"Give a person no options and you leave him no choice."

There are two articles this week in Grocott's Mail about Amasango.

One of articles is on page two and reads "A Joza teenager has been arrested and charged with attempted murder following the hacking of a 52-year-old man with a garden spade on Tuesday. Milanda Coetzer said the boy was arrested after a fight in Extension 9 on Tuesday...she said that Sergeant Lwazi Prence and his colleague arrested the 15-year-old boy and seized the spade."

This article didn't list the boy's name as he's underage. But I know who he is-as does everyone who works at Amasango.

The other Amasango article appears on page three. It's titled "Amasango pupil beats the odds." It goes on to talk about *Samdilikize, a 15-year-old Amasango student, who "won a national mathematics competition....the 15-year-old boy's project, in which he used matchsticks to depict geometric shapes won hands down in terms of creativity and originality."

Samdilikize is a shining star. He's come from a background that hasn't been picture perfect. He's competed in a contest with children across the nation, and he's emerged triumphant. He can also do a mean impersenation of former South African President Nelson Mandela.

The only problem is the article on page two and on page three are about the same 15-year-old: Samdilikize.

He didn't come to school several days last week. This national competition winning grade five student was sitting in a prison cell with a charge of attempted murder looming over his head.
I've often said that people see only what's on the surface with these kids. They don't see the dozens of stories beyond what's visible.

I'm sure many people read the paper this week and were filled with happiness for the grade five Amasango boy who's proven that poverty doesn't mean that one is hopeless. I'm also certain that these same people who read the story on attempted murder thought that awful, fifteen-year old boy should be locked away--never knowing that 15-year-old boy accused of attempted murder was the same boy who was winning national math competitions. Never knowing that the 15-year-old boy accused of hacking this 52-year-old man with a garden spade had witnessed this same man come and attack his mother the day before with the spade and then turn his aggression on him. The readers never knew this little competition-winning-delinquent was defending his family, himself and his home from an insane man.

The readers never knew; only one article listed his name.

Though Grahamstown residents didn't know, the courts did. The attempted murder charge was withdrawn and Samdilikze was freed after the discovery was made that he was acting in self-defense.

Now, Samdilikze is just a 15-year-old boy who was doing what anyone would do in the same situation.

Oh, and the winner of a National Mathematics Competition.

(* names have been changed)