thumelewilson: The sweet revenge for Amakhosi

thumelewilson: The sweet revenge for Amakhosi: By: Wilson Mmako Yesterday in Polokwane, Peter Mokaba Stadium fans came in numbers between Chiefs and Platinum stars. The Naturena boys m...

Inter cultural marriages are acceptable.

In the times we are living in, inter cultural marriages are acceptable but still face a challenge from conservatives. The conservatives will ask, why inter cultural marriages are acceptable? Because they believe that if you marry someone you share common things like language and culture it is good. They forget that many people today are living in cosmopolitan places like urban and township areas than in the past. We can also not forget that our constitution promote freedom of association, it means people can choose friends or partners of their choice without hindrance. In the movie Fanie Fourie Lobola which features Fanie Fourie (Eduan van Jaarsveld) a farm boy and a typical Zulu, Dinky Magubane (Zethu Dlomo) this is a challenge. Although the movie can be described as romantic comedy but shows how challenging it can be to a couple of different culture. The theme of the movie is tastier and there is humour to show us that one should understand, respect and appreciate different cultures. The movie is great to watch but to understand its theme better, one needs to know what is lobola how its processes are handled. In most African cultures most men use cattle and money to pay lobola for a bride as a token of gesture to thank the bride’s family for their daughter. The main purpose of this is to unite the two families involved. This is conducted by both groom’s and bride’s families, the process can be complex and long. Although a marriage can unite or create a friendship of two families, it can also be difficult for it to do so between families of different cultural background. If the families involved learn about each other’s culture, it will be easier for their children to have a lasting marriage. There is one line couples are saying when they tie the knot, “Till death do us apart”, what does this mean when those who marry where race or culture seems to be a barrier? To a couple, it means no matter how challenging life it can be, they will stick together and be there for one another. It is a fact that when culture deny what is important to people but it should not forbid them to be happy. An example will be a person of colour marrying a white person that might be a problem to two families. To them this mean both they are going to lose some of our customs start their own standard of living. The world has changed a lot and in this millennium people should just accept that the lifestyles have changed. I believe that culture is what we learn and practice as people but when some among us appreciate other cultures or love them, that shouldn’t be an obstacle to associate with those people. The characters of Fanie and Dinky in this movie are well written in a sense that the movie does not shy away in addressing racial problems. When you look at it, it shows that he is a real Boere man, with no glue about lobola processes but he’s eager to pay it hence his attempt to negotiate his lobola. Uniformed Fanie wasn’t aware that negotiating your own lobola is an offence by culture. What is good about Fanie Fourie is that he is trying to do proper thing by paying lobola, besides having no clue on how to handle the process. This shows that his intention is good because he does not want to bridge rules of African culture. The fact that he listened when they advised him to send his uncles on his behalf is good, and he did as he was told. Today in this world we have to accept inter-racial marriages as they are common. This type of marriage needs people who are flexible or able to adapt not pessimists. Education, wealth and self selection can contribute to denial of these marriages, but it is a fact that love doesn’t have boundaries. I will always embrace the diversity of this country and the world.

SADTU encourages hard work among learners.

