English is not my mother's tongue

Reblogged from Khaya Dlanga's life on the "internets". All on one blog.:

Excerpt from my book, In My Arrogant Opinion

English is a difficult language with excellent public relations. If you speak English, and have the added bonus of speaking it well with a great accent, you are suddenly propelled into the class of the intelligent. You are not even required to have achieved anything.

I’m not the world’s most articulate person. I hate my voice.

Read more… 1,821 more words

Your words

Your words

Have the power

To touch me

In places

I never knew

Existed

Your words

Have the power

To heal the wounds

I thought would take a lifetime

Your words

Have the power

To reach the expansion

To places and heights

I never knew

Existed

Your words

Have the time

To reach history

And go beyond

Into the future

Most days I lie awake

Thinking about the distant and the near

How like children we played

We laughed and we danced

On that hot automn day

How love was now

And sorrow was unknown

A doubt, a fear, a conception

Your words

Have the power

To heal these wounds

Today is new

So is the dawn

Pity I never saw it

From the skyscraping buildings

My new dawn

Stolen by the jungle

My new dawn

Known and sung

In my heart

You make me wanna think

You make me wanna do

You make me wanna sing

This very song I speak

You make me wanna live

For that brand new day

Sown in the fabric of tomorrow

Living in the presence of now

Promised in the essence of tomorrow

The good ones die young

Or so they say

They’ve never heard this song

So I sing it

Only because

Your words have depth

Making me understand

But a fraction of what they mean

It’s a realisation to the reflection

I wanna do more

Know more

See more

Speak more

Be quiet more

Listen to the silence

Between you and I

So beautiful and enchanted

Your words have the ability

To create Life

A new being

In me

I believe

Your words

Have the power

To create

To love

To live

To be

To know

To feel

To love

I only long

To express

The beauty

And meaning

Of your words

These words

Spoken

and

Unspoken

Yesterday

Yesterday, was that you?
Looked just like you
Strange things my imagination might do
Take a breath, reflect on what we’ve been through Or am I just going crazy cause I miss you?

Are we voting because we are black?

Are we voting because we are black or because we are equal? This is the question in mind, stemming from a twitter conversation currently going on with two leaders and a follower.

It goes :

1. Zwelinzima Vavi ‏@Zwelinzima1 39m

   Political will “@SAYoungLion: @_cosatu @helenzille @alanwinde @karelpaintmaker @Zwelinzima1 why can’t the inherited apartheid economic

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2. karel marais ‏@karelpaintmaker 21m

   @Zwelinzima1 but why support a party that has no “political will” to change unfair economy? @SAYoungLion @_cosatu @helenzille @alanwinde

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3. Helen Zille ‏@helenzille 18m

   @karelpaintmaker Because @Zwelinzima1 is trying to take it over from the inside. That is what his fight with Pres Zuma is about.

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4. Zwelinzima Vavi ‏@Zwelinzima1 11m

   That’s hogwash – refused to stand into NEC twice in a row “@helenzille: @karelpaintmaker Because @Zwelinzima1 is trying to take it over f

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5. Helen Zille ‏@helenzille 10m

   @Zwelinzima1 Going into NEC would compromise you. Your best takeover strategy is staying out. We see you!

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   And my response was : Loyiso ‏@LoyZaR 7m

   @helenzille @Zwelinzima1 @hellenzille – WE SEE YOU, TRYING TO DEMONISE AFRICAN LEADERS…

    

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   7:15 AM – 17 May 13 · Details

   One follower believes I have a one track mind, he is forgiven for thinking that way.

   The truth is, by no means am I standing up for the current government. I think they are all a bunch of lies with one common interest : to feed their own (ohlohlesakhe). Which mainly influences my reason not to vote in the next election. Most people think I’m crazy but that’s alright, crazy has always been my normal.

