SA 22 April 2009 Elections and my creative spiritual experience

There was an unusual sacredness to the day yesterday. There was a silence not even Sunday carries. There was a reverence and a cleanliness in the air as if Someone purified the atmosphere for this sanctified moment as South Africa voted. It is as if everything waited with her, for her because she is worth it. Even business could wait.

Foreigners were scarce as if giving South Africans the space to be to make their mark. We stood together for hours in what seemed like a rare opportunity.The night before, my body was brimming with energy. I could hear a beat and my body begged me to respond. The African drum drummed in the ears of my soul until I burst forth in an African dance my body had hid for so long. Thankfully I was alone in our spacious rented house. The song was like a prayer. But not any prayer, a happy prayer. The drum beat spoke of a time that has come. A time for change.

I have never been so excited for an election than this one before.Gilly comes to collect me so that we can join others to pray. We pray into various aspects of the country and for the politicians to be able to fulfill what they have promised.

We first spent about 10 minutes thanking God for our politicians. I thanked God for Zille’s zeal, Zuma’s charisma and charm, COPE’s courageous leaders and Holomisa among others. I thanked God for Malema too. I just cannot recall what I thanked God for but I wanted to thank God for Malema’s humour but I did not come out with it as others were listening and awaiting a serious prayer so I said something. I just cannot recall what.I went back home. I sang over Africa and South Africa and felt God’s intense love and joy over this country curse through my body.

I felt an unusual peace midnight.

I felt an absence of evil in the air because Saints everywhere had been praying. In that hour I knew the winner very well. I knew it was God’s choice, I accepted it hence my response surprises me today. I felt a hope for this country like I can not describe. I felt God’s favour shining on this country. I heard His song – I felt us beckoned to come out and play because we are now safe to do so. I saw a brilliant new day for us.What a day the 22nd of April 2009 was for the South African. It was a day set apart. We the people voted. We. Us.I arrived home so exhausted because so much of my energy had been spent praying. I never slept much then I woke up and queued. I came back and I slept for a while.

Then. That drum began playing again. It called for change again. I heard it until my body prayed in dance. Again I had the fortune of being alone. Lest my brother and my housemate think surely other spirits have come upon me.If there was such a thing as a Christ inspired witchdoctor - I discovered one.

The name sangoma probably means something like we-sing rather than the English version of witch doctor. It is probably “the one who sings and calls the spirits”. That is the closest interpretation to the word sangoma. Well, I sang and called up not the spirits of the dead – God forbid. I sang and danced and called up the Spirit of the living God to blow in all the corners of the country and my body danced in a prophetic dance I have not experienced it before not like this.A new way of praying was born, in prophetic African dance and declaring a prophetic song.My hands burning with God’s presence, as if set ablaze.

I prounced around as if I knew what I was doing – there was a lioness in me that was bellowing that was declaring the things of God as if I were a prophetess of some sort. Something like that sangoma – the one who stirs up the Spirit of God.I know that change has come in South Africa.

God is with us even in a way we too do not quite understand yet. Creativity will explode in ways we never quite imagined. God is with us. Change has come in a different form in an unusual suspect of a president who incidentally sings and dances. He has danced his way to victory. A victory we hoped would not come. We hoped he would be jailed but he would not be stopped. He sang and danced and the gates would not be shut.What is this we find ourselves in? All I know is that there is no doubt in my heart and mind that change is here even if we did not vote for the form in which it has come.

I am not a poet by Siki Dlanga

I am not a poet
I just know the everyday is miraculous everyday
I see leaves dancing to an invisible song and I acknowledge it
The sun laughs in the sky and I laugh back
I am not a poet
I just realize the last breath I took was a divine act the next one too
My eyes marvel at the reflection on the mirror not because of my own beauty but for the wonder of sight
I am not a poet
I see lovers eyes hugging as they stare
And I sing them a song only I hear
I smile at the child with a dummy
I am not a poet
I am amused and I respond with bellows of laughter
I hear a musician play and my body sings with a dance
I am not a poet
I was never a poet
I hear the melody of words in the silence of chaos
The same way leaves dance to the invisible hum or thud
The same way waves to the shore
The same way humans breathe
The audience to an incredible performance
I am not a poet
I am just alive to life
I feel the touch and my heart remembers
I see and my mind applauds or frowns
I am not a poet
I am just alive
I taste and my tongue skips with joy
I look at the pain of others and I pray and God responds
I am not a poet I am just alive
The same way the night knows when to give way to the morning
The same way stars shine at night even when we do not see their light in the city
The same way clouds sometimes paint the sky
I am not a poet
I have never been a poet
I am alive to life and have always applauded the wondrous fading magnificence
I have always hoped of what was, could be and will be or
Grieve at what will be if we do not