SADTU together with Wits and University of Johannesburg students gave learners of Motswatemeng Secondary school a motivational talk on 18 October 2013 in Makapanstad, North West. The motivation comes as learners are left with few days to write their final exams. The school have three days study camps from Friday to Sunday, they started before mid year exams. Both learners and parents sleep in the school premises and they are catered with food by the school. SADTU General Secretary Mugwena Maluleke encouraged them to take their studies seriously and to respect time to achieve good matric results “Manage your time very well you would not regret. I am proud that you are in grade 12, because you will make us proud and yourselves” Maluleke said in a packed hall. In addition Maluleke shared his childhood story, he told them that he travelled 18 km bare footed single each day and persevered “ I wish you all the best in your exams and with hard wok nothing is impossible” he added. The learners signed a pledge document before Maluleke as a sign of assurance that they will pass at the end of the year. University of Witwatersrand student Manoshe Phasha who studies Masters in Build Environment and Housing, told the learners that their circumstances should not discourage them to reach their goals “In life you don’t have to feel discouraged by your background. With hard work, passion and determination you will reach your success” Phasha said. He also asked learners to continue with their studies after they have passed matric. A touched Tshegofatso Moila said since he planned to study radiography with University of Pretoria next year, he will take the advice he received everywhere he goes “I was motivated little bit before but after meeting university students my morale was high. What they said to us was good and it will help me to reach my dreams” He said. While his words were positive it was Seroke Mokwatedi whose words were touching “I’m the last hope at home because there is no one with tertiary education in my family. I want to be the first person to graduate in medicine and be a good example In the community” Amid the words of encouragement, the school principal Vivian Kgobe said she was happy with the efforts the Union and tertiary Students made in her school “ what happened today shows that the Union works, it should continue with its good work” she said. Her words to university students “ These students should not stop their good work with us. It will be great if they continue with their work to enlighten other pupils out there that they can make it if they work hard” Kgobe said. Kgobe said their vision is to ensure that all learners pass and they are targeting 80% pass rate this year. They will continue with their study camps 22-24 November and later they will give achievement certificates to honour the best achievers in matric results. Other Grades from grade 11 downwards will not be exempted as best three learners per class will also be honoured. The principal said they will live according to their school motto “Education is a ladder to success” she said.

Why I like soccer.

Since my childhood, I have been asked many questions but the most prominent one was why I loved soccer. This game of football which is also called soccer is in my language called Kgwele which literally means – the ball.

I had and still have the answers; I watch football because I love the game. It is my lifeblood. The entertaining part of it ignites more passion for the sport. It is a, sought of, palliative activity from boring duties and distress. It sharpens my intellect to think strategically because it’s a game of minds. It sways my emotions to the extremes – from extreme laughter to angst and tears - depending on the performance of my team. I don’t have to make an appointment to engage or immerse in the sport. I can simply switch on the television, go watch the game even in my backyard; soccer is everywhere. I am a perfect player – not in the field but from my armchair. Football, while it offers amusement, it also offers me good therapy. It also gives me a chance to bond with friends one cannot watch it alone. Through football one can create many friendships in far places, because it is a powerful which can unite people. During my adolescents years I managed to have friends from far places. My love for soccer resulted in a bond with my brothers and friends on mine. It’s because we share emotional basis because of the love for the game. Football is a skillful warfare, where players in the field don’t kill each other but their intention is to outclass one another. It is a disciplined sport because coaches and managers want the best out of the teams. It is no different from a military field where there are commanders who expect the best out of their soldiers. I like discipline. Most successful people in many fields achieved their successes not only through intelligence but discipline. Although a game is not war, sometimes blood spills. Players do collide while some try dirty tricks to make sure that they keep others out of the game; that’s where a good decision making from a referee should arise. If my team is dominating and scoring lot of goals, to me it is a great achievement. However, I know very well that opponents of the losing side are angry. A win is what we strive for. What I have learned in soccer is that no matter how massive the win or loss for a team, there is tomorrow and the tables will turn. After all these years of watching soccer my loyalty has been tested and I feel I can survive tough times. The lessons I have learned through soccer are helpful in my daily life. The sport has built my mental capacity and resilience in difficult times. I will always enjoy the game.

