i am almost finished reading 'Country of my Skull' by Antjie Krog and it has been punching me relentlessly in the gut. This passage from chapter 20 titled 'Mother faces the Nation' contains one of my particular angry spots when it comes to lazy South Africans: To the right of the Commissioners, a phalanx of mostly white lawyers - representing victims and perpetrators - is building up. 'I represent the family of Lolo Sono,' says [...]
Everyone in South Africa speaks English, right? i imagine we would be surprised as how many English speakers think and assume that. i would probably be less surprised at how many of us expect that. Because English, right? Firstly, it would probably surprise a whole lot of them to discover that English is only the third most spoken language in the world to start with. But it was this passage by Antjie Krog in 'Country [...]
'One day there were two boys, Tom and Bernard. Tom lived right opposite Bernard. One day Tom stole Bernard's bicycle and every day Bernard saw Tom cycling to school on it. After a year, Tom went up to Bernard, stretched out his hand and said, "Let us reconcile and put the past behind us." Bernard looked at Tom's hand. "And what about the bicycle?" Father Mxolisi Mpambani told this story during a lunch-hour panel discussion [...]
