Staccato Strength

Nomfusi is a woman. Nomfusi sings. Nomfusi sings Afro-soul. Nomfusi grew up in Eastern Cape. Eastern Cape, South Africa. Three women in Nomfusi’s life have been HIV+. Three women: mother, aunt, sister. Three women have died. Nomfusi’s women. Repetition is a theme in Nomfusi’s life. Her female relatives’ lives, like these sentences, have all been cut short.

Nomfusi is now an internationally renowned singer often compared to Aretha Franklin and Tina Turner. At twelve years old, Nomfusi was a young girl who had just lost her mother to AIDS. At the time Nomfusi believed her mother had died simply of pneumonia. Later her brother informed her of their mother’s HIV+ status. Nomfusi’s twelve year-old response was “what is that?” It wasn’t until later, when AIDS was a topic discussed “in every corner,” that Nomfusi began to understand the ramifications of that plus sign.

A few years after her mother’s death, Nomfusi’s new guardian, her aunt, died of the same disease. Two guardians being ripped from a child seems traumatic enough, but Nomfusi says AIDS affected her the most when, as a grown woman, she received a phone call in 2005 from her sister: she too was infected.

Nomfusi remembers crying “the whole night and day.” This third HIV/AIDS bomb saw Nomfusi become the caretaker instead of losing a caretaker. Nomfusi made sure her sister took her medication regularly, ate healthily, and had shelter and warmth. Nomfusi’s sister lived until 2009, passing away at the young age of 29. Nomfusi says “I was so angry. Angry at the world. Angry at so many things. I didn’t have enough money for her to live a longer life.” Nomfusi wondered if this was a curse, that she was “not meant to succeed, not meant to be happy.”

Nomfusi crushed the curse, turning misfortune into melody. Exorcizing her demons, Nomfusi has written two songs about her mother, “Kwazibani” and “Uthando”, and the process has proven not only therapeutic but euphonious. Nomfusi focuses on the good and produces positive music, “anything and everything that will bring you [happiness], a moment to relax.”

Still, HIV/AIDS is constantly on Nomfusi’s mind. “I talk a lot about AIDS. 80% of my conversation is about awareness.” Nomfusi thinks that education is the greatest weapon against the disease and deeply believes that “knowledge will set you free.” Even Nomfusi used to think, as her community did, that “HIV [was] a killer thing, a monster thing,” that “if you have it you must be locked up somewhere.” Now, having gained knowledge, she knows “if you have HIV you are not an animal, you are a human being still” and you can live and live longer, “but only if you have the resources and the right medication.”

Always a proponent of standing up and being proactive, Nomfusi started a book club called “G Spot” (meaning Girls’ Spot) in her township where girls are encouraged to read and discuss safer sex, relationships, their bodies, and physical abuse. “G Spot” is both a physical space and a headspace of literacy, education, and openness. Nomfusi’s goal was to “make [reading] fashionable… like a new shoe or something.”

Nomfusi will be playing at the Afrikadey! Festival in Prince’s Island Park on August 14 and is ready to have “a whole lotta fun.” Come witness the extraordinary spirit and voice of this resilient woman; tickets are available at www.afrikadey.com/festival/tickets.html.

This guest post was submitted by Caitlynn Cummings. Caitlynn is a recent Bachelor of Arts grad from the University of Alberta and is embarking on a transatlantic writing escapade in Edinburgh, Scotland where she will take her MSc in Creative Writing in September 2010.