Snapshot of Mphanama

Mphanama is a small village 24 km outside Jane Furse, Sekhukhune land in Limpopo province, South Africa. It is the village of Barwa who form part of Bapedi tribe, their totem is lion(Tau) hence they call themselves Batau. The chief of the village is his majesty Kgoshi lobang III Kgaphola. He is the first son of the candle wife(Lebone) Princess Mapuwe and Chief Tserere kgaphola. A candle wife is the only wife among the chief’s wives to bear a future chief according to Batau culture. It’s neighboring villages are Ga-Radingwana, Ga-Mmela, Ga-Maila, Ga-Mmatshatsha, Ga-Mashabela and Ga-Matlala a Legopane. People of this village still practice their culture by conducting rituals before any weeding or cultural activity which is sacred,they do so by slaughtering goats or cattles. Early villagers were subsistence farmers, and grew sorghum, pumpkins and legumes, which were cultivated by women on fields allocated to them when they married. Women hoed and weeded; did pottery and built and decorated huts with mud; made sleeping mats and baskets; ground grain, cooked, brewed, and collected water and wood. While men did some work in fields at peak times; hunted and herded; did woodwork, prepared hides. Initiation. The life of both girls and boys was differentiated by important rituals, such as initiation. Boys called bašemane and later mašoboro, would spend their youth herding cattle at remote outposts with their peers and others from older age-sets. Initiation would also include circumcision at komeng or koma (initiation school) which would be held about once every five years. The first part of the initiation school is Bodika and the second part is Bogwera. The duration of these practices is different and all take place in the mountains. These initiation processes socialised youths into groups or regiments called mephato which would bear the leader's name, and whose members would then be loyal to each other for their lifetimes. These groups or regiments would often spend time together in their life time. Girls attended their own koma and were divided into their own regiments, a process that usually took place two years after the boy's school. Initiation is still practised today, and provides a substantial income to the chiefs who licence it for a fee. Other religions The village has all known denominations, with the majority believing in traditional ancestral worshipping. They consult traditional healers who are able to solve their problems. The second majority belongs to indigenous African faith, which is represented by Apostolic church,St Engenas ZCC(Star and bird version), Lutheran church, Methodist church to mention few. There is a trend which shows that most non-Christians do have some faith in the power of church, and this is evident from many non-Christians visiting the ZCC churches. This shows the influence the ZCC kingdom has had in bringing people closer to church.

