I am smiling. I am peaceful. I am telling you even my lungs are happy.
This trip to His People East London has been better than medicine, and its effects better than a holiday.
I danced. I sang. I danced till my flabby tummy nearly flattened until my legs firmed.
I laughed until someone came to hug me for my laughter.
I am happy, I am free, I am easy with not a weight on my mind.
I have little to say. I am starring into midair, smiling at nothing like one in love.
This joy is to be shared and this peace to be spread.
It is for freedom that Christ has set us free, standfast then and do not return again to the yoke of slavery.
Monday, September 19, 2011
Friday, September 2, 2011
Of English and Education
It is those usually non-blacks who think that they are giving you a complement when they tell you that you speak English well. I am going to use the word they. Yes, they annoy me. They, because it is a broad spectrum of South Africans. They think that they are complementing you when what they are doing is insulting your people and revealing their own sick values about what kind of black they esteem and what kind they think is less. Should I really feel complemented by being placed on a pedestal while the ones whose shoulders I stand are seen as less because they received a certain education? I will of course not forget a conversation with my former housemate. I had told her about an article I read by a missionary in Nigeria who spoke of a child he spoke to mentioning that he could tell that she had a good education because she spoke English. Annoyed my friend said: “So English is a sign of a ‘good education’”. It has been our joke since one who speaks English is one who has received a good education. My friend is not bitter she, according to this description also received a very superior education. She speaks all of our eleven languages fluently plus a few international languages and probably still counting.
Having said all of that about perceptions of English as a language, this kind of thinking also translates to how we view the English culture as well. It exposes what we admire and therefore aspire to. It is what we think is lofty and what we would look like if we reached that goal. It is the mirror we hold up to ourselves and the rest of our community of what it is not and should be. It is very telling of the very core of our beliefs.
I have to say that I do admire the English. They value their education, they are always studying further it is a noble thing however who said that English is the measuring stick of all education? A Chinese in China, a German or a Russian or even our very own beloved Afrikaans community whom I have begun to fall in love with madly would probably disagree with those who view the language as a sign of good Education.
That handful of British people who took over the world and established education centers nearly the world over left a permanent mark of their influence in every culture they ever encountered. They transformed cultures and even I and you who is reading this article is a product of the mighty English. Such a tiny Island such profound influence. They make the Roman Empire seem like Childs play. I do not hate the English language it assists me to make friends with people all over the world. Evil as it was, colonialisation has played an extra-ordinary role in laying foundations for globalization without it globalization would not have occurred so smoothly. It was a harsh cultural transition of which we succumbed even our minds and lifestyles to. These cultural transitions are the ones that assisted bridge gaps between other unlike cultures who had received like harsh treatment as our own in their own way. Now we have a meeting point from those forced painful changes we have failed to recover from.
It is not English nor the English I am critical of here. It is that when I see a black child who cannot speak her mother tongue or has no knowledge of her culture I realize how poor and underprivileged she is. If you have an inheritance of gold, of rich land and culture, and someone else came and offered you their tongue and culture in exchange of it which will you choose? We have chosen poorly. I saw a child who speaks Xhosa fluently and I envied her. I wondered if she knew how rich she was and how easily it can be taken away from her if she will not treasure her wealth.
Last year, singer Simphiwe Dana wrote about how we need an indigenous first language in South Africa that is not English. She infact nominated that English could be a third language while she nominated Zulu as a unifying first language. There is no black person I spoke to who was opposed to this idea. I naturally believed that my most trusted all time activists who are white and have always been pro all things African would be delighted by this brilliant idea. They caught me unaware as each one I spoke to was immediately anti this idea. I was completely unprepared for this reaction. I had imagined that they would naturally think this would be the most fantastic idea as did all the black people I spoke to. I had banked on them to think great thoughts about Miss Dana’s solution to recovering our lost identities through the erosion of who we were before colonialisation or apartheid and forging new university centres with African languages that will not only look back but pave a way for progressive African thinking. The fact that the white pro-Africans I spoke to could not embrace this thinking or even be willing to consider it as a possibility taught me that fundamentally this idea was a threat to their identity. It would take away all that they really are even though they now called themselves African. If you took away their English, it showed me that to them you would be taking away their identity and that was non-negotiable.
