BREAK BREAD IN REMEMBRANCE OF JUNE 16, 1976

Presidents deal with the state of the nation
The Class of ‘76 deals with the mind of a nation

Rather than a gala dinner
Not in keeping with memory
Of brave hearts put down
By pull of a cruel trigger
Gather to break bread
In reverence of the deep meaning of this epochal moment to sink in.

This is not mere speech for the podium
It is a text to bring to dining table of memory
To be read, heard and ponder
To nurture, feed and quench
Appetite, hunger and thirst for liberation
Oppressors count on bullets to stop

You cannot “celebrate” this day by clicks, sips and toasts and walk away
You have to sit, read it slow, digest it, teach it, pass it to one and the next by affirming
It is no small gesture
to deem low

That is what breaking bread means — nourishing the mind of the nation, not breastfeeding egos

Wondering why black pain
should be on menu
to put on the table of this great great memory?
It prevents meaning wasting down the drain
It is a text for the table, not the podium
It is meant to be read slow, digested, passed hand to hand.
That is how memory survives years after years

Breaking bread than gala dinner draws the line: Celebration vs Commemoration;
Partying vs Duty
To make a distinction
Between seeing what it takes to break chains from feet, hands minds
And being seen
to have made it within an unchanging system
For the cameras to click
For loud rude habits of egos to sit themselves pretty
At the centre of celebration

Breaking bread than gala dinner makes a qualitative difference
Sees razzamatazz of celebrations give way to unpretentious solemnity
Consistent with commemoration
Giving grace to souls
That succumbed in the service of liberation duty
To deliver us
from recurring evil
of the yoke of inhumanity
Weighing over our dignity Denying us heave sigh
of relief of our true humanity

Breaking bread than gala dinner restores our language:
The Class of ‘76 gets their words back.
No more tourist-speak over graves.

The language sets the work
If it is a commemoration, then Breaking Bread Together relocates proactive liberation initiative where it belongs, resurrects meaningful intergenerational learning,
reclaiming dignity becomes the agenda for the year ahead

Transaction of this agenda teaches us how to use it:
To love ourselves first
To speak to ourselves
To allow the room sit with the question: Have we re-instated true humanity?
Is the answer credible enough
To pass it intergenerationally.

Teaching and learning
The Class of ‘76 reads the question
to Class of 2026
Let the Class of 2026 answer
Make the Class of 2026 exercise filtering task
Anyone speaking on June 16
To be measured against it.

If they cannot say “commemoration”, it is vain to honour them with the mic.
Simple, unnegotiable filter for June 16.
The Class of ‘76 restores language
“No more tourist-speak over graves”
The Class of ‘76 gets their words back.

From this learning, the shade of thought of solemnity lingers
Casts the dignity of memory that lasts
from generation to generation

Commemorating than celebrating
Presents a counter-ritual to
Breaking bread vs cutting a cake for cameras
Nourishing the mind of the nation vs feeding egos.
The ritual becomes more than a fashion statement for June 16, but footprints for the next 50 years.
Shifts from make believe performances to transformative practice

Break bread then with this thought in mind
in remembrance of June 16, 1976

Presidents deal with the state of the nation
The Class of ‘76 deals with the mind of a nation ‎