Greeted by isolated and shattered showers, our lands are barren,
the soils are being watered by the blood that reluctantly flow through the streets, toiled only to bury its citizens’ bodies.
Fertilised by lies and empty promises, photosynthesis cannot take place when the atmosphere is masked by gun powder residue.
roots cling to the skulls of babies and innocent bystanders,
it’s starting to resemble the apocalypse,
seems like a voice in the wilderness and no one is listening.
From Diary Entry #21
by Zakiya Gill
When she was in her teens, Zakiya Gill would often walk to the beach near her Guayaguayare home, sit on the long wall and gaze out at the aquamarine waters of the Atlantic Ocean. Her troubled spirit hushed by the sea and natural beauty around her, she would write. About everything that was bothering her.
Gill never knew one day she would be paid for her writing and it would become a job for her. Today, at 26, her “spoken word” pieces are respected and she is hired to do monologues at Government, community and other events. Individuals also ask her to write on specific topics for them.
Gill is employed with the Ministry of Community Development as a Best Village Assistant and lives with her mother, stepdad, brother and three dogs in Guayaguayare.
Last week, she was asked to do a spoken word monologue at a Ministry of Social Development and Family Services event in St Augustine. She read Diary Entry #21, her last written piece for this year so far. She got some hard stares. Gill is not bothered. She said she has a compelling urge to send out a message, one that’s like a fire shut up in her bones.
“There’s an African proverb that says the speaker of the truth has few friends. There are certain things people don’t want to hear or talk about.
“But I am going to speak the truth. I am not going to sugar coat anything. Diary Entry #21 is about what’s happening now in the country.”
Gill calls herself “Yahweh’s Griot” or God’s storyteller and said her purpose is to inspire positive change in people. Since she began writing at age 14 this has been her sole purpose, she said.
“The poems are to make you stop and think and consider your ways. Then, it’s up to you to decide if you want to be an agent of change or an agent of destruction.
“If you are not adding to something, you are taking away from it. There’s no in between.”
Telling how Diary Entry #21 came about, Gill said she believes T&T, and the world, have reached boiling point. “I think everybody is frustrated.
“Crime is one way, the oil price and the economy is another. There is a lot of tension and it seems nobody has the answer.” She believes change starts with individual choice. “Be the change you want to see. And you can start with simple things, you know, like saying good morning and thank you and showing respect for each other.
“In such a short span of time this country changed completely from when I was younger.”
Gill is working with a marketing team at present to come up with the best way to promote her spoken word pieces.
“The plan is to sell videos of my spoken work pieces accompanied with music through ITunes and Amazon. But, at the end of the day, I really just want to get my message out there.”
Gill said growing up with a broken family was tough on her. “My mom lived abroad when I was younger, my dad was not around and I lived with an elder sister.
“I had terrible low self esteem.” She also had to struggle to complete her tertiary education because of financial constraints.
“I enrolled at the University of Southern Caribbean (USC) and started a behavioural sciences degree but had to quit in my final year because of financial constraints.
“I worked at several jobs and ended up with the Best Village office in Sangre Grande.”
Gill plans to go back to school, this time to do a degree in theatre at the University of the West Indies, but cannot get access to Government Assisted Tertiary Education funding.
“I was told I am still doing a degree at USC and cannot get funding for two degrees. I don’t know if I will have to pay them back for the two years I did. She does not let her problems cloud her mission.
“I am just running my race with faith and patience,” she said.