Help Needed

Lesego Semenya
is 21 years old, from Johannesburg, South Africa
Grew up in Soweto, South Africa, through the peak of the freedom struggle. Lived through the defeat of Apartheid and has been writing since 12 years of age.

Help needed

I heard her cry last night

Her tears drowned by drumbeats

She doesn't even fight

Her body used to atrocities

What is one more wound?

She's had millions before

What can some more pain do?

Murderers have run through her door



I saw her dying last night

It was clear in the moon light

Her chest taking its last breath

Her body depleted of all strength

She saw me watching from behind the tree

Her forlorn stare reaching out for me

Like a tired lion she rested her soul

Even eternal lives have their time to go



I saw her dead last night

Murdered by neglect

Over her wealth others would fight

Her lands a cause of conflicts

But she just lay, stripped of all pride

Her welcoming ways forgotten

Even when abused, she still smiled

But now her body lay rottenI saw a light last night I

t blinked at me through the nights' clouds

It showed me something I'd never seen

Her heart still beat inside

I ran miles last night

Fetched water to revive her

To bring her back to her lost mightS

he breathed again but to awake her will take time

©2007, Poets against war

The Dangers of a Single Story

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie of Nigeria, author of Half of a Yellow Sun, makes reference to the need for a TV channel for diverse stories of the people of Africa to enhance dignity and bring social awareness ~ the need for "a balance" of stories from Africa...
Stories to empower, heal and humanise.

This is why the project at "hillsidedigital" is so important.



"There is never a single story about any place....when we get that, we gain a kind of paradise"

The Story of Charity : Water

Never doubt a small group of thoughtful, commited citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.

– Margaret Mead

Just A Band

Love this new single & video from Kenyan group JUST A BAND.
Thier second album "82" releases this week.

Prelaunch

Friday, October 2, 2009 at 10:00pm
End Time:	Saturday, October 3, 2009 at 3:00am
Location:	The Blue Times Lounge, Museum Hill
Street:	Junction of Museum Hill Road and Westlands Road
City/Town:	Nairobi, Kenya

Dear Mandela

Dear Mandela (5 min cut) from Sleeping Giant on Vimeo.

Dear Mandela is an upcoming documentary film due for completion in June 2010. It describes South Africa's "new apartheid", where forced evictions and extreme poverty are an ongoing way of life, where no longer the country is divided into black and white but rather the increasing margins between rich and poor. At present about one million people live in shack developments in Durban, South africa. In time for the World Cup 2010, the city has been aiming to "erradicate the slums". Sadly much of this has been happening at gun point and people are being fined up to 20 000 rand if they don't evict their properties.

Often shackdwellers are left homless and in fear of their life.

Abahlali baseMjondolo, The Shack Dwellers Movement, has been facing considerable opression in trying to affect such change. In recent weeks some members have have had to go into hiding for fear of their lives.

Last weekend, residents of Kennedy Road settlement, in Durban, were attacked by a 40 strong crowd of men, with knifes and guns. The target was a meeting of the Kennedy Road Development Committee (KRDC).
Shots were fired and several were killed. Over thirty shacks were rampaged and destroyed.

Calls to the police were ignored. Thousands fled the community overnight.

See witness reports...

The Shackdwellers are upset at the thought that the World Cup simply symbolises a demolition of their own homes. This event at Kennedy Road marks a turning point. It signals that the concept of a 'rainbow nation' is now ending and, sadly political unrest due to this opression of the poor may become a defining fracture in the country.

The film, Dear Mandela follows the life of three young shackdwellers who have joined The Shackdwellers Movement to try to bring about a grassroots change in the Constitution in how shackdwellers are being treated.

International crew in the making of the film "Dear Mandela" are believed to have witnessed the attack.