SUBMISSION: HOW FAR DOES IT GO?

1Samuel 25:25-27 NET

"My lord should not pay attention to this wicked man Nabal. He simply lives up to his name! His name means 'fool,' and he is indeed foolish! But I, your servant, did not see the servants my lord sent. "Now, my lord, as surely as the LORD lives and as surely as you live, it is the LORD who has kept you from shedding blood and taking matters into your own hands. Now may your enemies and those who seek to harm my lord be like Nabal. Now let this present that your servant has brought to my lord be given to the servants who follow my lord."

NABAL, DAVID AND ABIGAIL

I have heard it preached many times sadly by women, that a woman must submit to her husband at all times even when he is wrong as long as she has alerted her husband, whatever he choses to do or not to do is on his head and it is no longer on the woman's head. Not so with Abigail. Abigail heard of the folly of her husband, she knew that his folly had placed them under great danger, even death. She was not about to submit to a foolish death sentence. She would act quickly and without his knowledge because he would prevent her from doing what is right. I believe that she was inspired or motivated by God to act as she did. She did so even though she knew her husband's foolishness, she was not afraid of his reaction afterwards.
Abigail's response to David was almost poetic in her choice of her words to appease his rage. She spoke to his identity and prophetically declared his destiny. David must have been so impressed by her that he thought "I wish that fool dies so that I can marry that beautiful, wise woman who understands me so well and is so convinced about my destiny in these trying days."

Nabal died. David married Abigail in 10 days she did not even get a chance to mourn. She felt honoured by David for marrying her. She could have died had she submitted to a foolish decision by her late husband but instead he died alone with his foolishness. Abigail chose to submit to God instead. She moved from being a rich fool's wife to being a handsome, wise king's wife.

I do not think women are always right or should have their way all the time in marriage. I believe that submission is key to any successful marriage. I however have wondered how many Christian wives are sensitive enough to believe God and submit to Him in matters that could overturn death and bring salvation but because of a twisted idea of submission have dismissed the strong conviction that could have led to life. I even wonder if this weird idea of submission is passivity, an abdication of one's will since the husband becomes the one who shapes all things. (I am simplifying the situation I know) I am not concerned about day to day matters I am concerned about matters that shape destiny. I am concerned about the woman taking up her place in the kingdom and having a defined impact and voice of her own within the union of marriage otherwise it is not a union if only one man runs the show. Then, it is a one man show and the other is a mere audience.


I have been inspired by the few women who are married who are unafraid of having a voice that shapes destiny but equally I have felt a growing desire to see married women finding their voice and using it. What would happen if women saw what God has placed within them without shutting it down. I want to see and hear her growl like a lionesses growling for her cubs. Yes she has a voice it is distinct and it does not need to be taught because no one can be her.

Sarah submitted to Abraham and called him lord but she also had a voice that directed Isaac's destiny therefore a nation's future. She dictated Ishmael's boundary, it would be there and not here. Rachel did the same though a little more cunning. Mary said "yes" to having a baby without consulting her future husband first. She made an intense decision that would alter all of humanity without consulting any man to give her permission to follow God and do something wildly radical as give birth to The Christ. In fact, she later submitted the matter to another woman (Elizabeth) under the angels guidance.

In this hour I am finding that the ministry given by women is the most powerful and anointed than any other kind than before. I feel as though it is an anointing that has been poured out for the time but also because of a promise, that your sons and daughters shall prophecy. Yet I cannot stop feeling as though many more women, particularly the married ones are supposed to be doing this but most are too busy hiding behind their husbands.

I respect every man that has ever preached and still preaching may they continue but where are the daughters who are keeping the word that is given for you to share? However, who can demonstrate what being The Bride looks and feels like but a woman? Who will model it so that it will be cooperatively echoed and lived out until we all say in one voice "Come Lord Jesus, Come".

