According to Bloomberg, “Ignited by a plunge in Walt Disney Co., shares tracked by the 15-company S&P 500 Media Index have tumbled 8.2 percent in two days, the biggest slump for the group since 2008…In just five stocks — Disney, Time Warner Inc., Fox, CBS and Comcast Corp. — almost $50 billion of value was […]
TV is on the Decline Read More »
How many people do you know that would agree with the following statement? “I’ve had enough of the Kardashians…I’m sick of this family! (They’re) a non-story!” I believe most of us, including myself, would shout “amen” at the top of their lungs like it’s a Sunday in the South if we heard someone in the media utter those words.
I’ve had enough of the Kardashians! Read More »
It may help just for second to imagine a landscape where singing softly sung love songs were not possible. This was the moment when Princess Magogo Buthelezi lived, the life which she knew. Mangosuthu Buthelezi describes her mother as a political force of her time—a musician and singer whose life story was turned into an
Forgive Her Because She Cannot Stop Singing Read More »
At the end of an evening with friends, my husband and I showed a bioscope of pictures to our guests. Pictures of places unrecognizable that at some point in the series became recognizable as outer and inner parts of the township where all in the room currently lived appeared. At the end of the series
No Longer Beautiful Read More »
Thokozani Mhlambi Remember the days of Kool & the Gang in the 1970s? the slick outfits, the bell bottoms, oh and don’t forget the bracelets on the head, and the deep male voice bustin’ lyrics in spoken word (later called rap): Uh, get it Get down – get down Feel the funk y’all Let it
Consciousness Beyond Black Consciousness: Who’s afraid of the Jungle Boogie? Read More »
“I have a lot of talent and I know that whenever I set my mind on something I am going to accomplish it.” –Latasha Harlins Twenty three years ago, Los Angeles, California, the city that shaped my first breath, went up in flames. We danced. The National Guard stood at the entrance of my high school
America Eats its Young: Riots and the Funk of Rage Read More »
BB King is remembered as one of the most important artists in the history of blues, with a long career that spanned seven decades and included classic hits such as Three O’Clock Blues (1951), The Thrill is Gone (1969) and 1989’s When Love Comes to Town (recorded with U2). Widely considered one of the most
How BB King’s days on radio helped shape his career and music Read More »
Each of us are called to influence, shape and impact whatever area of life we are involved in. We have heard it before there are those who build, there are those who think about the building (the engineers), and then those who are more concerned with what will happen when the inside is finished (interior
Sharpening your Edge for Influence, Achieve Maximum Results Read More »
“South Africans wanted freedom and all they got was democracy,” we are told by Sammy Mgijima. A visionary thinker on African post-liberation economics, Sammy is a qualified economist, who works at Old Mutual Corporate. “For the true fruits of freedom to be realized, the creation of a national identity, a common understanding of what it
Whites are the Biggest Winners in the South African Economy Read More »
“F**k the media,” says former star in Nelson Mandela movie, Morgan Freeman. After the wave of protest inspired by the death of African-American, Freddie Gray, while he was in police custody in a police station in Baltimore. Morgan Freeman–the famous actor who most people would love to have him narrate their lives, has slammed reporting
Morgan Freeman on Baltimore Coverage Read More »
We got a chance to konnekt with Post-Revolutionary Leader, Markay Berhane. Who is also a Civil Engineer based in the Western Cape. Don’t be fooled by his present locale, Markay is a global citizen with afropolitan tendencies. What is your name? Markay Berhane Where were you born? Moscow, Russia. My parents, both from Eritrea, met
Engineering Africa ONE Bridge at a Time Read More »
Potential Future Architectural Visions for Nigeria You can change the person in power, but you can’t change the institutional mindset, unless everyone is willing to pay their price. That is the painful lesson Nigerian politics teaches us today, as told through the eyes of Adeyemi Elvis Asunbo, a Nigerian engineer, now doing his Master’s degree
Nigerian Politics & the Future of Africa Read More »
In her unique brand of DJ Scholarship, Los Angeles born, DJ Lynnee Denise brings reflective essay writing to the sonic corridors of House Music. She invites us into her world, as she walks the streets of Johannesburg, Newcastle, Durban, Pretoria tracking the Afro-Digital Migration of House Music from its birthplace in Chicago to South Africa
House Music in Post-Apartheid South Africa: The Afro-Digital Migration Read More »
She is ambitious and full of energy. He has seen some of the best times (World Cup 2010) and some of the worst times (xenophobic attacks). She is still at university preparing to be the best she can be. He is sobering from the first festivities of 1st year. Now its time to tighten-up and
South Africa at 21 Years Old Read More »
I’ve had access to a university education which my ancestors never had. I did not experience Bantu Education like my fathers and mothers. I live in places that were barred from me in apartheid. I can choose whatever job, profession, career I wish to go to. I can even choose to be an entrepreneur. NO
