Arching Eyebrow

When it comes to things that traumatize the South African youth, other people's karma is the most suffered by the youth of South Africa. This is possible when we get to deal with issues at home that are ruining our decision-making skills. Non-white South Africans are the most suffering when it comes to this and having to deal with the world. These situations are blocking us from our goals, and this goes all the way back from childhood, when our mothers were bullied and abused by our irresponsible fathers who didn't even bother to support their wives and children, setting us up for failure in the future.

There is an African proverb that says; "Kungaf 'intaka enkulu, amaqanda ayabola." It translates as; "Should the big bird die, the eggs rot." That had stuck in my head ever since my mother died when I was still 11 years old, before I turned 12, 16 years ago. I'm now 28 years old and I've been living and unstable life ever since. I grew up in an unstable family because my mother had to suffer my father's abuse until she died from HIV, infected by my father. He never supported his wife and children. My father is now diagnosed with dementia, in which it is a burden for us (his children). We are the ones that took care of him for the last six years; at the same time, we have do deal with our own lives.

I realized this is the reason most of us South African youth fall for substance dependence from an early age because we are trying by all means to escape our burdens, and that's why there's too much fragmentation happening in most South Africas, it's because of behaviors that are caused by these situations we are trying to escape.

This is ruining our economy because these situations we get to deal with cause us mental conditions we're sometimes not aware of and that affects our society. With this book, I seek attention from the government as well as the mental health communities to influence our nation about normalizing mental health in South Africa, because it is vital for our sanity as a country.