Athi-Patra Ruga on The Lovedale Press in South Africa

So, the place is Alice, simply Alice, named after Princess Alice. So, geographically, we are going to zoom into the Southern coast, South Eastern coast of South Africa. Alice is a town that was founded by missionaries in around 1823. I went to go visit a book press, a publishing press, a printing press called The Lovedale Press, which was quite iconic because Nelson Mandela went to school there. The first Bible was translated there. So many of the Xhosa language… Xhosa is the second most spoken language, and I speak it. I was raised in the Xhosa culture. I’ve always read in my indigenous language before I read English and it was such a part, the literature was such a part of just how I was conscientized, how I became woke maybe even, or how I found the first steps of going back home. So, I was standing there, I went to go get some books, some Lovedale books. I was then directed quickly that day to the other side of town to another place called the Tyume Valley. So, I went to this Tyume Valley, whereby I was told that is where the first Xhosa words were written in 1822. It was a magical experience because also at the same time, Yeah, standing in these two spaces and realizing just how much can be lost if people forget how to read their own languages, because you get to lose out on creation stories. You get to lose out on the gray areas, the complexities in how phonology or language is used in a much more victorious way.