Walking the Wall

For if dreams die
Life is a broken-winged bird
That cannot fly.
Hold fast to dreams
For when dreams go
Life is a barren field
Frozen with snow.

~Langston Hughes

because of you
this country no longer lies
between us but withinit breathes becalmed
after being wounded
in its wondrous throat

in the cradle of my skull
it sings it ignites
my tongue my inner ear the cavity of heart
shudders towards the outline
new in soft intimate clicks and gutturals

I am changed for ever I want to say
forgive me
forgive me
forgive me

you whom I have wronged, please
take me

with you

~Antjie Krog

There is a South African philosophy about humanity, that we are
all so connected that what one person does hurts everyone else and
hurts himself–conversely, in forgiving others, we are ourselves
forgiven. Archbishop Desmond Tutu tries to explain this concept in “No
Future Without Forgiveness”:

Ubuntu is very difficult to render into a Western language.
. . . It is to say, “My humanity is caught up, is inextricably bound
up, in what is yours.” . . . We say, “A person is a person through
other persons.” . . . A person with ubuntu is open and available to
others, affirming of others, does not feel threatened that others are
able and good, for he or she has a proper self-assurance that comes
from knowing that he or she belongs in a greater whole and is
diminished when others are humiliated or diminished, when others are
tortured or oppressed…. To forgive is not just to be altruistic. It
is the best form of self-interest. What dehumanizes you inexorably
dehumanizes me. [Forgiveness] gives people resilience, enabling them to
survive and emerge still human despite all efforts to dehumanize them.

The western world was amazed at how far the South Africans
would take this philosphy when after apartheid they formulated the
Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) to hear the stories from the
victims of the atrocities perpetuated on them, and to hear the
confessions of those who committed those atrocities. Those who
committed the crimes who confessed, told the whole truth, and proved
they followed orders of those higher in command, were given amnesty.
Around 21,800 victims told their stories, and 1,163 people were given
amnesty. The story of this incredible way of dealing with truth and
justice and healing is told in a movie called In My Country
which is based off of a book entitled Country of my Skull by Antje
Krog, an South African journalist and writer that covered the TRC
hearings. The movie, while perhaps not Oscar material, made a powerful
image of forgiveness, for the necessity of forgiveness not simply for
the person who wronged you, but for yourself. In an essay on Ubuntu,
Dirk J. Louw writes, “Ubuntu (a Zulu word)
serves as the spiritual foundation of African societies. It is a
unifying vision or world view enshrined in the Zulu maxim umuntu ngumuntu ngabantu,
i.e. “a person is a person through other persons.” Justice, in our way
of thinking, does not allow for a man to sit on trial and listen to
those who he has hurt horrifically, killed and tortured their family
members–to then confess to these people what he has done and then be
given amnesty. The beauty of it was incredible, although I could not
even begin to imagine myself capable of such strength were I in their
position. I had never heard of Ubuntu, and am interested in learning
more about this believe that takes the idea of connectivity to its full
extent.

A person is a person through other persons.