African Education none-the-less must reform and develop and progress to a new level. There is a kind of education that is not recognized or acknowledged as education. This is the kind I saw in the child who spoke Xhosa fluently. She embodied Xhosa etiquette that was absent to the children of the same colour-skin who only spoke English. It showed me that indeed if you adopt a language, you also adopt the culture. If that be one’s choice let it be a choice but it cannot be seen as a good education. I have sat beside red faced Xhosas and I have learnt what no school has taught me. In watching what they did and how they spoke, the manner in which they spoke I felt better educated. I sat besides Xhosa men waiting for a train and they spoke of matters of identity as perceived by the Xhosa culture and I found a new philosophy. I was educated and enriched. I have been exposed to many moments especially in the villages, in gatherings where every moment has been a moment of intentional cultural education. I saw people with an education as superior as any, as rich as any, they simply lacked technology and ways to combine the two. That is all that made them less effective and disadvantaged. They also believed that they were uneducated which further disadvantaged them because they too did not see their wealth, that they are the teachers we lack most. I can only speak as a Xhosa. I have passion to learn the Khoekhoe ways for it is they who named the Xhosas and where we found our cliques. There are many forms of education, Zulu, Basotho the list is endless there is no reason that we should be limited to seeing one lanuage and culture as superior beyond all others. Perhaps it is because it has gained lasting world dominion and increasing still. It is unchallenged and so remains crowned above all until others find a voice that says we are all equal and this is why.
Having said all of that about perceptions of English as a language, this kind of thinking also translates to how we view the English culture as well. It exposes what we admire and therefore aspire to. It is what we think is lofty and what we would look like if we reached that goal. It is the mirror we hold up to ourselves and the rest of our community of what it is not and should be. It is very telling of the very core of our beliefs.
I have to say that I do admire the English. They value their education, they are always studying further it is a noble thing however who said that English is the measuring stick of all education? A Chinese in China, a German or a Russian or even our very own beloved Afrikaans community whom I have begun to fall in love with madly would probably disagree with those who view the language as a sign of good Education.
That handful of British people who took over the world and established education centers nearly the world over left a permanent mark of their influence in every culture they ever encountered. They transformed cultures and even I and you who is reading this article is a product of the mighty English. Such a tiny Island such profound influence. They make the Roman Empire seem like Childs play. I do not hate the English language it assists me to make friends with people all over the world. Evil as it was, colonialisation has played an extra-ordinary role in laying foundations for globalization without it globalization would not have occurred so smoothly. It was a harsh cultural transition of which we succumbed even our minds and lifestyles to. These cultural transitions are the ones that assisted bridge gaps between other unlike cultures who had received like harsh treatment as our own in their own way. Now we have a meeting point from those forced painful changes we have failed to recover from.
It is not English nor the English I am critical of here. It is that when I see a black child who cannot speak her mother tongue or has no knowledge of her culture I realize how poor and underprivileged she is. If you have an inheritance of gold, of rich land and culture, and someone else came and offered you their tongue and culture in exchange of it which will you choose? We have chosen poorly. I saw a child who speaks Xhosa fluently and I envied her. I wondered if she knew how rich she was and how easily it can be taken away from her if she will not treasure her wealth.
Last year, singer Simphiwe Dana wrote about how we need an indigenous first language in South Africa that is not English. She infact nominated that English could be a third language while she nominated Zulu as a unifying first language. There is no black person I spoke to who was opposed to this idea. I naturally believed that my most trusted all time activists who are white and have always been pro all things African would be delighted by this brilliant idea. They caught me unaware as each one I spoke to was immediately anti this idea. I was completely unprepared for this reaction. I had imagined that they would naturally think this would be the most fantastic idea as did all the black people I spoke to. I had banked on them to think great thoughts about Miss Dana’s solution to recovering our lost identities through the erosion of who we were before colonialisation or apartheid and forging new university centres with African languages that will not only look back but pave a way for progressive African thinking. The fact that the white pro-Africans I spoke to could not embrace this thinking or even be willing to consider it as a possibility taught me that fundamentally this idea was a threat to their identity. It would take away all that they really are even though they now called themselves African. If you took away their English, it showed me that to them you would be taking away their identity and that was non-negotiable.
