1. How to teach a nation I’m othered by, how to save electricity.
2. Realising the othering happened when fictional lines were drawn by colonisation.
3. Recognising the borders weren’t drawn in our DNAs.
4. Mislabling my existence as ‘accident’.
5. Correcting that mistake with phrases like ‘intentional miracle’ or ‘a gift born from love’ .
6. How to look in the mirror and not find flaws.
7. How to focus on the stains on my reflection.
8. How to view myself as a ‘dirty thing’.
9. Accepting the blemishes on my reputation.
10. Learning to love me with all my mistakes.
11. Forgive the parts of me that loved from a place of grief.
12. Swinging my mourning like a bat aimed at my lovers.
13. Loving like a scab – a dead thing trying to crawl out of its wound. An ugly healing.
14. How to speak life into my soul.
15. How to accept love.
16. How to be loved.
Tshepo Molefe (pronouns: he/his/him) is a multi-award-winning performance poet and copywriter. With a career spanning over seven years, Molefe has graced many stages around Gauteng and has been published in numerous publications.
Some of Molefe’s career highlights include being published on the 7th edition of the Sol Plaatje anthology, winning the 2017 WordnSound Poetry league, publishing his debut poetry anthology, The Brown Bottle series, and performing his one-man poetry play at the Joburg Theatre.