Take your freedom and smoke it

Take your freedom and smoke it
You can take your freedom and smoke it
If your freedom means that I can only vote for your party
Where is that offer of freedom of choice
You can take your freedom and smoke it
Because you are not offering me a choice at all

Sometimes I like what Zuma is like
Sometimes I understand what Zille says
Sometimes I agree with what Malema represents
Yet if I cheer for Lindiwe
Do not tell me I am supporting a white party
If she does not get black support
How is it ever going to become a multiracial party
So if I am free let me support Lindiwe Mazibuko
Or you can take your freedom and smoke it
Because if I can’t choose I am not free anyway

First of all you do not own my freedom
My own grandfather died fighting for my own freedom
He died in the hands of a white government
My other grandfather’s brother was jailed for no reason
So he decided to give them a reason
Though the regime said a man of his colour could not be free
He gave himself the freedom to fight for his own freedom
Totally disregarding the powers that be even though it was really costly
So don’t you dare try to remote control my own freedom

My other grandfather’s house was raided by the apartheid government
They wanted to take all weapons from black people in case they were part of upoqo
My grandfather’s brother beaten bitterly for not complying with the white system
Am I now forced to comply with a new system?
I thought this was not a black system
I thought this was a rainbow nation
Where it no longer matters if I am black or white

I know you are going to tell me about economic freedom
I know the colour of poverty has been black for too long now
I am not proposing Desmond Tutu’s white tax
But the new government has been in charge for seventeen years
Surely by now there is no excuse to address poverty
So that poverty will no longer have a colour

Even Mandela was free of bitterness against the white man
So do not try to imprison me in your cell of hatred
I am free to love the white man who killed my grandfather
For fighting for black freedom
If you want to know why I stopped hating
I quickly learnt that hating is for the powerless
It deceives you with feelings of false power
Yet in truth the other man holds the remote control
Pressing whenever he wants to make you angry
And you live in His cell forever
And yet you never live
You never live
Freedom is the absence of hatred
It is the belief that you can do anything
You can vote for anyone you chose
Even if you find yourself in a system of bondage
You are powerful beyond measure
Because your freedom is within you
So you can take your freedom and smoke it

You can take your freedom and smoke it
If you want to imprison me in your system
Steve Biko’s blood is still speaking
Reminding me of the importance of a conscience
If I stop thinking and reasoning independently
Then I let his death be only in vain

O.R. Tambo’s voice is still speaking
Sisulu’s wisdom is still calling
Men we respected till the day of their death
Maybe we will never know true freedom
Till the day we mourn Stompie’s death
Till the day we apologise to all the families
Whose sons and daughters were necklaced
All in the name of freedom
All the shame and blood that bought us this freedom
Was not all glorious and pretty
On the day we quit covering it all up
Quit making excuses for what we suffered
Taking responsibilities for the pain we caused
If we will not
We can take our freedom and smoke it
It is not real until there is forgiveness and healing
It is not real until there is true forgiveness and healing

Then we can lay all our gold on Table Mountain
We can sprinkle it over a thousand hills
We can crown our children with it
When their mother’s minds are empowered
And no longer imprisoned and impoverished

I know the truth and reconciliation commission
Did not even scratch the surface
For all the atrocities done to our people
Secrets hidden in every corner of this nation
Where people died without being acknowledged
But maybe it will take every family
Having their own truth and reconciliation
One step closer to healing
If we do not take time to confess our pain and let it go
We can take our freedom and smoke it
There is no such thing as reconciliation without true justice
That is the kind of freedom I believe in
That is the kind of freedom I want to be called upon

by Siki Dlanga
29 Oct 2011


This poem has been waiting to be written but it was specifically pushed by the conversation I had on facebook when I congratulated Lindiwe Mazibuko on her becoming DA party leader in Parliament. Other fellow young blacks (mid 20's and early 30's) like myself also congratulated her however a brave black lady a bit older than us decided that we had lost the plot. Do we not remember what the whites did to blacks in the past, so how can we endorse a white party? I truly honour sis Thami for her open challenge. I myself know very little about the DA I could never speak extensively to defend the DA, having lived in Cape Town I have always been on the cautious side unsure if I could trust the DA or if the DA cared for me a black person in Cape Town. However when I saw Lindiwe rise perhaps because she is a young black woman I naturally wanted to support her and naturally thought let us watch and see. We need some change after all while others may argue that there is no change since Joe Seremane once occupied that very same post before. I must say that I was never convinced about Mr Seremane. I am certain that he is the additional reason why I never believed in the DA because I felt as though they were using him as a black face.
Which is quite insulting if you ask me. I was also mad at him for allowing that to be done to him. Perhaps my view was incorrect however I was not convinced at all, the whole thing to me seemed wrong. I am however convinced that Lindiwe knows what she wants and she is there to get it. Whether it will bring transformation or whatever else but what she certainly has done so far is stir the old black-white debate to the surface again, not that it is ever at rest. Her appointment is forcing questions of identity and transformation to be addressed in the nation's heart, either blatant resistance to the possibility of a happy co-existance of whites and blacks in this nation or a belief that perhaps we can live together and that party politics can cross racial lines. Once again I want to thank sis'Thami from facebook who thinks the ANC is the only party for black people in South Africa even at its worst. I thank her for her honesty because it is a necessary debate which many have spoken of time and time again. I myself have sold my soul to no party and I pray that it may remain so, because the day I sell my soul is the day I will lose all objectivity and for me that will be losing my very freedom. I am loyal to God and may that be so forever, thus far I have never voted for the DA. I don't know if I ever will or whether Lindiwe can inspire that or not. Like many have posted on facebook "now we will watch and see". All I know is that I am absolutely free individual, no one owns me but God and even Him I have freely given myself to Him because He has first freely given Himself to me. No party can ever achieve that.

