Lwazi Nkiwane
Lwazi Nkiwane
Reading, UK
R&B/Soul / pop / funk
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About
A Boy Called Lwazi
by
Lwazi Nkiwane
Part 1:
Vietnam September 11th 1968:
Somewhere near the borders of Vietnam the young African woman carrying the shelter bags safely to the shed.
While she was walking to the shed she can hear the sounds of the planes coming through the land.
She enters in the shed to see her mother Gogo and told her that she is going to have a baby. She was very cross.
17 years later: Leytonstone-October 1985
My father Charles is looking after me as a baby while Nompilo, my mother is resting.
My father was very happy with a heavenly delight carrying me slowly in his arms.
A month later my father took me to the park, which is very interesting. He push me on the swings, he cuddles me gently on the bench and stays until the evening comes.
Three Years Later:
My mother has confirmed that I was very sick to my father so they took me to the hospital to have a look.
After the doctors look at it one of them said that I got typhoid but it took me several hours to recover so it did eventually.
After that my mother took me to the special needs school in Walthamstow. The school is called Whitfield in McDonald Rd.
When I was there I went to my first class and I enjoyed it. I pull people's hairs but I was very cross about that.
Later at home I was watching TV and my mother was talking to me if I'm alright. I was fine.
We continue to watch TV, as the night was already dark.
In 1989:
I went to the video shop for the very first time with my mother. The first video that I brought was ‘Three Men and a Baby'.
I was looking at these video titles for 10 minutes and the scenery was wonderful.
These videos were hanging up on the shelf. There's the man who was working in the video shop.
His name was Phil and he was the close friend of my mother's.
He was lovely and much pleasant to my mother and me.
Later that year I was moved to Lindsey's class.
Fiona who was the other teacher and they were lovely, pleasant and sweet.
We had a lovely time in the class – doing these lessons, break times, pulling people's hairs and playing things including play dough.
The relationship between my father and I was not good. I felt that my father was so cruel and unpleasant to my mother and me.
She decide to leave Leytonstone to go to Chingford with me to live.
In 1990:
My mother was heavily pregnant with the baby. She thought it's going to be a girl but it turned out to be a boy.
Before that I moved to 44 Lukin Crescent in Chingford with my mother. The house was so nice and the rooms looked so smart. My mother and I loved it.
Before my mother was pregnant Barbara, who was a friend of my mother's and mine, came in to the house at 44 Lukin Crescent to see her and me.
She is the most important person of my life because she became very close to my mother and me and she is nice and lovely so did as her husband Alf.
Before Christmas Fiona and I went to the theatre for the very first time to see ‘Robin Hood'. I did enjoyed it very much.
I went to school the next day and I told the class about the previous day that I've ever enjoyed in the theatre.
Fiona took me to the special residential centre named Cedar Lawn in 92 Leyton Green Road for the first time ever.
I went in and met Dave, Sally, Jill, Pete, Tony, Lucy and much more.
It was so good or sometimes difficult because I'm waiting for my mother to pick me up but sometimes she didn't come.
One night on December 22nd I was free to go to the hospital (Whipps Cross Hospital) to see my brother Thamusaqa for the very first time as a baby carrying in my mother's arms.
He was very cute and so sweet. I thought my relationship with my brother is so unsociable but it turn out to be alright.
Two days after my brother was born Barbara and her sister's son Matthew came in to see my mother, Tamu and me.
We played the games together and we had a great time.
In 1991:
I went to Mike's class but most regularly I did see three boys – Michael who was tough and a bit OK, Richard who was sweet and lovely and Osarenren who was a bit tricky and stealing people's earrings.
During that year my mother, Fiona and I went to the cinema for the very first time to see ‘Hook'.
We went inside the building and it had many posters, refreshments, the ticket office and much more.
But two months later I woke up and there's something wrong.
I got chickenpox all over me. So I was forced to stay at home for a long time. I was very sick for six or seven weeks. I was so weak and my legs were not good enough to walk.
After a lengthy illness bout I came back to school to reunite with my friends Michael, Richard and Osarenren.
In 1992:
I was moved once again to Deirdre's class but before that I had a birthday party – my 7th at my house.