I am Not Oppressed Read More »
If I could speak in any language in heaven or on earth but didn’t love others, I would only be making meaningless noise like a loud gong or a clanging cymbal. If I had the gift of prophecy, and if I knew all the mysteries of the future and knew everything but didn’t love others,
By Sicelo Fayo Taking on the news media on any of its activities or beliefs is always a bad idea at the best of times. SA News Media in particular is highly sensitive to criticism, just or not! However, to the extent that News Media essentially not only informs (a fairly broad and subjective term)
Is it really Xenophobia? Read More »
Overcoming a One-style mode is about getting over yourself, and who you think you are. By the time we reach a certain age in our 20’s we know the kind of clothing style we like to wear and think is most flattering to us, down right to what colours we will wear and which ones
Style Report: How to Create Variation in your Wardrobe! Read More »
When I was younger, as I nursed on my mother’s milk, I understood love as unconditional. Though I may have not known it, yet I experienced through my total dependency on her, something extraordinary. Here she was, this human being who met all my needs. As I went out of the maternal chamber, I met
Noise is attractive. It calls for attention. It can even begin sounding as if it is creating something new, while it is not. I am thinking here of Generations TV soap’s catch phrase #Sifunukwazi, as it garners support for its come back on the TV screen this Monday, 1st December. This is after unceremoniously dismissing almost its entire
Generations Soap Come Back: New Perspectives or Lost Opportunity? Read More »
By Nathi Nkambule If we do not fight to bring out the good in our African countries, we will remain victims of colonization and captives of nostalgia. Thank you for all the good things we enjoy today from Western countries- but the madness greed and Godlessness of Western societies necessitates visionaries from Africa to defend
A Leader is raised up in the moment of crisis. Leaders arise because of a problem. They start with a problem. Without there being a problem there can be no leaders. Leaders are God’s emergency men and women in a time of crisis. When a person is called to lead, they start by seeing the
Four Things you Ought to Know about Leadership Read More »
By Vincent Brown While the idea that history is written by the victors is frequently quoted, it fails to sufficiently inform our cultural understanding of our past. History ought to be the story, not just of the winners, but of everyone whose lives contributed to making the world what it is now. This is particularly
Black History & Wealth Creation Read More »
After hearing a few friends talking about this new approach for starting up a business, called the Lean Start-up, I decided to find out what it’s about. These are my observations… What is it? Taking a formal systematic approach to starting a business is now common, with the advent of the Business Plan. What
Why Lean Start-up is transforming business? Read More »
Image by Tshepo Phologane, Courtesy of 1stborn.Photography Ibhalwe nguMbuso Ngcongco Ngenyanga kaNhlangulana ngo1959 imbokodo yabamba inhlabaluhide yabhekis’ amabombo emabhaleni lapho uhulumeni wobandlululo wayethengisela khona amadoda umqombothi nobhiya. Ukuphisa utshwala kwabe kuyindlela yokwakha umnotho nokuziphilisa kwabesimame ababevile enkulungwaneni. Nangaphezu kwalokho, abaningi base beyibona imiphumela emibi yamankwebevu lapho amadoda ayengasabuyi namali, ephenduka izidakwa. Amaningi ayesaphelelwa nayimisebenzi, abesimame bengasathokozi ekamelweni okungamadojeyana
Dlanini Masoka Kobola! Read More »
Achebe’s Things Fall Apart is widely acclaimed for its vivid capitulation of the crisis of African society finding itself in transition—that moment where change has become inevitable, but uncertainty remains on how it will happen. That decisive moment of change in the story happens when Okwonkwo returns to his home village, after being banished to
Lobola in South Africa: When Things Fall Apart Read More »
Every year around the month of August we watch as the South African government gathers mass groups of women, usually at a stadium or public square, in order to sing and dance. They celebrate the liberation of women. The visuals of this festivity are now familiar. Indeed there is much to be
Lobola Negotiations Read More »
The price of the freedom we have had as a country since 1994 is disappointment, even disappointment with ourselves: that we have not done as good a job as we expected compared to our former oppressor. In some instances challenges and problems have arisen just when we thought we had arrived, problems which seem like
What is the Price of Freedom? Read More »
I have lost a lot of weight recently. I am a new person because of it. I’m in the kind of shape where I don’t even recognise myself before. I am strong, can press in and past the pain of resistance and have a clear head. I fit into clothes I never imagined would fit
The 30 Day Weight- loss Diet Read More »
A great, compassionate and amiable she-doctor: This is the kind of general practitioner I had been seeing for the past 5 years. But recently, I have lost confidence in the expertise and abilities of general medical practitioners as healers and gradually, came to understand them as dis-ease managers and medicine administrators. As she and I
Food: God our Healer Read More »