100 Thousand Poets

100 Thousand poets all over the globe speaking in different cities declaring matters that have been in the heart of the world in listenable form. Their tongue sharp therefore hitting the mark unlike just another headline. They spoke giving meaning and feelings and faces to the world headlines. They gave it substance unnumbing the world, giving the real perspective speaking for the victims, speaking on behalf of the earth. They were heavily beaded in African beads and dressed in bright coloured outfits. They were heavily spiritual their faces painted like monuments. They were a story and a tale if you would but only look at them. They were a 100 thousand poets and these were at the tip of Africa, in Cape Town meeting where the world is most likely to gather in Africa, in the popular Long street. They said, they spoke and I was left without words for they had said all that was to be said in the world in one day.


‎100 Thousand Poets

100 thousand poets
Gathered
Scattered
...
In every corner of the globe
Speaking
Releasing
Power in their tongue
Melody in their words

100 thousand poets
Spattering rhymes
Whispering world cries
Wailing over human issues
Causing solutions

100 thousand pleas
100 thousand loves
100 thousand poets
speaking for all the world

In the end
Though only an audience
I had no words left to say
For they spoke all
That had to be said
In the world
In one day

© siki dlanga
26 Sept 2011

The People Shall Govern

I dream of a truly empowered black person who is not looking for liberation from rich white people or still seeing himself as an economic inequality captive waiting for redemption from the ANC government who are moving very slowly for as long as their pockets are full and they keep the poor black person as a beggar who is waiting for handouts (grants). That is not liberation.

I dream of minds of South Africans being truly liberated. That is enough for our minds to see and create opportunities that will inspire us to rise above everything rather than yoked to certain masters or falling at the altar of tenders. Like Mandisa Balingotsi noted that such liberation is only impossible when everyone in this country especially the poor have access to good education. So the struggle for emancipation continues. This time it is a mental and a spiritual emancipation. It demands something deeper from every individual. It is more empowering. However, I must say that I have seen more people in this country who are liberated but again, it is those who have received a stronger education. I believe that we need to form educational forums that do not depend on government. After all if we take “the people shall govern” seriously why do we still bang the walls of governments expecting them to deliver us from our sad state of affairs. This is our time to govern, so let us rise.

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.

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

Gender wars and loss of identity in the New South Africa

There are women younger than myself who are still hardcore feminists. Isn't feminism a move that was brought about during desperate times where men's blindness had caused them to see women as nothing less than sex objects? Something free-women today sometimes freely choose in the name of exploring their sexuality. Then feminism was a necessity that was essential to the rights and freedom of women or to be seen as equals to men. Now of course men dress in pink to be like their female counterparts. A sure sign of the victory of feminism. Why then are there still some feminsts in this generation?

I have never seen the need to prove that I am equal to a man thanks to my grandfather whose requirements of girls and boys were all the same. Thus I walked with a mindset that yes we are different but equal. Diversity is a strength not a weakness. In the days when women were oppressed, women still embraced femininity. They did what they did best. While with the victory of feminism I am unsure if men know how to be men. I am afraid that to be a woman is far clearer and thus they follow after us even becoming like us in everyway but of course true femininity cannever be outdone. Are men ashamed of manhood or is it a simple loss of idea of what that even is? Having been failed by those before them whose idea of manhood failed their mothers and children. So what good picture has there been to look to in history. The other disoriented extreme destroys feminity. He is a violent rapist, an abuser who is destroying this nation tearing women apart. He is far worse than the one who has become a woman because he respects femininity though at the expense of rejecting himself.