Pat, Pete, Sarah-Louise, my grandmother Gogo, my mother and my brother Thamusaqa were all there to celebrate. We had a wonderful time.
My time with Deirdre was marvellous. She was kind and always nice to me.
I was making friends with Stacey in the adventure playground during morning break times.
We were running around the playground and playing games over 30 minutes every Tuesday morning.
In 1993:
The entire primary school staff and students went to the cinema for a charity premiere. We saw Disney's animated version of the timeless children's classic ‘The Jungle Book'. It was a enjoyable film with few twists that I've ever enjoyed.
I was making a quick escape from my house to go to a stranger's house. On the way there I stop by at the Beefeater restaurant to go to the toilet.
After that I went to my destination which was the stranger's house. I knock on the door and someone was in there.
A man opened the door and I was allowed to go in and sit on the stairs in the hallway.
45 minutes later the police arrived at the door. The policeman and policewoman came in to check on me if I was alright.
9 minutes later I was back at home with my mother. She was very cross that I went to someone else's house so I was told off.
One month later after school I came home angrily. I got a knife from the kitchen and I tried to kill Tamu but my mother calmed me down by telling me to take deep breaths.
A year later:
My mother, Fiona, Tamu and I went to Minehead for a holiday.
While we there we went to several places including the karaoke place which I sang Frank Sinatra's ‘My Way', Aretha Franklin's solo Atlantic debut hit ‘Respect' and Elton John's 1980's classic ‘Nikita'.
I went missing from the holiday camp to the cinema on my own and I saw ‘The Beverly Hillbillies' – some bits of it.
The police came to get me and take me back to the holiday camp. My mother was very cross that I went to the cinema on my own.
Around September time I was moved to Bryn's class and I had a wonderful time with him.
He and the class assistants Delrose and Pat were kind and always nice to me.
In January 1995:
My mother, Fiona, her husband Peter and I went to Royal Opera House in Covent Garden to see the ballet ‘Swan Lake'.
We were sat in a box to watch the ballet. I was very much involved in the live orchestra playing there.
Afterwards we went downstairs. We met the conductor named Anthony Twinker and we were surprised.
I became involved in a musical performance project with the Chinese composer Tan Dun.
Many students and I were rehearsed in the youth centre in Leytonstone playing all sorts of instruments.
On the night of performance at the Royal Albert Hall we sat in a special box to watch the first half of the concert.
Sadly we forced to leave before the second half because there's been a light power failure.
At the end of that year my mother's brother Uncle Todd, his wife Londi and their two children came to see her, Tamu and me and we were celebrating the beginning of the New Year.
In 1996:
I went to Fiona and Pete's old house at 137 Howard Road in Walthamstow for a month because my mother was sick.
I wrote a school play for Bryn's class. My class and I rehearsed in the classroom and we learnt all the lines properly.
Kurt from Cedar Lawn, Fiona, some staff and students of Trinity School and I went for a school holiday to the holiday camp in Norfolk.
I enjoy all these things with the gang in a holiday camp and for me it was the best holiday trip so far.
When my mother was better I went home to see her and Tamu again after a month's absence.
In October Todd and his family came back to see us. On that night I was watching ‘Batman Returns' on TV it was so enjoyable.
The relationship between Tamu and I continued when he played games with me. We fought each other as brothers in a pretending way. He pretended to be a superhero with magical powers and he spat on me which it was not nice.
I sang George Harrison's ‘My Sweet Lord' with Oliver's mother Caroline Chan on acoustic guitar during the Christmas concert in school.
It was so enjoyable for me to sing this timeless classic.
When my mother went back to hospital with a mystery illness in January 1997 Tamu and I were looked after by some Cedar Lawn regular workers and one of the workers Claire's mother Viv.
On several occasions Tamu and I went to the hospital to see our mother in her room. It was nice when we chattered to her.
Within weeks I enjoyed great company with Fiona. We went to see ‘Evita' in the cinema it was breath-taking and with a brilliant performance by Madonna.
Also I spend much more time in Cedar Lawn residential centre which I enjoyed. There were a lot ups and downs in Bryn's class because there were different students from other classes joining us each day.
