The Cape Town Akon Concert

I should be in church right now hugging sisters, holding bibles and talking about the great sermon but alas O sisters it is the night after attending an Akon concert and I am not shouting halleluas with you. I can see all the sisters shaking their heads in disgust and others muttering prayers of redemption for the great that has fallen. Instead here I am on a beautiful Sunday having woken up late. My lift is gone and I was left to recover from the Akon experience. Had I ever even been to a club before? It occurred to me that I had only ever gone as far as watching it in the movies so often that I thought I had but Akon was the one who introduced me and what an experience it was indeed. It’s a pity though that my Jesus experiences by far surpasses and outweigh anything spectacularly fun even Akon could have thrown. I however understood why so many are swallowed up into the night life.



A friend from out-of-country who is down here for a short period invited me, when she asked me if I will go with her I thought; “Are you serious? You’re asking me to go to an Akon concert? Do you have any idea how much I have been wanting to rest and that is the night I was finally going to rest. Akon, is not even on my list of things I want to do even on a day I do not want to rest.” I did not say that, I am a good friend at times. She has come from such a faraway country and she is doing such a serious job maybe she can do with some serious fun. I could not believe this, tired as I am but I am going to say “yes” even though the next day I had to go through yet another baby shower in my life after church, when does this woman finally get her rest? How I feel about baby showers is a topic for another day. This is about Akon. What do people even wear to these things? I decided that I will go in world cup fever style with my usual creative way of pulling madness together.



It was a bunch of kids who went to the concert. Where we sat mostly we seemed to be around people the same age as us and on a rare occasion people who look like older mothers (perhaps responsible parents who want to know what their teens are up to). What do I know about concerts I have only been to a few free concerts at the Waterfront, jazz festivals in Cape Town and street parties. I am a good Christian girl to top it all. There are boring sinners and there are boring saints and I am neither.



After waiting and waiting Akon eventually appears on stage tall, dark, really dark and with a handsome voice. Initially when I had been thinking about this invitation to go to an Akon concert I was rather tormented. I was thinking O no, Akon. Give me jazz, a certain kind of hip-hop, almost anything South African, Latino, House, rock my world I will be happy but this. This. Let me explain to you what kind of tormented thoughts Akon gave me prior the concert. I have been a diligent commuter in Cape Town taxis mainly Wynberg to Cape Town route. Need I say more. I had seen far too many toothless gatjies fighting for me to get into their taxis and the music blurring. Here I would be in these unfavourable circumstances of being in taxis with blurring speakers and it always seemed to be the same one. A toothless smile singing to me “Lonely, I am so lonely” so loud would be the music you could hardly stop the taxi and somehow you always manage to stop it at the right stop in spite of what you have suffered. By the time you are out of the taxi you are praying for the gift of loneliness and wanting to curse the guy who is responsible for releasing that cd.

My younger brother Nganga helped prepare me gradually not to despise Akon. He does not know how I felt about him though. I hope Akon returns the favour to my brother one day. However having listened to my brother it gave me some kind of hope that I can perhaps attend this concert and see what happens. I have a sense of adventure and have a way of taking myself places I do not really want to go. I did not tell my friend of my apprehension – I had decided to be in the same spirit as hers. I was the first to dance. I danced to “Lonely” and found justice and peace in “I am sorry you can put the blame on me”. I accepted the apology as Akon's music was something I blamed him for from that moment I enjoyed the concert even more before Akon took things to the next level. A level I was uncertain I wanted to go to. He had the craziest DJ, he was crazy I loved him, he was the modern day Mr. T. To qualify to be a Mr. T you need a serious beard to go with your Mohican hair cut. He had these white framed sunglasses and wore a waist coat that matched his skirt or was it a kilt. He would every now and again jump ontop of his DJ table. He was crazy crazy crazy. A black man in a designer skirt was quite a sight. He is a brave man. Brave or a complete show off which he seemed as though he is both and both suit him.



The next thing Akon arrived walking inside of what had the appearance of a bubble. He sang as he walked in this really cool bubble before he rolled the bubble over the crowd as hands of fans pushed him along. Then he sang the forbidden song “Take it Off” urging all to take something off and wave it around. He was at that time half naked showing off how fit his upper body was. It was at this moment that I thought of our beloved Benny McCathy. I was so glad he wasn’t seeing this because if he only looked like that he would have been part of the squad. His heart would be aching if he saw Akon’s figure and muscles all just for singing - well, I should not have felt sorry for Benny as the photographer found Benny’s face in the audience. The fans forgot about Akon for a second. It must have been a humbling moment for Akon. Benny stole some of his show. Benny a man after our former minister of finance’s heart (Trevor), Alan Boesak and following after the famous footsteps of men like Chester Williams and in it together with men like Brian Habbanah was shown standing next to a blond woman. At that point I made a quick prayer for our beloved golden boy Steven Pienaar and said: “O please we need him focused for this world cup please let no blond woman cross his path. Please, maybe later but not now, please. Amen.”