What are we going to do now? Women in South Africa are in desperate need of true liberation. More so than in any other time in history. The amount of women raped daily is a number I don't even want to record because we are the most endagered women in the world. This is not women's problem because this is a struggle men have with their own gender. If men were at peace with their sex there would be no man trying to prove his power over a woman for it is himself he must master and has failed. What are we going to do? Are we going to simply wait for women's month and 16days against violence every year?

What are we going to do? We do not need more feminists as it has already served its purpose. We need a new response one that will bring healing and reconcilliation to both sexes. We will not gain anything by despising each other after all we need to make love, not just sex and procreate. Sex is a new weapon used against each other in this generation. It is a powergame. Whatever is not of love will ultimately bring destruction to the one who believes in their supposed power. There is no power in hatred. It is poison and it will destroy its possessor.

What I fear the most about the current prolonged state of the raping of women in this country is that; who can stand before the rage of women?

We need the new man to show leadership and bring an end to this senseless raping of women. Or else a much greater miracle is needed for us all.

Eric Miyeni buying black favour with a violent pen

So I decided to investigate the Eric Miyeni saga since I had already read tweets and columns about it. I had made peace with the fact that in this world we have people like Eric Miyeni. This meant that I had to read the complete article that caused him all the trouble and not just take snippets of the issue. I have to say that from what I had read about it I was very grateful that I read it.

Beyond his violence against a woman Miyeni actually did have a point though he made his point with hands covered in blood and with bloodshot eyes. I was somehow unsure whether he needed to be taken straight to hospital or therapy, prison or anger management classes first before listening to what he had to say as not even Malema was ever that violent. Not even at the bloody agent!

It is a fact that where the DA gets its money is where the DA gets its money. When the devil is constantly accusing you, you start believing that the devil's accusing voice is God's voice. He pretends to be be righteous, and thus you mistake him for God. To prove his point about your unrighteousness he will not point at things that are not there that is how he works to keep you trapped. So yes to be fair, let everyone open up their books then and be investigated. Point taken Mr. Miyeni.

However, what was new to me was Miyeni's new found love of being black. O wait, I don't know that for sure. He speaks so eloquently about it and defends it in such a pplausable manner like one well versed in the importance of tenders. I am just not convinced about his dedication to blackness. This is about his pocket but I am not saying there is something wrong with a man who looks after his pocket. I can imagine that there are mouths to feed and an image to keep up perhaps or just to make ends meet just like anyone. It is hard to be a black man after all since everyone assumes that gold magically falls on your lap like manna just because of your skin colour so hey, a tender must go a long way.

What concerns me about Mr. Miyeni is his blatant personal attack on City Press Editor Haffajee. He wrote that people like her, "are most likely to be the kind that wakes up in the morning sees their black faces in the mirror only to feel a wave of self-hatred rising up to nauseate them."

When I read that I thought that in order for anyone to have that image and so eloquently depict it takes much more than talent. After all the man who wrote this about a "black" woman, is the same man who once reported in the 90's on a then "white" magazine that he only dated white women because black women were not ambitious enough for him. The message was clear of what he thought of blackness and in his rise to fame he was now too good for black women. I was young when I read that and I made it a point to remember what kind of black I did not want to grow up to be. To demean my own people like that! This man was a new black star when black stars were so few that you wanted to cheer for anyone who appeared even by a hair because if they made it we were making it and we would make it. We needed the one person that is there shining to tell us how great we are or can be and not look down on us. Eric Miyeni failed us and especially black women as he has just spectacularly done so again. My ambition then even as a young girl was enough to be spread among few people. I also knew many black women who were ambitious so I despised him from that day because he was clearly ashamed of his black skin.

So perhaps Eric is angry at his own image in the mirror because in order to hurl insults like that says there is a problem with where they are coming from. I also happen to have met one of the beautiful white women he preferred over us. It was then that I decided not to despise him and let bygones be bygones after all now many black women have proved him wrong. But now the tender is what pays so his speech has turned towards the pocket. I hope he first deals with his own anger and murderous hatred.

Eric Miyeni's article is not brave. Not as the ANCYL would like to believe it is. What is brave about siding with people who are in power? It is as cheap as white people who are now suddenly defenders of justice against a corrupt democratic government when they failed to show up in apartheid years, in a time when their passion for justice was most needed. I am not talking about repentant white people who take responsibility for the past when they look at the present. I am talking of the ones who refuse to see how the injustice of the past is exactly what is our problem in our current world. It needs them to be angry enough about it to do something about it rather than point fingers now. I wanted Eric Miyeni to speak like that when it was the right time but even now the way he speaks exposes him as one who is trying too hard to prove something to make up for what he himself does not believe.