On February 25th I came home from school so did Tamu and we packed our stuff into our suitcases. I went to the kitchen to get my beloved fish mug and I put it in my suitcase. We carried it to Fiona's car ready to go to Jennifer's flat at 53 Blaney Crescent in East Ham.
When we arrived we went in to her flat and we met Jennifer and her son Karl. They were Christians who went to the church every Sunday morning and Wednesday evenings.
Several hours later we were awakened by Jennifer to tell us that our mother had died.
We were very upset when we went to Whipps Cross Hospital. Fiona and Pete were there.
We had a tearjeaking last look at our dearest mother and said goodbye. Tamu cried a lot. I was devastated so was Tamu.
Some days later the four of us-Tamu, Jennifer, Karl and I went to Savacentre to do shopping.
On the way back home Jennifer, Karl and I were walking and Tamu was riding on his bike.
As he was facing down the slope at the end of the bridge I was laughing at him. When he came to the end of the bridge he was going too fast and he did not know how to use the brakes on his bike, he hurt his head very badly.
After we got home he was taken to hospital with a bad head injury. Fiona rushed to be with him at his side. Several doctors checked on him to see if he was OK.
He was sent home in the early hours of the next morning and went to bed.
Two weeks later my family and friends went to my mother's funeral in Chingford. During the service the black priest talked about the life of my mother. When the biggest moment came I stood up and sang ‘Amazing Grace' in the front of the mourners.
On several occasions Jennifer, Tamu and I went to someone else's house to see our beloved sister Thembie. It was nice when we chattered to her and her friend. She was lovely and sensitive to me and Tamu.
My last few months with Bryn and his class turned out to be OK. Although I came face to face with the fellow student Tony Drain who said ‘Bubbles', ‘Sauce' and ‘Swimming' all the time in the classroom and at Cedar Lawn.
During the ten months that Tamu and I spent at Jennifer and Karl's in East Ham we went to different places such as a church in Stepney Green, Wembley, A theatre trip to London and many more. I ate with my mouth open sometimes so that Jennifer told me off and I was sent to the bedroom and made to stay there for the rest of the evening or for all day.
Some weeks later Fiona, Pete, Tamu and I went on the tube for the very first time as a family to Tottenham Court Road in the West End to do shopping. I went to the soundtracks shop Rare Discs at Great Bloomsbury Street to have a look at LP's and CD's. Next we went to Virgin Megastore to buy John Williams's less than successful score of ‘Stanley & Iris' CD. On the way back home I was listening to this CD it was a wonderful score and I love John Williams's film work as composer. He was best remembered for his music in films such as his collaborations with the greatest Oscar-winning director Steven Spielberg, the ‘Star Wars' series and the Harry Potter films.
One day when I arrived at Cedar Lawn I spent the day inside with the children and residential workers. We played games, watched TV and things like that.
In the evening when several children went home I stayed indoors with my faithful companion Tony Drain and we ate supper and watched TV.
While we watched TV I sat on the sofa next to Tony and I leant over to him. I was carefully listening to his heartbeat with my head on his chest then I stood back from him and he gave me a hug, it felt good. But the care-worker Joan came into the room to told me and Tony off for doing that.
She thought Tony and I were not doing a good thing listening to his heartbeat and shortly afterwards we cuddled and someone told us off for doing that.
In July I ended my three-year partnership with Bryn by having a party to say goodbye. It was Michael's last month and Osarenren's as well in school. The entire school students and staff attended the leaving assembly.
I was very sad to see them go without a word as I bid goodbye to these two boys who I loved a lot.
During the summer holidays Fiona, Pete, Tamu and I went to see Pete's brother Philip and his wife-to-be Helen at their house in Dorset for their wedding.
I did enjoy sleeping in the tent in the evenings and dancing all night long.
In September I went to Becky Peck's class. I enjoyed all the exciting things including a trip to the Museum of the Moving Image on London's South Bank. I loved being in the class with Miss Peck and her class assistants Maureen Johnson, Jackie Collett and Steve Piper.
The another autistic boy Daniel Griffiths was so friendly to me and we talk, going out, sleeping and playing on the computer together.
I did enjoy working with Becky and the team including the students –Keith, Karen, Daniel, Zaid and Manzur. She was nice and she laughs a lot.
