Do you feel left out?

I've been meaning for a while to do a series of posts on my experiences with race. Just some stories from my life. Because race is quite a big issue in South Africa.

In South Africa there are still pretty large gaps between different races. On Thursday I went to a talk by a Professor from UCT, entitled "Recent patterns of racialisation." It was mostly a bunch of stats about different races in SA. The kind of stuff we all know, really, but maybe don't talk about much. For example, they did a study on the Jammie Steps at UCT, where they set up a camera to regularly take pictures of the stairs. Then they looked at how people were grouped in the pictures. And guess what? People sat in groups of the same race. But we all knew it would be like that, didn't we?

So ja, there are still pretty large gaps between different races. Physical gaps where we often still live in different neighbourhoods and so forth, but more personal gaps too. Where we don't understand each other, where we have had different experiences of life, where we make assumptions about each other and so forth. Even language can be a big gap.

Anyway, that was a long intro to a short post. I've been really blessed in life to be around a very mixed race bunch of people, which has been difficult and great in very many ways (And even the difficult is a great thing, when it comes down to it, because sometimes its difficult to deal with race stuff. But its still very important to deal with it. And I'm very grateful for the opportunity I have had to do this).

So along the way I've had all sort of experiences that have challenged me and opened my mind and humbled me. So I thought I must blog about some of them!

Just a short one for today:

I used to tutor maths to some kids from a township school near me, just to help them out. It was quite alot of fun actually.

They usually spoke Xhosa to each other. We did math problems in a group, so it usually meant me speaking to them in English and them speaking to me in English, but then discussing and explaining the work to each other in Xhosa. Sometimes they even spoke Xhosa to me, which I could usually understand just enough to reply. Because when you're talking about maths you would usually use the word "parabola" or "gradient" even if you are speaking in Xhosa, so I could pick up enough from the few words I know, and the context, to reply somewhat intelligently!

And I don't mind it at all. Xhosa is their home language, and the home language of most people in my region, so really it should be me making an effort to learn Xhosa. Also, grasping maths can be hard enough in your mother tongue, why make it more difficult by insisting on using English?

Anyway, on this one occasion I was walking back to the car with them, and one of the girls asked me very earnestly if I felt left out when they all speak in Xhosa.

And it was such a moment for me because I thought it was the most beautiful role reversal. Here was this young black girl, concerned for me. A wealthier, older, educated while girl, who was, in that context, her teacher.

Language is a strange thing, because it can represent so much of a person's identity. And its often the case that English represents wealth and education and sophistication. That English is exalted above other languages, in a sense, and represents white superiority. Which is nonsense of course, but that it how it is sometimes viewed, consciously or unconsciously, by people.

Which is why I thought it was beautiful when this girl was concerned for me, that I felt left out in not understanding her language. And in her concern, she became the gracious and I became the one who received her grace.

I could say more, but I'll leave it for another post :)

Vivian's garden

This post is for my old Vinayard small group from UIUC. Hi everyone! I miss our crazy small group!

I chatted to Geoff the other day and I was telling him some of the stuff my friends and I have been up to here, so I thought I'd put it all in a blog for you guys, with some pics!

Extension 9, an area on the outskirts of the town I live in

The lady in charge of community development at my church, Wendy, runs a weekly discussion-type group. We get together and read about, talk about, think about community development from a Biblical perspective. This year Wendy decided we had done enough talking, we actually need to start doing!

So this had been a year of doing! And learning along the way.

One of the things we have been involved in is setting up a vegetable garden for Vivian. Vivian is a lady who works for Wendy and a couple of other people we know. She is remarkable - she has her own church, which she runs from her house. She feeds scores of people, especially sick people, she takes people into her home and cares for them.

Her house is tiny, it's really just one room with a tiny bathroom. Its what we call an RDP house, the houses the government here has been building for people. And its on a pretty tiny patch of land. But there was an open patch at the back, a few metres by a few metres. And it's on this patch that she asked us to help her start a vegetable garden. So we did:

Eben and Yeukai clearing away the grass - it was a serious job! You can see the rows of identical RDP houses in the background. I'd estimate maybe 80% of the population in my town live in accommodation something like this, or worse. And the other 20% live in bigger houses or apartment blocks, more like yours :)

The boy next door checking out the progress!

The whole team knuckling down! (I'm the one with the black and white hat). The ground was *so* hard the poor guys really had to go for it with those pick axes. Us girls just pulled out grass and planted seeds.

