to fight stigma and discrimination in a space where there was no access to proper information and adequate support structures. I have a long way to go but I am glad that my story now acknowledges that even though I am seizure-free I will fall over and over again in different stages of my life and there is no shame in that. The new story also gives me space to take as much time as I need to heal emotionally and mentally as I navigate this new environment and the triggers that come with it.
By rejecting the single story that I have fed myself and others, and that my upbringing and society has fed me over the years, I am – as Chimamanda puts it - ‘regaining a kind of paradise’.
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3 SECTION THREE
EARTH
EMPTY SILOS: THE HARVEST CHASERS by MERLYN NOMSA NKOMO Merlyn is a Conservation Biology master’s student at the University of Cape Town. She is an ornithologist, and feels at home in the wild with a pair of binoculars. However, she also loves people, diversity of cultures and strives in her work to bridge the gap towards a sustainable coexistence between humanity and nature. IG & Twitter: @merynomsa
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trader, she plays the role of the middle man between the rural farmers and the urban markets reliant on agriculture. Over the past thirty years at bus ranks like this, her trade has grown from hardworking women hawkers carrying grain, fruits and other forest products like mopane worms on their heads to fully stocked open stands. This trade was previously looked down upon and mostly for women, travelling to remote rural areas in what we call chicken buses and being homeless for days with sacks in search of farm produce. As the droughts began to intensify and the economy crashed, men began to take an interest in this previously unappreciated trade. Competition for the scarce and best produce increased until one had to travel further and trade even across the borders. In her pursuit for ‘stock’, my mother has travelled all around Zimbabwe, parts of Zambia and Mozambique collecting a wide variety of crops throughout the year. Crops like iNyawuthi (Pearl Millet), uPhoko (Finger Millet) and Amabele (Sorghum) are some of the traditional crops she would encourage people to grow instead of maize due to their drought resistance and health benefits.
For millions of families in the developing world, sustenance is what they can bring out from fields they till. The backaches and blisters gained from manual ploughing with a hoe determine if millions of children will go to school, have shoes or afford healthcare when they need it most. The clumps of soil broken by ox-drawn ploughs are where every plate of food for the year will come from, literally. All of this happens and hinges on the events of one season, the rainy season. The consistency of the climate that was known by past generations that perfected when, what and how to cultivate crops is important for continued food security. My experience in cultivating crops during my childhood brings dreadful memories of long hours of tiring painful labour. The uncertainty of what the ground beneath you will yield if the francolins and crows do not steal your seeds was just daunting. Like me then, many young children in rural areas are heavily invested in the weather, how much and how hard it rains, how hot and how long the sunshine days will be. It is a life lived on the edge of your seat for a whole season. One grows up too fast to notice the sky above, the trees sprouting or the maize blooming prematurely, all these cues in the environment as if to say brace yourself. For many of these families, it is much like gambling in a game you have no choice but to keep playing in and even if you win, your takings cannot keep you out of it for too long. To these poor people, climate change is a tangible reality they are aware of.
