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On August 13, 2024, newborn twins were killed in an Israeli strike in Gaza while their father, Mohammed Abu al-Qumsan, was at a local government office to register their birth. Asser, a boy, and Ayssel, a girl, were just four days old when their home in Deir al Balah was bombed. The strike also killed Mohammed’s wife Jumana and her mother.
South African poet, Shabbir Banoobhai, penned a haunting elegy, “Your names have been recorded,” for Asser and Ayssel.
The poem transcends the horror of their fate, weaving their memory into a tapestry of sorrow, protest and accountability. Banoobhai records the names of not only the innocent lives lost, but also those responsible for perpetuating violence and enabling genocide, presenting a sobering catalogue of complicity.
Through solemn lines, he casts a net of condemnation across leaders who chose silence over humanity, echoing the anguish of every heart that protests, mourns and resists this normalised tragedy.
Similarly, and with equally powerful emotion, and restrained salutary fury, Riaad Moosa, a South African comedian, presents a reading of Banoobhai’s poem.
Moosa evokes compassion and outrage at once. He draws on our common humanity to both mourn loss, and resist oppression.
Each line he reads becomes a cry for remembrance, a ‘birth certificate’ etched in words, giving the twins, along with thousands of children in Gaza, a legacy beyond their brief lives.
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Banoobhai and Moosa offer a powerful act of bearing witness, ensuring that history will erase neither the fallen innocents, nor the humanity of those who stand for peace and justice.
Click the button below to download the PDF version of Shabbir Banoobhai’s “Your names have been recorded”.