Vivian lives right near the end of town - you can see in the picture near the top of this post, which is of the open field close to her house. Unfortunately living near open fields also means its not the safest area.

Wendy recently told us Vivian was asked for help by a lady in her community whose four children had not eaten for four days. So we're going try and help somehow, we will brain storm it next week. Vivian feeds a lot of people in her area, so we have been trying to help her buying basic groceries.

Vivian's dream is to start a creche where she can care for children. Our church has been trying to buy a house for her to start a creche in. They found one just around the corner from her present house, which is ideal. I think the process of trying to buy the house is underway. They ran into some unexpected problems though. For example, one house they wanted to buy, which was selling for about R20000, had an outstanding water and electricity bill of nearly another R20000 attached to it! Which had to be paid for before the house could be sold.

Some other ladies from our development discussion group are trying to build a playground in an open area near Vivian's house. And another group (my group) is trying to help some ladies expanding their beading businesses. There are about ten ladies who sit on upturned crates all day on the edge of the university campus where we stay, selling beadwork. They are very skilled - their beadwork is lovely and they are an organised team. But their working conditions are just not ideal, and we had some ideas for helping them tap into a larger market. We're really still trying to figure things out on the beading project, so we will see how things go with that!

At the moment a lot of our "doing" is just research into how to do things. Its been quite encouraging to learn about other development projects going on. From skills development, to homes for street children, micro-lending projects, small business projects, all sorts of things. Our group actually wanted to try a micro-lending project but it was looking a bit overwhelming so we decided to start small!

This is what the Lord Almighty says: ‘Once again men and women of ripe old age will sit in the streets of Jerusalem, each with cane in hand because of his age (not all dying young of HIV/AIDS). The city streets will be filled with boys and girls playing there (safety, peace, childhood, happiness, laughter)’.
Zech 8:4 (comments by Wendy!)

This is what the Lord Almighty says, ‘My towns will again overflow with prosperity...’
Zech 1:17

Welcome Mutsa

I've been trying to convince my flatmates (present and past) to blog for over a year now.

Finally Mutsa has taken up the call to blog. Well done Muts, welcome to the blogging world!

(As an aside, my friend Heather told me its always better to make links several words long, rather than one. Because its easier for people to click on, I suppose. And she works with web stuff, so she should know!)

Humbled again

I was checking out aquilogy's blog this afternoon and I came across this post (not for sensitive viewers). And it really put things into perspective for me.

You know, its good to give and its good to protest and its good to make a stand.

But what can you say to a picture like that. There are no words really.

Evil triumphs when good people do nothing

"Evil triumphs when good people do nothing."

This was Dr Badat's concluding exhortation in the Rhodes statement against xenophobia. Dr Badat is the VC of Rhodes, the university I go to.

We do need to make a stand at this time, we need to be people who speak out against bigotry, xenophobia, violence, lawlessness. But I think this is also a time when we need to do more than raise our voices against this. Raising voices is important, but when there are literally thousands and thousands of people trying to live out of tens or in halls, afraid, with nothing, its the time to use our hands along with our voices.

I live far away from the areas affected by the violence, so it seems difficult to help in practical ways. So I was very glad to read about the relief efforts that His People Church in Joburg have been involved in (more info here: Call to Action). I emailed some of the HP Joburg staff to ask how things were going and in their reply they commented, "The only light in this awful, awful situation has been to see how South Africans have rallied to help!" You can check out some of the stuff they are doing on the call to action above. They are helping in all sorts of ways, from working with medical teams, to looking after children to, to visiting people hiding out in and around police stations and providing for their very practical needs: blankets, food, mattresses, washing powder, and they even said they were looking into hiring porta potties!

There and many churches and other NGO type organisations helping with relief work. Which really is quite encouraging to see, in the midst of such a terrible situation. The government has a role to play, of course. But as normal citizens, we are responsible for our country and our communities. We need to be the ones to take action and change things, and help people, protect the poor and promote justice. I think that this was an excellent example of that.

So I decided to contribute financially to the HP Joburg relief efforts. And as I was thinking about this, it occurred to me that there are probably lots of people who want to help, but just need an avenue to do so.

On Friday the university commemorated Africa Day with anti-xenophobia pledges. People went to the library quad and signed pledges against xenophobia and took Africa posters to put on doors and windows as a sign that we do not support xenophobia. So we joined with this initiative in the library quad on Rhodes campus and did a collection for the HP Joburg relief work.