Kuli Roberts and Eric Miyeni truly remind us that we must deal with our cancerous past. This talented man could have written a great article had it not have been for the hellish violence he began with. Since this violence is no different to the one we find daily in our townships destroying our people. A violence we are not angry enough about and do too little about. We wish it away until we see it in educated people of influence. How much longer will we treat it as unrelated incidents?

The Righteousness of Nepotism

Nepos from Latin word meaning “nephew or grandchild”

A story is told of a missionary teacher; let us call him Mr Smith. Mr Smith came from a faraway country in Europe to give himself to a life of service to God in a country in South America. Mr Smith was appalled by the despicable behavior of his young learners who cheated during tests and examinations. They would cheat by showing each other the answers during the tests in class. Mr Smith was of course distressed as no amount of rebukes or punishments put an end to this wickedness or brought any amount of repentance from this communal sin. One day Mr Smith asked one of the children why they would not stop cheating. The boy was perplexed that this teacher could be so cold; “Sir, if someone does not know the answer and you have it, you share it with them.” It was that simple to this child, what sort of human being would want to do anything different? Mr Smith now felt like the devil for trying to enforce the evils of selfishness.

We are fortunate to be living in a democratic South Africa in a time where information is literally at hand the moment the first person seems to know about it. We might even think that this government is more corrupt than the previous government. The previous government had the great fortune of governing before internet which meant that they had even more control over what the media reports or does not. If you thought you were clever of course you could always be tortured, banished or your memory permanently erased from the earth. If you wanted to protest, don’t worry the police will be waiting for you with real bullets. Living in the times we are living in with information so readily available begs the question what was SAA boss thinking, was he even thinking? Of course the whole world would quickly find out what he was doing with the taxpayers’ money. According to reports SAA boss is being accused of mishandling and abusing taxpayers’ money while having wasted it randomly on friends and family. I saw another headline about a business deal that has gone to yet another one of the president’s children and recently a nephew. Again I saw Danny Jordaan making headlines about how his brother struck gold through Danny’s 2010 connections. I did not read any of these articles at great length nor investigate further; these are simply stories that have been on our headlines just these two months if we looked closer we would find many more such stories.

What is the connection between Mr Smith, the children and our corrupt leaders? My question is how much of it is actually corruption? How much of it is a world view, a deep sense of a conscience of right and wrong that is simply in conflict with our newly adopted definitions of right and wrong?

Let me infuriate you by telling you of yet another story. Actually I will quote this one word for word and I understand that it comes from a holy book. “So Joseph settled his father and his brothers in Egypt and gave them property in the best part of the land, the district of Rameses, as Pharoah directed. Joseph also provided his father and his brothers and all his father’s household with food, according to the number of their children.” You must especially hate the last bit provision according to the number of their children! We do have a president with a fair number of children do we not? I am not saying anything here I am just noting what those words said. One must also note that this provision for the extended family as my foreign tongue calls it, happened during the time of famine, maybe something as bad or worse than recession. I could tell you of the ancient Queen Esther’s uncle who also rose to a great position of power under the great King Xerxes’ rule, and many other stories in this great book riddled with family members rising together, maybe you may think that Jesus must have put an end to all of that nonsense after all wasn’t he the original hippy, preaching love and peace? No, no friends, most of Jesus’ disciples were siblings. Nepotism, nepotism, nepotism!

Earlier I posed the question how much of our problems with the above mentioned cases is actually corruption? Perhaps it is. How can you eat and be fat while your own flesh and blood is starving? How can you grow and become powerful and not lift up those who instructed you as you were growing up? It is simply asking one to go against their very nature. I will give you a personal example. I remember as a student we organized the finest end of year functions for our residence, it was hosted in a five star hotel, we had a live jazz band we wanted everything of the best and we did it. I went out of my way to influence and convince the committee members to use my brother as the MC because he is brilliant, I told them. Now, I had never seen my brother on stage before then in fact he did not like me very much at the time. They were not convinced but eventually they yielded and he did a fantastic job. Now when they look back they see themselves as the people who contributed to the story of his stardom even though he might have forgotten about the gig. Those guys used to mention it to me everytime they saw him on TV patting themselves on the back for giving him an opportunity to be on the grandest stage they could have offered. It was nepotism on my part and you do not have to be best buddies, it is better if you are but family is family.