As our year with Jennifer and Karl came to an end Fiona came over one night to see Jennifer, Tamu and me about the good news.
The news was that we are going to live with her and Pete.
Back in school I was chosen to play Scrooge in a school production of Charles Dickens's famous Christmas classic ‘A Christmas Carol' on stage.
I learnt all the lines of the school play and the show itself received great acclaim on the day of its performance.
On December 18th 1997 when Tamu and I came home our things were packed and we had to carry them down to Fiona's car and Pete's small blue car.
When we arrived it was wonderful for us to live in someone else's home.
In 1998:
I decide to leave Cedar Lawn after eight years. To mark its occasion the regular workers came and said goodbye to me and I went home back to 137 Howard Road.
I was doing very well in Becky Peck's class. We worked very hard on our school lessons and we even wrote a school stage play called ‘The Playwrights'.
On several occasions I went to the West End with Fiona or Pete for a shopping trip. I went to some shops such as HMV, Virgin Megastore, Tower Records, Gap, Liberty, WHSmith and much more. It was a rather enjoyable trip that I ever enjoyed and for me it was the best trip so far in each year.
I became involved in jazz music straight after I listened to a Miles Davis record. I started to listen to Jazz FM shortly after Tamu and I moved to Fiona and Pete's house at 137 Howard Road in Walthamstow.
One night when I was in Pat's house I watched ‘Pink Floyd-The Wall' on video. It was a rather enjoyable film with a musical twist of Pink Floyd's songs from the greatest rock album ‘The Wall'.
The next morning I woke up and went downstairs to have breakfast. After I had breakfast I pick the bird's cage up and took it to the garden.
I put it in the pond because I hate this bird and he makes too much noise. As he drowns I went back inside and I watch him from the window.
Few minutes later Pat dressed in a morning gown went to the front room and she saw the empty table. She was shocked that the bird was gone.
She went to the garden and she found the bird drowned in the pond. She was very bad-tempered and horrified as she ran to her daughter Sarah-Louise's bedroom to tell her that someone had killed the bird.
They ran to the garden to solve the problem but however they broke into tears and cried.
Pat went on to phone Fiona and Pete about the most dangerous thing that I ever did in my life. They came few minutes later to pick me up and take me home.
I was told to go upstairs to my bedroom so that Pete and Fiona came in to my room and they told me what happened to Pat's bird. They was very cross.
On Tuesday 7th May the school staff was very disappointed about the previous day.
Every Tuesdays in lunchtime Daniel, Oliver, Alison and I work together as a speech and language therapy group. We play games and wrote such stories. We did enjoy working together as a group and we made suggestions for our stories.
Few weeks later a nice young woman who is a newsreporter for BBC Radio 1 came to the common room to interview Oliver and me about the new adventure playground.
On July 18th Fiona and Pete went to hospital so that means Tamu and I were look after by Pat. The three of us went to Ilford for a shopping trip.
In the evening Fiona's mother Jean came and spends time with me and Tamu while Fiona was away.
The next day we went to the hospital to see our third brother Daniel Oscar. When we see him carrying in his mother Fiona's arms and Pete were also there to look after her and their baby son.
He was so sweet and cute. Tamu and I were excited about our new sibling.
A week later my relationship with my new family continues to grow stronger and stronger as our third brother was born and we were lucky to have him.
On several occasions I went to Barbara's house to stay for the night with she and Alf. I did enjoyed all the exciting things including several morning walks and classical concert trips at Walthamstow Town Hall and the church in Chingford.
Occasionally Barbara and Alf came to our house at 137 Howard Road in Walthamstow to see us. Sometimes my new family and I went to their house to see them.
We did enjoyed all the exciting things including several conversations when we ate lunch and several walks in the forest.
Two months later we went to Selborne to Pete's parents Margaret and Ron and family for a special occasion.
It was Margaret and Ron's 50th wedding anniversary and we were very happy to be there. I chose not to go outside with the rest of the others for a photo at their house so instead I was listening to classical music indoors.