God used to be white

My feelings about President Obama’s inauguration are written on the faces, hearts and speechless mouths of the millions and a billion black people in the African continent, especially in South Africa and America. No one knows what yesterday meant more than those. No one.
To say anything at all in this hour feels like taking away from the centuries of those who suffered, prayed, believed or lost faith, died in hope and then we find ourselves being that generation whose black children will no longer think that God is white and only favours the white.

No matter how long justice seems to take, our generation knows without a doubt that God never forsook us because of our skin colour. We now know without a doubt that God loves us all passionately and will fight for everyone of us until we see it, even if it takes centuries to prove it because He is eternal and not trapped in time; even if we will not believe in Him. He will fight for us still. First in Mandela, then in the same lifetime in Obama we know that God is a just God no one should ever doubt that after yesterday.

O for the prayers prayed by mothers left behind in Africa longing for their children sold to a foreign land? O for the cries of the slaves, for their songs? Prayers they thought were unanswered, yesterday we all know were heard.

In South Africa we knew that freedom was incomplete so long as the African-American still felt oppressed. Every now and again they flocked to South Africa just to see what freedom felt like, some mocked. Yesterday our freedom was complete because theirs was.

What happened yesterday was not a story of colour but that of all humanity because had not the majority of Americans voted for him, yesterday would not have been a historic event.

For the longest time I was burdened and unable to find a solution of how God can cure the pain of the black soul. The pain Micheal Jackson so desperately wanted to purge he thought he could erase the colour of his skin. My own healing would not be enough – what about the millions? I was overwhelmed by the weight wondering how God could heal a wound so deep that has been felt for so long by so many and inherently passed on from generation to generation. It had become a disease flowing in our blood. Yesterday was a miracle that cured the blood that flows in our soul. It will no longer be passed to the next generation unless our minds remain enslaved and we do not walk as free men. We are healed. Even if we see evidence of the past we know it is a counterfeit.

The past is officially passed.

We live in a new era. We are who we choose to be. We have no one to blame anymore – we can fight the demons of the past that are hidden in our minds that tell us we can’t, we fight them because now we know we can.

Now we know that God favours us all. I so appreciate the effort He has made to make us feel so special so that we can look at our black faces and love what is starring back at us. The veil is lifted. Light is shining in the darkness. Africa’s creativity will finally come out to play! The world has seen nothing yet. We have been fought for and we are the ones who get to live the impossible dream. Africa come out and play! Arise shine! Put on your garments of splendor! Bless the world with your excellence again as in the days when your civilization was the wonder of the world. While you are at it please be humble because there is no one to prove wrong any more. Share the love that has always been in you! Share it with the world!

God bless Obama the son of Africa birthed by an American mother. All of Africa is praying for this man. All of Africa prayed for SA to be at peace during our historical transition….you can be sure all of Africa is praying for this man!
I sure have been.

We are slaves of our beliefs

Everything rises and falls not on leadership but on faith. We are what we believe not what we claim to believe but what we truly believe when we are tested and everything we know tells us that our faith is false. When the lights are out and everyone is home. When we are awake and cannot fall asleep. We are the thoughts we choose over and over. We are the thoughts we accept all the time. We are treatment we tolerate.

Most naturally we are what we do not even think to question.

We can never rise beyond our beliefs. Our faith is the sealing it tells us how far we can go so we must watch what we believe.

"Without faith it is impossible to please God."

If we truly believe that God is infinite we will see greatness the size of the God we believe. This is the case if we believe the opposite. We are enslaved to our beliefs. We serve them and they serve us back.

Now what is it that you are enslaved to.

From a slave of Christ
Siki Dlanga
at least I hope I truly am

"All is fair in love and war" - Frank Farleigh

Someone came up to me this past Friday and asked me this question: "Tell me what is it with British men and Xhosa women?"

