My Cassinga

Cassinga a day to reflect and wonder- how the women and children of our nation became collateral damage to a regime so set out to own power.

 A regime set up much like this outdated patriarchal government- one that makes me interpret the struggles we face in this very moment.

The injuries and lives taken on this day -has me realise that the blood that watered our freedom flowed from our women and children, who remain within this new dispensation as vulnerable to our government as the system still needs to go a long way for women to feel their entitlement of socio-economic development and political rights and  broadly welcomed within their own motherland.

That welcome that echoes the power within a child and a woman. The power that leads praise and great acknowledgement that this day is a reminder that we shall never face a rhetoric that would harm our people Again.
That welcome into power, welcome into leadership and innovation, as the creativity we possess reaches far beyond our imagination.

Yet we struggle, we struggle to protect those who continue to suffer at the hands of society... Women being murdered while our rulers drag to find evidence. Children left out on the streets because society sees no place where they belong...


By: Linda RM Baumann

04 May 2016

17h53

Survivor or Victim

Many “who know” would consider the words Victim and Survivor to have a very thin line of difference between them. Others find them interchangeable, as the meanings of these words are futile to those who wear the labels heavily from their necks. 

The word Victim, we wear when we are harmed or injured or even killed, a Victim we remain when we feel helpless and passive in the face of misfortune or ill-treatment.

A word I believe we own only through the process of violation-

Then we get to the word Survivor, an encouraging and resilient word that is worn by only those who view themselves to exist even after an event that could have killed or destroyed them, a word I believe we only truly own after managing to continue a successful life despite the bad experiences.

These words are as distinct in action as placing yourself in either corner to prove a life or death circumstance. And so we chose how we wear our labels of victimization and survival… who then constitutes to be called either, who defines the explanation given to those “who don’t know”…

By: Linda RM Baumann

02 May 2017

09h13