Page 35 - Fiji Traveller Issue 2

By Shazia Usman the story). While at Rewa Street, my brother and I would often
slip out to visit our downstairs neighbour. She’d feed us delicious
Picture this – two girls around 10 years old. Wearing two-sizes- sponge cake after we prayed over it. I would excitedly recite the
too large psychedelic-coloured shorts their mums bought for prayer I learned at school. In fact, I loved praying so much that
them at some sale, catching the Number 21/22 bus on a bright I would often ask another beloved neighbour of ours, Aunty Kini
Saturday morning in Samabula, Suva, Fiji. Their destination? – who was a gifted masseuse – to “please massage my legs,
The Suva City Library, of course. Aunty Kini, they hurt very much” – but secretly just wanting to
They were great friends, these two, but stronger than their do masu together in the end. It made me feel safe and loved. It
friendship, was their love for reading. Oh, those Saturday would be remiss of me not point out that my family is Muslim, and
mornings were very much the highlight of the week. On the it was my gentle Nana who taught me how to pray namaaz. But
tap were the many books by Enid Blyton, and The Baby-Sitters it was all in Arabic, you see, and made little sense to 10-year-old
Club and Girl Talk series. Whatever that library had, we read it. Fiji-Hindi and English-speaking me. Mister Tamani, on the other
Of course, the library made sure we only read age-appropriate hand, told us stories of Jesus’ benevolence, and that was my
books, but your girl is a child of the ‘90s whose parents didn’t love language, story-telling, and remains the same to this day.
supervise what she read, and so I grew up reading anything and I was still in Gospel Primary School when we moved to Totoya
everything – from Agatha Christie, James Hadley Chase, Alistair Street in Samabula - my psychedelic-coloured-shorts-wearing-
MacLean, to a random copy of the biography of Cher, I found in book-reading-Zorro-playing era. We lived next to the Old
our home bookcase. As I was writing this piece, I realised that People’s Home, and I would often come home from school to
my first understanding of transgender people came from Cher see my parents hosting a resident to tea. There was a caretaker
– when I would later read of her son Chaz Bono’s journey – who lived there by the name of Shiu who also had a pet parrot,
because you see, I always kept up with Cher’s life after reading and you wouldn’t be surprised to find my brother and I running to
her book as child. I follow her on Twitter now. She remains très a shop nearby in the evenings to buy “one-dollar waka and one-
cool. dollar lewena” for my dad’s weekend grog sessions with family
Those years in Samabula - a vibrant and large but densely and friends.
populated suburb in Suva City, made up the formative years We moved out of Samabula when my parents decided to build
of my childhood. Afternoons were spent playing Zorro with a house elsewhere. Not to sound like a teenager but it was the
my younger brother, and friend, who also happened to be our WORST DAY OF MY LIFE to leave my school, my friends, Mister
downstairs neighbour, rendering her parents our Downstairs Tamani and Scripture lessons. I arrived in Suva Muslim Primary
Aunty and Uncle – said in Fiji-Hindi of course, which sounds in Class 6 into a class that had three Shazias already (that’s
much better, or maybe not, come to think of it. right dear reader, in just ONE CLASS), knowing more about
We lived in three different places in Samabula in the ‘80s and Christianity than Islam, a fact that was not lost on my parents
‘90s. In Belo Street, from babyhood to kindergarten, where our and who clearly wanted to course correct, and honestly, some
friendly landlord, child-free at the time, was so enamored by me 30 years later, I am still recovering from that move.
that he would often take me everywhere, with people regularly
thinking I was his child. Not sure how much child safety was at Shazia Usman is a Fijian feminist activist and writer. Her
the front of people’s mind at that time, but he was my trusted first children’s book Kaluti, a story of a 10-year-old girl facing
‘Master Uncle’ – more family than landlord. He went on to have colourism, was released in August 2019. For this she was
two daughters of his own later. We had a postbox at that Belo nominated as one of the International Women’s Development
Street place – shaped as a little white house and I would often sit Agency’s ‘6 must-read women writers from Asia and the Pacific’.
and watch the postman slip letters in it. She is one of Asia Foundation’s 2023 Development Fellows, and
We moved to Rewa Street after that, and off to school I currently works as a Communications and Media Specialist with
went - Gospel Kindy then Primary – in my pink gingham dress UN Women Fiji Multi-Country Office’s Ending Violence Against
and pigtails. There I discovered Christianity. Oh, how I loved Women and Girls programme.
Scripture, my favourite subject alongside English. Mister Tamani
was our teacher – the kindest of teachers with the gentlest voice Views expressed are her own.
and demeanor. Mrs Hazelman and Mrs Nair, my other favourite Visit her website for her information. Kaluti can be purchased at
teachers, always greeted with me with a “hello Shazia” and a https://shaziausman.com/books/.
smile - an interaction I cherish even to this day, as I was the only Follow Shazia on Twitter @ShaziaUsman
Shazia in the school (you’ll see what I mean in the later part of

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