A call I will not support

Lo and behold, the black man has found his voice. I blinked more than once when I received a link to sign a petition to compel a certain insurance company and production house to reinstate their brand ambassador embroiled in allegations of cheating and abuse.

While nothing has been proven, these are veiled attempts to invoke solidarity “with one of our own”. No! I go against all injustices and am in the corner of the vulnerable, the disenfranchised, the meek and the ones who may have temporarily lost their vote.

I am a voice one can be sure will shout from rooftops … but remember, I am for those whose right to privilege does not trample on the right of others to simply just be. If the allegations are true, you cannot ask for allegiance from a sector of the population who may have shared the pain of the wife – the abuse and betrayal by a spouse.

Do not dare try to divide our unity in our stand against all forms of gender-based violence by basing it on race. It does not work that way. When women are hung out to dry and cemeteries are filled with lives ended before their time, men say nothing. They say nothing because they pretend to not know the type of man who commits these crimes. These men cower in their corners, pretending to see and hear.

If the cost of black excellence comes at the price paid only by women, count me out. A woman bares herself for the world to see, but her cries fall on deaf ears of men who take sides. Would we have believed her if he was unknown or if his skin colour was not close to home? Or perhaps if she was a skin colour resembling ours? What are the merits to understanding that we cannot be called on to support those who may be the reason families are burying their daughters?

While we remain cognisant of our race, as women, we are also aware of the plight, fears and challenges of being a woman in a society so engulfed in misogyny that us fighters feel the necessity to stand together. When it comes to abuse, don’t count on my support!

Kekeletso Nakeli-Dhliwayo.

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