I hope everyone had fun, I didn't get up to much. I had a fashion show I was working on and it was hella fun......Met a lot of designers from London and other African countries. I must say that I was very inspired, some of the designs were breath taking and truly original. I was literally drooling over most of them. It was inspiring because the majority of designers were very young ambitious women and it was just incredible to see them all in their true element taking charge. some of the designers present where MsMi, Bot I Lma, Deiko, Afro-Chique .Ngone, Deenola...to mention a few. There was also AFro-ropean which was the designer that I was working with on the show. I was quite happy to be working with this particular designer as she gave me the liberty to go crazy with the looks of the models, and she also took on alot of my advice on the styles. I was in charge of music and choreographing the catwalk for our models and that was super fun as well, I also meant a lot of influential people too.
It was rather unfortunate that on Good Friday as we were appreciating just how talented young people are, another young person was being killed on the other side of town for being black. How I found was through my friend who lives in the neighbourhood, its a neighbourhood where I have spent a lot of my time over the last few years. This is the first of such crime. It was a racial killing. Tyrellstown is a neighbourhood largely populated by non nationals. It is home for a lot of Nigerians and other nationals, so it came as a shock to us to find out that it was a racial killing and a brutal one for that matter.
Toy and a group of his friends were making their way home around 6 o'clock in the evening, I'm pretty sure they all just lived a couple of blocks away from each other. As they were all walking down an Irish started throwing racial insults at them which the boys challenged. It got a bit intense, and the Irish man went into his house and came back with a knife. At this point, the boys all started running away, the Irish man turned on Toy's best mate and Toy intervened and was grabbed by the Irish man and got a knife thrust into his heart and twisted. Its said that the man laughed while he twisted and yanked the knife out. Toyosi was left on the floor clutching at his chest. At this point all his friends had gone, and where he got the strength to make ten minute walk, I will never know. At first his friends thought he was joking, as he had always been a light hearted guy and no one could have imagined that it would turn into something so brutal, but when he eventually collapsed on the ground the hysterics really started. He lay on the street still clutching his chest and bleeding,all the while gasping for air that was readily becoming harder and harder for him to take in. Thats where my friend met him on her way back from work, at first she thought it was her younger brother and broke through the crowd trying to get clarification, but alas, it wasn't her brother, but the body of another close to her brothers age just minute away from his death. By the time help arrived young Toy was already dead in the arms of his best mate. Hysteria and anger washed over every young and old soul within the vicinity. It was tragic and completely unexpected....Toy was a boy with a promising future in football and he had lived in Ireland all his life, he was practically Irish, wish was the irony. The killer was said to have been yelling "Go back to your f*** country!", this was his country, it had been all he'd ever known for almost all his life. But his skin colour betrayed him, and even though his yells of protest came out in the strong Irish accent, it wasn't strong enough to make this psychopath stop and think.
I do not have any strong political views on this, or any great lines on racism....But, I do feel a great sadness in my heart, it did not have to end like that. The knife was not meant to be wedged in his heart, but in the eyes of the killer there was no specific victim, all he saw was the colour brown. One person had already died on behalf of all of us that day, Toyosi did not need to die for another.....
Toy and a group of his friends were making their way home around 6 o'clock in the evening, I'm pretty sure they all just lived a couple of blocks away from each other. As they were all walking down an Irish started throwing racial insults at them which the boys challenged. It got a bit intense, and the Irish man went into his house and came back with a knife. At this point, the boys all started running away, the Irish man turned on Toy's best mate and Toy intervened and was grabbed by the Irish man and got a knife thrust into his heart and twisted. Its said that the man laughed while he twisted and yanked the knife out. Toyosi was left on the floor clutching at his chest. At this point all his friends had gone, and where he got the strength to make ten minute walk, I will never know. At first his friends thought he was joking, as he had always been a light hearted guy and no one could have imagined that it would turn into something so brutal, but when he eventually collapsed on the ground the hysterics really started. He lay on the street still clutching his chest and bleeding,all the while gasping for air that was readily becoming harder and harder for him to take in. Thats where my friend met him on her way back from work, at first she thought it was her younger brother and broke through the crowd trying to get clarification, but alas, it wasn't her brother, but the body of another close to her brothers age just minute away from his death. By the time help arrived young Toy was already dead in the arms of his best mate. Hysteria and anger washed over every young and old soul within the vicinity. It was tragic and completely unexpected....Toy was a boy with a promising future in football and he had lived in Ireland all his life, he was practically Irish, wish was the irony. The killer was said to have been yelling "Go back to your f*** country!", this was his country, it had been all he'd ever known for almost all his life. But his skin colour betrayed him, and even though his yells of protest came out in the strong Irish accent, it wasn't strong enough to make this psychopath stop and think.
I do not have any strong political views on this, or any great lines on racism....But, I do feel a great sadness in my heart, it did not have to end like that. The knife was not meant to be wedged in his heart, but in the eyes of the killer there was no specific victim, all he saw was the colour brown. One person had already died on behalf of all of us that day, Toyosi did not need to die for another.....
"but in the eyes of the killer there was no specific victim, all he saw was the colour brown" This broke me!!! May God help this heart of ours to see pple beyond color. fame or wealth.
ReplyDeleteGreat piece sis