I've Come to Take You Home

     Tonight was an important night in demonstrating the important connections between the classroom and the larger world. Last semester, our class discussed the life of Sarah Baartman, a Khoikhoi woman who was sold into slavery and whose body was exotified and displayed throughout London. She was eventually taken to Paris and continued to be displayed there after her death in 1816. Because of a French law that held that “French artifacts” must be kept in France, Baartman’s remains were not allowed to be taken back to South Africa. However, in 2002, the French government finally allowed the return of Baartman’s body to South Africa, in part, because of a powerful poem written by Diana Ferrus, a South African poet. In the poem, titled “I’ve Come to Take You Home,” Ferrus demonstrates the importance of memory, place and identity, and calls Baartman back to her home in South Africa.

      Given this weighty history, it was a remarkable experience to hear Ferrus discuss her poem and to recite it in its entirety.  Even though this poem is over a decade old, Ferrus recited it with vigor as if she were telling it for the first time. While Ferrus is a performer, the emotion in her voice was not merely a performance. It was also clear that her poem was not simply about one woman or one moment in time but about a painful legacy of intolerance, colonization, and slavery. Those who call South Africa their home are in no way removed from this legacy but must face the costs of their inheritance in their daily lives. Distrust, violence, and gross inequalities can be traced directly from South Africa’s history of slavery and apartheid. When Ferrus calls Baartman home, it seems that she is not simply speaking to the woman who has been so displaced both bodily and symbolically, but she is calling out to all South Africans who still remain dislocated. This, I believe, is the reason why all South Africans in the room appeared especially moved as Ferrus called Baartman home once again nearly two decades after the end of apartheid. And just as Ferrus must perform her poem continuously, in so many rooms and so many settings, this call is an ongoing one.

I’ve Come to Take You Home

By Diana Ferrus

I’ve come to take you home –
home, remember the veld?
the lush green grass beneath the big oak trees
the air is cool there and the sun does not burn.
I have made your bed at the foot of the hill,
your blankets are covered in buchu and mint,
the proteas stand in yellow and white
and the water in the stream chuckle sing-songs
as it hobbles along over little stones.

I have come to wretch you away –
away from the poking eyes
of the man-made monster
who lives in the dark
with his clutches of imperialism
who dissects your body bit by bit
who likens your soul to that of Satan
and declares himself the ultimate god!

I have come to soothe your heavy heart
I offer my bosom to your weary soul
I will cover your face with the palms of my hands
I will run my lips over lines in your neck
I will feast my eyes on the beauty of you
and I will sing for you
for I have come to bring you peace.

I have come to take you home
where the ancient mountains shout your name.
I have made your bed at the foot of the hill,
your blankets are covered in buchu and mint,
the proteas stand in yellow and white –
I have come to take you home
where I will sing for you
for you have brought me peace.