loss

Last Saturday night, some of the kids from the HBMPT (Hout Bay Music Project Trust) went to a local braai (BBQ). Upon witnessing a boy beating up his girlfriend, one of our boys, A, a cellist just 17 years young, intervened.

When the girl managed to run away, the boyfriend then flew into a rage and stabbed A to death in front of everyone. Another fellow cellist, who was injured in the fight but is now out of hospital, carried A, who was his cousin in actual fact, away. A eventually died in his arms.

Now the community is shattered. The boy who committed the crime has turned himself into the police, but only because he knows the community is after him and would not let him get away with something this horrendous.

Here, where the police cannot always be depended on to enforce the law (a topic better left for another day), the concept of community and neighbourly watch has a totally different dimension.

What angers me the most is that the kids in our Music Project have consciously made a choice to pursue a lifestyle after school that doesn't involve crime, drugs or gangs. They commit themselves to 6 days of practice every week and numerous gigs each month. Through music they learn about teamwork, discipline and respect, for others and for oneself. It seems just plain wrong that this can be taken away so suddenly, and so violently.

It will take some time for the orchestra to heal, for the kids to come to terms with losing one of their fellow members. It is just not right for children to lose a friend to such senseless violence.

When people say "this is the reality here", I'm left with nothing to say and for the past few days, I've been going through a cycle of feeling shock, anger, sadness and confusion.

It certainly puts into perspective the safe and violence-free childhood i grew up in. If anything, all i know is that these social projects, scattered around the community, must continue to reach out to even more kids in order to bring some sort of peace in the longterm.

R.I.P Ahkona