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Dance To Africa

Taiwa's Best

the race question according to Prof

Passage from Can Themba's The Urchin

Macala suddenly felt in the mood for the jargon of the townships. The near‐animal, amorphous, quick‐shifting lingo that alarms farm‐boys and drives cops to all branches of suspicion. But it marks the city slicker who can cope with all its vagaries.✏

Sad Afrika - a country without a name

This meditation inspired my own thoughts in critique of the South African identity.. read on:
https://phehellowabotho.blogspot.com/2019/04/sad-afrika-country-without-name.html?m=1

Constitutional abolitionist

philosopher, Ndumiso Dladla exposing the fraudulent constitution

History & language...Sophiatown musings

So ko kasi we adorn our female counterparts with several appellations. "Cheri", "Thikin'", "Ntsaiza", etc... another popular term "Medi", apparently originated in praise-reference to Maddie Hall Xuma, an American-born Activist, Educationist and Social Worker who became the first ANC Womens League president. She was also wife of Dr A.B Xuma, ANC president-general, 1940 - 1949. They lived in Sophiatown.

Trapped in history

People are trapped in history and history is trapped in them. 💼

James Baldwin (1953)

A little history from Kofifi

In the 1950’s under the Native Laws Amendment Act, the Nationalist Party government sought to begin entrenching their apartheid policies and an end to the multiracial Sophiatown was of symbolic importance for the party. Forced removals began in 1955 and would last for the next seven years as residents resisted being removed from their homes. The majority of black people were moved to Meadowlands, but some would move to other areas such as Orlando, Dube, Pimville and in the eastern townships like Alexandra. Coloureds were moved to areas like Eldorado Park, Westbury, Noordgesig, etc.., while Indians were moved to Lenasia. The successful removals of Sophiatown residents culminated in a new area for white municipal workers and it was christened Triomf, Afrikaans for triumph, in celebration of Sophiatown’s destruction. The nerve!

(Read more from yours truly by clicking on the link below)

http://www.joburgpost.com/articles/14788

My current obsession, Charles Mingus

Goodbye Pork Pie Hat - Live At Montreux (1975)

voices from below

"It becomes more necessary to see the truth as it is if you realise that the only vehicle for change are these people who have lost their personality."

- Biko (1971)
📷: Peter Magubane

Dear God

#TheClassic1963

Ingqawe

Dragging the royal flower,
Her very Highness
"Stay woke" and go smoke
vuka darkie

Bra Herbie Tsoaeli (Malume)

African Time

Today’s inhumanity no different from that of yesteryear

- Anele Nzimande (2017)

Casey Motsisi

the self-proclaimed "Shakespeare of the Shebeens".
banna this guy could write yong!
he was recruited into Drum by the intellectual tsotsi himself, Can Themba. #DrumBoys #Kofifi #50s

Tsa Mzukwana #Classic #OldSchool

#style❤

Mary Muthoni Nyanjiru: Kenya's Historical Symbol of Feminine Defiance

At the end of the 19^th century, Britain, Germany, France and other European nations set about dividing and sharing Africa to their own ominous tastes in the iconoclastic Berlin Conference. Britain, though their Imperial British East Africa Company had their sites firmly on a rich plain of land we now know as Kenya.

As had been the case in other extensions of their colonial enterprise, such as South Africa, the British flipped life in Kenya right on its head. In no less than three decades Nairobi had become a fast growing city in demand of labour. The extortionate hut taxes in the villages were enough to impel different tribes in Kenya to seek employment in the city.

Harry Thuku, touted as among the first men in Kenya to have a working knowledge of the English language and leader of the Kenya’s first political organisation, the East African Association, was arrested in 1922 March 14^th for his growing political influence among the Kenyans. While in detention, members and sympathisers of the EAA staged vigil-cum-protest outside Kingsway Police Station, demanding the release of their leader. For two days, the Africans did not report for work, with pickets out to make sure no one broke the strike.

