The word hotnot comes from the word Hottentot – it’s  derogatory name given to the people of mixed race in the Cape region of Southern Africa – meid, from the Dutch for maid/ handservant…so my female ancestors in South Africa have known this term well – it was substituted for their names, for their identities, for their womanhood, for their very selves…and i take it up…i will carry it in my soul…never answer to it…always rage against it…rebel against it…as it is ground into the dust by me and my mother, and her mother, and her mother, and her mother, and her mother…ground to nothingness in the face of our beauty, our strength, our resilience, our ability to forgive, our fortitude and compassion, our passion and essence of being…