I am finally getting around to read the 2019 Nine Dots prize winner, Annie Zaidi, Bread, Cement, Cactus, A Memoir of Belonging and Dislocation. At the beginning of chapter 3 (page 40 in the PDF) she writes:
Maya Angelou has said that ‘the ache for home lives in all of us. The safe place where we can go as we are and not be questioned.’ This safe place – does it exist? I don’t know. What I do know is that the illusion must exist. For a person to give her loyalty to the land, to trust those who create and enforce laws, safety is a prerequisite. One essential aspect to this illusion is familiarity: systems functioning as we expect them to, people talking in tongues we understand.
You can get the PDF here.
No comments:
Post a Comment