As it turns out a couple of other students and staff members (Rebecca and Kate) had also organised a collection so we joined forces with them and we accepted monetary donations and they accepted donations of goods. Rebecca and Kate were very impressive, I thought!! They started the day with no way to get the donated stuff to Joburg, but during the course of the morning they made a plan with Algoa FM and a PE transport company to sent the stuff up to Joburg next week. Very impressive!

Here you see Rebecca (bending down, bottom right) accepting a donation from the lady next to her.

People donated so much stuff!! Bags and bags of clothes, bedding, even cultery and crockery... Rebecca and Kate are sending off the truck load of goods they collected to an organisation called Gift of the Givers, to be distributed in Joburg.


This was the stand we set up. Here you see Caroline and Lomile manning the stand. We collected a total of R7250 in financial donations, which amazed me. I was completely humbled by the generosity with which people gave. Thank you so much to everyone who gave! The money has been internet transferred to HP Joburg and will be used to help displaced people.

Ian Sieborger, a Christians@Rhodes member, came to support and wrote a bit about the collection on their blog.

If people want to donate financially to the HP Joburg relief efforts, or help in any other way, their details are on this page. And if you have blankets, clothes, toiletries or anything else you would be willing to give to someone who now has pretty much nothing, you can drop off donations with Rebecca French in the Rhodes University Germany Department on Monday (tomorrow). The goods are being sent to Joburg on Tuesday.

Also, remember to lift our country and this situation to God in prayer - he can change the life of a person and the destiny of a nation.

And of course, if there are other ways you can think of to help, or other organisation you want to help, go for it!!

Because evil triumphs when good people do nothing.

More on Xenophobia

These xenophobic attacks are such a heavy thing. The images on the news are terrifying.

I live with two Zimbabweans, which makes it all the more real.

Today my flatmates and I were chatting about the fact that Mbeki has been so silent on the issue, and I pointed out that I had seen references to a statement Mbeki made about the situation yesterday. But neither of them had heard about his statement.

Strange.

I was chatting to a friend at work about the same issue, and she was saying that she wished she could get some definitive information about the situation. The media are prone to sensationalism, she was saying, so its hard to know what's really going on. Not to say the situation isn't serious, but what is actually happening? Is it escalating? Has is calmed down? Are things under control now? Are the police coping? Are they not?

She really made me think about how the media has played this story. I was watching ETV news tonight. The presenter on location in Alexandria said they hadn't been any more violence today, but added the ominous qualifier that the violence usually starts pretty late. Implying that there is plenty more time for violence to still happen today, and almost implying that it probably will. And she spoke of scared people going home early to shut themselves into their homes.

Now I do really think the situation is scary. Its so distressing that such a horrible, senselessly violent thing could happen here.

But it seems to me that unbiased reporting on the issue would have said:
"There have been no further attacks today," or even "There have been no further attacks today, but there is still a feeling of fear among the people here."
Rather than effectively saying:
"There have been no further attacks today, BUT JUST YOU WAIT!!!"

It reminds me a bit of Mbeki's lie factory comments the other day. I wonder what it must be like, to be him. And I wonder what the truth is about all of these issues.

I read the news and watch the news, but I really battle to know what parts of it I can actually believe.



(I was glad to see that Ndumiso Ncobo mentioned the weirdness that is the media in his blog post on this issue: Xenophobic racism and other general idiocy.)

Life in the ghetto

I live with two wonderful friends in a very central, safe, block of flats. And we pay exceptionally low rent. And we have lovely landlords.

But our flat has been systematically falling apart. And not being fixed. This is our fault in part: we often don't bother to tell our landlord about problems we have. But when we do, it often takes quite a while to get things fixed...

Take our lounge light, for example:



The light has always been dubious. At any given time usually only one or two of the light bulb fittings are working. But around the beginning of the year the whole thing just died and we had no light in our lounge. Our landlord sent someone to fix it a week or so back. It worked for a day. We called the landlord again, she sent someone to fix it again... And it lasted for about a week. So we just make do with a desk lamp.

Then there is the stove:



Our little stove has done well for us over the years. But it always had door problems really, which have become worse of late. And because the stove door doesn't close properly it lets heat out. Which means you have to budget *way* more time that you would expect to cook anything in the oven. One of the stove plates also has a baffling habit of turning off when you turn the oven on.