To my dismay, I was without an answer.

I thought mmmh she is right I have never quiet thought of it really. I also knew of some Xhosa girls who have dated British men.

Their beauty and confidence is not quiet and they are pretty vocal too. Perhaps I could even say they are pretty intimidating but clearly the British have a secret. I found out the secret.... it goes way back.

The two met at the river in 1879 at the banks of the Eastern Cape rivers..... the rest is history. A young girl called Nongqawuse started it all.

Our fame lies in the unpopular and popular women such as:
Winnie Mandela; whatever one might say - I respect this woman. She went through hell and back and stood all kinds of atrocities against her. Though among other things that smeared her name the Stompie case was the final straw. She lived the times where nothing was normal. It was all about war and injustice and the driving force was the attainment of freedom. Like the Apostle Paul says: “you yourselves make sure that you are not disqualified.” Somehow I feel like she was disqualified because of somethings. Like an athlete who runs in the final stages of their race and under-pressure runs on top of the line he is disqualified from attaining any prize.
Brenda Fassie (controversial)
Mariam Makeba (history making beauty)
and many others today like Siphokazi, Simphiwe Dana (too new age but brilliant anyway...)

and many other ordinary extra-ordinary xhosa women who held the fort in the Eastern Cape while they raised history makers and nation shapers like Mandela, Mbekis, OR, Hani, and many unsung heroes who died fighting the good fight.

It's a light take on history......

OLD TO NEW POLITICS

Old to NEW Politics
History is a good barometer. It tells of the present and helps us engage with the future. South Africa is headed toward a very good place.
Between 1779 and 1879, nine frontier wars were fought in the Eastern Cape mainly between the Xhosas and British. The last war was the worst. A false prophecy by a Xhosa girl misled her people into destroying all their cattle and crops; in return the spirits had promised to sweep the British into the sea. It was concluded that the prophecy was the skillful work of Xhosa enemies. This led to the starvation of Xhosa people and an important victory for the English. This story reveals that it is no coincidence that later the struggle heroes mostly emerged from this region.
Of late, British sons are taking Xhosa daughters for wives. We have come full circle. The lost cattle in the Eastern Cape are slowly returning through lobola! Intermarriage is a sure sign that war is over.
God has brought us this far. History is His story. Next year promises the birth of new politics. The bar will be lifted and this country is headed to its destined glory. Merry Christmas!
“Better is the end of a thing than its beginning;” (Eccl 7:8).

First published on www.todaypublication.com/blog

What keeps you alive?

What keeps you alive?
What is your inspiration to live? Why did Mandela come out of 27years of imprisonment still alive with vision - his spirit brighter than it ever was. Why didn't he fall apart from despair and hopelessness?

A friend of mine shared with me recently that the people who survived the worst concentration camps were those who imagined a life beyond the obvious inhuman death that seemed to await them. (it's as if they did not give it permission to kill them and it didn't. They believed and they lived).

On Sunday at the Baxter Nathi asked Tim to read us an excerpt from a book Good to Great. What stood out for me was this line: "Commitment to Prevail." That is what separates good companies from great ones, they are always committed to prevail at every moment of difficulty.
No wonder Jesus invites us to overcome and cowardice is rated at the same level as the worst sins. Fortunately He offers to be our strength.

If you celebrate Christmas we are 23days away from celebrating the gift that was given to us. I hope this gift means something to you.
A friend of mine noted that African-Americans and African worship songs were mostly about the hope of heaven. She said they had to look for something beyond earth to survive their discouraging realities. The hope gave them something to live for.

What will history say about our generation when so much has been overcome on our behalf - yet we still have so much more to fight for as wars breakout, Mugabe remains on his throne, Mumbai burns, AIDS increases by a further 2million in SA etc. etc. what's your role what's my role...

I say we are fit to prevail. We have what it takes to be great. We have been given all the power we could ever possibly need. We have all the love, peace and grace we could ever ask for. If we think we do not have -grace has been extended for us to ask and we shall recieve if we believe when we ask.

www.todaypublications.com/blog (visit, comment, forward)

HAPPY HOLIDAYS.... you're so much more greater than what you think.
You are so much more...
the love of God, peace and grace to you this season xxxSiki