Some people said quizzically, ” You are going to Vegas to talk about igniting humanity?” Isn’t Vegas Sin City?
Well, Jabu Zwane and I flew halfway across the world to speak about Belonging in A Divided World.
We shared the stories of what shaped our lives, political activism, poverty and our intersecting journeys and a walk in faith to make a difference.
We had never told this deeply personal journey, even in South Africa. We brought it to the global stage.
We spoke about finding love in unexpected places. And how we both found our Belonging.
By the end of our visual journey on the stage, so many women in particular were in tears. The tears of resonance. We got a standing ovation and the host for that theatre could barely speak. She was so deeply moved.
There was love in that room yesterday.
On Friday we spoke directly before Forbes Riley, who is an icon in the United States. Her words on Thursday, the preceding day, inspired me to speak my heart out. Literally. In love.
Jabu we spoke in embodied love yesterday. God was in the room.
My whole life came full circle yesterday on the 17th May 2024.
I spoke about Lady JB Owen and how she had given me the courage to write again after 30 years, to finally own my story.
You see, years ago, when I worked as a journalist for a while in the Anti-Apartheid struggle, I was told my writing was too melodramatic. So I shut down and dimmed my light. I shrank into submission of other people’s voices and I flattened my flamboyance. It took me 30 years to get the courage to write Belonging. But it was the LOVE of Ignite Television and Publishing that gave me permission to be myself, to find my identity as a writer that speaks. To honour the power of words to change lives. Yesterday our lives changed. Irrevocably.
And then we went to a gala where a man was decorated for his contribution to humanity. Nolan Pillay from South Africa embodies Ubuntu, which in South Africa means “I am because you are”.
Nolan, you are one of the most selfless humans I have ever met. From the moment you arrived in Vegas, after 23 hours of flying, all you did was help and serve the entire event. Your talk yesterday embodied love in action. Last night when you stood getting your award, you represented LOVE.
And finally, Lady JB and her beautiful husband Peter, when you spoke about the vision of Ignite to build schools throughout the world in areas where inspiring humanity and creativity and curiosity was truly needed, I knew I was in a room of love, a room of changemakers, a room of people who really are making a difference in the world.
And sitting beside my beautiful husband Friedel Weihe, who had made all of this possible, I knew I was in the presence of LOVE.
You see, you find love in the most unexpected of places.
If only we are brave enough to see it.
If only we are brave enough to be it.
Ali 🩷