But a couple of weeks ago things really came to a head and half the oven door just fell off. Yes, *fell off*. The kindly light-almost-fixing handy man says it has breathed its last. Something in the door hinge has just rusted right off. He put it together but it is very precarious and he advised us not to use it.

Oh dear.

Then of course, the toilet:



This toilet seems not to work more often than it works. End of last year we finally called a plumber ourselves. He fixed it, billed us, and now its broken again.

Then of course, the plugs in the kitchen:



This multiplug arrangement is like an old friend. We've been together for years now, we know all of it's foibles. It trips if the kettle boils while the toaster is on, for example. Not just if the kettle is on while the toaster is on, understand, only if the kettle boils.

I'm not sure where the problem lies here. I think its just a wiring problem in our flat, manifesting itself in the kitchen. We went through a stage where you could only turn an iron of if you turned off all other electrical appliances. Just looking at an iron too intently would trip everything.

And of course, the washing machine that makes incredibly suspicious noises we try to ignore:



The fly graveyard aircon in Danai's room:



And finally, the most recent addition to our litany of woes, a microwave with a door that only sometimes opens:



But in spite of all of that, there is a reason life in the ghetto is still alot of fun:

"Cursed is the man who withholds justice from the alien"

I read this article in the online Mail and Guardian today. Its another story of xenophobic attacks, against a Zimbabwean lady and her young sister. There was a spate of attacks against Somalians a while back too. But I think its an ongoing thing really (another example).

One of my flatmates is a lawyer. She attended some workshops on foreigners and refugees in South Africa last year. Some of the stories she came back with were unbelievable, in the way foreigners are treated in our country. Often the problem is with official bodies like Home Affairs, which is a scary thing. But scarier still is the fact that ordinary people often hold such venomous beliefs about foreigners. She said that one of the disturbing things about the workshop was that the workshop participants themselves were quite outspoken about how badly they regard foreigners.

To quote Home Affairs Minister Malusi Gigaba: "There [is] a tendency among South Africans to regard all immigrants as criminals who wanted to steal jobs" (from here).

Which is bad enough in and of itself. But when you realise that so many of our current leaders spent years in asylum, aliens in foreign countries, it becomes all the more absurd.

I'm not saying we need to invite all foreigners to work in South Africa, of course we need sensible policies for these sorts of things.

But there is no place for stripping people of dignity because they are foreign, being suspicious of people because they are foreign, mistreating people because they are foreign, taking advantage of people because they are foreign and vulnerable, blaming people for our own problems because they are foreign.

And the fact that these things (and worse) are happening is a reproach to our nation.

I once sat next to a man from Sierra Leone (if I remember correctly) on the bus and he told me the most disturbing stories of how he had been treated. How he had been robbed, how his family lived in fear, because it was known in their community that they were foreign.
And he said the saddest thing: that they had come here in search of a better life, but it had actually just become a nightmare. That things were so bad for foreign people that they were starting to think of returning home, to the poverty and unrest they came here hoping to escape.

Again, what a reproach to our nation. Surely as a nation we want to be standing up for the oppressed? Not turning our backs on them?

I think its time we make a communal stand against this. Perhaps the dramatic forms of xenophobia that make the newspapers aren't something you deal with in the usual course of your life. But we all know how people speak about Nigerians, for example. Or have heard people speak about foreigners stealing jobs.

I think the time has come for us to speak up in conversations like that, politely, and make a stand for foreign people.




I did a quick Bible study to see something of what God feels about foreigners (referred to as aliens in the Bible), and here are some verses:

• Deuteronomy 27:19
  "Cursed is the man who withholds justice from the alien, the fatherless or the widow." Then all the people shall say, "Amen!"

• Psalm 146:9
  The LORD watches over the alien and sustains the fatherless and the widow, but he frustrates the ways of the wicked.

• Leviticus 19:34 The alien living with you must be treated as one of your native-born. Love him as yourself, for you were aliens in Egypt. I am the LORD your God.

• Leviticus 23:22 When you reap the harvest of your land, do not reap to the very edges of your field or gather the gleanings of your harvest. Leave them for the poor and the alien. I am the LORD your God.

• Leviticus 24:22 You are to have the same law for the alien and the native-born. I am the LORD your God.
  

• Numbers 15:16 The same laws and regulations will apply both to you and to the alien living among you.

• Deuteronomy 1:16
  And I charged your judges at that time: Hear the disputes between your brothers and judge fairly, whether the case is between brother Israelites or between one of them and an alien.

