The Chrysalis Academy, Tokai, Cape Town.
What am I doing here on this spring September morning? Sixty five pairs of female Xhosa and Cape Coloured eyes look at my husband and me and wonder ‘what is this old white couple doing here’. I am asked by Earl Mentor, their workshop leader, to speak for a few minutes and tell them what we are doing here and I have to think hard. I’ve known Earl, a wiry, energetic, passionate Cape Coloured for four years. I first met Earl and his passion for youth empowerment at the Desmond Tutu HIV Youth Foundation Centre in Masiphumelele, Fish Hoek. He is now working for Peace Jam which helps fund development projects like these: 195 young girls from Cape townships have signed a contract to stay for three months at the Chrysalis Academy in Tokai. Like Earl, some of them have a less than (and for want of a better phrase) whiter than white back stories. Many of these young women have been sexually and emotionally abused or in turn, have abused drugs and alcohol. We have seen one of the other three groups of sixty five girls marching in uniforms in the bright cool spring sunlight. We’ve seen their rooms: simply and solely ten narrow beds with army style blankets. Earl has told us that 80% of the girls aged 18- 24 years have children, being minded by the children’s grandparents or the girls own grandparents. And the girls elect to come and eat discipline: healthy food, healthy outdoor activities (many limp from the previous day’s running) and empowering workshops like the one Earl is delivering this morning. Consistency and punctuality form good habits. We are what we do and peppered throughout the workshop we repeat: I am beautiful. Even my husband does this.
Three assistants sit at the side with clipboards and make notes. It’s important that the Xhosa and Cape Coloured communities not only encourage these young women’s potential strengths but discover those who could eventually become leaders and role models for the next generation. Not all young women have the educational opportunity or gritty determination of Khuls Nkatshu whose semi-autobiographical story I wrote in my play which she performed so beautifully at the Masambe, Baxter Theatre last March summer. I say ‘semi-autobiographical’ as although Khuls’s own back story and hopes and aspirations are embedded in ‘A President in Waiting …’ the writer in me transposed Khuls to the fictional character Khululwa (meaning Liberty) and gave her the job of domestic char with little opportunity to become a national leader. What Peace Jam and Earl who also runs Fruit-Nation hope is that the fictional Khululwa and these 195 girls might come to be leaders of their own lives, or even, like Khuls Nkatshu and Earl Mentor: leaders in their own communities.
I look up at the Power Point words which loom above us in this echoing hall: MAJORITY, POWER, PRIVILEGE and MINORITY. The girls have been divided into four groups and asked to brainstorm what these words mean to them and present their findings. I say: ‘You must be wondering why my husband and I are here to experience your workshop. We are in the minority but I thank Earl for giving me the opportunity to voice my feelings amongst you all who are the majority. It’s a privilege to be here, to learn and hope you will be empowered by this three month programme.’ (I’m trying to get in the four buzz words.)
When the four groups get up to perform their brainstorming of these four words the audience of girls shout LIGHTS, CAMERA, ACTION. Applause comes in the form of not clapping but the clicking of fingers. MAJORITY is a BIG ‘yes yes’ word. MINORITY is a small ‘no no’ word but still can have a powerful voice.
When we mingle at the end with a spring bonding exercise of lifting one member of the group to place a cone as far from the starting line as possible my sticking place with these young women transpires to be my revelation that our first grandchild is en route ETA November. I become painfully aware of these young women’s homesickness for their children. Human beings often harbour the notion that being transported might provide an answer. They ask if I will take them to my home in London. Perhaps knowing that this is a tall ambition the young lady with the shortest arms and short limping leg sidles up to me and asks if I will just take her back to my local Fish Hoek.
There are no simple answers here. Inter-relationships between cultures and living conditions for the majority are far from adequate but there is a huge energy at work trying. Earl Mentor is very busy.
www.fruitnation.co.za
www.peacejam.org