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| Tekowa on moving forward |
Hello again,
to anyone who is reading this. This past week, again, has been quite a
whirlwind. One of the things that has had a huge impact on me was our faith
experience. Last Sunday we attended and all Xhosa speaking church in Guguletu.
I grew up in a Christian family (on both sides) but was never forced to be
religious. I really appreciate that my family allowed me to create my own
spirituality and explore different religions (I have a particular interest in
Eastern religions and philosophies). I've always been particularly critical of
Christianity because I have always viewed it in the context of
Western colonialism. To be honest for quite a long time I viewed Christianity
as the religion of Western oppressors, because during colonialism
Europeans used Christianity to erase the identity of many different peoples in
Africa, indoctrinate them, and manipulate them. (Not to say
this hasn't been done by other religions and people). So to me I
never understood how people from such a history could
still celebrate a Christian God. Going to the church in Guguletu
really opened my eyes. The history of Christianity in Africa is still the same
but I saw that people had taken something that had been used in
certain cases to oppress them and made it their own- using it instead as a
pillar of strength. Its very difficult to explain a "faith
experience" but the people of that church welcomed us with open arms,
shared their love, strength, and resiliency and to me that was incredibly
powerful. The music in that church was also incredibly vibrant, and I could
feel the music moving through all of us in the church. THe best way I can
describe it was that for that time in the church we were all a part of one
heart beat. You could FEEL the connectivity of every person in the church and
that was when I finally saw what others find such faith in. I began to
understand why church and God is such a central component to certain
communities and people's lives. I really apologize because it is hard
to do justice to a spiritual experience- its something that you feel and cannot
necessarily explain.
Continuing
on the note of colonialism, during much of our tours around the townships, the
effect of colonialism on the black psyche are glaringly apparent. Whether
its looking at segregated housing, informal settlements, the deterioration of
the family unit, rise of alcoholism and gang culture - you cant escape the
lasting effects of colonialism. To me that has been especially difficult and
caused me to have some unexpected emotions about my own identity. I come from
both sides of that- my mothers side of the family being British and my fathers
side of the family being Ugandan. Again, I'm not entirely sure how to explain
it but its been confusing and emotional to reconcile both sides of my heritage.
I definitely don't have any answers but just thought I'd share the confusion,
because I know I can't be the only one who's struggled with this or is thinking
about it. I guess I'll just have to see how this develops- identity is
certainly not an end point or a destination but journey so perhaps I'll have
more thoughts on this as the semester goes on.
Until next time...
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| Teki sharing her confusion as she continues on her journey |
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