African Education none-the-less must reform and develop and progress to a new level. There is a kind of education that is not recognized or acknowledged as education. This is the kind I saw in the child who spoke Xhosa fluently. She embodied Xhosa etiquette that was absent to the children of the same colour-skin who only spoke English. It showed me that indeed if you adopt a language, you also adopt the culture. If that be one’s choice let it be a choice but it cannot be seen as a good education. I have sat beside red faced Xhosas and I have learnt what no school has taught me. In watching what they did and how they spoke, the manner in which they spoke I felt better educated. I sat besides Xhosa men waiting for a train and they spoke of matters of identity as perceived by the Xhosa culture and I found a new philosophy. I was educated and enriched. I have been exposed to many moments especially in the villages, in gatherings where every moment has been a moment of intentional cultural education. I saw people with an education as superior as any, as rich as any, they simply lacked technology and ways to combine the two. That is all that made them less effective and disadvantaged. They also believed that they were uneducated which further disadvantaged them because they too did not see their wealth, that they are the teachers we lack most. I can only speak as a Xhosa. I have passion to learn the Khoekhoe ways for it is they who named the Xhosas and where we found our cliques. There are many forms of education, Zulu, Basotho the list is endless there is no reason that we should be limited to seeing one lanuage and culture as superior beyond all others. Perhaps it is because it has gained lasting world dominion and increasing still. It is unchallenged and so remains crowned above all until others find a voice that says we are all equal and this is why.
Friday, August 26, 2011
Black Woman You’re Not On Your Own
I was in bed on Saturday morning when I read my brother’s blog titled “Black man you’re on your own”. He is a great writer on any day now just imagine the scene. Fair enough you are not a black man but you are still black. You are sick of something that has suddenly come upon you of which you have no explanation for and then you read those words. Black man you’re on your own is not the sort of thing you want to hear then especially when you do not even have fancy things like medical aid. I read it and it was a convincing argument and a continuation of an article he had written which addressed the inequalities between blacks and whites in South Africa.
I read his article, agreed and understood the argument he presented us with but completely disliked his conclusion which was his title. I thought if that is how we are all to live then that is not living at all. Much more I was in trouble if what I was facing was serious. I decided that was simply not the way to lead our lives. Black man you are on your own what in the world happened to Ubuntu? Was that not originally our philosophy which we never borrowed from anyone? Was that not the philosophy to win the nation with? Ubuntu rings true to us because it is us. I had already sent sms’ to my friends and before long it felt as though South Africa scrambled to assist me. I received help from Black, Coloured, English and Afrikaans people within an hour all doing whatever they can to figure out what was wrong. While this was happening I thought to myself; “now this is real life and black woman you are certainly not on your own”.
Let us say that I live in a complete bubble. A very happy bubble where everyone loves one another but you know what at some stage that bubble did not exist, not even remotely, the bubble was created. You, stop yourself while you are going on your usual negative flow of thought patterns about other people. You start the bubble in your own head. This means that the happy bubble can spread and it can become a national happy bubble where everyone scrambles to assist one another regardless of colour. We bleed the same blood and die the same death after all. We breathe the same air and live under the same sky even if one is driving in a fancy car and the other catches trains to work we are all living the same lives. We sleep the same sleep even if one sleeps in a leaking shack and the other in a mansion. It is not acceptable but no one can purchase you peace whether you live in a mansion or in a shack. This is what we should be pushing, our sameness and not our difference all the time. If we see our sameness the one who has will be compelled to share with their brother who does not have. Where will our selfishness and self-gratification take us? Does it make us any happier?
I want justice. I want true justice because what I see is that what is often pushing us is not a real sense of injustice but greed, discontentment, rage. We are always wanting, always demanding, never happy. True justice will wait until we are all on the same page and we are not putting guilt trips on one another to get what we want. I am not suggesting that we wait until the day white people decide to be nice to us, I mean truly nice and give and share their wealth because they are heart wrenched by the greed and evils of their ancestors towards us.
I do not want to wait for that day because what are the chances that day will come because you can see how tightly our white people clutch on to their toys. You saw it when the old Bishop said the dirty word of “white tax”. Like a father in the house says “share” and then a war breaks out and there is crying and fighting. Maturity in white people will show itself when they do not need to be told to share but do it freely because that is what mature people do. Believe me there are white people doing that right now. There may be 5 of them in the country but they are there doing it. Maturity in blacks will show itself in not demanding and accusing the whole time and learning to be grateful. Seriously, people were a lot more grateful and happy in apartheid days than now and there was a lot more to be unhappy about and ungrateful for. We must hold our ground not as victims but as victors in our minds. Victors are secure but we are insecure so whose fault is that really?
The government should be able to lead in such a way that it does not create victims out of its people. I want to shake the stench of the past off me already. It is not even the fact that I need to afford basics like medical aid but that I want our minds to be free from the past. All of us. If we do not recreate a new way of seeing one another in a different light as fellow human beings first then we have failed to reverse the effects of the past. We can talk about reclaiming our land and whatever else but if the land in our minds is still as though it were still governed by the British and apartheid government, then our democratic government has given us nothing of real value. The greatest gift we can ever have back is our sense of self.