SEASON OF MIGRATION TO THE NORTH

Name of the book is season of migration to the north it is written by Tayeb Salih, he was born 1929 in nothern province of Sudan. He studied in England and worked for various broadcasting corperations abroad, including English broadcasting corperation as head of drama in the arabic services.He later worked as director in qatar, with Unesco in Paris. Culturally Tayeb as well as geographycally lives astride the East and West. This book talks about a certain academic called Mustafa sa’eed, who was born in Khartoum in 16 August 1898.his father was from Ababda tribe, the tribe living between Egypt and Sudan and her mother was from the Baria tribe. Mustafa Sa’eed covered his period of education in Sudan at one bound as if he were having a race with time.He was the first student from Gordon college to receive a scholarship to Cairo later to London, first Sudanese to be sent on a scholarship abroad. His Principal in Khartoum Mr Stockwell is the one who arranged his move to Cairo, there he met Mr Robinson and his wife. After excelling in his studies he went to Alexandria where he bought a ship to London by that time he was nearing twenty, studied criminal law at Oxford university. As a young man he started to have some feelings for girls like any young man his age. His first love was jean Morris from Leeds whom he met in Chelsea in a party, she was followed by Ann Hammond the daughter of an officer in royal engineers her mother from rich family in Liverpool. She was less than twenty and was studying oriental languages at Oxford. Ann Hammond committed a suicide after Mustafa left her, police found a note saying “Mr sa’eed may God damn you”. Poor ladies were deceived by sweet lies of Mustafa because he promised them that he would marry them. Others did not know his name as he was calling himself with different nicknames like Amin, Charles, Richard and Hassan. At age of twenty four he was a lecture in Economics at Oxford university, at that time he was battling courts in England for the deaths of womens he had affairs with.His lawyer Maxwell Foster Keen saved him from the gallows, Mr keen said that “Mustafa does not exist ,he is illusion,a lie and I ask you to rule tht the lie be killed”.He told them that Ann Hammond,Sheila Greenwood were girls who were seeking death by every means and that they would have committed suicide whether they had met Mustafa sa’eed or not. He also stressed that Mustafa is noble man whose mind was able to absorb ,western civilization but it broke his heart. The girls were not killed by Mustafa but by the germ of a deadly disease that assailed them a thousand years ago. During October 1922 and February 1923 Mustafa lived with five women simultaneousely, again promising what he had promised Ann and others that was marriage. After he was lucky not be sent to jail he left London for Sudan, on his arrival in sudan he went to live in the bent of Nile river. He bought himself a farm, built a house and married Mamoud’s daughter Mahjoub and they were blessed with two sons. The villagers did not know about him that much except that he was from Khartoum because he was secretive man, although he was not bragging about his academic record but passionate about farming. He had a piece of land to plough vegetables and fruits and always giving them to those in need, people liked him a lot because of that.It was a steamingly hot July night that turned things to worse, Nile river that year having experienced one of those floods that occur after many years. The land was covered with water most of the land lying between the river bank and the edge of the desert where houses stood.People were using boats to move around in that sorrowful day. Mustafa Sa’eed was a well known swimmer as he had some time in England but that day he did not survive the floods. Telephones massages were sent to the stations along Nile as far as Karma but his body was not among those washed. After a week people lost hope of finding him especially in the crocodile infested river, he was presumed dead after the search.Mustafa on his death left a wife and two sons, the writer claims that Mustafa gave him a note before he met his death that day.It was having some instructions to guide him to divide the deceased’s wealth between his children. The note states that Mr Sa’eed had left three cows,two donkeys, ten goats,five sheeps, thirty palms ,twenty acacia, sayal, house made up of five rooms and thirty seven pounds also some milliemes in cash. The old man who enjoyed high life at his prime time died living a low life in the rural village along the Nile river.The life of Mustafa was astonishing because people in the Nile did not who Mustafa was, he was a secretive man. His life of secrets and lies made him to die a terrible death and poor. To my understanding Mustafa was a womaniser and a lier of his time. People like him were not good to set example to people who lived in his time,some will know him through the writer because he had some documents of him. The documents states certain information about him that he was a accused of the deaths of women in England. As a heartless man Mustafa never apologised for his evil ways in London, he was like a predator preying for it’s prey, the number of women he slept with was embarassing. The writer have lot of respect for Musatafa even though he had done terrible mistakes. May be is the fact that he was an academic, nobody knows. His life did not have a direction at all,Mutafa Sa’eed deserved a nice burial had they discovered his body. One can’t deny but accept that Mustafa was a well educated person of his time ,having acquired his qualifications in criminal law and economics. The fact that Mustafa was not found is sad because people who were close to him wanted to give him the last honour, it remained question to many of them of where Mustafa has gone. They claimed that he is dead but no one was sure of that because a man like him one can’t know what he was up to,but had they found his body I am quite sure they were going to give him a proper funeral like any old man. The writer can boast about the fact that he lived in the days of Mustafa an academic and a farmer, because he got opportunity to gather some facts to write about that man.Some will remember the good things he did as farmer along the Nile river,he was a kind of philantropist. Others will say God punished him dearly for his evil ways for causing deaths in London especially Londoners were he had spent most of his time studying and working before he left for Sudan. But as human being no one can judge him except to give their comments of concern, only God will judge him for his ways while he was still in this planet. Wherever he is his soul may rest in peace. Comment This book is worth reading, interesting and giving a guidence to men who use their success to achieve things which won’t contribute any good to their lives.

The name of the book is Suitcase stories by Glynis Claherty and Suitcase children.

