(The Nationalist, 9 January 2004)
When I was in Africa, living near the border between Angola and Zambia, there were settled refugees who use to travel South each year to work on the sugar plantations during the harvest season. It was about two months of hard manual work. At the end of the season, they would make their way home, first by train, then by bus and finally on foot for about 150 km. They were anxious to get home, so they walked long journeys, sometimes at night when it was cooler, if there was moonlight to show them the way.
Their villages were out on a vast plain, unmarked by hill or hollow, by stream, tree or bush. Their families knew when they would be coming, so they used to light large fires in the centre of each village. The men would find their way across the plain by looking for the fire of their village. They always seemed to know which one was theirs, even though, in the vastness of the plain, the fires were small indeed.
All it takes is one small light to break through darkness, no matter how overpowering or seemingly oppressive. Sometimes the world seems a dark place; we feel uncertain about the present, and afraid for the future. We feel helpless, powerless, to do anything. We ask, ‘What difference can one person make?’ There’s an African saying, ‘If you think you’re too small to make a difference, try sleeping in a closed room with a mosquito’.
The Russian writer, Alexander Solzhenitsyn, who exposed in detail the cruelties of the Soviet penal system and was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1970, wrote that one word of truth can dispel a world of lies. No dictatorship, no matter how seemingly secure, is safe as long as even one person has the courage to speak one word of truth.
‘At a quiet station called Torbeyevo,… Solzhenitsyn caught sight of a small peasant woman in the usual shabby clothing…. Suddenly the prisoners who were lying on the top bunks, sat up to attention. Large tears were streaming from the woman’s eyes. Having made out our silhouettes… she lifted a small, work-calloused hand and blessed us with the sign of the cross, again and again. Her diminutive face was wet with tears. As the train started to move again, she still went on making the sign of the cross until she was lost to view’.
And no industrial slum, no matter how bleak, is ever hopeless as long as one person is prepared to plant a tree there, though knowing it may be vandalized the next day.
Others say, ‘It’s better to light one candle than to curse the darkness’. One candle, one light, can break through any darkness. One word of truth, one act of kindness, one gesture of beauty can transform a situation. One makes a difference.