It was from watching women like my mother, who are crucial at household level in food production and provision in the African context, that I learnt about the economy of the poor. When iMbozis’amahlanga fell (the first rain that sweeps away the chaff), everyone even urban folk took to the fields in faith to prepare them for planting as though the divine signal had been heralded. They would till the land and then they would wait for more environmental cues to decide when and what to plant. As this happens the granaries are empty, my mother would store her best seed for the
In a crowded busy bus rank called eRenkini (meaning at the rank) in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe, my mother has worked selling her wares from the time she left high school in the 80s. As an experienced
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beginning of the farmers’ run. Depending on what people thought of the season and where they lived, they would choose from a wide variety of cereals which to invest in, although maize remained the most sought after crop. The middle “women”, would drive this small economy, giving advice as to what seed variants would be best, sharing information from the places they had traversed in their quest for new harvests and supplying the urban market’s demand. Like clockwork iNsewula (the rain that establishes the shoots) would fall in late September after which iSiqotho (thunderstorms) would fall in the height of the summer heat recharging water reserves and cooling the earth. At the beginning of the new year, what we call iMvimbi (literally meaning to block) would fall, this would be a time of the season when the rains would fall softly and continuously (non-stop) until it was harvest time. Throughout this time, other crops like groundnuts, melons, sugar cane and other variants of our traditional foods would be produced for the markets giving the farmers clues of what the big harvest would yield. Now that I am older I understand why it is a tradition for my people to enquire about the rain when greetings are done; linjani izulu? (how is the rain where you are/are coming from). As teens, we made fun of this culture and used the statements to jest about old or boring people. Knowing about the rain has always been important to the subsistent rural African. Enquiring about how the rain has been falling in other places has been a crucial part of knowledge sharing and climate study. This knowledge would direct and inform investment, prompting movements of people to source food and trade with other communities according to what was beneficial. With climate change,
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the complexities of their predicament. Hundreds of thousands are still wagering their lives annually on the Mediterranean seas, fleeing poverty and hunger ten years before the deadline of the UN first and second Sustainable Development Goal to end poverty and hunger. Are we closer to reaching the goal, or is it yet again a moving target?
it is these millions of people who will be on the frontline of this impending battle. These Ndebele names to distinguish the types and times of rain are not just nouns in a language. They bear centuries of traditions, ceremonies and beliefs about the climate, food security and the future of communities. It is our age-old understanding of the annual movements of air masses and cold fronts that could be taught to children so they knew what the birds and trees around them are forecasting. As the climate changes, this sequence and its behaviour are being lost along with centuries of traditions and methods.
As the scientific evidence mounts, it is no longer an issue of if it will happen but how soon. Climate change has been a topical issue for decades now, remaining in denial or regarding it as a myth is a utopia Africans cannot inhabit. The rising temperatures and increased extreme weather events are exceeding even the most developed economies’ capacity and preparedness. Whilst money and improved disaster response can be achieved the economic, biodiversity and human wellbeing losses should not be taken lightly. Unfortunately, the efforts to address climate change achieve less and less with each international convention and agreement signed and the world’s poorest and vulnerable continue to be disappointed by organisations they do not even know represent them. What will it take for us to achieve our climate change targets? Where is the disconnect? Why is target after target, resolution after another all leaving us in the same track to destruction? Is the propensity of the matter lost in translation as you climb the ladder, from matters of survival to powerful addresses delivered at summits named after cities in developing countries that won’t bear the brunt of their failures?
THE BIG DISCONNECT The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) projected that there could be over 200 million Climate refugees by the year 2050. We have all heard it before that the next World War will be over water. It all sounds like exaggerations but the exodus and strife have begun. In my lifetime the tone of global talk has shifted from the world being a “Global Village” where travel and diversity are fostered, to strong nationalist agendas and xenophobia. The invisible lines that separate nations on maps are becoming bold and in some instances walled at the height of our civilisation’s coming together. It is, after all, the way our species moves towards adaptation to change and scarcity in the environment. Interestingly enough, this year the United Nations (UN) ruled that the deportation of climate refugees was a violation of human rights and is now unlawful and refugees would be those whose lives are threatened by climate change. Although this puts pressure on developed countries to act it does not do much for the most vulnerable people who have to prove that climate change is a threat to their human rights to a decent life when they barely understand
My generation is inheriting a damaged and broken world and the exchange of powers is not happening as fast as it needs to. The scars of society are not nearly as deep as those that have been inflicted on the environment
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through industrialisation and continued greed. The inequality worsens leaving many people and countries preferring to focus on the present never mind the next five years. This is an age when politicians should be put to task and quizzed on their plans to move their countries forward in the face of Climate Change. However, many often find themselves grateful for the food aid they receive in exchange for bilateral agreements for more assaults on the environment. Our leaders are making national action plans for years they will not be alive to endure. People are making decisions on empty stomachs to the detriment of nature and biodiversity. Too much has been said, twice more has been written in technical reports and scientific literature, a lot remains to be done before we are desensitised to stats of the effects of cyclones, droughts, wildfires and rising sea levels and temperatures like they do not affect real humans and living animals. I do not know enough about the ways and workings of the world but I am certain that the system needs to be broken down and built again and this generation has the will and hands to do it. The next time my father asks me how the rain is where I am, I hope I will
have a relevant message for him and his generation on what climate change truly means for our lives. Africa desperately needs African solutions to its plagues, not food aid and imported strategies.
