thorts of other people

I Write What I Like – Steve Biko: Part community over individualism

i am still slowly making my way through Steve Biko's 'I write what I like' and here is a passage that i marked a while ago from Chapter 8: Some African Cultural Concepts: One of the most fundamental aspects of our culture is the importance we attach to Man [by which i think he is referring to people as opposed to individual - brett] . Ours has always been a Man-centered society. Westerners have on [...]

How to be One bit Less Racist: part Questions

My friend, Megan Furniss had these questions to help us get thinking and self-examining on this... If you are worried that you might be a little bit racist there are a few things you can do to check: # Do you have a natural (and unreasonable) expectation that everyone should be able to communicate with you in English? # Do you get irritated with Africa Time, because you haven’t taken public transport in a while [...]

By |2015-07-06T16:40:18+02:00July 6th, 2015|change the world, thorts of other people|3 Comments

You can’t “Give them a Voice”!

The other day i was on the bus coming back from camp chatting to someone and they spoke a line that sends electricity through my body [and not in a good way]. i think we were talking about my blog and the other person said something about, 'Giving them a voice.' i can never ever give anyone else a voice.  i can recognise and acknowledge and make space for and step out of the way [...]

the betrayal of Doctor Who

It has been so great being back in Americaland for a month for a number of reasons. One of those has been finding the opportunity to watch the first Peter Capaldi season of Doctor Who, which i finally finished last night. He can stay. As with the other doctors it felt like it took him a little bit of time to find his feet but i think he has now and so am very much [...]

How to Craft a South African Kaleidoscope

i just read a really helpful piece by Brene Brown titled, 'Own our History. Change the story' which is focused on Americaland which has what feels like a completely different story, when it comes to present race issues, in many ways, but also some remarkably similar overlaps. Owning our stories is standing in our truth. It’s transformative in our personal and professional lives AND it’s also critical in our community lives. But we don’t think about history [...]

i CEO what you did there.

So last night a group of CEO's got together in Johannesburg for the 702 Sun International CEO Sleepout which took place in Sandton [absolutely no irony there]. As i am in Americaland at the moment i only knew about it from the Twitterer and then was only able to get glimpses of what was happening from the same medium. In some ways it seemed like a good idea - i heard about R24 million being [...]

In the wake of Charleston

We are angry. We grieve, mourn, weep. But we also choose to remember these dear sisters and brothers. Rest in peace. Cynthia Hurd [54] Tywanza Sanders [26] Sharonda Singleton [45] Myra Thompson [59] Ethel Lance [70] Susie Jackson [87] DePayne Doctor [49] Rev. Daniel Simmons Sr [74] Rev. Clementa Pinckney [41] [From Eugene Cho, who is a man i greatly respect and admire:  @EugeneCho] i think it is strongly significant to start a conversation about the [...]

Highlight Moment from my life #54: Becoming Free

When tbV [the beautiful Val] and i were living in Oakland about a year ago, we came across a book titled ‘Free’ by a friend of ours we had met over here, Mark Scandrette. The tagline of the book is ‘Spending your Time and Money on What Matters Most’ and that really does sum up the book. We decided to gather some people together and work through the book over an eight week period. [...]

The New Jim Crow – part Statistics

Just before tbV and i left Americaland last year August, i started reading 'The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the age of Colorblindness' by Michelle Alexander, a tough but brilliant read focusing on the system of mass incarceration of black people in Americaland. Then we had to leave and i had to give the book back having only read two or three chapters. But now we're back in Americaland and i saw it lying [...]

I Write What I Like – Steve Biko: Part History and Heroes

A further extract from the same chapter as the last one i shared, this one looks at the history that is taught and the need for young black men and women to have stories and heroes they can relate to: One writer makes the point that in an effort to destroy completely the structures that had been built up in the African Society and to impose their imperialism with an unnerving totality the colonialists were [...]

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