by Tshidi ‘Latifah’ Mokhele

I want to walk free in the streets…

The streets of my Freedom fighters…
the streets that gave birth to my great grandfathers and mothers.
I am talking about the streets of my ancestors…

Free in the streets where the only thing that will bring me down is gravity… free in the streets where my brother will not stone me to death turn my face into a wall of graffiti

Free in the streets where my legs will not tremble from fear, the streets that had so much love care…

Free in the streets that had no corrective rape, the streets where every child grew and matured like wine from grapes yeah I miss those streets…

Free in the streets that had no hate crimes…the streets where footsteps made rhymes and brothers and sisters held hands going to church to sing sweet hymns… oh how I miss those times

Streets where mothers went to bushes to fetch firewood, instead of witnessing bodies of their innocent young girls robbed off their sisterhood, the streets that had no tears and cold blood…

I miss those streets…

The streets where I would wake up in the middle of the night and not hear a sound of a gun… I am talking about the streets where every mother owned a son without a gun…I miss those streets..

The streets where Christians didn’t commit a sin then hide behind the bible…the streets where only police man owned a rifle…so bring back my streets…

I want to walk with pride again in those streets and not be raped because I am a lesbian…I want to walk tall in this streets, be treated like a queen I am and still remain Nubian

free in the streets where being gay is ok, the streets that oozes humanity…

The streets where people don’t hide behind God to chop and criticize my sexuality…the streets that shines with quality and equality…

Cause right now I fear walking in these streets…

The cold streets where the spirits of Salome and Sizakele got drifted apart…the streets that robbed us of their lives and broke so many hearts…two love birds flew away singing “till death do us part”
,
Cold winds from the streets that raised Zoliswa Nkonyana and Duduzile Zozo, blowing from East to West, in peace their souls will rest…

The streets where innocent faces and souls were smashed, the streets that mentored Millicent Gaika… and Zukiswa Gaxa, the streets that inflicted pain into the hearts of many and left feelings astray, the streets that brought and took them away…

The streets that forced a great soul to carry soil with its chest, the streets that swallowed my friend Sanna Supa, the streets where a knife blew away sweet dreams of a girl who just wanted to love and be loved, the streets that wiped out Noxolo Nogwaza

I despise those streets

so bring back the sweet streets where children used to play without fear…cause I miss those streets that had so much love and care, the streets where my legs never used to tremble…the streets where my joints will not be scrambled

Bring back those streets….

The streets where murderers don’t walk around free, the streets where I will not be robbed or killed because of jealousy and greed…yes I want to be freed..

Bring back the streets where real hustlers in corners gave hugs instead of being thugs and selling drugs…
The streets where little girls waited for buses to go to school instead of prostitution so their stomachs can be full

I am talking about the streets where statutory rape does not lead to illegal abortions…the streets where
Every negative actions had its repercussions

The street where every birthday cake had candles and cream, the streets that gave birth to dreams…

I want to walk FREE again in those streets…

About the author

My name is Tshidi Latifah Mokhele, a black lesbian scriptwriter, poet and an actress, born in a small township of Kroonstad in the Free State, April 29, 1986.

The love for writing has traveled with me through the years, as my mother would say, I loved poetry and acting since I was a little girl and I was very good at it, as I won a few poetry competitions in school and was very good at acting..

Unfortunately all she wished for was for me to finish matric and take my love for script writing and poetry to the next level but situations forbade her from taking me to universities or even a college, after matric I worked to be a better person thou what I was earning wasn’t enough to pay for my script writing lessons it still didn’t demoralize me..

I took drama classes with Mahuma Paul Rapetsoa at the Yeoville Recreation Centre.  Mr Rapetsoa is a well known radio and stage script writer, he writes radio scripts for Thobela FM and has a smash hit stage production called “get down” so when I joined his institution I knew I was in the right hands

Unfortunately during the cause of the year I lost my job and couldn’t finish the acting course   I had started with him, I didn’t give up though, I went to several auditions with the little experience I had and I landed myself a role in Maxwell Mlilo’s stage play called “The Tenants”…the late Maxwell Mlilo is well known for his character in Emzini Wenzinsizwa as Nqonde…the play travelled to Grahamstown as part of the national arts festival and from then, I knew that giving up was not an option

I started writing again, and most of the times I would my writings with my facebook friends just to see the response and to see if I was touching home with the my writings as some of the poems and scripts I write are mostly based on creating awareness of the hate crimes going on South Africa and educating people more about the LGBTI community, I always got good response from my friends and some of my family members

In 2009 I met Mr Basil Dube at the Museum Africa auditorium, he was teaching drama and script writing  joined his script writing classes and even thou he didn’t teach for a long time at least I got experience on how a script should be written and how to format my dialogue.

With all the hate crimes and hate speeches going down in my township and around South Africa I am currently working on a script which I wrote, Named The Diary Of A Mad Black Lesbian, the short film is based on everyday issues Lesbians faces and it educates people who don’t know a lot about the LGBTI people,

We are human beings first before we are gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender and intersex and I am working with very young and new cast and crew members who are dedicated more than anything in teaching and creating awareness about the lgbti people and we have currently started shooting the film

We don’t have sponsorship and we do not have budget nor funding for this short film but that does  not stop us from waking up every morning and attending shoots and we hope that when the film is done and dusted people will be educated more and will understand that being gay is human, and just like everyone else, we are sisters, mothers, brothers and daughters and sons out there.