The words of Leon Megginson (not Charles Darwin) still ring true today that “it is not the strongest species that survives, nor is the most intelligent, but the one that can adapt and adjust to the changing environment it finds itself� (1963). As African nations, we need to adapt and adjust our ways of thinking and acting, the criteria on which we choose our leaders and our capitalistic relationship with the environment we depend on for everything. Our attitudes towards our neighbours need to change as the planet is in an unprecedented transition we have failed to curb and new strengths for adaptive capacity could be found in them. We should not seek to replicate the systems that exploited and continue to fail our continent in our course towards adaptation. Only this way will we overcome.
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THE ELECTRONIC WASTE MONSTERS by FAREEDAH BHAGOO I am Fareedah Bhagoo, a Zambian artist currently studying a Bachelor of Fine Arts at Rhodes university in South Africa. Art has always been my way of expressing myself and questioning the society we are a part of. I am inspired by the people and places I interact with as well as the social and political issues in our society. This project I present focuses on the illegal dumping of electronic waste in Zambia. IG: @fareedah_bhagoo
This project focuses on the endemic inequality and the global circulation of electronic waste. Countries in the global south like Zambia are at risk of becoming electronic graveyards. The challenges faced in Zambia are due to the lack of enactment of legal instruments and the lack of resources to carry out formal recycling. In the art works titled “toxic oppression”, I create a scene for a speculative fiction that takes place in a dystopian landfill site. This artwork aims to confront the viewer with the risks of electronic waste. I imagine a world where these monsters revisit the spaces of their imagined past. Moving against the consumer driven currents. Zambia only has one formal landfill site named ‘Chunga’. With the lack of resources and increased levels of electronic waste, most of Zambia’s electronic waste is buried illegally, therefore polluting the soil and the water. The digital painting of a hippo was created in order to illustrate the effects of poor management of electronic waste on wildlife. This portrays the connections between geographical and social issues in Zambia. We have a duty to educate and inform the wider population in the manner that we can do best. This work is how I rise to that duty.
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Fareedah Bhagoo, Eye Monster
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Fareedah Bhagoo, Toxic Oppression
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UNDERSTANDING THE PAST TO SEE THE FUTURE words by ESPERANCE CHANTAL Esperance Chantal is a Kenyan citizen; residing in Kenya. She is a passionate conservationist who is driven by the urge to make the world a better place. Her life’s vision is being a changemaker and restoring mother nature’s sanity. She is currently working as an Environmental Governance Associate and Social Media Marketer at The Youth Café Africa. Esperance is also a Social Media Ambassador for Global Landscapes Forum for the year 2020-2021. She holds a number of positions with different organisations for example, she is the Sustainability Ambassador for Ecotourism Kenya, she is volunteering with Amnesty International Kenya as a human rights activist, and Elephant Neighbours Centre as a conservation scientist. She is also the founder of a fashion brand called E.C Couture that positions itself in the sustainable fashion and art industry. IG: @esperance.chantal Twitter: @esperancezynma
use...then what? : That’s why we must protect what has been given for free Our waters, skies, wildlife and trees.
