MindMapSA Issue 9

MM: Is the anti-apartheid struggle over?What do you think is the new cause célèbre?SD: I think the 1994 shift was symbolic, an early stage of liberationand the next step of our liberation is to pick up where SteveBiko left of and re-conscientise our minds. We the people ofSouth Africa must demand accountability from our governmentas governments are there to serve its people and not exploit them.MM: You were still very young when your family went toexile, do you remember anything about this time, whatyour parents may have told you about moving, leaving therest of your family, any specific moments/goodbyes etc?SD: I was four when we were forced to go into exile and wereturned when I was eighteen,so Denmark/exile ismy childhood, the formativeyears of life…so, it’smore the memories frombirth till I was four that existsin the haze of nostalgianarration, memory and remembering.Though I havea great deal of nostalgiafor Denmark too. To me,returning ´home´ (to SouthAfrica) was very difficultbecause my parents hadconstructed their memoryfrom yearning to return tothe moment of when theyhad to flee…and that momentof course seizes to exist.Like Homi Bhaba says,the return ´home´is mythic.Wherever I am, I miss theother part of me that is absent.Milan Kundera theCzechoslovakian filmmakerand novelist wrote abook called Nostalgia andbreaks down the etymologyand different meaningsof the word, which translatesin Danish to `hjemve´ Home sick, and still the Englishtranslation does not do it justice. As ´ve´ is more a yearning,a desire and longing…a longing to belong. The wordNostalgia is derived from Greek Nostos which means returnhome; it denotes a “sentimental yearning for a period of thepast.” And algia means `pain´ referring to an old wound.MM: From what I have read, your sister and yourself fully assimilatedto life in Denmark but did you ever feel or were treateddifferently whether you understood it at the time or not?SD: We were never accepted as Danes. I was very consciousof the racism we experienced. Coming from a Black Consciousnessfamily I grew up being able to understand and dealwith the racism of whiteness as their problem and not mine.MM: Your father and his participation in the anti-apartheidstruggle has obviously had an influence on you,how has it done so and do you think you would be the“activist” you are, were it not for this influence? Ie:if you were not Simmi DULLAY who would you be?SD:My father and my mother have a huge influence on whoI am. I am a mixture of them both. To answer your questionin a lighthearted manner, I think it’s in my nature to be rebelliousand to be curious. I dreamt of being a Nina Hagen…Patti Smith Punk Ska singer with the politics of Franz Fanon.MM. On your blog you write that yourworst nightmare is showing up forschool naked and it actually happened, care to share?Hahahaha! Really, did I? Don’t believe everything you read. Ithink I might be referringto when I just returnedto South Africaand I was thrown inthe pool at school andsince I was wet andalready in the water Itook of my dress andswam in my pantiescausing a outrage at theschool. It was nothingfor me as in the sixties,seventies, eighties andnineties in Denmarknudity was not a bigissue. At the art andmusic boarding schoolwe had to share ourshower with the boysand it wasn’t a big deal.MM: You have saidyou resist what peoplewant you tobe, what do peoplewant you to be? Andwhy do you resist?SD: Having beenfaced by racialisationand sexismI couldn’t give a damn about how people believe ‘goodgirls’ should behave or what black people are. I amblack and I am a woman and I damn well do as I please.MM: You have son, in raising him what do you think isthe most important life lesson you want to instill in him.SD: Laughter, to love, to care, to commit oneself fully to whateveryou do. To be radical in its truest meaning. I think he is the onewho has taught me the most important lessons…and he teachesme new things every day unconditional love and mortality.MM: Does Akira have anything to do with FindingNemo being one of your favourite movies?SD: Hahahaha, of course. But think about it, anythingthat has to do with loss and finding your wayhome and belonging has a special place in my heart.33