    

   So Zille wants to say a thing or two about the current government, pointing fingers at will- corruption Oh gosh we’ve heard all these words before. What is she up to is what you never hear about. What goes on in the Western Cape that it is such a sovereign province in a (glorified) unified South Africa? Wonder why you will never hear the headlines.

   Could it be that there are much bigger forces at play? Enough about that, do you own research and make your own conclusions.

   The current government is not perfect, far from it in fact. I can’t prove it but it’s in the news daily about what they get up to , Google it, it’s there for all and sundry to see. First question in mind is why. Why is it that there is so much being said about the black community trashing and destroying each other? Why?

   And why is the black government doing so much to sabotage itself. Do your own research and make your own conclusions.

   I’m hurt and I’m angry , that after so many years and so much blood that was spilt we are still here. Have they died for nothing? If they died for something then what is it?

    

   One of the major problems that Africa has is not AIDS but sovereignty , hence African leaders die in our midst and the world carries on as if nothing happened. The problem is that we have Leaders who have been in power for 30 years and more who are now called dicatators while the queen has been in power for 60 years and more and we glorify that. Why?

   Why  is it when leaders talk about land reform ,. they get shot down, immediately removed from their leadership positions and made a mockery of? Why is it?

    

   Why is it that it seems we do not believe in our own power as Africans? So many rich resources that could feed and empower every nation.

   Take a walk outside of your four walls and see. Do your own research and make your own conclusions. Do you know how children in Siera Leone are living like? Have you heard about blood diamonds? Do you know what happens there?

   Have you ever crossed a river full of crocodiles with the hope of making it out alive on the other side, crossing because death seems sweeter than the raw deal that you’re currently experiencing?

   Don’t talk to me about the current state of affairs as if you know my plight as an African child. You know nothing about who I am and how I struggle. Elevate and innovate.

   I wont vote and they say I don’t have a voice. Well NEWSFLASH, I do have a voice. It’s the same one I was born with, it is the same voice that cried finally free of a confining womb.

   I wish nothing but wealth on all African children. Until we open our eyes and see what is really happening we will never get there. They saw what was going to happen the time the sold us Mandela. He was never freed but offered as a bargaining chip.

   And today we’re free to speak the English that we speak, work in posh offices while driving lavish cars.

   While at the end of the day, you will roll up your window when you get to the next robot, when dirty, grimy fingernails come knocking on your window.

    

   Enough said.

Pearls (Woman in Somalia)

She cries to the heaven above… There is a stone in my heart… She lives in a world she didn’t choose… And it hurts like brand new shoes… Hurts like brand new shoes…

Of celebrity, public consumption, drama, media and the real issues

Here’s a blog post about a trivial matter : gossip, rumours, tongue wagging you name it, a post about other people , what they (apparently) get up to and so forth, well not necessarily.

A sequence of event have led me to observe myself as an artist, media person and creative. Lately I’ve been in situations where I’ve been surrounded by people who have ‘made it’ and some perceived as ‘lost it’.

It allowed me to think alot about my journey as an artist and the pitfalls that I should possibly look out for and all that. But sad as it is for me to say , qualified Journalist and all,  the media is a double edged sword.

Yesterday I tweeted ” The media that builds you is the same media that can destroy you”. You do not need to Google this, it’s a fact , proven many a time.

So it got me thinking, if I can think like this then surely someone else out there may be thinking the same thing. Celebrity, yes that is the term that affects and infects most creative people who get to be in the limelight.

The term is like a drug , which once injected, makes one do the most obscene of things, it’s crazy how ish gets – and this just from an observer.

The term brings with it the provebial cross which one has to bear that usually entails public scrutiny and judgement. We all know, no one can make everyone happy alas they keep on trying – celebrities that is. To endear viewers hearts, charming all and sundry with suggestive lip pouts and eye gestures.

Then we have the double edged media. Now there we have another ball game all together. Like it or not – most media houses are interested in the bottom line – money and are usually owned by some guy you will never meet because he’s probably sailing on a yacht somewhere.

