Beloved Arum Lily

Oh what could be more beautiful than finding creamy white arum lilies not too far from your office window. Along with our Proteas, Strelitzias, the Arum Lily is one of the most beautiful flowers of Southern Africa.

Uhmm beauty in the midst of ugliness all around, what kind of world do I live in? I can only answer that with a "Broken one". Clouds are returning to the clear blue winter skies with news of South African fear of other Africans spreading. Yes xenophobia, black on black racism, murder of the defenceless, greedy patriotism, call it what ever you want, afrophobia is spreading its filthy fingers though out this beloved land of ours. I look towards the hills, but whence will leadership come from? Oh cry my beloved country, cry.

I read somewhere yesterday that scientists have found out that tears have little to do with sadness. They are liquid escape pods, allowing painful images to leave the eyes. Sigh! These are painful images showing the afrophobic hate that we have here in South Africa, images which are now trending on social media. Look a policeman is smiling as two human beings burn to death. A policeman who is meant to keep the peace thinks it is very funny that someone's son/father/brother is being murdered right in front of him. At first we try whitewash the past by removing the statues, and while another statue falls, we now try erase those who are even blacker than ourselves.

South Africans, have we become the monster that once stared out from the abyss? Have we learned from the racist apartheid masters to become ourselves the biggest racists around? Tears trickle down my face as I replace the sad images inside the escape pods with images of arum lilies. Cry my beloved arum lilies, cry.