ANALYSIS
The world through the lens of a young woman. Dipuo Mofokeng is a journalist based in Orange Farms. She wrote this powerful piece to pay homage to our theme for this issue.
F
or a young woman who was born and raised in the Free State, I surely fall short of being anything traditional, submissive and timid. The first of two daughters from my mother’s short-lived marriage to my father-who walked out of the home and the life I knew and started afresh with a new woman, a new family and a new life that didn’t include any of us in it. It hit home that everything I thought was right, the system I thought kept things together, the very core of what I perceived as normal and functional came tumbling down and the rug of normality for me was pulled beneath me. There I was at the age of 7 starting afresh- unlearning and adopting new ways of adapting in a life without a male figure that you were born and taught would forever be your leader, if not as a father then later in life as a husband I began questioning everything as things turned upside down and the veil of a broken home was removed from my eyes. Every day, I observed silently at the changes that redefined society for me took place and my fears of absolute chaos were void as my mother remained intact and whole. My thoughts kept cementing that it is a better possibility because my surroundings were evidently manifesting a solid home without a man. Now my family was led by a woman, the breadwinner just became a woman, the leader in my life just became a woman. Life as I knew it never remained the same thereafter. My principles changed, my values changed, my entire existence changed-was I even living before this revolution happened in my mother’s house? Shying away from the different situation at home, 24 | THE016 FEB/MARCH 2021
attempting to hide it from the world that was still very much clinging to the cultural and popular man-led households and protecting my family from public scrutiny and the label of broken and single parented only spoke in loud echoing volumes in my actions, in my personal life, socially and academically. My mother had unintentionally built a junior version of herself - a lone warrior within me who wasn’t loud in announcing the failure of her marriage and the challenges of raising her daughters alone but instead ensured that she kept the lights on, the bread on the table and the bills paid. I reintroduced myself to myself just like my mother did unaware. I am a woman and that is my power, I am not beneath anyone, I am not dependant on anyone, I get things done, I alone am still enough, capable. Even unled, unsupervised, without assistance-I am a force worth being reckoned, a leader by right, a phenomenal nurturer”. This defined me, this described me, this became my truth and I hiding it was futile.
