Mental

Mzamane asserted that great figures of the African Diaspora such as West Indian lawyer, Henry Sylvester Williams who, while living in England at the end of 19th century, convened the first Pan African congress in 1900. Don’t forget people like George Padmore; Marcus Garvey and WEB Du Bois, they must be as recognizable in our history books as former President Mandela, Walter Sisulu and Joe Slovo.

posted
2012

May

Life Is What You Make It: IS ANYTHING AND EVERTHING FAIR GAME?

I often hear people say that “life is what you make it”, but I struggle with the interpretation of a seemingly self-explanatory statement without finding contradictions. On face value it seeks, rightly so, to place an individual at the epicentre of his/her aspirations and the true, and sometimes only, agent in the realization of those aspirations. On the other hand the statement seems to be without limitations to the extent that it lends itself to ‘abuse’ or justification purely because the “how” and the “at what” or “whose” expense, if ever, one “makes it” is left to the individual.

posted
2012

Apr

Your Rhino Needs You

The argument aforementioned shouldn’t be seen as a trivialization of gravity of the rhino poaching activity but a reminder that we can’t have a skewed hierarchy of priorities that places the interests of beasts above those humans. That would be similar to employers who contribute more to their animals’ medical care cover than they pay their domestic workers

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2012

Mar

The Contestation Of Ideas

When the Australian-born media baron Rupert Murdoch’s News of the World was canned last July owing to the infamous phone-hacking scandal in Britain that involved journalists, the police and politicians, may people asked whether or not it was the beginning of the end of “Murdochracy”? For a moment it seemed as if indeed Murdoch’s News International, the umbrella company under whom News of the World operated, would crumble but it wasn’t to be.

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2012

Mar

Has It Really Been A 100 Years of Selfless Struggle?

Like most people who concern themselves with those kinds of matters, I sat in front of a television set on the afternoon of the January 8 2012 in anticipation of President Jacob Zuma’s keynote address.

This was, after all, no ordinary day. It was the hundredth anniversary of the formation of the South African Native National Congress which would later be aptly renamed the African National Congress.

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2012

Feb

The Social Currency of The Township Experience

The opening lines of Martin Scorsese’s critically acclaimed film, The Departed, are so simple yet carry a message of pro-activeness:”I don’t want to be a product of my environment, I want my environment to be a product of me.”

Perhaps the most relevant setting for those words is the township, what with its historical alienation and everything that resulted from that alienation.

posted
2011

Nov

Occupy South Africa

You know, at times you have to marvel at American hegemony and the ease with which it, seemingly, is able to occupy (no pun intended) the global space; whether in popular culture, (to some degree) sport and politics.
The globe’s fascination with “the land of the free” has led to others thinking that “if it hasn’t happened in America, it’s not worth knowing about

posted
2011

Oct

Heritage Worth Bequething

The paternal side of my family tree was recently replenished with two boys whose births were separated by a day.

I had the pleasure of meeting the one of the boys three days after his birth and the most outstanding aspect of meeting with one of Earth’s most recent arrivals was the carefulness with which his mother held him, as if she were holding humanity’s last hope in her very hands.

posted
2011

Oct

Who’s next to catch a fire?

The events of everyday life are not without their own sense of significance regardless of their minute or grand effect. History is etched with events that have found way of (re) shaping the lives of those people who were alive, or not, when they occurred.

posted
2011

Sep

A quest for consciousness

When Siyabuswa, a township in Mpumalanga, was thrust into the nation’s consciousness during what has come to be known as service delivery protests, the locals’ conduct wasn’t exactly new. We had seen the likes of Khutsong going up in flames some three years back.

However, it was the news of the torching of a library in Siyabuswa that set it apart from all preceding protests.

posted
2011

Aug