When the screen found Benny he beamed besides the pretty blond as crowds screamed. I can assure, Benny did not look troubled. Why would he be troubled if every newspaper is writing about him and every commentator talking about him and people’s brothers calling him Benny MacDonalds. He must think that kind-of has a ring to it, Benny Mac. He kind of likes it. I was thinking of writing a book called Lessons learnt from Benny’s dismal exit. Benny would then sue me and realise that he will not smile all the way to the bank if he sues me and looks at me and thinks, why destroy a sweet black woman with small aspirations. I would thank Benny with another book called Lessons learnt from Benny’s great moments and from hence forth I would sit with the blond and the brown and we will all live happily ever after.



Akon made a speech about how he is not part of the world cup artists because he will not be a part of something that exploits Africa once again. What does the World Cup song have anything to do with Africa? Viva Akon. As I sit here listening to the river and about to leave for the babyshower, I am thankful for my experience. I secretly tried to release fireballs. I kind of thought it worked more on me than on the crowd. It was fun. It was most certainly not a wasted ticket and I will smile back at the toothless guy in the taxi as he sings to me "Lonely, I'm so lonely".

Are you ready for an African World Cup?

The world cup is upon us. We do not guarantee you 100 percent safety. If you are a journalist we do not guarantee you that one of our country’s youth leaders will not throw you out if you ask a question that displeases him. We cannot guarantee you that we will not have any form of political drama or any kind of drama for that matter. No one is ever sure what will happen next here. The climate hardly fails us. The action never stops. The only real trauma you should experience in South Africa is too much excitement.
The people are warm and friendly. There are no animals on the road we actually boast one of the best cities in the world. When you get here your mother will drag you away you will be so stunned. We guarantee that you will have an amazing experience in South Africa. The only way to bored in this land is if you are dead and that is the only way I can think of boredom is death because I have never been there. It is hard to imagine that even the dead in our land could be possibly bored because we have the most exciting dead. At their death they have caused much controversy. In fact so interesting is our dead that some of them are still on trial. Let me assure you that you are not just coming here for football or soccer as we call it you are coming here for the time of your life. You will live to tell of your experience here to your children, their children and the story will become a legacy.

Let me prepare you a little bit more; South Africa is such a beautiful country you might not want to leave. I have spoken to countless tourists who get here and once they are here they do not want to leave. The women are all so beautiful you might just be dazed and eventually you will not be able to pick one your best bet is a foreign woman because at least you can pick her out among the rest. I have seen tourists smiling in the streets I would swear they must be in heaven. In fact I remember once as a student; I was a waitress and my German customers could not stop looking at me smiling from ear to ear. Their eyes collectively could not leave me. I eventually became concerned as I thought surely something must be wrong but they are shy to tell me perhaps they thought that I would finally get it. I gathered up courage and asked if all was well. They answered in unison “Oh, you are just wonderful. We are not used to such friendly people.” I feared that they might just take me with. The honest truth is that I am not that amazing there are better South Africans far friendlier than I could ever wish to be and yet the least one in the nation was something to marvel at.

I have told you of our imperfections. You will see our mess, you will see our poor, and you will see our rich. We have a third world and a first world in one country. We have the largest inequality gap in the world the last time I checked. One more thing; please do us a favour if you are white please, please do not criticize our white people. Do not do that. We do not like it because we can do that all by ourselves we do not appreciate it when outsiders think they are more righteous because we know they are not. I know you will be tempted just bite your tongue when the temptation comes, at that moment just think about your own history and you will realise that your history is possibly the same. Yes there is crime here but I know people who never encountered crime while they lived here until they moved to England, Paris or Italy then they got mugged. My fear is not that you will be mugged, you might be but security promises to be tight and I truly hope it will not happen to you as it would be sad if it does happen to you.

My only real fear about your visit is that you will not want to leave. Am I arrogant? Am I overconfident? I will prove to you that I am not. I have encountered numerous foreigners who are still yearning and dreaming of seeing this land again. It is as if they must return here or move here. This too has happened and still happening.

