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Editor's Notes on Thought, Self-Expression and Identity for the Month of April

Writer's picture: Zintle RamanoZintle Ramano


Complacency is having to define yourself to others and never to self. The way ones own thought process works is that consciousness of knowing that you're multi-faceted. As the late great poet Maya Angelou once said, I come as one but I stand as 10 000. That quote sincerely resonated with my own justification of identity asking: who am I? Truth is that your identity does not belong truly to yourself does it? It belongs to the lives you impact, the lives you inspire and the lives you make.


Identity, an English term as young as the the 17th century which has grown its use exponentially with the dawn of the 21st century. Part of being black and womxn has grown with the identity of movements such as #BlackLivesMatter and feminism. Identity is very important to my existence for when I walk into a room occupied with a sea full of men and white people the first thing that is noticed is my skin, then its hues for its darkness then well, my tits and vagina.


So, how do I define my female form and blackness? I define it as the community I am bred in from the suburbs of Bedfordview to the townships of Mamelodi. I define it as my traditionalist culture of acknowledging my ancestral roots and thanking Badimo. I define it as my independence. I define it as never having had a man tell me who I am and agreeing to it.

That is my identity.

What is yours?


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