My Blood Flows Through Many Rivers

As a child I loved sitting on the pantry floor amongst the cast-iron pots and pans.  My favorite pan was the steel ring-cake mould and the lid of the largest pot I knew.  

I would sit there for hours knocking the lid of the pot against the mould just because I loved the sound of it.  I think that was my first introduction to music and then of course being introduced to ballet lessons and having to dance to the sound of the piano was the next.

I have an affinity to music of various cultures and I think it is because it is in my blood. I could probably be described as being AfricanEurAsian or the whole United Nations rolled into one.  Put me anywhere in the world and you would think that  I belonged there.  A new friend asked me recently if I had Chinese blood in me.  My answer was every blood you can think of.   

In my country South Africa, I am classified "coloured" a term I hate as no-one should be classified anything but as a person who comes from a particular country i.e. in my case South African.

I had the opportunity in 1998 to do an internship at San Diego State University and one of my tasks was to be a guest lecturer to the Social Welfare Students.  I had to talk about South Africa. So with the help of my friend Prof Delia Gillis (from the University of Missouri Kansas) I was able to formulate my talk.  Knowing full well that the term "coloured"  is just a no-no in the USA, I decided to explain how it came about to be used in South Africa. 

The term originally started out as defining people as coming from a mixed group.  For example, it could be of any ethnic group and not necessarily just black and white. At the end of my talk one of the "white" students stood up and said "in that case, we are all coloured in this class". There was applause from the rest of the class in agreement.

This blog is making me realise that perhaps I should embrace the term "coloured" when described in the context above.  If it means that the rest of the world is coloured then just maybe being referred to as a coloured is not so bad after all and that the music I love is that of all the nations' blood that flows through my veins.



Comments

  1. Anonymous31 July 2013 at 05:35

    Hi CA,

    I enjoyed your blog. It made me think of our “colouredness” and how similar we are to those people that made us the mixture we’ve become. And so commonly referred to as not black enough or white enough. And how funny it is when white people say “not coloured like you, you’re not the same” haha. We’ve become the best at embracing our differences and similarities. We just didn’t learn how to use it correctly for our own gain and growth.

    Keep on writing. This way we can all learn about ourselves.

    Ciao
    E

    ReplyDelete
  2. Michelene Benson5 April 2018 at 04:27

    Thank you for sharing this with me. This narrative is one that needs more airtime in South Africa. You have inspired me to perhaps capture some of the Facebook threads into a blog post.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. onthecouchwithca5 April 2018 at 05:18

      You are most welcome. Yes, it definitely needs more airtime. Far too many people assume that when one looks in a particular way, that we also think in a certain way. I have had to set the record straight on a number of occasions because of this.

      Delete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

UNDER CONSTRUCTION

I am busy burning bridges I am busy building bridges I am busy reconstructing bridges I am, I am... I am so sick of I am! So I have decided to use this space to tell your stories. If you have a story to tell that can help change someone else's life then I would like to spend some time with you on the couch (whether in person or by cyber) getting to know your story and then sharing it with the rest of the world. As you know the world is an extremely small place, and so if you would like to stay anonymous you are most welcome to do so. I look forward to hearing from.
Read more

Coming out of the Closet

Image
I have decided that it is time to just face up to it, that there is just no two ways about who and what I am.    It was the morning of Sunday the 22 June 2014 and I was all excited about heading out with my Keep On Moving partners, Zita and her mother Sandy to pick up some youngsters from Valhalla Park for our monthly hike, when I was faced with a flat tyre after loading the car with my bags.  At first I thought, do I fix this myself or do I call a friend (male), to come and do the job, then I decided against that idea, and just unloaded the car and pulled out the jack and the spare tyre. It was not the first time having to change a tyre and it probably would not be the last, but today was not a good day to be doing this, as I was not feeling 100% while trying to recover from the flu.  My energy levels were not up to the task at hand.  Nonetheless with the last of the energy I had left in me I managed to cha...
Read more

Welcome to 2014

So I made it pass the midnight hour in one piece. I welcomed the arrival of the New Year by myself on the couch and then slowly dozed off and awoke to a quiet world.   I guess all the party-goers are still in dreamland. It has been a while since I blogged anything and I feel a bit at a loss for words even though there is so much I would like to say. 2013 has come and gone and although it was emotionally challenging, I somehow feel a lot stronger than the year before that.  The challenge I now face is letting go and to concentrate on me, because the only person in this point in time who finds me important, is me.  Sure I have friends who are looking out for my well-being but they are not the ones having to walk in my shoes (when they are not broken) everyday.  They have their own lives to live. Every year we make a list of our new year’s resolutions and every year most of us still repeat the same things we were hoping to change or let go of.  I hope ...
Read more