July 13, 2018
By Djamilla Toure
What makes her your sister?
Is it the shoulders you let your head rest on when you’re in your deepest sadness?
Or is it the words coming out of her heart that make you feel happy?
Is it her dazzling laugh and genuine joy that make you feel like home?
Or is it her sincerity that does not harm you, but makes your growth pocess enrich?
What makes her your sister?
What do you find inside of her that makes you say… maybe, sometimes, somehow
Water is thicker than blood.
I, too, have sisters.
I have colored the waters with my own blood to show them my true color.
They know me, know my deepest insecurities, my craziest dreams and still, they love me.
They saw me doubting myself, my thoughts, my mind and still, they supported me.
They are everything that I’m not and everything that I am.
They are my anchors, they are fierce.
I am them, they are me.
My shoulders, your shoulders.
Your battles, my battles.
Sister, what a hard time I will have if God removed you from my life.
We often talk about heartbreaks
in a romantic way.
How much they shattered our hearts.
How much they destroy our hopes.
But never will we find ourselves talking about loosing a sister.
How much of our hearts would fall apart, and the difficult time we would have trying to make all the broken pieces stick back together.
We never talk about loosing the waters we used to enjoy swimming in
Having to live only with the dryness of the sand
With brightest sunlights that prevent us from seeing what is real,
And what is not anymore.
Sisters, Here – Take our ego, hide it and destroy it.
Please, it is neither me, nor she.
Sisters, here – Take our pride, burn it and bury it.
Please, it is neither me, nor she.
Thank you.
Now I do.
I do have the space to tell you
Love, is you
Kindness, is you
You, is soft, blue and warm.
Djamilla Toure
Founder and executive director
Born in Côte d'Ivoire, raised in Morocco and living in Montreal, Djamilla identifies herself as a product of the diaspora. In charge of projects about women's empowerment and media, Djamilla is also a content creator and graduate of a Bachelor's degree in International Relations and International Law. In 2015, Djamilla made it her mission to rethink the world by changing it at her own scale. Thus, together with four other women, she founded SAYASPORA. A media platform for young African women around the world. Through this media, Djamilla aspires to create a space where the voices of these women will be amplified and their ideas put forward, while allowing them to find a community.