The second night of Thuku’s arrest saw the beginning of a series of unprecedented events in Gikuyu history. Over 200 women took oath, in essence, binding them to execute a specific plan of action. Oath-taking was forbidden for Gikuyu women as they were considered mentally unfit and bodily unable to endure the ordeal, but on this night they would change the course of history.

The following morning, 6 men, one of whom rumoured to be a young Jomo Kenyatta, were elected to negotiate the release of Thuku. When the men returned, it was clear that Thuku was not to be released, and the crowd, in the upwards of 6000 in number, grew even more recalcitrant and shook with exasperation.

Enter Muthoni Nyanjiru. Having had enough like much of the crowd, Muthoni went a step further in her frustration, got ahold of her calico dress, raised it over her shoulders and shouted:

“Take my dress and give me your trousers! You men are cowards! What are you waiting for? Our leader is in there! Let’s go get him!!”

What Muthoni had just performed was an old Gikuyu insult. Guturamira ng’ania was a rarely employed move only performed as a last resort when women could no longer recognise the authority of men when all went awry. It was a most powerful symbol of defiance a woman could use against a patriarchal system.

The same tactic would be employed by Africa's first female Nobel Laureate, Wangari Maathai, and her colleagues some seventy years later at Freedom Corner.

This act inspired ululations as hundreds and possibly thousands of other women cheered in support of Muthoni. She led a push forward towards the police lines, immediately leading to about forty askaris raising their guns while standing between them and Thuku’s cell; the prisoner at the time a helpless onlooker from his prison cell window.

When a section of the crowd made a break for Thuku’s cell, the first shot was fired. This was followed by a hail of bullets relentlessly emptied into the crowd. Opposite the police station was Norfolk Hotel where white settlers wined and dined. Of this capricious bunch, those who were armed joined the police and began shooting at the crowd from behind.

When the dust had settled, at least 200 peopled laid dead, Muthoni among them. even more were injured and suffered fatal injuries that they would succumb to. The official government figure claimed only 21 fatalities and 28 injuries, but all lies have short legs and media propaganda could not, for too long, hide the truth about the morning of arguably the biggest pre-Mau Mau pogrom effected by British imperial forces.

This article first appeared on Joburg Post*

Statue of Dedan Kimathi

#KenyanHistory 

Traditional Igbo prayer

We shall all live. We pray for life, children, a good harvest and happiness. You will have what is good for you and I will have what is good for me. Let the kite perch and let the eagle perch too. If one says no to the other, let his wing break.

Rona batho ba mmino wa jazz

Backyard Background Blues

#JazzMoya #HerbieTsoaeli #AfricanTime

Jobur Post field work

interviewing Samthing Soweto back in '17 at WAM. he was to perform at the 969 Festival at Wits. wrote a nice little review for Joburg Post afterwards. 

Show Review: A conscious-raising escapade

Such shows as this month's Poetic Thursdays event at Soweto Theatre tend to become nightmarish for a reviewer who tries to recreate, by way of words, what was on offer for the attending audience. This is simply because such shows, especially where poetry is central, can deliver on such a high level that only a few words can reach.

This was the case in the typically cozy Blue Theatre on Thursday evening as a near full-capacity audience were treated to arguably one of the best poetry assemblies of the year.

Kicking off their third season in partnership with Soweto Theatres, Poetic Thursdays has established a knack for attracting some of the warmest, friendliest and understanding people to make up part of its audience. This allows crucial curtain-raiser features such as the ‘Open Mic’ to function under a welcoming atmosphere, which is most ideal for the would-be skittish novice-poet.

Another of Poetic Thursdays strongest items, wittingly or unwittingly, is the MCing. Kgotso Motaung, AKA Poetic Justice, has set a lofty standard with his incredible authentism as the regular MC of the show over the years. With him being one of the night’s performers however, Trigga Soweto filled in admirably with a similarly authentic ghetto gusto.

