The year was 1988 and in the summer of February 21st my mother gave birth to me in Cape Town, South Africa and I was named Mzwabantu Lincoln Mzwakali.
My mother at that time was a young woman who had been a singer/dancer in a group that she had met and befriended my father, they were destined for greatness but at that point she had started to show in her pregnancy and had to eventually quit the group. My mother was one of six children and the youngest of them all, she was raised and bred by my grandmother from the start even though my grandfather was around until she was at least 7 years old and then he left. My grandparents were married for many years but due to issues in their marriage they parted ways and my grandmother was left to fend for her kids, some of which ended up living with relatives. As quickly as I was born a lot of people started asking questions about who my father was and my mother at that time had been steadily dating someone other than my father the assumption was that it was him, however my father knew otherwise and decided to confront her about it, she ended up denying it and cut him off from being a part of my life. During this time my grandmother decided that it would be better if she took care of me instead of my mother because she was not ready to fulfil the duties of a mother, at this time she was working and sleeping in town and that became my new home for years to come.
From as early as I can remember the
house used to have all sorts of new families renting it and with each
family a bond was formed, the one I can remember most distinctly whom
I still call family to this day is a french family who stayed a
little longer than a year in the house, they treated me like their
own and my grandmother was as good as part of the family, they used
to take me to trips all over Cape Town and spoil me rotten with
clothes from France and toys galore. Around the age of five or six I
met a german boy who used to live opposite the house, we fast became
best friends and we did everything together, I was a bit of a loner
during creche and primary school so it was always refreshing to come
home to him, I also made friends with an amazing family of people
that immediately accepted me as one of their own, I remember I met
their mother in Checkers (when it JUST opened) and I was nagging to
my grandmother that I wanted the Lion King video but she wasn't
having any of that (Boss Lady!) until this lovely lady came up to us
and told us she also had kids and that she could make a copy of Lion
King for me, that was all it took and after our first visit I became
a constant nuisance. Kids used to always make fun of me for many
different reasons during creche and Primary School, I was a sensetive
child so I used to take what they said to heart and this developed my
temper. Outside of school my grandmother enrolled me in a
child-modeling agency and at one point my agent was moving to the US
so she begged my grandmother to take me with, she promised to make me
bigger than I was, however my grandmother was fearful of what might
happen to me without her supervision and young as I was she wanted to
see me complete my schooling and make such a decision at a later
stage. During all this time my relationship with my mother was very
distant, she was physically abusive and an alcoholic and we forever
kept knocking heads but I was always safe when I was in town, to the
point where I begged my grandmother to leave me in town on weekends
so that I didn't have to see her, of course that privilege only came
when I could prove to my gran that I could look after myself.
In my first year in Primary school I
had an episode with my Sub A teacher, I had needed to use the
bathroom and she told me to keep quiet and wait till break, I decided
that the wee was too much to hold in and I asked her again to let me
go, she still refused and in my first moment of defiance of anger I
decided to let it go and peed right there in my seat and gave her
THAT look, that was the quickest I got my mouth washed out with soap!
Next was another teacher in Sub B who called me stupid for losing a
book, now this lady was a chain-smoker of note who shouldn't have
considered teaching at all, she was the epitomy of pure evil, when
this lost book situation happened she humiliated me in front of the
entire class and demanded I either look for the book or leave her
class, of course I found the book – where SHE had left it! Now as
you guys have gathered my mother and I were never on good terms
however when my gran told her of someone making me upset that was the
quickest she came to my defence about the matter, after school she
marched right into my classroom unannounced and closed the door
behind her with me outside peeking through the keyhole, all I can say
about my mother is that when she got angry the air around her became
electric, so you can imagine how my teacher must've felt. After that
incident I saw her in a different light but I was also wary because
she never showed me another side to her, she was a puzzle to me that
I could never figure – not for a long time anyway.
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