PART TWO

REFUGEE IN SEARCH OF A HOMELAND

The German word for homeland is Heimat, one's native land, but for me this translation doesn't sound right. In recent times, 'homeland' has received the connotation of a place of banishment created by apartheid South Africa. Very much the opposite, Heimat in German conveys the meaning of belonging, a place where your roots are, where your ancestors lived, the soil, the actual ground, where you can grow and take risks, surrounded by the nurture of family and friends. The thought of Heimat stirs deep feelings of love and happiness, a source necessary for life in an otherwise alien and hostile world. To be deprived of a Heimat, a place where you can recharge spiritually and renew your energy, means that the odds are staked against you in the everyday struggle to survive, and to emerge eventually unscathed.

Refugees remain strangers in the land where they live, sojourners without a home, without friends, often surrounded by a foreign tongue. While refugees often leave their Heimat voluntarily, they equally often cannot go back there again, and so they are constantly searching for greener pastures. They need to be ready to pick up their meagre belongings, when other opportunities beckon. They remain refugees, until the soil is right for roots to grow again, for relationships to develop, for love to be answered.

143