I want Ubuntu back because that is richer than anything ever given or taken away from any people. I want back what is truly ours ten times better than when we lost it. I want it back not because it has been forced out of reluctant hands but because it leaves everyone empowered or else this freedom is only for the few who can get their hands on the pie. I want true justice.
As for black and white, as my brother wrote “Black man you are on your own, white man you are on your own”. I would like to say that Black man, White man; you are on your own because you refuse to be part of the rainbow. You look rather bland and boring outside of those beautiful colours anyway, it must be pretty cold there no wonder you are so full of hatred. When you are done proving your point and being selfish and unwilling to share, you have a spot reserved specially for you. While you think like that you are like a child that has been punished from playing with others because they would not share. You are not a child anymore, mature quickly.
In Nelson Mandela’s famous words; South Africa belong to all who live in it black or white, echoed by Thabo Mbeki in his famous I am an African. If we do not hold to these words then my article is invalid.
by Siki Dlanga
I read his article, agreed and understood the argument he presented us with but completely disliked his conclusion which was his title. I thought if that is how we are all to live then that is not living at all. Much more I was in trouble if what I was facing was serious. I decided that was simply not the way to lead our lives. Black man you are on your own what in the world happened to Ubuntu? Was that not originally our philosophy which we never borrowed from anyone? Was that not the philosophy to win the nation with? Ubuntu rings true to us because it is us. I had already sent sms’ to my friends and before long it felt as though South Africa scrambled to assist me. I received help from Black, Coloured, English and Afrikaans people within an hour all doing whatever they can to figure out what was wrong. While this was happening I thought to myself; “now this is real life and black woman you are certainly not on your own”.
Let us say that I live in a complete bubble. A very happy bubble where everyone loves one another but you know what at some stage that bubble did not exist, not even remotely, the bubble was created. You, stop yourself while you are going on your usual negative flow of thought patterns about other people. You start the bubble in your own head. This means that the happy bubble can spread and it can become a national happy bubble where everyone scrambles to assist one another regardless of colour. We bleed the same blood and die the same death after all. We breathe the same air and live under the same sky even if one is driving in a fancy car and the other catches trains to work we are all living the same lives. We sleep the same sleep even if one sleeps in a leaking shack and the other in a mansion. It is not acceptable but no one can purchase you peace whether you live in a mansion or in a shack. This is what we should be pushing, our sameness and not our difference all the time. If we see our sameness the one who has will be compelled to share with their brother who does not have. Where will our selfishness and self-gratification take us? Does it make us any happier?
I want justice. I want true justice because what I see is that what is often pushing us is not a real sense of injustice but greed, discontentment, rage. We are always wanting, always demanding, never happy. True justice will wait until we are all on the same page and we are not putting guilt trips on one another to get what we want. I am not suggesting that we wait until the day white people decide to be nice to us, I mean truly nice and give and share their wealth because they are heart wrenched by the greed and evils of their ancestors towards us.
I do not want to wait for that day because what are the chances that day will come because you can see how tightly our white people clutch on to their toys. You saw it when the old Bishop said the dirty word of “white tax”. Like a father in the house says “share” and then a war breaks out and there is crying and fighting. Maturity in white people will show itself when they do not need to be told to share but do it freely because that is what mature people do. Believe me there are white people doing that right now. There may be 5 of them in the country but they are there doing it. Maturity in blacks will show itself in not demanding and accusing the whole time and learning to be grateful. Seriously, people were a lot more grateful and happy in apartheid days than now and there was a lot more to be unhappy about and ungrateful for. We must hold our ground not as victims but as victors in our minds. Victors are secure but we are insecure so whose fault is that really?
The government should be able to lead in such a way that it does not create victims out of its people. I want to shake the stench of the past off me already. It is not even the fact that I need to afford basics like medical aid but that I want our minds to be free from the past. All of us. If we do not recreate a new way of seeing one another in a different light as fellow human beings first then we have failed to reverse the effects of the past. We can talk about reclaiming our land and whatever else but if the land in our minds is still as though it were still governed by the British and apartheid government, then our democratic government has given us nothing of real value. The greatest gift we can ever have back is our sense of self.
I want Ubuntu back because that is richer than anything ever given or taken away from any people. I want back what is truly ours ten times better than when we lost it. I want it back not because it has been forced out of reluctant hands but because it leaves everyone empowered or else this freedom is only for the few who can get their hands on the pie. I want true justice.