In my erstwhile college days, the misconceptions about Environmental Science were rife. Many thought that we did nothing but plant trees and that conservation was something only for environmentalists. These misconceptions are not only untrue but dangerous. I mean what is the true state of the environment? You have the politicians on the left telling you that there is undeniable evidence of global warming; thousands of species become extinct everyday because we are cutting down the rainforests and other ecosystems around the earth, environmentalists are pointing out devastation. On the other hand, those on the right would have us believe that the earth is perfectly fine. They say that all of the changes that the earth is going through are perfectly OK and that we have nothing to worry about. Who is right? Who knows? Though I should point out that life on earth has been shaped by five mass extinction events in the distant past. At present, biodiversity is facing a crisis, with the prospect of a sixth extinction event today, thanks to the destructive and unsustainable behaviours and practises of human societies.
The attempt to provide insight into the interactions between the economy and the environment has been an on‐going struggle for many decades. The rise of Ecological Economics can be seen as a positive step towards creating a society that moves beyond the confines of mainstream economics and reaches a progressive political economy of the environment. Unfortunately, this vision has not been shared by all those who have associated themselves with Ecological Economics and there has been conflict. An historical analysis shows the role of mainstream theory in delimiting the field of environmental research. The argument is put forward that rather than employing a purely mechanistic objective empirical methodology there is a need for an integrating interdisciplinarity iconoclastic economic approach. In order to distinguish this approach from the more mainstream multidisciplinary linking of reconstituted ecological and economic models the name Social Ecological Economics’ is put forward as expressing the essential socio‐economic character of the needed work ahead. This is what lies ahead of us.
But one thing that is outright evident is that nature reciprocates the care shown to it. Well yes, we do plant trees, but we need to do more than that. As they say, you reap what you’ve sown. So, let us plant a better seed, tear out old roots and weeds. Our world only has so many resources. We know that they are limited, yet we abuse them.... soon there will be nothing left to (ab)
The environment is where we all meet, where we all have a mutual interest. It is the one thing all of us share. At last the world is waking up to the preciousness of our natural resources. Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful,
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committed citizens can change the world, indeed, it is the only thing that ever has. The Earth will not continue to offer its harvest, except with faithful stewardship. We cannot say we love the land and then take steps to destroy it for future generations.
Obama said in his speech at Mandela’s funeral “There is a word in South Africa Ubuntu - that describes his greatest gift: his recognition that we are all bound together in ways that can be invisible to the eye; that there is a oneness to humanity; that we achieve ourselves by sharing ourselves with others, and caring for those around us.” - that is the mantra we ought to abide by.
simply communicate the ‘sustainability’ phenomenon in the clear term before sustainable reforms and solutions will become evident. In order to protect it, you need to understand it. The ball is in the court of the so-called environmentalist who should work towards completely removing the blazer on the term ‘conservation’ so that people are able to gain a new understanding of conservation and think more holistically about pressing environmental issues. Businesses, Institutions, Industry and Community Groups are crying out for guidance on environmental conservation and the best way to care for precious and limited natural resources. They could be getting that guidance from you. Otherwise, the future is shaky.
Joint efforts are what we need to save the globe. With free explorative spirits being the most essential tool. With the ever-increasing global efforts to reduce waste and emissions, increase energy efficiency and minimise practices that may threaten our natural resources, more and more organisations are realising the importance of incorporating environmental management and sustainability values into the business ethos. Matters regarding conservation often sound somewhat ambiguous to the vast majority of young leaders who are needed in delivering tangible action. Solutions will only become evident when we can
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CONSUME by ANDREA LOUPIS Model: Samantha Hammond (@samxsosa) Stylist: Kelly Watson (@kelly_watson_styling) MUA: Megan Kearns (@miss_molly_sa) BTS Videographer: Nicholas Loupis (@nicloupis) Assistant Photographer: Gcobisa Yako (@gee_msft)
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I take one last sip and crush the plastic but just before throwing it away I examine the container that was once holding what I paid to consume and I find it intriguing. I find the way the patterns carved into the sheet of plastic catch in the light, beautiful. Is it wrong to find something that suffocates us all beautiful? Because my hoarding of plastic pool covers, bottles, sheets and packages has been my ultimate form of admiration. I will sit with plastics of all kinds for hours examining how they blend into the environment,an environment they were never meant to see. My father was going to throw away our pool cover because it was falling apart, it was leaving little bubbles of plastic everywhere and ripping every time we wanted to swim. As it was getting thrown in the back of the car for recycling I had an overwhelming urge to save a couple of rolls. At this point, I have a whole closet filled with plastic of all kinds, knowing that one day, I will find a way to capture it and give it life.
