That’s why I said to myself, “I have to be very original and clear myself from shit.” I was still hustling. Hustling to make bread. “I must clear myself from this mess. I must identify myself with Africa. Then I will have an identity.” That’s what I was thinking to myself.

With my music I create a change. I see it. So really I am using my music as a weapon. I play music as a weapon. The music is not coming from me as a subconscious thing. It’s conscious. I’m consciously doing what I am doing. What I mean is that whatever I want to do is in my mind. Man can have complete control of his mind. That’s what knowledge is about. To be able to control one’s mind.

When our stories require us to pass judgment, to inflict shame on ourselves and others, to set ourselves apart, we cause harm. Bigot, prig, the voice in my head calls me. And, I must answer honestly. I must answer yes. I want to make it not so. I have work to do on myself. I need a new story.

We need to adore difference so that we can all finally, in fact, be the same in the only sense that matters: as human beings. And what magnificence that sameness is.

So how about we walk across the road and listen? And soon ask to be listened to, too. And promise never to interrupt. Only to learn. And eventually to respect?

And then, who knows?

To love?

“The thing is, I don’t want to be a man. If my body’s makeup makes me “intersex,” as they say, then I’m intersex. There’s nothing to be done about that. The terms will change as the years go by. They always do. To me, they’re just words. Even if I did this or that to fit some people’s idea of what a woman or a man is supposed to look like, my soul would remain the same. My body is mine, and I will not change it for anyone. That is what saved my career; it is the reason you know who I am. And I feel sorry for the sisters who agreed to the surgery, for their road to inner peace may be harder and longer than mine. My soul feels right in my body. I believe it always will. But if one day I change my mind about that, it’s my business. Mind yours.