Suraiya Essa’s life is mirrored in rich narrated tales, intermingling stories she used to write of others when freelancing as a journalist years ago with that of her own. Her recollections take one to a war zone, an international stage where conflict was fought with messages of activism and back home where her voice has seemingly become quieter but remained compelling.
It is hard to believe that the soft-spoken woman served as human shield during the invasion of Iraq in 2003 and faced an international travel ban after her arrest in Palestine a year later. A decade and a half on, her life had evidently slowed down since her days as anti-war activist speaking out in defence of the voiceless, as freelance journalist, radio presenter and journalism lecturer.
Nowadays she primarily staggers her schedule with energy healing therapy and life coaching while advocating for animal rights. Throughout lockdown she has been holed up in Polokwane, where she conducts on-line sessions with an existing client base, it was learnt.
In between work and displaying gestures of goodwill, she halts to travel back in time to March 2003 when she engaged in training in holistic healing methods after her mom required massage therapy following a stroke. It apparently sparked Suraiya’s interest in further empowering and equipping herself for a future in alternative healing.
Two months later she travelled to Baghdad for two weeks to an international conference with an anti-war agenda to speak independently in her capacity as voluntary member of the human rights foundation in South Africa. On the second last morning of her visit to Iraq she met a Moroccan national who enlightened her on the presence of a group of British citizens who had arrived in that country to act as human shields. Back home both Suraiya and her mother joined a group of fellow-South Africans preparing to leave for Iraq for the same purpose and two weeks later she was back there. And so she became part of a moment in world history, summarised on the internet as human shield action that had the aim of preventing US-led forces from bombing certain locations during the 2003 invasion of Iraq.
Human shields were made up of a diverse group from different countries and went with the sole mission of saving civilian lives, she explains. They were positioned at strategic points; hospitals (in particular at maternity wards), schools and water tanks, Suraiya emphasises. Being there she was fully aware of the risks involved. By then undocumented bombings have commenced and she was stationed at a water tank on the outskirts of Baghdad, she remembers.
Her recollections of her journey take a few detours. She relives, among others, a harrowing ordeal on a bus with an estimated 50 other human shields being intercepted by about 100 soldiers at a roadblock outside Baghdad very soon into their trip. They expected it to be driven into the desert and being bombed as per reported custom, according to Suraiya. She still remembers the young soldier with his gun aimed at her gradually lowering the firearm as her gaze was constantly fixed on him while defying orders for them to keep their heads down throughout. She attributed the repeated recital of Islamic prayer resonating through the bus that day to the driver eventually stopping and them being set free after what felt like hours of driving.
The news clippings she produces allude to the humanitarian work conducted amid much suffering and danger. And the reference to news being received of a bus transporting human shields being bombed back in Iraq “minutes after the South African delegation arrived back in their home country”.
A year later she found herself in Palestine under the banners of international organisations, acquainting herself with the situation on the ground first-hand by interacting with the people and traveling to villages on the West Bank to stay with local families while subjected to curfew.
Early morning of her 27th day there, she was arrested in no-man’s land while underway to an adjacent village. Before being flown home via Jordan, she recalls, she was slapped with a five-year international ban restricting travel from South Africa. The rule was taken further when denied entry to America and the majority of European countries for another five years, she indicates. Despite the stamp in indelible ink on each page of her passport, she struggled for two weeks thereafter to wash off the almost invisible mark in Hebrew applied to her left hand, Suraiya mentions.
Social media activism nowadays lends a different element to things, she reckons and adds that such tools back then would've ensured many atrocities being recorded.
She would not give the opportunity of serving as a human shield again a second thought. She raises the view of sometimes having to risk things and also one’s life in the process. “I'll rather die making a difference to someone’s life.”
She emphasises that she has been an activist from young, always standing up for justice. With her focus having largely been extended to animal activism, she is further engaged in various other causes without an attachment to any organisation. She speaks of an involvement in blanket drives, soup kitchens, women empowerment and mask-making for donations to front-liners during lockdown. For her inclination towards activism has taken on a much subtler tone.
Photo: Suraiya Essa scrolls through images taking her back in time.
Comments