Strange to think I am trying to give life to a material that is, in part, killing me and us. I’m not sure where my love for capturing this material will go, all I know is I am inspired and ready. I decided to call this shoot CONSUME, because no matter how hard we try, somehow, someway we are consuming plastic.
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ILIWA CONSULTANCY: USING BLACK AND AFRICAN FEMINIST THOUGHT AS TOOLS TO CREATE AN INCLUSIVE SOCIETY words by GOGO LONDIWE MNTAMBO I am Gogo Londiwe Mntambo. I would like to think of myself as an African feminist thinker, who specializes in feminist theory, African girlhood and womanhood. I am currently reading for a Master’s with the Department of Political and International Studies, at Rhodes University. I am a Project Manager at the Friedrich-Ebert Stifung, South Africa as well as the co-director and founder of ILIWA Consultancy, an educational consultancy that seeks to use memory work to create a more inclusive society. IG: @iliwa_consultancy
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ILIWA Consultancy was born out of diversity and transformation work, my co-director, Vhonani Petla, and I had done in our time at Rhodes University. We realised that there was a need for a diversity consultancy that focused on the experiences of black women and used these to curate relatable narratives for both black women and young black girls. ILIWA Consultancy therefore is a black female owned business that seeks to give black women a space to discuss, create and co-create narratives that truly reflect them. We want this work to have tangible benefits and so we use this work to not just curate women’s work and experiences but to engage organisations, companies and schools in their diversity and transformation work. Facilitating workshops, seminars and masters classes that use intersectional frameworks to think through social justice as it relates to the ways in which black women navigate the world. We lean on Black and African feminist scholars in order to do this work. Our work falls into the broader realm of memory work, which for black women is essential in writing ourselves back into history and creating counter-narratives that mitigate erasure and assert our work and experiences.
Ngobozi (2017) tells us that memory work allows us “to document and remember the histories and narratives often written out of history in order to shift the geography of memory, and to enrich the ways in which memory is constructed and remembered”.
Ultimately, ILIWA Consultancy is a multi-facetted educational consultancy, that seeks to attain a socially just and inclusive society. We find Black and African feminist theories and tools most useful for work that begins with us – building ILIWA laphakade. The main idea is to simply create a more inclusive and just world, our lens begins where we are – with black women. However, concepts such as intersectionality allows us to do is broaden the scope of our work because inclusivity, diversity and transformation requires a multilayered lens. Often when we think about feminist work or gender work – we firstly only think about women and secondly we insist on doing separate gender projects rather than use a gendered lens or an intersectional lens to add whatever it is that we are talking about at the time. ILIWA seeks to move away from that, every topic is and can be ‘gendered’ or ‘feminist’, this based on the understanding that everything affects different people differently based on their intersectional oppressions or identities. One of the ideas that we want to normalise is using a feminist lens no matter what the topic, this lens is useful because often is the most human way to approach any topic or issue. Furthermore, in a context like South Africa, that is race obsessed, often when we talk about diversity or transformation, we are really wanting to critique and change systems that are exclusionary based on race. However, this is limiting – we have to put sexism, homophobia, classism, transphobia, xenophobia and afrophobia among others to
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agendas associated with the UN Agenda 2030. What came out clearly from the Fall Academy was the concept of the interconnectedness of the goals as well as the idea that everyone (in the communities and different societies) should participate in attaining these SDGs. However, in order for this to happen the conversations around SDGs must move beyond the UN level or even state level. This online seminar series attempts to have this conversation on a local level, the concept of localising SDGs does not assume that the conversation of sustainable development is not happening ‘at the grass root’ level but rather seeks to put the local conversations with the broader conversation. Covid-19 has shifted the ways in which we think about development and sustainability. Indian writer Arundhati Roy (2020), writes a hard hitting article that attempts to understand this pandemic as a portal that can allow us to create a different and just society. Similarly our SDGs attempted to discuss ways in which this just society may come to pass. The series was broken up into 5 seminars:
