The C.L.R. James Institute: Jim's Letter #2

The C.L.R. James Institute

Jim's Letter

No. 2
May 1, 2001

"Who is the lovely Moshidi?"
   asks Constance;
and a guy wanted to know why we didn't
   just devote the whole site to her.
A South African actress and writer,
   now approaching 25,
Moshidi worked in my local coffee bar
   where I used to go every late afternoon.
One day, in October 1998, I was in a funk,
   she asked if she could sit down with me,
she asked how I was, then she said,
   "What do you do?" and I said,
"I work in a library, which is also my home."
   Moshidi's face lit up: "You work in a library?"
Moshidi's face lit up more: "You live in a library?"
   Within a few weeks, Moshidi Motswega
who is known always as Moshidi
   was a Fellow of the C.L.R James Institute.

She left the coffee bar and became a nanny.
   Many days after work she would stop by here
and tell me her day, frequently through tears,
   because the ways of wealthy Manhattan mommies
are not the ways of South African working class women.
   Every Saturday night for eight months
Moshidi and her boyfriend would come over
   for two videos and takeout.
Our favorites included Being There, Buffalo 66
   and Bound, and Eve's Bayou, and Big Nick's pizza.

Moshidi played Mandela's daughter in the movie
   Mandela and De Klerk, Sidney Poitier and Michael Caine.
Poitier was friendly, Caine remote, she reports.
   In the final scene, Mandela's inauguration, the camera
lands on Moshidi, dressed in her Sunday best,
   to represent the face of the new South Africa.
Hijack Stories, at Cannes this summer, is a German film
   in which she plays the third lead.
On New Year's for the Millennium,
   Moshidi was invited to perform at the private
dinner Mandela held on Robben Island, and to read her own work.
   I call Moshidi on her cell every Monday,
and have since she left New York in August 1999.
   A few months ago when I called
she was with a guy named Fresh, a popular deejay,
   and he took her picture while she was talking to me,
then e-mailed it to me.
   In a few clicks and a matter of seconds
Ramotse made it the wallpaper on my boot screen
   and the process cropped the photo is such a way
that Moshidi practically leaps off the monitor
   whenever I am not in some other program.
Everyone asks, Who is that?
   and I answer, Yes, and guess who she is talking to?
In case you hadn't guessed,
   the last thing Moshidi and I would ever discuss
is the life work of C.L.R. James,
   unless you count how access to books
makes her face light up.

Jim Murray, Director (make inquiries here)
Ralph Dumain, Librarian/Archivist & Webmaster

Uploaded 1 May 2001