The famous Jan van Riebeeck never left this land when he landed on its shores today we still have thousands of his descendants that testify of his love for this country. History tells us he was destined to the East but he landed here and he could not get himself to go any further. He remained. The rest is history. I will not mention Britain or Germany. I am eternally grateful that France never made it South because it would have been a terrible thing if we spoke French like some West African nations. We fortunately did not loose our own mother tongues unlike our West African countries and those Colonised by the Portuguese. This means that you will have more to see because our culture is preserved with the languages. Where was I? Ok, sorry this is about why it will be difficult for you to leave this country as I was saying - our country is so beautiful and so rich Britain fought a bloody war all along the South African coast line. There was 100 years of battles in the Eastern Cape against Xhosas. There were wars fought against Zulus. There was a war between the English and Dutch for the same land today the descendants still remember that war. Blood was spilt for a piece of this magical land. Blood my friend. Do you still think I am exaggerating?

I know that you will not spill any more blood however you will be met by very loving warm South Africans who love this country. The battle will be however a little different this time; the nations will battle against each other. The war will be over a small piece of green land and the weapon will be the Jabulani ball. Whoever wins gets to walk away with a chunk of our gold. I hope we will walk away with the gold. Those who know soccer know that this is a giant leap of faith - but this land begs me to believe. South Africans love being South African but we are delighted that we will be hosting the nations. We have been waiting for you and you will feel it. Do not believe those who have told you that it will be a disastrous event.
We live in the edge of excitement. We are hospitable people and you will be very entertained. If you are expecting elephants and lions in the street I am sorry you will be very disappointed we actually have roads and street lights and tall buildings and things like that you know. I have only seen a lion in my dreams and photographs so do not get your hopes up. If you want to see lions we will tell you where to find them so do not worry - we are ready for you, are you ready for the African experience? The party is on!

A poem for my country

South Africa

You who is robed in multi-coloured robes
You whose unity shows best in times of division
Whose peace reigns when they say you are at war
You Mzantsi my country
Whose love shines best when they talk of hatred
South Africa
Lend me your robe
Let me wear it
I want to shine brightly too like you
You whose languages are poetry
The least clan is like a mighty tribe
Whose tribes are unique in their culture
And rich in tongue
Mzantsi; nations within a nation
Whose wealth is not its gold
Nor is it bright coloured sun
Nor is it her vast seas
Vuka mzantsi vuka! Awake in your beauty!
Awake in your strength
Awake in the fullness of the magnificence
Of your many coloured robes.
South Africa whose glory is
You at your best;
You
Lend me your multi-coloured robe!

©siki dlanga
for my country with love
29.04.2010

Where is the song that will unite the nation

You promised us a song.

Why aren't you singing?

Where is the musician?

Where is your drum?

Why are you not beating your drums,

We want to dance to your tune.

We want to sing with you.

The world is waiting for

our own song.

They heard that music

comes from our shores.

They heard that all sound

was birthed from our valleys and our hills

where the Zulu dancer shakes the earth

Where the Xhosa Mbongi bellows poetry

and directs the course of kings

where chiefs cannot speak until

he has sung his poetic song

The horses of Lesotho beat the earth

calling us to a new world

and see the world from mountain tops.

The miners have seen the gold

but we are still waiting for

a song that will cause us to bear

that gold with our bare hands.

Where is the musician?

(c) siki dlanga

If a song killed ET then sing a new song! "One Boer – One Love"

"A coward is incapable of exhibiting love; it is the prerogative of the brave." - Mahatma Ghandi

If a song killed Eugene Terreblanche then a song can fix this.

If ET was truly killed by the power of a song then with all due respect do not blame Juju, blame the musicians for failing to come up with a better song – a song that advocates a united beautiful land. As far as I recall Juju has never received a SAMA nor has the president though their songs have caused the most upset.

We are obviously a musical nation. Our rise and fall all seem to depend on the power of the note. We are moved by songs and we act and we dance according to that bewitching beat. I use the word bewitch because if a song caused those youths to murder Terreblanche they were bewitched by the beat. What gain is it for them to kill the man? These young men's hands are now stained with the blood of a man many of us do not think he was wonderful anyway. Those youngmen too deserve a chance. I hope someone will reachout to them. Some might disagree about the power of the song, however when ‘a dangerous song’ is sung then there is a major reaction which once again proves how the one who has the beat rules this land. The apartheid government understood the power of the song and censored every song so that it said exactly what they wanted people to hear. A lawyer commented that we are a free nation now why should we return to those pathetic apartheid controlling tactics?