our transformation agenda. And ask ourselves how these ‘phobias’ present themselves in oppressive policies and institutions and of course how gender, sexuality, nationality and citizenship intersect and therefore create layered experiences of oppression. Our projects, therefore, have ranged from diversity and transformation conversations and institutional reform to conversations about sustainable development to research projects focusing on the social impact of different phenomena. PROJECTS Of course, the Covid-19 pandemic has completely changed what we thought 2020 would look like – most of our ideas and proposed work required contact with other people be it in small or in large groups. Although technology has allowed us to continue doing some work particularly through online seminars. Between June and July, we partnered with a Zambian development focused organisation called Conduit Development and put together an online seminar series, titled “Localising SDGs in the context of Covid-19: SDGs as a Framework for Africa to Navigate the Covid-19 Pandemic”.
- Good health and wellbeing in the time of Covid-19 - Gendering Covid-19 - Equality among countries in addition to the economic gaps and growth - Peace, Justice and Institutions - Redefinitions of sustainable development – education, industry and the economy.
This online seminar series sought to look at how we can adapt the UN Agenda 2030 to local regions, creating sustainable communities and societies. Tinashe Mazala, who leads Conduit Development and myself, connected through the FES New York Fall Academy, an SDG focused programme that allows participants to link national, regional and global aspirations and influence
These seminars included panelists from different backgrounds including health practitioners (traditional and
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‘western’), feminist scholars, activists, development and economic experts and those who work within sustainable development. The panelists were from different parts of the SADC region as the seminar series sought to explore the impact of Covid-19 on our development agendas as African countries. What came out quite clearly from these conversations was firstly, the notion that Covid-19 had a fundamental impact on development is flawed, that for the most part most Africans continue to live in poverty and lack of access to healthcare in the same ways that they did before the pandemic. And that this was also true in the conversation about work and the economy, that inequalities faced before the pandemic have either been exacerbated or been brought to the forefront of development conversations. In each conversation, questions around the gendered implications of the pandemic came out strongly as well as how measures that are seen as interventions to the pandemic such as ‘lockdown’, have made vulnerable people even more vulnerable. Measures such as ‘lockdown’ are based on the assumption that everyone has somewhere safe to go home to, and while most people might have this, there is an assumed safeness that is attached to these places which unfortunately is not the case for everyone. State logic, specifically in reference to the militarisation of private spaces emaLokshini, was questioned. Panelists argued that this militarisation was both classist and racist – and had implications for the ways in which we experience gender-based violence in our communities. Lastly, the notion of
‘localising’ the SDGs which continuously contested based on the disconnect that often exists with UN-led projects and the African context – all in all this seminar series provided some complex insights about creating a sustainable and inclusive post-Coronial world. Our next undertaking, which is ongoing, is a Woman’s month programme which seeks to explore the ways in which different women experience their womanhood in the South African context. This project contextualises Women’s Day in 2020 – asking the question ‘what do we celebrate?’. Women’s Day is commemorated every year on the 9th of August, to celebrate the work that was done by the Women’s March to the union buildings in 1956. The aim of this march was to protest against the Apartheid pass laws, 20 000 (estimate) women joined together to voice out their griefs and the grievances of the most vulnerable women being victimised by the apartheid system. The 9th of August remains a day of remembrance and a day of celebrating the power of women in this country. In more recent times women have found it harder and harder to celebrate women’s activism on this day. When it comes to women’s lived experience in this county, there is little to celebrate. Women’s lives are characterised by different inequalities and injustices, and specifically in South Africa, are surrounded by violence due to the prevalence of femicide. Moffet argues that contemporary sexual violence (gender based violence in general) in South Africa is fueled by
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this context, then, that women find it difficult to celebrate and commemorate the historic Women’s march of ’56.The question has become what, if anything, do we women have to celebrate when we live in constant fear and victimhood?
