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 »
Thokozani N. Mhlambi In previous entries, we have seen (1)[1] the detrimental effects of a constitutional culture: how a culture of upholding the constitution has offered our white compatriots a moral basis for undermining the continued relevance of the liberation struggle; and (2) that increasingly the black middle-class has mired itself into an already flawed
White Inhabitants and the Spirit of Disaffection Read More »
The mind is the womb of the child—that is your dreams and aspirations. When we allow God to inject His sperm, we effectively become impregnated with His dream—His purpose for our lives, His will and His way. This is so much bigger than ourselves, as His purpose for our lives is eternally minded, not short-sighted
Upgrading your Dreams & Aspirations: Discovering your purpose Read More »
Date: 20th of April 2013, 7pm Venue: Ernest Ullman Recreation Centre, Wendywood, Sandton[1] A journey along a musical patch-work, pieces torn along the ages. Some are inherited, some are inherent and others have accumulated along the way. We now come together and bring our different pieces—This is our marketplace! Taking the format of a fun-filled,
Afropolitan Explosiv Meeting Theme: The Marketplace Read More »
By Thokozani Mhlambi When Mandela and Tutu declared ‘Let us forgive one another!’ These words struck at the very foundation of white supremacy. Inherent in them was the central vision of the South Africa that was still-to-be-born. Reconciliation stood as a chief force which we, as black South Africans, would teach the world. Indeed after
What do Free People look like? Read More »
Recently, at a networking event, I watched the invited speaker’s talk and illustrative presentation be taken over by another woman. In my disdain and annoyance at “take over” woman, I put my hand up and made an incoherent remark in the hope to deflect attention from her back to the speaker and to expose her
Just like faith without actions is dead, so is education without action…dead Read More »
“The best lack all conviction, while the worst are full of passionate intensity.” Thabo Mbeki (2006)
“Aspiration” Bronze Sculpture BY THOKOZANI N. MHLAMBI The African middle-class in South Africa is mired into a flawed environment of meaningless accumulation, which renders them mute in proclaiming the need for a restoration. But their story in striving for definition and liberty in a complex world does not begin here. Already in the early 20th
The Unfulfilled Aspirations of African middle-class in 1930s Read More »
Written by Thokozani Mhlambi There is an ancient biblical proverb that goes: “People stay in hiding when bad men come to power. But when they fall from power, righteous men will rule again.” From this saying, it looks as if the wrath of bad men silences the perspectives of good man, to the extent that
Seek and Dare to Expect Read More »
Here I begin where I ended with the last piece (see below): The trouble with a constitutional culture is that it is a problematizing culture. A kind of problematizing that is couched in the pretense of debate. Where constitutionality may be troubling is that it can sometimes be insensitive, without even seeing that it is
Freedom in the wrong places! Read More »
It has been a number of months since Brett Murray’s pornographic painting of President Zuma was exhibited at Goodman Gallery in Johannesburg. Then there was a public outcry. After these remarkable events which left many South Africans divided on who is right and who is wrong, I would like to provide some thoughts on governance:
Raising the Standard of being human and coexisting Read More »
It’s the 16th of June 2012, and we are heading to the Goethe Institute. There’s 3 of us in the car, happy faces with no expectation as the invite clearly stated, “A sound Installation”, the closer we get to the venue the harder it becomes to stomach our curiosity. We arrive at the institute and
K. Sekhoto was present Read More »
A lovely lady by the name of Amandla Kwinana who writes for Kasi Times did the write-up for our last event held at the Goethe-Institut on Saturday, 16 June 2012. Here’s an excerpt from her review… “Break over and we poured into the auditorium. I’m sure a lot of people also wanted to share their
Event review: Birth of a new identity Read More »