Poetic Justice, also creator of the show, stepped a rung lower to position himself in front of the gaze and mercy of the audience, treating them to his conscious-raising and creatively poignant work that he chose to prelude with his favourite from the virtuosic Mak Manaka’s Flowers of a Broken Smile. The 28-year old’s poetry is deeply rooted in the Black experience and affects with a swaggering assuredness only cultivated by having about 10 years of growth and experience in his locker. To risk a seemingly odd football analogy, Poetic Justice does with words what Brazilian sensation, Neymar, does with the soccer ball. He is compellingly crafty, infectiously bold, strikingly effective and unimaginably mercurial.

Writer, entrepreneur and publisher, Shibombi Baloyi too had everyone under her alluring spell. She tells a lovely story through poetry all readily consistent with her endearing aura. Among an impressive poetry output she shared her first poem written in critique of poets, who according to her were too prone to exaggeration. It is on that motif that she performed a poem that expressed boastful pride in owning the idiosyncratic exaggerations of poets.

Lerato Lichaba’s sonic offering was a complementary break that re-energised the senses. The feature of a ballerina contrived to give a visual account of the elegant yet psychedelic notes emanating from Lichaba’s guitar strings. The Urban Village band leader evoked something ancestral from his Kemetic garb down to his evocative sounds. In entertainment terms, he was a complete item.

Thabo Kolo, AKA Sensei, also showcased his undeniable talents and also allowed for his friend and colleague Molefe Nong to wow the crowd. Together they run LentsweAfrica Ltd., a South African privately owned creative house and digital hub positioned to provide a range of arts and craft solutions. The company’s strongest inclinations lean towards poetry, music (of all forms, styles and genres) and writing/editing.

Thursday’s season-opener was an overall success. While escapades are usually characterized by inebriation, Poetic Thurdays’ experience is as intensely sobering as it is trance-inducing. By last night’s showing alone, it truly stands out as the bellwether poetry show in Johannesburg.

Hoe voel jy?

Ek voel Dolly vandag! Double Dolly! #Kofifi #DieTaal

Sad Afrika (A Country Without A Name): A Philosophical Critique Of The South African Identity

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  The name ‘South Africa’ is not reflective of the identity of the indigenous people conquered in the unjust wars of colonisation. It is a name given and reaffirmed to a colonial territory - by colonialists - in the 19th  and 20th centuries. Could this point to some evidence that the knowledge framework of the indigenous people remains in bondage, in a country supposedly free from colonialism and apartheid?
  
  In 2002, amidst much anticipation, the late legendary jazz composer Zim Ngqawana released Zimphonic Suites. Under this highly conceptual album, he snuck in a masterful sonic critique aimed at the gross neglect by post-94 South Africa of the knowledge framework of the indigenous, in the form of Sad Afrika (A country without a name). 
  
  Bra Zim, whose works are grounded in the African philosophy of Ubuntu, would, at least in 2002, have more than likely agreed with Professor Mogobe Ramose, that “for the indigenous conquered peoples, a name is an identity card that opens up the genealogy and history of the bearer of that particular name. It is the coded history of the bearer of that name. As such, it is the affirmation of connections and relations with the extended family, the living dead (ancestors) and the community from which the name-bearer originates.” 
  
  This importance of naming is applicable to a nation’s moniker down to that of a person. It stands, nonetheless, that a name in the imagination of the indigenous is one typically rich with meaning. Why is it then that our own country, even after 1994, still does not bear a name that communicates our endogenous reflections? 
  
  The history of colonisation in this country is dominated by two ethnically disparate Europeans, namely, the Dutch – later to refashion themselves, rather presumptuously, as Afrikaners – and the British. Over the passage of time and unjust wars, both these nations claimed undue sovereign title to territory over the indigenous people and shared the spoils in the shape of land, but not without their own contestations over these lands. 
  
  However, it is only in 1852 that the name South Africa emerges, interestingly almost exactly 200 years after Jan van Riebeeck’s arrival, properly as Zuid-Afrikaansche Republiek (Dutch for South African Republic). It represented  the area north of the Vaal River, otherwise known as the Transvaal, and was decided upon unilaterally by the Dutch.
  