justificatory narratives that are rooted in apartheid that legitimated violence by the dominant group against the disempowered, not only in overly political arenas but in social, informal and domestic violence. Moreover, that gender rankings are maintained and women are regulated through rape, the most intimate form of violence and therefore in post-apartheid South Africa sexual violence has become socially endorsed punitive project for maintaining patriarchal order. It is in
Throughout August, we curated the experiences of 5 women and try to have a reflection on where we are as women and what it is that we need to do to not only empower each other but to make sure that we are safe.
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A VISUAL STORYTELLER by ERICS MUGWIZA Originally from Rwanda, I grew up surrounded by a thousand hills which, as a child, I probably didn’t appreciate but as an adult seeing the world with a new lens, I can now showcase the beauty of each country or place I am lucky enough to visit. My further education in the UK pushed me towards a teaching career, where, as a computing teacher, I learnt that I could connect with young minds and kindle that spark within individuals to help their fire grow. My own interest in photography, videography and use of technology bled through me and I witnessed similar passions ignited within the next generation. IG: @ericsmedia101
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“Once a year, go someplace you have never been before.” This famous quote from the Dalai Lama encourages us to travel and explore places, but I have lived by the principle that every year, challenge yourself and do or learn something you have never done before. This is how I have got to where I am today, living in Malawi, teaching computing at a British International school and fast-becoming a wellrespected and well-known videographer and photographer. Originally from Rwanda, I grew up surrounded by a thousand hills which, as a child, I probably didn’t appreciate but as an adult seeing the world with a new lens, I can now showcase the beauty of each country or place I am lucky enough to visit. My further education in the UK pushed me towards a teaching career, where, as a computing teacher, I learnt that I could connect with young minds and kindle that spark within individuals to help their fire grow. My own interest in photography, videography and use of technology bled through me and I witnessed similar passions ignited within the next generation. Of course, I would always strive for more; more knowledge, more skills, more creativity, more angles, reaching more people. And so it grew, until I became Eric Mugwiza; Visual Storyteller. My passion for visual storytelling started by taking travel videos of my own children
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exploring new places with an energy I just needed to capture on film. I was immediately hooked and so spent hours and hours on Youtube teaching myself how to take cinematic videos as opposed to just clicking the record button on my camera. This enabled me to progress into making videos for a wider audience, not just friends and family, to showcase the beauty of a certain country or city or mountain. The world is too stunning to be kept a secret; we need to share and celebrate the wonderful things around us. Media allows us to do this in increasingly creative ways. I found that videos were also a great tool for good in many other ways too and I soon found myself creating videos for charities and NGO’s celebrating their work and capturing the people’s joy whose lives had been impacted by their work. I also connected with local businesses who wanted to tell the story behind their work. And recently I have become involved in promoting Malawi as a tourist destination, helping the country to develop a more positive self-image, as a valid contender for the global traveller. Media can be used to develop this, to develop a country, a people, a nation but it has to be built upon. As my birth country taught me, we can rise from the ashes and fly, but it can’t be fleeting. It must be a positivity that endures.
visitors, to travel and learn about those destinations. I wanted to showcase the beauty of Malawi that you don’t often see in the Media. And so I’ve spent the last few months exploring and photographing all the corners of Malawi and the response has been uplifting to say the least! Because Malawi is a lesser explored tourist destination, many local people didn’t know the secrets of the tallest waterfalls in the north, the challenges that Mulanje mountain offers to intrepid hikers, the unpretentious coves of serenity along the shores of Lake Malawi or the increasing wildlife populations in the National Parks. Like everywhere, Malawi tourism has suffered during this time of Covid 19 pandemic, but rather than dwell on the losses we need to take the opportunity to present experiences afresh to those living here, who can afford to travel, yet usually jump on a plane rather than explore the opportunities on their home turf.