If you do not sing for us we will simply not vote for you in this country. If you do sing it is he who has the most powerful beat that wins and President Jacob Zuma could not beaten in dance or in song. It is all in a song. We sit in our homes and we sing, when we leave our homes we are still singing. When we work we sing when we are in difficult times we sing, when we are victorious we sing. We’re a nation that believes in the power of a song. JZ sang his Mshini wam song there were complaints and the song only stopped when he became president. JZ’s song would work best when Bafana Bafana takes on Mexico – I can promise you that Mexico will fall before the sound of the vuvuzelas combined with that song that placed JZ as President of this Republic. Now the death of ET has been blamed on Julius’ song. The truth is that Julius did not sing the song alone his followers sang it with him. If we believe so deeply in the power of a song then I beg you politicians who have no song on their lips but good reason that is easily lost because it comes with no beat. Please stop complaining about the songs because the songs will continue start a new song.

I suggest a new song called “One boer. One love.” Other suggestions from elsewhere are “Kiss the boer – kiss the farmer”. Someone hopefully will organize a march and sing the song in Terreblanche’s funeral and all across that famous AWB town. The love could finaly make them change those depressing khaki clothes to some bright coloured ones and then just maybe they will will see the light of this beautiful rainbow nation and carry the right coloured flag. Someone’s got to win those hearts and a little love and a little lightness could go a long way. All we need are a few crazy blacks whose minds work like the character in The Hurt Locker who disarms bombs. Some hearts are worse than bombs and all they need is love. Now wouldn’t that be wonderful. Come on let us start a revolution of love to heal this broken land. Let us be jealous over it with love. Let's love ourselves out of our mess.

If you live close to that area and want to make this difference please do it don't stop. Hatred is easy but loving your enemies is for the brave.

"Love your enemies. Do good to those who hate you." - Jesus, King of kings

By Siki Dlanga

Humanity in the hands of white god

When I was a child we thought God was White.
We spoke of it often and the conclusion was always that God was no colour.
We had to make Him colourless if we were to pursue Him – if we too must be blessed, rich or have anything good.
He had to be colourless because if He were White the reasons we suffered under White rule would make sense and we would be hopeless.
If He were White our surfering would endure forever.
We said that but we still believed He had to be White.
He was because if He were not, then we would not suffer.
Has He not blessed them and cursed us?
I had to believe He was colourless and that we had missed something.
Why we hungered? Why we were cornered? Why our land was now taken?
Why our money was so little? Why we did not have this and why they had that?
God must be White.
I believed against hope that He is not.
If He is not then He will hear me.
As an older child I saw things change.
I saw a black old man rise. I saw crowds lift their fits as they saw him. I saw black hands. Then I saw white fists slowly but surely raising their fists too as though in worship of this old black man. This old black man.
God is not White?
Were we right?
Others began to suffer less, others prospered, others being non-white but then the rest of the continent still suffered.
This dark skin still suffered in every country of this continent.
I wondered had we not prayed enough, how much must we do till He hears us.
Aids came and they called us immoral, promiscuous and every name under heaven, forgetting that they gave us Aids the minute they landed and violeted us killing our spirits so that we would not taste freedom even when it was given us.
There you have it more evidence, even when you are meant to be blessed you are cursed.
It hit me again. Was He really White?
Then one day He opened my eyes.
Colour is not His primary thing, humanity is shallow.
Then I realised that long before anyone came from any continent, long before anyone took anybody’s land. Long before anyone raped anyone and enslaved them in their own backyard, we had everything we needed but we gave it all away.
We thought we were waiting for Him but He was always waiting for us.
He had given us too much power already and would not disempower us by medling. He wanted us to rise. He believed in us. He wanted us to rise not against White power or any colour power but against darkness that distroys humanity in one form or another.
We had to rise; not He.
Until we got that we were powerless, sitting and waiting. Until we knew our power in Him, until we took up our weapons given to us long before but we had forgotten how.
The key that was lost in Eden was a key for our rule not over each other. He waited for us to find our key again.
He waits for us to rise to take up our weapons and distroy the enemies of the soul. The enemy that fights against humanity will not come from heaven because heaven already came down to give the power back to us.
However it was the day that Obama became the president of America that I knew without a doubt that God never was White.
He waits for time. He waits for us to come to know the power we have been given.

