What do the spaces you inhabit say about you? On Saturday i shared an invitation with my white friends on Facebook: White friends. Do this experiment. Be aware of the spaces you occupy today. And tomorrow. Then take a moment to reflect Sunday night. How many of those spaces (gym, dinner table, sports club, restaurant, church, coffee hangout) were 100% filled with white people? (except those who were serving you/cleaning up) How many of those [...]
i wonder if there might be something South Africa could learn from the story of Zacchaeus in the Bible. As a much-hated tax collector known for robbing and cheating the people he has an encounter with Jesus and it changes his life so significantly that he makes amends with his money and gives back to those he wronged. But in some cases we see that he gives back four times as much to those he [...]
Last week on the hockey field, a masters player [meaning over 35 years old although this guy was easily 50] called me a Fucking Imbecile after an incident between us. Later, after i had had a drink with my team and was walking to my car he came up to me and said something along the lines of, "I apologise for losing my temper!" i kinda half shrugged it off with a "Sure, buddy, whatever" [...]
Who are your 'my people'? i was watching a typical exchange about some race issue on the book of face-offs yesterday when something struck me... The man commenting - who happened to be an afrikaner - said something about "my people" - and the light bulb went on and started pulsating to a disco beat. There is a very real problem for me when your "my people" all look the same or speak the same language [...]
Looking for great South African [and African] books to read? My friend Shelley Finch tagged me in this status on Facebook the other day: Friends, I am crowdsourcing a book list. Kind of a "recommended reading for every South African". Fiction and non-fiction. Books that will help people educate themselves on our country's history and the BIG issues we are talking about i.e. racism, corruption, land redistribution, etc. Books that are accessible to every South [...]
Dear South Africa, Actually, dear white South Africans. My peeps. I love you but we can't have another year like 2017. Seriously. I've taken the liberty of writing a few New Year's Resolutions for us. I reckon we can do it. Learn an African language. Pay your domestic worker a living wage and stop calling her "Irene". Her name is Thobeka. Only read novels written by African authors. Get on Black Twitter. Look at black [...]
Dear South Africa, I would have liked to have more of an upbeat and hopeful letter to you but the reality, the real reality, is that we’re a country of deep division and intense trauma. We are a people who do not know each other, once the babalas of the rainbow nation faded away we were left to face the decisions that were made the night before. We had to look into each other’s faces [...]
Liewe Afrikanermense in Suid-Afrika, Ek het nou onlangs terug gedink aan ons laerskoolklas wat elke Vrydag na tweede pouse vir twee periodes (met ander woorde ’n volle uur lank) sangklas gehad het. Gegewe die spesifieke uitdagings hieraan verbonde, kan ‘n mens dus nie ons musiekonderwyseres kwalik neem dat sy dikwels gekies het om ons na stories op langspeelplate te laat luister in plaas daarvan om ons aan die sing te probeer kry nie… Die enigste [...]
My friend Thandi Gamedze is an exceptional poet and wordsmith and her 'Dear South Africa...' comes in the form of a poem Beloved South Africa, I bless you to let loose the oceans of tears that you have carried, and cry For your sons that have been trodden down and stripped of their dignity And your daughters that have been raped, abused and dehumanised For your fathers that have turned to unfeeling stone, under weight [...]
We had a dream our lives would be... So different from this hell we're living So different now from what it seemed, Now... Life... Has killed The dream... We dreamed... The dream to some it seemed started in '94 as lines of voters snaked around fields Filled with the anxious anticipation of first-time voters eager to claim their rich inheritance Before the years were peeled back to reveal that perhaps the vote was all [...]