In December I was chosen to sing Queen's ‘Bohemian Rhapsody' for the ‘Whitfield School's Stars in Their Eyes' Christmas concert and I dressed up as Freddie Mercury-the band's lead singer. On the day of its performance I sang every line of the song and the audience was watching me perform this great song. When it finished they clapped and cheered while I was taking a bow.
On Boxing Day Tamu, Fiona, Pete, Daniel Oscar and I went to Jean and her husband Fred's house at 33 Benyon Court in Reading for a Christmas celebration. We opened up our presents, pull out Christmas crackers, ate Christmas dinner and pudding and we play lots of games.
At the beginning of 1999 I went on the Internet for the first time in school.
I checked on some film music web sites and some entertainment web sites while Daniel Griffiths went on to look at some German TV web sites. It was Oliver and Tony's last weeks in school so that means the entire secondary school staff and students were held a party to say goodbye to two boys-first it was Tony and in seven weeks later it was Oliver.
At the end of March I was feeling poorly that I might get sick.
Some days later in April Pete and I went to Royal Albert Hall to see John Barry and the English Chamber Orchestra live in concert.
It was a memorable night that everyone enjoyed his music from films including the some famous James Bond themes and much more.
A few days after I went to the concert I went to the doctors and my doctor told me that I got tonsillitis.
So I was forced to stay at home for few days.
At the beginning of May I told Becky and the rest of the teachers and students that I would be leaving Whitfield School before half term.
On my leaving assembly schoolteachers and students past and present payed tribute to me. At the end the secondary school head teacher Andrea Davies presented me with a Record of Achievement book of my work and my career.
On my last day all the classes came in to the common room to say goodbye to me.
When the others went home I was ready to leave my beloved school to go to Fiona's car for home. I bid goodbye to Becky, Jackie and Alison as I gave a hug. Fiona and I piled in the car and Becky, Jackie and Alison broke into tears and cried as the car drove off into the down slide of the road and disappeared forever into the distance.
June 1999:
I went to Moselle School in Adams Rd, Tottenham and I was settled in Roz and Ann's class. This class was in the caretaker's house left next to school. The hallway was wonderful and it has got a poster of Homer Simpson saying ‘D'oh!' on the wall.
The classroom was amazing and shiny tided. Its drawers, table, desk, books and computer were in this room, bathroom and spare rooms were upstairs and the kitchen was downstairs.
I had a wonderful time with Roz Norton-the former teacher of Whitfield School and her lovely assistant Ann Workman. They were lovely, kind and sweet.
The students Edmund, Nigel, Christopher and Kip were smart and joyful. Edmund was the person that I most admired, he was lovely and good mannered. Nigel was a bit tricky and stole dirty food from the ground and ate it straight away. Christopher was sweet and kind and Kip was a bit sweet and he sang the Pink Panther theme tune and other songs from children's TV shows.
During my first year at Moselle, I enjoyed making friends with the other students and staff. The person that I loved most was the school headmaster Mr Redpath and he was always kind to me.
These school lessons were very hard but in the end it turn out to be OK when I went to Bob Barclay's class in September that year.
10th July 1999:
Peter and I went to Wembley to see one of my favourite female singers Celine Dion live at Wembley Stadium.
It was an unforgettable show with her best-known songs played; the video footage of Diana King, Barbra Streisand, The Bee Gees and the ‘Titanic' movie clips were screened on live television screens and there was a two-song tribute to ‘Saturday Night Fever'.
A week later, my family and I went to the African festival in the heart of London. It was an enjoyable experience with African food and music which we liked.
September 1999:
After a summer break, I went back to school and I was settled once again in Roz and Ann's class and Bob Barclay's class.
The students in Mr. Barclay's class were kind and gentle so was the class assistant Sinead. These students were Susan, Antonia, Juliette, Lee, Eileen, Martin, Brian, Vijay, Naomi, Noel and Kyriacos but not Victor who was having an operation on his legs in the hospital. Other students whom I've met in school were also friendly.
Later that month our teacher Roz had to go on a maternity leave until May the following year. Her place was taken over by the another teacher Lorraine Winson and we had an amazing time.
She was handsome and kind to us while Roz was away.
November 1999-January 2000:
In November, I was chosen to appear in a school Christmas production. Some members of my year group, myself and junior students were chosen to sing two songs-a special Christmas carol and R. Kelly's ‘I Believe I Can Fly'.
