Let Us Be One!

In the recent Heritage Day episode of DTV (broadcast on Saturday, 27 September 2014), the DTV team acted out a special poem in South African Sign Language.

The poem was written by our own SASL Interpreter, Kendall Midgley, and the themes are at once broad, but connected, touching on the struggles of all South Africans in an oppressive past, along with the struggles of the Deaf within that larger conflict. The most important theme, of course, is unity, reminding us that despite our differences, our cultural diversity, we should always work together.

Let Us Be One!

In our dark, silent world, we fear there is no light.
Our hands are tied, we cannot express our beautiful language.
Our loneliness is real, our inequality is rife.

Our country cries out with us,
fists raised in the air, feet stomping the ground.
South Africa cries out to the heavens.

We cannot use our hands to tell you how we feel,
you want us to use our tongues
in a way that we do not know.

Respect and understand us.

Oh, our beloved South Africa,
our angry, restless, wounded South Africa.
Join us in the fight to be free,
let us fight for our beautiful hands.

We come into the world as equals,
so why do we not live our lives as such?

Who are we?
We are deaf. We are human.
We are fighting for our language that you don’t know.

Take my hand, we’re halfway there.

My brother, my sister,
though we speak a different language,
we both have the drumbeat of Africa in our veins.

Do not punish me for my language,
the way you did before.
Hold my hand,
together we can paint pictures in the air.

Oh, our beloved South Africa,
as you fought, we were fighting beside you.
Our beautiful, rich, unique South Africa,
our culture is alive.

Let us be one!