Editors Note

 LIFE DOES NOT OWE YOU A LIVING

Life is sometimes not fair. And unfair as it may, it does not owe anyone of us a living. Conversely, it is us who owe life a living. Thus, we need to ask ourselves why we were born, to do what exactly. The response to such questions may vary and sometimes contradictory depending on one’s philosophy of life. However, one thing that remains clear is that humanity is inherently characterised by struggle.

 Much of the struggle emanates from our quest to understand who we are and what constitutes our “being” or “self”. Who are you exactly, why were you born and what is your purpose here? These are some of the questions that many of us have had to grapple with especially when we seem to think that life is or has not been fair to us. But since we are thrust into a pre-determined world where again we are required to project ourselves as individuals there is no escaping falling back into what has been pre-determined for us.

 I mean I am not a man because I was born a man but because society has ascribed that status to me (social construct) through language which is in essence embedded with a code of ethics. What determines that I am a man is not my anatomical make up but the stories that society and I tell me about myself which then becomes my identity. It is all but performance, not my sex. In other words my identity is not me but what people tell me about myself which then becomes internalised in me and I use to describe myself.

 I was not born Thomas, my mother told me I am Thomas. It is a language game and how you live life depends on how you understand and interpret the language game.Thus, ability and disability are all but performance hence the story we carry in some of our pages about a Lecheng woman with multiple disabilities should inspire us to view life differently. Many of us would have resigned ourselves to fate but for Oaitse Nkgaswe life is worth living, no matter the circumstances.

  We have ascribed her, the status of multiple disabilities but Nkgaswe strongly believes she owes life a living. Notwithstanding her condition, she has always kept her faith that one day she would own a house. Instead of wallowing in self-pity, Nkgaswe developed the will to survive and a purpose in life. As society, we see a woman with multiple disabilities but Nkgaswe continues to dream otherwise. She wants to have a child. She is self-driven and determined and the author of her story could not help mentioning: “She has mastered the art of doing household chores like any other young woman raised in a typical traditional home.”

 The author also adds: “she has devised unbelievable ways of cooking and cleaning her space using her left leg.” In other words, Nkgaswe did not wait for life to dictate to her that she was not able to perform certain duties. She accepted who she is but not the negative image society has projected onto her - that of disability – because she knows she owes life a living hence her desire to bear a child. She does not shy away from cameras and oozes confidence to look good on national television. Hers is an inspiring tale of a woman who has not let her “disability” and society’s stereotyping condemn her to abyss for she knows she owes life a living! Otherwise, had Nkgaswe understood and interpreted disability to mean inability she would have thought life owed her a living!

Thomas T. Nkhoma