I have spent so much time being and existing in the space of human rights work. I have identified as a human rights defender, I have worked to fight for human rights for different categories of people. And that was always based on my realisation and understanding of the African struggle for independence. In a lot of ways, my politics come from learning the history of Africa, and that means colonisation by the British, in Kenya where I was born, but by extension every other African country. My African pendant necklace is a gift I gave to myself in 2007. I got it in the Gambia and it was the first time I had been invited to the African Commission for people in human rights and for me, it was the first time I had been in a fully militarised state. It allowed me to see a very different perspective of what nationalism is, what structural power in the sense of just nationhood or statehood, and in comparison to Kenya which was apparently an independent republic; it was senseless for me to not try seeing myself in the context of the people living in Gambia at that point.
My crystals, they’re amethyst and turquoise stones or gems, I use them for meditation. As I’ve grown into myself, I’ve learned how important spirituality is and how important remembering myself, and remembering in terms of looking at myself and being present with myself and allowing myself to sit in my disappointment and my darkness and also to cherish my happiness and my joy. Because all of those things are constantly changing, but they’re also what life is. That’s my life. I use crystals to meditate but to also be a symbol for my own willingness to push myself, to challenge myself, to understand myself as a human being.
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