• Deuteronomy 10:18 He [The Lord] defends the cause of the fatherless and the widow, and loves the alien, giving him food and clothing.

• Deuteronomy 10:19 And you are to love those who are aliens, for you yourselves were aliens in Egypt.

• Deuteronomy 24:14 Do not take advantage of a hired man who is poor and needy, whether he is a brother Israelite or an alien living in one of your towns.

• Deuteronomy 24:17
  Do not deprive the alien or the fatherless of justice, or take the cloak of the widow as a pledge.

• Deuteronomy 24:19
  When you are harvesting in your field and you overlook a sheaf, do not go back to get it. Leave it for the alien, the fatherless and the widow, so that the LORD your God may bless you in all the work of your hands.

• Deuteronomy 24:20
  When you beat the olives from your trees, do not go over the branches a second time. Leave what remains for the alien, the fatherless and the widow.

• Deuteronomy 24:21 When you harvest the grapes in your vineyard, do not go over the vines again. Leave what remains for the alien, the fatherless and the widow.

• Deuteronomy 26:12
  When you have finished setting aside a tenth of all your produce in the third year, the year of the tithe, you shall give it to the Levite, the alien, the fatherless and the widow, so that they may eat in your towns and be satisfied.

• Jeremiah 7:6
  If you do not oppress the alien, the fatherless or the widow and do not shed innocent blood in this place, and if you do not follow other gods to your own harm, then I will let you live in this place, in the land I gave your forefathers for ever and ever.

• Jeremiah 22:3 This is what the LORD says: Do what is just and right. Rescue from the hand of his oppressor the one who has been robbed. Do no wrong or violence to the alien, the fatherless or the widow, and do not shed innocent blood in this place.

• Zechariah 7:10 Do not oppress the widow or the fatherless, the alien or the poor. In your hearts do not think evil of each other.

• Malachi 3:5 "So I will come near to you for judgment. I will be quick to testify against sorcerers, adulterers and perjurers, against those who defraud laborers of their wages, who oppress the widows and the fatherless, and deprive aliens of justice, but do not fear me," says the LORD Almighty.

Linux tip: Printing multiple pages on one page

Printing multiple pages onto one printed page is easy with the programme evince. You just go to:

• Print > Page Setup

Then change the number of pages per side. Easy enough. And it can potentially save a lot of printing - printing out 2 or 4 pages of an article on a single sheet of paper.

I use a software package called AIPS as part of my PhD research and unfortunately AIPS sometimes outputs postscript files that evince doesn't like too much. For reasons I don't understand, to be honest.

So here is my method for printing out 4 AIPS ps plot on one page.

1) First combine them into one postscript document:

• gs -sDEVICE=pswrite -sOutputFile=outputfile.ps -dNOPAUSE -dBATCH file1.ps file2.ps file3.ps file4.ps

2) Put the four pages in outputfile.ps onto one page:

• psnup -4 outputfile.ps finaloutput.ps

3) And then print the final combined postscript file:

• lpr finaloutput.ps

You can also plot 3 pages on a side (still each on a quarter of the page) by only inputting 3 files in step one. Or if you want to print two pages per side you can input 2 files in step one and use the qualifier "-2" rather than "-4" in psnup, so make each original page take up half of the final page.

I would end with "Easy as that!"
But really, no, its quite a mission just to print.



.

I'm appreciative of... Grahamstown

I stumbled across this blog this morning, a blog dedicated to showing appreciation. Which I think is rather nice!

So shamefully plagurising from aquilogy, I am appreciative of... Grahamstown.

Grahamstown is the city (town?) I've lived in as a student for many years now, enough to consider myself a semi-local. You can check out official info about it here.

Its a pretty small place, but its only about 1 hour and 15 minutes away from PE and about 2 and a half hours from my home town, East London (3 hours the way I drive!). Its also only 45 minutes from the beach and all that entails. Which is seafood, mostly, in my life. And about 40 minutes from the
Big Pineapple, South Africa's premier tourist attraction.

Its small enough so you get used to seeing the same cashiers at some shops. And some business owners and shopkeepers are public figures - the guy who owns the only movie house in town, the lady who works in the video store... that lady who works in the traffic department. If I speak about, say, Mary who works in Home Affairs, people will know who I mean. You can't go shopping without bumping into people you know. Its rare that you eat out and don't see people you know sitting at another table in the same restaurant. A friend of mine is eternally bound to the same hairdresser, a little old lady he used to live next door to. Even when he tries to book other people, she sees him and takes over his hair!