Family can get tricky and complex just like anything else. Since the days of mining when mining laborers left their homes to find work the South African family has long been sacrificed on the alter of business. Had fathers and father-figures not been removed from their family and society then I believe we would not have childheaded households today. So, why can’t business invest back to the South African family? Yes we need to know when it is time to say no or allow people to find their own routes however, there is something fundamentally wrong with not assisting your family when you know that you can. What we are in conflict with here is a system that crowns individualism and confuses it like the teacher for righteousness when it is not.

The culture that crowns individualism is the standard that we have set for ourselves and I am afraid it is a threat to the African spirit. A person’s measure of success should not be measured by how much they have individually accomplished for themselves but on how many people they have empowered in order to rise together and never alone. In practice, we know that those who only think of themselves are those who climb the ladder of success the fastest and become the best and the brightest. Steve Biko or Oliver Tambo or Nelson Mandela or many greats like them who laid down their lives for the benefit of a corporate dream. They dreamt of something larger than themselves, they also dreamt for those who could not dream for themselves and they used their own gift to make up for those who had given up on the possibility of freedom. Mandela knew that to think of yourself alone is to be very short-sighted and your success ends with yourself. It was after 27 years of suffering that his light shone and filled the earth. He has become so glorified in his old age that we often fear that it is far too much for one man. His present glory completely overshadows any amount of suffering that he endured his entire life. On the contrary Mandela could have never endured for a bigger dream and become a successful lawyer, raised his children and the world would have never known him.

I know the dear former President Mbeki would possibly disagree with the interpretation of African renaissance I would like to propose in my next few sentences. Let us not destroy the generous nurturing African spirit by exerting the Western world-view over ourselves as there has been an apparent struggle to completely adapt ourselves to the standards of the good West. The West gave us good things however it is collapsing why should we adopt everything? Many of our relatives are poor and we often feel overwhelmed and unable to assist as we are determined to do right as prescribed by another view of right. If one is in a better position let them be empowered to be able to lift those around them and how about starting at home? Relationships are the deepest and most meaningful ways to transform our society. I am convinced that we will be more effective in our poverty elevation if we focus on those we know first and then move beyond those we do not know. Let us rebuild Africa by using the structures of family government we always had because outside of those is a dog-eat-dog-eat world. Will there be abuses of power and corruption in this system? Absolutely, so let the wise and skilled craft better laws of how to monitor abuse within such structures. (I do not in anyway commend the abuse of state money for luxury flights for friends and family this is not what this is about.) Thus we shall no longer be just a number in the structures of government but we have family names and we know exactly whom to approach when we are failed or called upon when we have because when we have failed we would have failed our very selves. This will not be a difficult thing to do because we will not be adopting a new system but simply being allowed to be our best selves by acknowledging what already is. Being African has always been about belonging to a people and playing your part to strengthen the whole rather than just being a lone shining star.

This is an idea that should rather be explored in further detail through conversations, research or many articles as so much can be argued and more explanations would be necessary but for now I am writing to those who are able to hear and see be it to challenge the idea or to take it up seriously.

Africa this is for you. You are your best when you are yourself. Too often you have been told to change, that you are not good enough, that your ways are backward and your ways are unacceptable because your culture does not suit the modern day culture. I am saying that in you is hidden your greatest treasure and way to move much further than using any other culture’s system or definitions of progress. We have only seen a little of that because it has not been embraced but pushed down, abused, misunderstood and like those children there is a deeper more righteous secret hidden in sometimes even in the shame of your corruption – there lies a glory to be unveiled, when you find gold it first needs to undergo an intense process of purification. This too must be viewed in the same way. Africa arise, shine ‘tis time.

Sikelelwa Africa! Be blessed Africa!

by Sikelelwa Dlanga or Madame Madiba

published in The Thinker 21/2010 edition

June 16 Soccer Doom

Was it too much a day of gloom
For it to be a day of games?
Was there too much blood shed
For it to be a day for our boys to play?
Was hector crying
Don't dance on my brothers blood!
Is the blood still calling
Justice! justice!
Was it too much to play
Were the women's cries
Still heard above
Who still do not hold their babes
To this day
Was there already too much loss
That red cards flew
We lost our cool
Because june 16
Never was lovely yet,
Should we have waited
For another day
Give respect to the young
Were we gambling with our past
Or is this just another excuse
About why we just could not play

(c) siki dlanga
17.06.2010

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!

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