….i want to go home,
but home is the mouth of a shark
home is the barrel of the gun
and no one would leave home
unless home chased you to the shore
unless home told you
to quicken your legs
leave your clothes behind
crawl through the desert
wade through the oceans
drown
save
be hunger
beg
forget pride
your survival is more important
no one leaves home until home is a sweaty voice in your ear
saying-
leave,
run away from me now
i dont know what i’ve become
but i know that anywhere
is safer than here
- Extract from Home by Warsan Shire
Imagine that the place you have fled to for protection and belonging no longer feels safe - you want to return to the place that pushed you out. Gift, an asylum seeker from the Democratic Republic of Congo, is a mother of three children, two of whom are living with disabilities. Gift arrived in South Africa with her children in 2019 in the hope of finding a safer home to raise
them.
A month ago, I received a call in the late evening, Gift, in a panic, explained that strangers had come into their shared house and told them to pack their things and go home This happened at around the time of other xenophobic interrogations happening in Gauteng, as part of Operation Dudula. This invasion was made on the assumption that Gift was in South Africa
illegally, despite the legal documentation that she and her children all have. Gift feared that these people would return as they had threatened to. With little else to do except report this incident to the police, Gift continues to live in fear of the hostility that may enter her home again.
This fear and the lived experience of discrimination in a place of hoped-for sanctuary is faced by many refugees and migrants living in South Africa.
In our own neighbourhoods, communities and churches people who hope to find sanctuary also face hostility and/or discrimination. Are you aware of anyone who may have felt unwelcome in the places you live or worship?
Is there an opportunity for you to welcome them in?
As we reflected on at the beginning of this week, is God calling you to be belonging to others?