On the other side our class including our new student Jonathan was chosen to sing Elvis Presley's ‘Hound Dog' for that production. We learnt all the lines of the song.
On the day of its performance in December, we sang every line of the song and the audience was watching us perform this great song. This performance turned out to be a disappointment because of my silly eyes-I couldn't look at the audience.
The End of Part One
Part 2:
A week after the school concert I was sick again. I was forced to stay at home for the Christmas and New Year season.
On December 31st, I watched the live coverage of new millennium celebrations on TV with my family.
Five minutes before midnight, my family came in to my room.
As the bell struck twelve we watched the fireworks outside the window and on TV. We drank a toast to ourselves to celebrate the new millennium.
Few days later I came face to face with the fellow student Dean Salisbury who said ‘Shit', ‘Fuck' and ‘Motherfucker' in school. On some occasions we were fighting in the year 9 classroom with a snooker cue.
On all occasions we worked hard in P.E. sessions with its teacher Melodie Harrison in the gym hall. She was kind and friendly to us.
While I was in school I became friends with Martin, Brian, Antonia, Noel and Kyriacos.
A month later in February Pete took me to Royal Festival Hall to see Randy Newman live in concert.
It was an enjoyable show and he performed very well on his own, on piano, and with full orchestral backing by The Royal Philharmonic Concert Orchestra.
Later in March 2000 Brian, myself, Dino and some students went to Magic Eye Studios in London for a day.
We were chosen to appear in a Variety Club cinema commercial. We learnt all the lines of the script. During the shooting, I read every line of the script and when the female director Susanna Hayes said ‘Cut!' I deserved a better performance on screen rather than the stage.
In April I decided to join the video club library in Walthamstow as a member.
The first of my 104 videos that I borrowed was a less than peaceful drama ‘Ironweed' and I watched it.
Following the great success of my first library video, I went on to borrow loads of video and DVD titles from the library over the next three years.
Some days later Pete came home from work to see us about the good news. The news was that we are expecting a sixth member in our family household in October. We were very excited about that.
My next three months with Roz's class turned out to be fine. On 22nd-26th May Year 9 and Year 10 went on a week's holiday trip to Macaroni Woods.
I enjoyed all these things with a group of students and for me it was the best school trip since 1996.
The second month was a bit OK although I still enjoy all the work including maths and English.
The third and final month was surprisingly good and we did something very special. I invited some friends of mine to our house for a barbecue.
We did enjoy all the good food and the party music to fill our happiest mood.
In August we went to Isle of Wight for a two-week summer holiday. We had a wonderful time and Tamu, Pete and I swam in the sea and relaxing on the beach watching the waves coming through the cliffs.
Some days later in September I was moved to Moselle Upper School in Downhills Park Road, Tottenham and I was settled in Jo ‘Miss' Smith's class with my year group. I was no longer with Roz.
The classroom not very tidy and its drawers, tables, desk, books and three computers were in the room.
My time with Jo was marvellous. She was very funny and always nice to me so did as the fellow teachers Martin Lawlor, Kitty, Sam, Ruth (who had to leave because she was going to have a baby), Annie and the school headmistress Wendy Mitchell but I always call her ‘Miss Mitchell'.
I became involved in writing short film and feature-length screenplays. My first ever screenplay that I ever wrote was a dark comedy drama ‘A Foreign Field'. This script didn't make sense so I wrote new dialogue for some scenes.
When it was finished, I tried to send it off but I had to wait until the following year.
On October 23rd Fiona and Pete went to hospital in Hackney so that means Tamu, Daniel and I were looked after by Jean.
Two days later our second sister Katherine was born. We were very happy about our sixth member in the family.
On October 26th Fiona, Pete and our sister came home. We went to see her for the very first time. She was cute and sweet and in later months she called me ‘Wa wa'.
The following month my class went to the school's main site for music sessions. We were chosen to sing our own song which was about school and books.
On the day of its performance in December we sang every line of the song and the audience was watching us perform our song. This performance turned out to be a success.
2001 was a dismal year for me because I came face to face with foot and mouth crisis and Se
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