Love

Words from my 12 year old self.

LOVE

1 Word, 4 Letters, 2 Syllables, 1 Meaning

It’s not always romantic
It doesn’t ultimately make the world go round
It doesn’t necessarily last forever
But it still controls every aspect of our lives.
Even as a child we strive for attention
Yearn for someone to somehow tell you how much you mean to them
We grow up hoping someday someone is going to see past our mistakes
Past our lies and past the pain

We keeping running and running hoping to one day stumble upon our own version of a fairy-tale
But is love truly a fairy-tale or is it the simple need of being wanted
The feeling of wanting to belong
We’ve made seem impossible to ever attain
When love is all around us
Our family, our friends
That one teacher who made a difference in our lives
That stranger who was there when you cried
Who made it all seem better for just one second

And then there’s that fairy-tale kind of love
You know the one that makes your heart stop beating
Where your entire world becomes interlinked with that one person, and life itself seems to be centered around them.
But this kind of love is not completely a fairy-tale, it’s short of being perfect, and is devoid of a future only focused on today.
They say love is blind, but love is all-seeing, just n0t completely believing
It forces you to open up without any hope of letting go

We chase it for so long, we forget about what to do when we finally find it
We soon find out that even when it seems to be within our grasp, it still seems far away
That even when you’ve completely given your heart, it’s not a guarantee of forever
That every step we rake does not necessarily get any easier
And every moment in itself isn’t perfect.
Love takes each moment and turns It into eternity
It takes each tear and turns it into a smile

But it also presents life in a way that you have never viewed it
Leaves you wanting to run even when you think you’ve finally caught it
Love is that emotion that can completely consume you and yet leave you still wanting
Gives you understanding yet your left feeling confused
Love is what I feel for the world, for people, for friends, for family
Love is that one feeling that keeps me holding on even when I feel like I can’t take just one more breath

Love is what we are chasing
Love is what we’ve found
Love is what we don’t understand
But we can’t run away from
Love to me is simply you.

The Voices Behind Music Part 3

“The world has been taught to be scared of him, but the reality is that he is scared of the world because he has none of the tools necessary to cope with it.”
― Trevor Noah, Born a Crime: Stories From a South African Childhood

Ever heard the term hip-hop hates women, ignored are the effects that music has on the men in our society. Music has sold us the ideology that emotions make us weak, that strength can only be seen through violence or control and never through openness. We chase away the reality of the pressure the media has put on our men. The pressures we as a society have put on them to fit into a box populated by trends but is that the reality we want to keep introducing to the minds of the young men everywhere? A reality where they are forced to be afraid to ask for help, to speak out about what hurts them, to step out of the shame and bridge the gap between fighting to survive it all alone and surviving the world together.

The age adjusted Death Rate is 18.35 per 100,000 of population ranks; making Zimbabwe #20 in the world. The rate of suicide in Zimbabwe in recent months has been steadily going up, an increase experts say might be a reflection of economic hardships and the growing problem of domestic violence.’
While most cases of suicides among women are tied to domestic problems with infidelity being at the top, the increase in suicides by men has been heightened by economic strain and several other social triggers.

The increase in the number of suicides in Zimbabwe shows that economic problems affect more than people’s wallets. It is increasingly becoming an issue that is triggering a lot of psychological problems leading to violence and suicides.
Although police could not give an accurate figure on people committing suicide saying the problem was not criminal, the chief police spokesperson, Senior Assistant Commissioner Charity Charamba said there has been an increase in the number of people who are committing suicide.

It is also estimated that 60% of the youth are on illicit drugs in Zimbabwe. The Vocie of America (VOA) Africa, in 2015 estimated the unofficial number of addicts in Zimbabwe to be between a million and 1.2 million countrywide. There are a number of reasons that are leading to an increase in the uptake of drugs among the youths. peer pressure, rigorous training and stress from high unemployment or broken families, emotional and physical abuse are some of the common drivers of drug abuse but is our music contributing to this country-wide phenomenon.

Preaching that it is cool to be black but when did the epitome of black hood and black man become drug use and abuse.



Joyner Lucas in his song, I’m not racist talks about the black man stereotype that we have all bought into. With lyrics like, ‘Screamin' "Black Lives Matter" All the black guys rather be deadbeats than pay your bills’ and ‘You motherfuckas needa get your damn priorities straight, Wait, it's like you're proud to be fake. But you lazy as fuck and you'd rather sell drugs, Than get a job and be straight, and then you turn around and complain, About the poverty rate? Fuck outta my face!’

He shows a point of view that many of us are afraid to own up to or admit to ourselves for we have grown comfortable in our plight, comfortable in an image that was never our own.



Karma in the Htown-blues cypher ft Terry Shan and Griffin talks about being the dreamers, the underachievers and talks about the hate breed by the media with lyrics like, ‘while we over here thinking they hate us, they over thinking that we hate them’ whilst Terry Shan talks about emotional madness being his gateway drug and Griffin rapping in his native tongue talks about everytime that we build there will always be people who will come to destroy.

This song speaks of our struggle but how long will we let our image be tarnished and controlled by messages that are only seeking to destroy us.
The above research only just hints at the growing problem that these social issues present to our country and the generation that is fighting to prevail despite them and changes have to be made. It is time that we stop standing silent and we take a step forward providing the people with a voice and proving to the country and the world that we are more than just a generation of thugs.

If you missed the voices behind music part 1 find it here

The voices behind music part 2

What are some of the other songs that you know that speak of this struggle?

And what’s your take on the new generation, struggling or lazy? And what do you think can be done to build our nation and make the dream a reality?

Send your music links via email if you believe that you have a unique voice that deserves to be heard and stand a chance to be featured: a.marufu52@gmail.com

“People always lecture the poor: “Take responsibility for yourself! Make something of yourself!” But with what raw materials are the poor to make something of themselves?”

“The first thing I learned about having money was that it gives you choices. People don’t want to be rich. They want to be able to choose. The richer you are, the more choices you have. That is the freedom of money.”
― Trevor Noah, Born a Crime: Stories From a South African Childhood

“We live in a world where we don’t see the ramifications of what we do to others because we don’t live with them. It would be a whole lot harder for an investment banker to rip off people with subprime mortgages if he actually had to live with the people he was ripping off. If we could see one another’s pain and empathize with one another, it would never be worth it to us to commit the crimes in the first place.”
― Trevor Noah, Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood

“We live in a world where we don’t see the ramifications of what we do to others, because we don’t live with them. It would be a whole lot harder for an investment banker to rip off people with subprime mortgages if he actually had to live with the people he was ripping off. If we could see one another’s pain and empathize with one another, it would never be worth it to us to commit the crimes in the first place.”
― Trevor Noah, Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood

“We live in a world where we don’t see the ramifications of what we do to others, because we don’t live with them. It would be a whole lot harder for an investment banker to rip off people with subprime mortgages if he actually had to live with the people he was ripping off. If we could see one another’s pain and empathize with one another, it would never be worth it to us to commit the crimes in the first place.”
― Trevor Noah, Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood

“I don’t regret anything I’ve ever done in life, any choice that I’ve made. But I’m consumed with regret for the things I didn’t do, the choices I didn’t make, the things I didn’t say. We spend so much time being afraid of failure, afraid of rejection. But regret is the thing we should fear most. Failure is an answer. Rejection is an answer. Regret is an eternal question you will never have the answer to. “What if…” “If only…” “I wonder what would have…” You will never, never know, and it will haunt you for the rest of your days.”
― Trevor Noah, Born a Crime: Stories From a South African Childhood