While we watch the battle of the giants unfolding for reduced mobile termination rates in South Africa, an even bigger thirst-that-cannot-be-quenched is for Internet data.[1] The people want more and more data. No one is yet able to respond to this demand convincingly. But perhaps jumping on the naming-and-shaming bandwagon between government, ICASA, and business
Technology: Our Internet in Tsonga Read More »
It seemed I had stumbled onto a territory where the regime in governance was founded on the pillars of calloused consciences and hard hearts, objectification and lies at every cost for the sake of and for pure self-service. At 25 years, I still had never been in a romantic relationship. To be clear, let me
My Love, My Revolutionary Read More »
When radio was first experimented with in South Africa, by techno-geeks in 1910s, it was not taken seriously. Government understood it as thing to be used for aeroplanes and ships at sea. This did not deter the activities of private users, who would exchange messages with each other and share music. One such notable figure
Technology: A social right! Read More »
I picked up Toni Morrison’s book The Bluest Eye 4 months ago. A story about a little girl, Pecola, who is pregnant with her own father’s child. She believes she is ugly, and wishes to have beautiful blue yes. She is black. The story annoyed me. (I thought myself of harder steel than that!) Then
My Reactions to Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye Read More »
One day, on one of my numerous runs to the Post Office, the car guard at the parking lot sheepishly approached. And in the commonplace fashion of an interlace of lechery and, I truly believe, genuine purpose that is in the fabric of and the current on-going interaction from man to woman, boy to girl
Inspi ration is the voice of God [a message, a revelation, an epiphany] Read More »
In September, a famous South African rugby player, took a publisher to court for intending to release a biography of the player, with sordid details of his extra-marital affairs, drug binges, etc. This happens now at a time when there is public sympathy for the rugby player because of his terminal illness, a motor-neuron disease,
Cheer up: Boo to Memorial Service Read More »
Between courage & fear, being lost & being found there lies a phenomenal force that binds everything together, that is love. Without love; we cannot adequately understand our purpose in life, what we have been called for. We cannot even begin to get a sense of the horizons, our inner boundaries that need to be
Love as a Creative Force Read More »
In 1989 communism collapsed. We knew it was not sustainable. But the final demise was a moment for the West to say “we told you so”. Liberal democracy had gained a final win over Marxism-Leninism and moving with almost unquestionable consensus, the liberal democratic agenda was shoved down every country that was in the process
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mj3KGggXPBk] Happy listening…
Lizalise: A song in a minor Read More »
When a river flows and there are no huge boulders, debris and logs in its path to slow down or hinder its flow completely, the river runs smooth, its flow undisturbed and it gets to its outlet, abundantly and on time. However, when there are huge rocks in the middle of the river, dense debris
Gushing River Flows Read More »
We do not believe that God has enough space to accommodate all of us—in our varied interests, our likes dislikes—in His tent. That is why we feel the need to have our own tents, like my own car, my own child; we simply do not believe Him when He says in my Father’s house there
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QlcstPjNgaA] This is a recording we filmed at our Johannesburg apartment. We pray that it may inspire you and uplift you, as your support has done in our hearts. Amen
Vuka Ukhanye… for your spirit Read More »
“Sikhona yini isidingo sokumtshela iqiniso?” kusho umuntu. “Kungcono angimuyeke naye uyozibonela mhla wavula amehlo akhe.” Ingabe yiyo na indlela ekumele siziphathe ngayo leyo, yiyo na indlela okumele sibone ikakhulukazi abaholi bethu ngayo le? Okubuhlungu ukuthi uma sizesajwayela ukungalikhulumi iqiniso kwasekuqaleni kuba nzima ukulikhuluma esikhathini esizayo. Kuvele kube sekuyajwayeleka ukubheka eceleni lapho kufanele khona siphakame sivele
Sikhona yini isidingo sokumtshela iqiniso? Read More »
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qNuQbJst4Lk] God has specially endowed us with a tremendous gift of worship. The dominance of African descendants in the entertainment industry bears testimony. Africans understood the importance of adoration through song & movement since ancient times. That they did not have access to the bible did not hinder the light of the gospel from penetrating
Amazing Grace on the black notes of the Piano: slavery & the redemption imagination Read More »
Yin’uKwazi? Ngitshele mngane! (Tell/advise me friend) Kuyini’ukwazi? (What is to know?) Ngigqoke kahle, (I am well dressed,) Ngiphath’induku (I carry a stick) Ngiqwale’umgwaqo, (I wander about the street) Ngidl’ezibomvu? (Dressed in red?) Ngitshele ntanga! (Tell me peer!) Kuyin’ukwazi? (What is to know?) Ngukuy’’esikoleni, (Is it to go to school) Ngifundane nencwadi! (By merely
Yin’ukwazi? (What is to know?) Read More »
Tyler Perry here shares some truth about being hidden, in a world so eager for quick recognition and hyper-visibility.
Sometimes you meant to be hidden Read More »
