“When I was in school, I think I had it the worst, because I was neither Black nor white.”
Sacha Pingue was born in Victoria Jubilee Hospital in Jamaica in 1975. She came to the UK at around 14 years old.
“..It was either there [the hosptial] or at home… there was always one or two older women who, when you were giving birth, they were like the unqualified but qualified midwives. My nan was one of those women, and when you was having problem, [they] get the castor oil out and some hot water and towel…they came out safer than when you was in the hospital.”
Sacha boarded a British Airways plane on the 20th of June 1990, bound for the UK; hoping for a better quality of life.
“I was the eldest… my mum thought it would have been better for me… I had a little black and white skirt with frills and a little top, and I don’t know what possessed them to dress me in that.”
“The first year was torture, hated it. The bullying, the ignorance, the questions I was asked… they make it out like, because you come from a certain place, you’re illiterate, and you’re asking me if we’ve got electric…”
“[In Jamaica] you don’t fear everything, like here… my nan always say ‘don’t burn your bridges behind you’… try and live good with people… maybe one of my children, if they’re in a situation, and somebody said ‘Oh, that’s Sasha’s daughter, oh, we’ll help em’ out.’”
“The sunrise and the sunset is my therapy, I don’t care how stressed I get, when I get there, that’s all I focus on is the sunrise, the sunset and the water. When I’m here, that’s all I think about and I record the sea waves and sometimes I just listen to it.”
“Pan roeddwn i yn yr ysgol, dwi’n meddwl mai fi oedd yn ei chael hi waethaf, gan nad oeddwn i’n Ddu nac yn wyn.”
Ganed Sacha Pingue yn Ysbyty Victoria Jubilee yn Jamaica yn 1975. Daeth i’r Deyrnas Unedig yn tua 14 mlwydd oed.
“... Naill ai yn fanno [yr ysbyty] neu gartref... roedd yno wastad un neu ddwy o fenywod hŷn pan oeddech chi’n rhoi genedigaeth, fel bydwragedd heb gymwysterau, ond roedden nhw’n gymwys, roedd fy nain yn un o’r rheiny, a phan oeddech chi’n cael problem, [roedden nhw’n] estyn am yr olew castor a dŵr poeth a thywel... roedden nhw’n dod allan yn saffach na phe
byddech chi yn yr ysbyty.”
Teithiodd Sacha i Brydain ar awyren British Airways ar yr 20fed o Fehefin 1990; yn gobeithio am safon gwell o fyw.
“Fi oedd yr hynaf... roedd fy mam yn meddwl y buasai’n well i mi... roedd gen i sgert fach ddu a gwyn gyda ffrils a thop bychan, a wyddwn i ddim beth ddaeth drostyn nhw i fy ngwisgo yn y rheiny.”
“Roedd y flwyddyn gyntaf yn arteithiol, roeddwn i’n casáu bod yma. Y bwlio, yr anwybodaeth, y cwestiynau a ofynnwyd imi... maen nhw’n ryw ddweud, gan eich bod yn dod o rywle arbennig, eich bod yn anllythrennog, ac yn gofyn imi a oes gennym ni drydan...”
“[Yn Jamaica] does dim ofn popeth arnoch chi, fel yn y fan yma... dywedai fy nain bob amser ‘paid â llosgi’r pontydd ar dy ôl’... ceisia fyw yn dda gyda phobl... efallai, os bydd un o fy mhlant mewn sefyllfa, y bydd rhywun yn dweud ‘O, merch Sasha yw honna, fe wnawn ni helpu.’”
“Y wawr a’r machlud yw fy therapi i, dim ots faint o straen sydd arna i, pan rwy’n cyrraedd yno, dyna’r cwbl rwy’n canolbwyntio arno, y wawr, y machlud a’r dŵr. Pan rwyf i yma, dyna’r cwbl sydd ar fy meddwl, ac weithiau rwy’n recordio tonnau’r môr jest i gael gwrando arnynt.”