Only last year did I then start to venture into photography as another gateway to explore new places and another lens with which I could view the world. I started my Instagram page (@ericsmedia101) to share my own travel photography with a special focus on Malawi. I had hoped to unearth beautiful destinations and inspire local Malawians, as well as
My goal is simple. To keep exploring, appreciating, developing and inspiring. Every year I will keep challenging myself and go someplace I have never been before; not necessarily physically, but certainly personally and, hopefully, professionally too.
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One of my aims is to transform the perspective that to travel is to go abroad. You would be surprised what you would find in your backyard!
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TITLE HEADING HEADING TITLE words / text by Name Surname Menis cum mo hos consimis, sat, sena dentem. Hente nonstravoc restessilic fui popubli casterum re, ubliissentes porum sidicav olibus itra publicuppl. Ox nonsilin videt; iam ori comac me mo vis vocchil iuscre pernum tanum ipsendac tus sa patifex nosto norebus ese inc rem, sena, quium avoltor teatquem iam. Upio, faut efec orte, se mor plistrum, tus. etrei cum iam eor locriorum macte ordieniaet vivatortem iptes caedi postem mant. Natum. Verit quam mentem aper adduc mo cotiam publina tilica publia ommorus pro hos hem, num traedem perunis sultilibunum in sendiu cora L. Milin Etra vivid nem ta, vem idiusum oculis esilius et num iam illabem di, corei se cotius. Ectum nem re adduciondam inguli senercentil vitil vehebulis effrend ienihicatiam tem derei comnihi, ste tus perem ines amdius, tandiur nisquidem det vessest arendam nenteatia se forae priocri piendam dium or auderem dinat vis aut nonononsuam di firips, tam inte audem pubi pessigilius? Nostabus et vis furit iu mius ocae quononsus, foret; nictus vid ia no. Solia? Ahabutus. Epse tarit, viu me consus conficeris num ocurors Catquam quam opubliu se ad re commoru nterus? Movessus horem atissil involudac te
comnos bone commoludam. Ote, Catum dem meridea confenatur ut re aperdii pari, quit L. Sent? Ompribunum issulocupici spies horum etroxim oenatu vidicatia ad pro, que nota, quem opublii senaterena patissa aces octum tat. Dentili cibusperit, perum sestatis publius. Elati, culis nimus octum, fac opor interob uniceps, quere, nihicie et C. Igit, consis. M. Ulica screhem terora? Molto viri condampopul hocchus, conscem nequisses inem noccit. Valin nos essilibut patum res comnon Etro am dem cupernum dit. Mulatio, sentra mactuus fuitarius hos et, caes? Satiliam inaris hordince milin de et; hoculicaeque est viriden trumunum ors Mari pate inatqui derurbitam atus actum Pala iae dissitatea derudes cates more ex nonclar idienis, ut L. Culoc orictorentem in noves Mullabemore non vit, consua corissesili pulvis, or anterim istresse adeo, faciissa vita, quemortium ist viu que nonos es ide hosteatus, Paliurb itastem, senaris essigna tinves sendiustrit. Ti. caequit firis ella contus re, ne inequitudesi popubis suloc, nerobsenam deffre intratis. Ime nondiem tam in dum ignat, octoraequit nequid culicerte nostis confeste prionit? Sedii inum quondit. Quo aut
WINTER / SPRING
ISSUE SEVEN
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