3 AM
You left home as a jolly child, only to return as an image of what you used to be.
What your Mama does not know is the fact that you died the minute she dropped you off outside the university campus.
You carry shame with you, for it is true that you cannot recall the sound of her laughter.
Blood is the only thing that keeps you coming back to this house.
You also believe that its release could lead to your freedom.
Moonlight is your committed witness, for you are impeccable when it comes to painting the walls of your room red. Slowly shedding yourself, always.
Mpho Ndaba is an activist scholar, writer, and producer. He is the founding director of
Changing the Lense SA (CTL-SA), a social justice and development content hub whose work
is around development, media policy and climate justice work in South Africa. He holds
degrees in International Relations, Media Studies, and Development Studies from the
University of the Witwatersrand (WITS) and the University of Cape Town (UCT) respectively.
Ndaba is a recipient of a number of accolades, in recognition of his leadership and
academic excellence. These include the Emerging Leader Award from the Development and
Leadership Unit (DLU) at the University of the Witwatersrand; the Andrew Mellon Funded
Scholarship in 2018 at the University of Cape Town and the Mail & Guardian Top 200 Young
South Africans in 2018, Environment Category. He is in 2018 also received the Open Society
Foundation for South Africa scholarship, which he will take up in 2020, researching
development policies and southern food systems. Other memberships and commitments
include being a member of the Green Campus Initiative (GCI) at the University of Cape Town
and serves as a member of the board at the SOS Support Public Broadcasting Coalition.
He has written for Mail & Guardian, Africa as a country, Vanguard Magazine and Micampus
Magazine to name a few. And has featured on Radio 702, Cape Talk, The Big debate,
Eyewitness News, Cutting Edge, Newsroom Africa, Power FM and Voice of Wits to name a
few, making socio-political commentary on environmental justice, development, democracy
and youth participation, gender, race and sexual orientation.