Most media is not interested in empowering the nation and most times will sell shock value as opposed to what you really need to know. Take a look at any newspaper and see the headlines , I can almost guarantee , some minister is getting arrested, some Gogo has been raped by a tokoloshe or any similar to that .

The articles that matter , such as the plight faced by Marikana miners and how their still getting ‘screwed’ will probably make it on the fifth page, that is if they’re lucky. See, it’s not shock value and neither is it educating and enlightning you to investigate further into why the miners got shot to begin with – colonialism is still among us , liking it or not and please some intellect is cautioned , truth matters.

Back to Celebrity. As a young child I have always been fascinated by the people which were pushed into my face by television programmes, magazine and newspaper articles. They seemed to have it all. Truth is, they don’t.

If anything, they are just as lonely and miserable as the rest of the country. The thing with being a celebrity is that it puts so much pressure onto a person that it is easy to lose yourself in the hype. Rule of thumb – never believe the hype.

Another thing to remember is , art is life . This is usually forgotten amongst all the women, men, booze, drugs and ‘high life’ .

I struggle to get where one loses the sense that it is just a job and should not really been taken any further than that.

Then there was the public, the consumer and lover of keep up with celebrity. Why oh why I ask must one care what one get up to? Honestly , who cares what celebrity at for breakfast? Gosh, do you really care who celebrity is sleeping with?

If this is the case then I believe we seriously need to investigate our moral value as a society.

This is madness and at some point it needs to stop because at the end of the day they are human.

Celebrity is someone’s child, brother, sister, friend – the list goes on.

Celebrity- know what’s for public consumption and not because clearly the public has no limits to what it will consume – believe me there are other ways of making your living than airing your dirty laundry, good grief!

Public, consumer – wake up and realise. There is more at stake , including the livelihood of the unborn. Our legacy as a nation , state and continent. Don’t get caught up in the bullshit. Actually the reason why you’re caught up in the bullshit to begin with is because someone is selling you garbage and you’re not even aware.

I think the time has come for us to evaluate what really is going on and find out the real answers to the questions , like why we’re being detracted from the real issues that affect us.

Or do we not care anymore?

 

 

Needs and wants.

There are days when I miss home, like when I remember the deep fried chicken that goes with the overcooked rice and seven colour vegetables. Days when I look to my left and right , reminded of what I do not have , searching for that I am longing to have. Needs and wants.

Now I understand

I so, so understand

It is the same as she said

Then I could not understand

My darling sister, hear it now

I so, so understand

The meaning to words

Spoken and Unspoken

He wants to do the same

Though he does not know how

And so he speaks in hopes I will listen

My ears are open much like my heart

So I smile for I understand

But how can it be my dear sister?

The beautiful ones are not yet born

Or rather they are ahead of their time

We have known , so let it be

We can not control the hand of Time

 

I saw him , his past his present and his future

Much like I saw yours when you embraced me

Beloved , sister of mine, how do we do this?

What is meant to be will be, eventually, inevitably

The glimmer in his eye speaks of much

Every speck , every spot is where they said it would be

Yet , it is different to what and how they described it

I fell in love beloved sister, with the sparkle in his eye

And I loved him all the more for wanting to do this

He speaks, pauses and speaks again

I smile and laugh and I look ahead

He understands, we understand, I understand

He would like to but how can he?

Dear beloved sister of mine, let me tell you

What is meant to be will be

 

We cannot avoid it, it was there from the beginning

Much like in the messages we have exchanged in private

The duty of a light is to shine even the Bible says so

I completely understand the pain of the dagger

How it felt when it reached him

And I know the look on his face

When blood splattered all over for all to rejoice

I now know what he anticipated

And now know but a fraction of the love he felt

and the words unspoken

 

I  love you with the deepness of the I am

and the destiny that awaits we must follow

Without fear or hesitation

Hearts must bleed

Joy must be felt

Sorrow must come

In the end

What is meant to be will be

-Miss Understood-