Young and Curious

November 6, 2020

Living in a death body

Hester Mcanda

She saw it all
but still she kept quiet
I told her everything but she remains silent
Why ? Is she quite while knowing everything
At first he would knock on the door of my room
My body respond to the knock before my heartbeat
Now he silently opens the door to my room all smiling
Every bone in my body wants to kill him
Every cell in my mind wants him dead
The only desire my heart has is for his death
Every wish coming out of my mouth is for him to be killed
School is my safe place
Being at school would take my mind of them
Iam suffocating
I can’t breathe
Chest pains what’s going on ?
Iam suffocating
I can’t breathe
Corona has locked me up in this house with them
Iam suffocating
I can’t breathe
He took my innocence
He stole my pride
They both killed me while living
I smell like a death person while living
My skin turns grey
Just thinking of them
Iam a death body living
Just as a death corp my heartbeat is silent
Just as a death corp my eyes aren’t closed watching his next move
Iam a death body living

– Hester Mcanda

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About Hester Mcanda

The Pivot Collective is a non-profit based in Cape Town committed to collaborative knowledge production, knowledge translation and the decolonization of research. In 2019, we invited a group of 12 young people from Cape Town (recruited through an open call for participants) to collaborate on a project focused on challenging dominant narratives and perceptions of mental health and emotional well-being. The project, called Young & Curious, uses arts-based, participatory methodologies to support young people tell their own stories, define what matters to them, and communicate this to wider audiences. Together we have created an experimental space where young people, and the young-at-heart, work together to explore and deconstruct ideas of mental health and emotional wellbeing and to spark critical conversations between young people, academic researchers, artists, engagement practitioners, and service providers that shift hierarchies of knowledge and research cultures.

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