RAGS TO ROYALTY

As I have grown older and further from the roots that gave birth to the character I possess, remind me not to forget iKasi. The memories are part of the treasures I fear losing. Ikasi, the hood, the ghetto, ilokishi, the township, the favela no matter how you call it; this place will always have the codes to how kings and queens are framed. Ikasi is the home of untold stories of splendour and inspirations where people make a dollar out of fifty cents and they do it without losing the bright smile on their faces.
From a distance iKasi is seen as a battle field where everyone fights for their survival tooth and nail. That thought is not far from the truth. Just to elude on the fight for survival, no one is spared; the difference is that we face it head on. In the Kasi there are no holds barred it’s a knuckle to face kind of fight. When you have nothing you have nothing in the hood, there is no inheritance that cushions the blows life throws at us and opportunity is a scarce commodity. But in actual fact we have more than enough because we have each other, neighbours borrow mealie meal and gardening tools to help each other. My neighbour’s kids are my own, eKasi everyone is responsible for keeping a moral compass for the young kings and queens to grow into. Our mothers spend their last to send us to class and we know never to ever play while our fathers break their backs, spending a dime from the earnings of just a nickel. Amid the struggles faced the outcome is a beauty. Take a flower seed for example, its buried deep in the ground where there is utter darkness. There are rocks and all kinds of fungi and bacteria and in order to live it reaches out for light as it pushes its ways up to reach the sky with the help of the soil it is buried in. After the fight for precious life the flower blooms and gives the world a fresh colourful look 
 The image some people have about the kasi has been tainted to portray ikasi as a place of savagery, let us then delve into the spark that gave me the inspiration to write this story because most might be wondering, “Where does all this fit into the title of the article”.
Now this is what a random person would say that they think of Kings and Queens at the mention of the word Royalty. When it comes to rags everyone would agree that tattered clothes or a shabby, unkempt fellow comes to mind. What do these two words then have to do with the flower scenario or let alone the kasi? let’s connect the dots together. 
Like the ground, iKasi is looked down upon and everything vilified and all kinds of torn and tattered things are thrown at it but like the seed in ground we fight to reach for the top where the sun shines bright and we can touch the sky and kiss the sun. When we do reach the top, the world notices the fire we carry in the pits of our bellies and iKasi is the source of that depth. The crowns on our heads are the cherry topping on the cake as proof of having gone through the journey. 
Truth is not all of us may kiss the sun, many of us have been tricked into believing that our destinies are tied to the unkempt environments we have been thrown in and we lose the power of reaching out to the sky like the seed likening our life situations to rotting seeds that get eaten by the bacteria and never live to touch the sky. Sad as it may be, its reality. But then thank goodness we are the architects of our own destinies and we possess the infinite power of choice to create for ourselves a destiny that will leave any man in awe.