Love seeks the heart that lives in Hope

Love seeks the heart that lives in hope.

by Christina Elgie Mmabatho

Mmabatho means "mother of the people". My Zulu 'adoptive' mother, Dudu Rose Mahlangu, believes that the name I kept hearing as we sat one day laughing, crying and praying, was given to me by God. My Mma is a very strong and religious woman with a dinosaur skin fit for the film industry. We met working with the legendary and iconic thespian John Khani (a dream come true for me), becoming instant family as she has always nurtured me, without any judgement, so I believed her.

Growing up in the apartheid era, unlike my utopian surroundings, I was well aware of the social injustices and cruel inequalities that our people faced. My brother, Johan Erasmus, was an activist during apartheid, and so from a young age, I adopted the same principles of liberty, as the murders of thousands of South Africans during the 1980's horrific riots, was unbearable to watch on the news as a young girl. The cruelty and suffering of so many innocent people, gave me a strong will to fight against evil, to uplift, inspire, help heal all the broken families and hearts of so many children my age, and help rebuild a fractured community, raising the consciousness of mankind, by joining the movement of igniting a fair world that motivates people to celebrate and share the good that’s within us all.

My brother was the catalyst for me to want to stand up and help heal our broken country. After the apartheid government stepped down after defeat, he served in the first post-apartheid government under Nelson Mandela, as assistant to Trade and Industry Minister, Alec Erwin. As a humanitarian, I first met Madiba at his inauguration at the Union Buildings in 1994. Years later I had the sublime opportunity to embrace Madiba on his 80th birthday, while performing with my theatre troupe for him, celebrating his birthday with hundreds of children. After years in exile, he graced me with a rare few minutes, holding my hands in his, as we reflected on where we stood as a nation, highlighting the important journey we still have to undertake to bring reconciliation and forgiveness to his people, or as he lovingly referred to the nation as 'his children'. Although all his children from all races and believes were free, the most important journey for his rainbow nation was yet to come. That was to bring everyone together in 'ubuntu', and to keep his promise of ensuring the basic rights and freedom of every human are respected. I understood from a very young age that God designed all humankind for a specific purpose. Like Paul Gauguin's painting asking the eternal question of Life that everyone ponders about:

"Where do we come from? What are we? Where are we going?" 

~ Paul Gauguin

I've always known that the question of Life is not mine to bear, as God placed a portion of himself within my heart. At age 16, being diagnosed with an untreatable brain cyst in my arbor vitae, knowing why I'm here, gave rise to love and light, instead of fear and doubt, which motivated me to act on my purpose and embrace the spiritual work God has assigned to me. In doing so, the brain cyst miraculously disappeared after three years and went into a spontaneous regression. This gave rise to me finding solace in making the most of my promise to fulfill my duties here on earth.

The legacy of our leader Madiba lives on in the hearts of our nation and the global community. Madiba’s perseverance, patience and compassion gave us courage to become emissaries and ambassadors promoting the welfare of humankind through sharing the strength of positive ideas, acting with love and kindness to bring harmony in our lives. Motivated by love, we teach compassion through our actions. We are all part of a miracle. We have the ability to offer healing thoughts to perplexed situations. We can witness strength and renewal coming to fruition, as it seeks to guide us with each hopeful, loving and positive thought and prayer. 

Love does not hang its hat on hate and fear. Love seeks the heart that lives in hope.

I've learnt and experienced first hand, that we have the incredible power within ourselves to heal our thoughts through love and compassion to fellow humans. Creating a collective consciousness of healing our broken world one kind act at a time, we can bring change to a corrupt world.

Keep spreading love and light! Till my next post,

Christina Elgie Mmabatho

xoxo