The book was produced as part of the Suitcase project, a psychological support through art therapy project initiated by Glynis Clacherty in 2001 in Johannesburg, South Africa. During 2003 Annurita Bains co-facilitated the group Glynis. In that year Diane Welvering joined the project as an art teacher, together with Glynis developed the work that is presented in this book. Jessie Kgomongoe worked with them for two years. The group meets at Barnato Park High school in Hillbrow which has made its facilities to the group since 2003. The project was funded by the United Nations High Commission for refugees, during 2003 and 2004,through the Jesuit Refuge service. From 2006 the project was run under the auspices of the refugee ministries centre, a refugee programme run by the Anglican, Methodist and Lutheran churches in inner city Johannesburg. Children are referred into the group on annual basis by the Refugee Ministries advice centre. Funding is provided through the UNHCR for an interim period, but more substantial funding is not available. The author Glynis Clacherty is a researcher who specialises in participatory work with children. She has spent the last ten years working with children all over southern Africa on issues such as HIV& Aids, child work, violence against children, poverty and migration. Much of this work has allowed children’s voices to be heard in the creation of new policy and laws. She started the Suitcase project, a psychological support through art project in 2001 with refugee children in Hillbrow. This is where she met children whose stories are told in this book. The children told her their stories some over the period of three years. This activity was completely voluntary and children could choose how much of their story to tell, if they wanted it taped and even if they wanted to tell it all. She transcribed those stories that had been taped and edited them for sequence and readability alone. She have tried to represent what the children said exactly as they said it, keeping the form of the spoken word . The children all looked closely at their stories once they had written and they agreed on which parts could be published and what they did not included in the book, also what needed to be changed to keep their confidentiality. None of the children wanted to be labelled as refugee in their present lives, so they chose to remain anonymous. The names they chose to replace their own all have significance for them. They are the names of the lost parents or special friends from their home countries. As the Author have worked with these stories she has been struck with sadness, the loss, the displacement that the children have experienced but also overwhelmingly by their resilience, their ability to make a plan and often to see the funny side of what is happening to them. These stories have taught the Author that children are not merely victims of their circumstance but survivors. What i have learned in this book is that children from Africa are suffering and some have suffered due to various reasons such as civil wars which tear many families apart and hunger which drove many families from one place to another in search of greener pastures. Despite their hardships, they have suffered back in their homes, the children reclaim their identity in South Africa. It is interesting to see young people under the age of twenty having a desire to think about their originality. In many cases people who have left their countries tend to change their identity when they arrive in foreign lands, some feel uncomfortable to use their cultural names and adopt the names which are common in the place which they would be living. These children have something in common that there is nothing better than knowing who you are and where they are coming from, most of them still uphold the names which were given to them by their parents in their respective countries. They are full of love and joy as they are treating each other with respect in their support group. The other thing which make them outstanding they don’t want be beggars for the rest of their lives, they want to make something out of their lives while they are still alive. Although poor children are in South Africa , which is regarded as the land of milk and honey to many Africans who had never graced our shores, they face many challenges across the streets. They are called by derogatory words like “kwerekwere” but they have accepted the reality that it is tough to be away from home and they are not demoralised. In the support group all of them want to return home to start their lives afresh and re-unite with their families. Even if they become educated they are willing to plough back, because they have realised that the change in their country needs to be started not by anybody but them. It is good especially for children who are young having a desire to return home. They show everyone in the country that they are here by choice but social problems are the main point for them to be where they are today. They are also wishing to see their countries having a peace like South Africa, where anyone has a right of movement, association and freedom of speech. The character of these future generation is outstanding, they make anyone inspired despite the challenges they have came across in their childhood. They have a never dying spirit that while there is life there is hope. They don’t want to be looked down upon by indigenious people, they want the locals to take them serious not laugh them for their own situation. They need South Africans to know more about their situation before they can judge them. If one calculate the experiences of these children realises that their situation is not something laughable but shocking because some lost their families as they were killed. The future reader can expect shocking and interesting realities, shocking realities because some of the children family members are no more, while again children are reclaiming their origin in foreign land. The book message is straight forward, things which are written in the book are true. They were transcribed so that people can learn about horrible things which are happening or happened in those countries which these children are coming from. The future readers will realise that there were once people who suffered under other people’s leadership and migrated to re arrange their lives. Once you have started to read this book one cannot put it down but will continue till he or she finishes reading it as it is touching and drawing ones attention not forgetting that it provokes the feelings. What i could have changed to make this book interesting. It is difficult because things which were written in this book are coming straight from the children who experienced the hardships. To be honest the book does not need to be re-arranged because it is well written, children tell their stories well. The theme of the book relate with me very well, because if you look at these children situation they have left their countries as a results of civil wars and economical disorientation. The book might be talking about the children who left their homes due to certain problems, this means there are budding scholars who were displaced due to unrests. This is something which touches’ me as a student, looking deeply in the theme of the book one would realise that this is something which can happen to anyone because future is unpredictable.