(c) siki dlanga

OPEN LETTER TO PRESIDENT JACOB ZUMA

Honourable President of the Republic of the most beautiful land and the most beautiful people of South Africa:

Honourable President Jacob Zuma the recent reports about your love child have not been honourable, however this is not how I wish to begin my letter to you sir. Please forgive my poor vocabulary it is an easy give away that I am in no way a member of any youth league.

I love South Africa with all my heart. I love our diversity. I love who we are, what we have become and what we are destined to become. I also know that Mr. Jacob Zuma that you would not be sitting in office at this moment had you not loved this land with a deep passion yourself. I see you Mr. President as a man who has a gift to overcome, you are a victor, victories not all of us approve of but none-the-less you have that gift in you. You are a reconciler and that I truly admire about you. Our country can grow in unique ways under your leadership if you will rise up to it. I love the manner, in which you embrace the poor of our country, when I look at you I can see why they would believe that you are their champion. I did not vote for you mainly because of your links to corruption and your relations with women that are unsettling to me as a woman and as a citizen of this beautiful land. I do not take for granted all that you have sacrificed to serve the people of this land and believe me Mr. President I pray for you, many people I know pray that you would become a successful president of the republic of South Africa.

The reason I am writing this letter to you Mr. Jacob Zuma is thus in no means to tear you down, I believe you are so much more than what you are giving us right now. I have been extremely angered by the recent news of your baby with Dr. Khoza’s daughter. I am hurt, disturbed and have nearly cried because having not voted for you Mr. President I chose to withhold judgment from you and I wrote to many of my friends to do the same so that you can lead without those nagging voices that tell you what you have done wrong in the past before you even make your first move as president. I wiped the slate clean and I decided that I would support you and encouraged many to do so. These recent news sir have hurt those efforts immensely. The best way I can describe is that I felt betrayed as a citizen of South Africa by your actions. If this is a personal matter as many of the members of the ANC claim then tell me Mr. President then why is the nation hurting and in an uproar about your actions. I wish that for once, just for once that the leaders of this nation would lead without shifting blame the whole time. This nation would fly if we can just get that one thing right.

To add to this Mr. President many of my friends and myself work with the youth of this nation and in many instances the youth of Africa we encourage them to live upright lives. We are devastated by the impact of HIV/AIDs has on our youth and we want to do whatever is within our means to reverse this and the best way we know how is to mentor well, live by example and give our young people life skills that will empower them to teach others and live full lives that are free of AIDs. I am afraid to say this to you Mr. President but your behavior up till now is unsupportive of our efforts and the worst fear is that the youth will look at your behavior and see how the ANCYL justifies your behavior and die in the hands of yours and their deception.
Mr. President when I first heard this I was too shocked and too hurt to respond. The next moment I thought you Mr. President are not fit to govern our land as the one thing that is destroying our land is sexual promiscuity which has landed us in this mess in the first place. I refuse to be diplomatic about this fact. It is the truth as even those who have been raped have been defiled by those who live like that. President Mbeki was recalled as the President of this land for reasons which are still unbeknown to me; I am certain there is no reason that such can not be done to you as well, for reasons that are known by the whole country. I also thought that if you love our country truly and truly know that we cannot be seen as a nation that does not care about HIV/AIDS then Mr. Jacob Zuma you will step down to demonstrate that.

One more thing Mr. President the press has every reason to make a big deal about this as the responsible thing to do would have been for you to announce these news to the nation yourself. If you had any remorse before the press came any where near it by now Mr. President you should have been brilliant at handling such matters by now. Your not having come out with this yourself shows that you wanted to sweep this under the carpet which is even more concerning than the original offense.

I write this letter in full respect of your office and your role in our country. If you still think that you are fit to govern us Mr. Zuma then we deserve much better than this. I believe we can be much better and you have no reason not to be much better than this. Isn’t our country all about becoming our best selves out-doing what is expected not going even below the bare minimum. If you believe that you are fit to govern then we need you to inspire that greatness in us and not our worst sir.

I write this in my own capacity as the youth of South Africa and I have support from other young people in South Africa to write this letter to you. I do not belong to any political party and have no such ambitions. I am however fully interested in taking responsibility for our country and ensure that I do so in service to God and the country in the capacity I believe I have been blessed with.

Yours for the good of South Africa
Siki Dlanga
Written in my own capacity

Please note that none of the views expressed here are meant to be prideful or arrogant in anyway but in a genuine concern for the president, the nation and mainly the implications these recent developments can have on the youth. I am humbled and honoured that you are an approachable president that will consider this letter from an ordinary citizen.