Cape Town - #RIPChildrenoftheCapeFlats! a poem by Tarryn-Lee Bell which was posted on Facebook has been shared more than 4 000 times since it was originally uploaded on August 3.
Bell, 33, from Claremont, is the manager of a NPO in Hout Bay that affords underprivileged children an opportunity to access quality education. She is currently doing a honours degree in community development at the Cornerstone Institute.
"I am passionate about social justice and development. I therefore write on many issues pertaining to inequality, racism, oppression and social ills that affect the poor," says Bell.
Bell wrote the poem earlier this month after a 6-year-old girl was killed and reposted it after 16-year-old Octavia Johanessen was killed by a stray bullet in Hanover Park on Monday.
Read the poem:
#RIPChildrenoftheCapeFlats!
Have our breasts become too big for your appetite?
Our genitals lost its sweetness for your ravage?
Our bodies to enlarge for your cold, rough clasp?
The same organs used to birth you, nurture you, protect you.
She is 6, He is 5, she was 3!
Has the taste of our lips, the look in our eyes threatened you?
Her tiny little body in a dress that only reveals her soft innocence.
What do you see? How do you see?
His pretty little face - it seduces you? It hardens you!
Guts out, socks in her mouth, private parts mutilated, bloody discharges, her tiny little bones broken.
Your bullets strays – it’s not against your rival gangs– It’s my kids!
She is 8, He was 11, She was 5!
They say you suffered Trauma, you lack a Father, tik has overcome you, you unemployed!
I don’t know! I think you evil, a bastard, a body without a soul!
The parks are empty, our streets in silence, laughter now gloom, for they all hide, hide from you.
You- the provider, the protector, caregiver - our daddies.
Has humanity escaped you, goodness passed you.
They sit warmly tucked away in their offices with raised flags,
Aware but unconcerned because their little ones are safe – safe at those private schools.
Zuma your focus, the Flats forgotten.
*Church where are you; your robes, your titles it stinks!
Silence, Silence, Silent!
She is 6, He was 14, She was 4!
A R5 to silence her, A lifetime to heal;
You found her innocence worth penetrating!
Blood, Guns, Gangs, Sex, Drugs, Psychosis, over populated back yards.
Its war, a cold war!
RIP Children of the Cape Flats!
#NakedReflectionswithTarrynBell
Bell says when she wrote the poem she was angry, "in fact, livid".
"The six-year-old from Bonteheuwel was raped and killed by her family's landlord. She fetched water from the main house because her family are backyard dwellers. With each of these cases eg Courtney Pieters, the socio -economic infrastructure of these families are in need of development. Issues of inequality and social inclusion are making our children easy targets," she says.
Earlier this month she shared a video with an excerpt from her poem which was posted on Cornerstone Community's YouTube channel.