As for black and white, as my brother wrote “Black man you are on your own, white man you are on your own”. I would like to say that Black man, White man; you are on your own because you refuse to be part of the rainbow. You look rather bland and boring outside of those beautiful colours anyway, it must be pretty cold there no wonder you are so full of hatred. When you are done proving your point and being selfish and unwilling to share, you have a spot reserved specially for you. While you think like that you are like a child that has been punished from playing with others because they would not share. You are not a child anymore, mature quickly.
In Nelson Mandela’s famous words; South Africa belong to all who live in it black or white, echoed by Thabo Mbeki in his famous I am an African. If we do not hold to these words then my article is invalid.
by Siki Dlanga
Friday, August 19, 2011
Flying through the rainbow
I landed in Port Elizabeth with this magical welcome. It was then that I reviewed my thoughts about eBhayi and agreed that yes, it is a Friendly City for no city has ever welcomed me this warmly.
Wednesday, August 17, 2011
Life is the sum of conversations
Life is a series of conversations. The direction of our lives and our well being is affected by what we have heard and how we have translated it for ourselves and how we project it to the world around us.
We exist as a result of God's conversation. We would be wise to keep our ears open towards heaven for the source of our lives and our roots are not downward but heavenward.
We exist as a result of God's conversation. We would be wise to keep our ears open towards heaven for the source of our lives and our roots are not downward but heavenward.
Self-image - God-image
Thoughts about Him and thoughts about me are in-changeable. I can't believe He is wonderful and not think I am wonderful. They go hand in hand. - Corné Pretorius
These thoughts are inspired by the above mentioned quote from Pastor Corne's facebook status.
Psalm 139: 14 says I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.
Here is the question how WELL do we know this about ourselves and about God? Do we marvell at His wonderful works when we look at ourselves or do we exalt our works above His. Over amplifying our good works or our bad works about His wonderful works. That is are we so conscious of what we do well or wrong that we are blinded from seeing His magnificence in and through our lives. Let us give Him the glory that is due to His Name.
Let us exalt Him by knowing and being fully conscious of His wonderful works. Some say that is true humility when we see ourselves as God sees us. It probably takes being a little bit objective and not just seeing yourself (wether way over the top or way below the truth). Either way seeing "ourselves" whether we worship ourselves or loath ourselves is some kind of false worship. It is Him we must see and us in Him in that same positive light. God absolutely adores us. I have learnt that. He loves His work. He is delighted by His work (you). Thus in loving ourselves correctly we are loving Him correctly. xxx siki dlanga
I will give you praise, for I am strangely and delicately formed; your works are great wonders, and of this my soul is fully conscious. BBE (not it's not the BEE Bible version, though that is a good thought :) Psalm 139:14
p.s. i love you :-)
These thoughts are inspired by the above mentioned quote from Pastor Corne's facebook status.
Psalm 139: 14 says I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.
Here is the question how WELL do we know this about ourselves and about God? Do we marvell at His wonderful works when we look at ourselves or do we exalt our works above His. Over amplifying our good works or our bad works about His wonderful works. That is are we so conscious of what we do well or wrong that we are blinded from seeing His magnificence in and through our lives. Let us give Him the glory that is due to His Name.
Let us exalt Him by knowing and being fully conscious of His wonderful works. Some say that is true humility when we see ourselves as God sees us. It probably takes being a little bit objective and not just seeing yourself (wether way over the top or way below the truth). Either way seeing "ourselves" whether we worship ourselves or loath ourselves is some kind of false worship. It is Him we must see and us in Him in that same positive light. God absolutely adores us. I have learnt that. He loves His work. He is delighted by His work (you). Thus in loving ourselves correctly we are loving Him correctly. xxx siki dlanga
I will give you praise, for I am strangely and delicately formed; your works are great wonders, and of this my soul is fully conscious. BBE (not it's not the BEE Bible version, though that is a good thought :) Psalm 139:14
p.s. i love you :-)
I saw you...
I saw you
Smiling.
Your face
Was a dance.
Your eyes,
A song of angels.
Your laugh
An applause of heaven.
I saw you
Dreaming,
Daring,
Being,
Living.
I was inspired.
I was thrilled
That,
I saw you.
© siki dlanga
Smiling.
Your face
Was a dance.
Your eyes,
A song of angels.
Your laugh
An applause of heaven.
I saw you
Dreaming,
Daring,
Being,
Living.
I was inspired.
I was thrilled
That,
I saw you.
© siki dlanga
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