A couple of months ago there was a knock on the door quite early one morning. I wombled to answer it, still in my PJs I think. I was the only person home. I opened the door to a man who wanted to sell me CDs. And then when I said no thanks, asked for money. I said no again and off he went.

It occurred to me at the time that it probably isn't the best idea to open the door (the grid gate thing was open too) to a stranger. But the whole incident didn't make me nervous. I still see that guy in town every now and then, trying to sell CDs.

Which is another thing I love about Grahamstown - in a bigger city I'm sure people would be much more afraid to open their doors to strange men. And possibly rightfully so. I can't say crime isn't an issue here, because it is. But not of the magnitude we hear about in bigger cities.

I don't walk around afraid, or drive afraid, or sit at home alone at night, afraid. Sometimes I wonder why people don't move to smaller places rather than emigrating.

I know small towns aren't everyone's cup of tea, but they certainly have their advantages!

So me, I am appreciative of Grahamstown!

Remember Your Home Address

"History is the Home Address"
Mongane Wally Serote

we lay there then
and the night
in its buzz
purred time which was passing
it passed slowly
this time
and we were not aware of its passing

as night followed into day and day into night
we lay in dialogue
she asked -
why are they asking if he is fit to rule?
and the cricket
and the purr of the fridge
and the heaviness of the darkness
and the night without breeze or noise
answered in silence

and I asked -
who are they that ask that?
she turned face up
and we shuffled a distance between us

must I believe that
I asked
that there was a pre-colonial time
there was slave trade
there was colonialism
there was apartheid
and because these were there
there is racism
who must I ask in these times of agreement
who must I ask when it seems there are no witnesses
in this time when the burden of the past is also mine?
with no accomplices there have been no perpetrators
who
who must I ask?

...

I panic
in the daylight and the darkness of the night
I pray they may hear
that they may help him
that they may protect him
that they may be kind to him, their son
not to fall into the acid
which acided so many
when he says - there are two nations here
one white and rich
one black and poor
it is the truth
don't they know?
don't they know
that if you go away -
remember your home address
why do they expect him to forget his?
they have not forgotten theirs

...

beloved,
I said
beloved,
she said
what must we learn from our home?

don't forget your address
if you go away
when they ask you
where you come from
search for the address and give them
ah!
when you return
you must know where to go

she said -
history is the home address
it resides in you
it is your sanctuary and you its sanctuary
if you don't know it
or remember it
if you throw it away
its like you enter the desert
where there is just sand and sand and sand,
she said

...

I found this poem a few months ago, scratching in the library for something else. Its long, nearly 70 pages, so I've just typed up extracts from the beginning section here.

It is all set in a conversation between a man and a women, lying in bed, burdened by the state of South African and Africa and trying to make sense of it all, finding their own places in it all. They go on to speak about various other African countries, about images of African people: the soldier, the intellectual, the strong woman, the leaders... they talk through AIDS and poverty, military conflicts, life, culture and important historical events.

I think it is a really beautiful poem, and strong too. Probably what I like most about it is how real it is: a conversation between two people with heavy things on their hearts. The hanging questions, "who killed him" "on whose side are you?", the silences and lapses in conversation where they are involved in their own thoughts, minds wandering to this and that, looking for answers, hopelessness sometimes, hope sometimes.

My favourite poems are poems that make you feel something. And here I felt their confusion and conviction and despair. Which, to me, makes it a beautiful poem. And if they make you feel something, they've opened your eyes and made your world a bit bigger, to see bigger than yourself.

This is a poem about identity, ultimately, and where people find their identities. History is your home address, they conclude. Their answer is that we find our home in our history, this where we come from and how we understand our place in it all. The stories of our people, our exploits and trials, our leaders and our culture. And if we forget where we come from, we lose part of ourselves.

Its coming from a pretty traditional African worldview, so there is lots of emphasis on finding your identity from the group, on the spiritual and on the ancestors. Hence the answer "History is your home address" - you will find yourself in your people and their history, "I am because we are."

Some of these aspects of it are a bit at odds with my own worldview, but I think it holds a lot of truth. And it reminds me of how God exhorted the Israelites to remember their past, and remember what he had done for them:

Remember the days of old; consider the generations long past. Ask your father and he will tell you, your elders, and they will explain to you.
Deuteronomy 32:7