  Amidst the  “discovery” of gold in the Witwatersrand along with, British ambitions for expansion, tensions grew between the latter and the Dutch over this land. This led to the first Anglo-Boer war in 1880, which the Dutch won. The British were relentless, however, in their pursuit of this land and 19 years later, the 2nd Anglo-Boer war broke out. 
  
  Three years of combat saw Britain emerge victorious in 1902. Bearing in mind, however, the illegitimacy of the claim to the land of the indigenous people by the Europeans, it is interesting that the Anglo-Boer War was fought as if  the indigenous did not have any claim over this land. This occurred notwithstanding the indigenous who participated in the war and , who were quite literally cannon fodder. 
  
  The end of the war between the two European nations led to the Treaty of Vereeniging. The treaty served as an instrumental prelude towards the passage of the 1909 Union of South Africa Act, in 1910. This statute saw  the unification of the colonies, namely Transvaal, Orange Free State, Natal and Cape as constituent provinces of the Union. So here we see the name reaffirmed, this time to describe the Union, but expressly in the English language this time. 
  
  However, this Union followed the problematic logic of the war, as the indigenous peoples again had no say about this de facto and de jure unification of the colonies.
  
  The historical record thus shows that from 1852 to 1909, South Africa qua the Zuid Afrikaansche Republiek was a territory across Vaal river, which was unjustly claimed by the Dutch colonists who oppressed the indigenous  people with impunity. And from 1910 until 1961, at least juridically, the name South Africa qua the Union of South Africa could be said to not only have represented an agreement by formerly warring colonisers to unify their respective colonies into a single entity , but was also a consensus on the modes of oppression of  the indigenous.
  
  So what does it mean that the indigenous leadership collective that formed the South African Native National Congress – later African National Congress – seemed, in their nomenclature, to have accepted this name at their inception in 1912? And what does it mean that the Pan Africanist Congress of Azania disregarded the moniker after their inception five decades later? 
  
  Azania is a contested term  etymologically - Africa likewise - but is nevertheless asserted with the understanding that a name symbolises ownership as well, and that to accept the name South Africa is to accept its ownership by those who originally coined it as such under the colonial regime.
  
  It is also interesting to note that the currency (Rand) of the country is still depicted under Afrikaner grammar. This name again is not in tune with the indigenous people, no matter what the settler Dutch community call themselves nowadays. In several instances all over the world, a nation’s currency speaks to proper sovereignty over country and territory. Think of the Yen, Pound, US Dollar, etc..
  
  Here in Africa we have the Naira, Pula, etc. Hence, the question stands with regard to  what justifies the fact that the neither the name nor the currency of the country expresses the philosophical view of the indigenous?
  
   Furthermore, the transition from the Pound to Rand anticipated the legally questionable metamorphosis of the Union into the Republic of South Africa, in 1961. From a philosophical point of view, this was not a transformation but a reversion back to 1852, back to Zuid-Afrikaansche Republiek. 
  
  Our current adaptation of the name remains uncomfortably close to the nomenclature of the conqueror. It is small wonder if this goes some way in explaining the financial inequalities in the country, which remain heavily skewed in favour of the descendants of the colonisers.
  
  Since South Africa is essentially a product of colonisation, it is not unreasonable, therefore, to posit that even the proclamation “I am proudly South African”, which has outgrown its “buy local” marketing origins, promotes an identity constructed within the remit of the existential and epistemological model of the colonising Europeans. 
  
  It thus speaks to the imperative of epistemic justice, but ultimately historical justice, that the continuing struggle for decolonisation should encourage far-reaching structural changes in the country that will engender the total emancipation of indigenous people as was the case in Thomas Sankara’s Burkina Faso.
  
  Perhaps Bra Zim was on to something if the title of his meditation suggests that the country – maybe even Africa in general - is in a sad state due to its namelessness which has been compounded by the dereliction of indigenous knowledge.
  
  The name South Africa is indeed incongruous with the outlook of the indigenous people. It is long past its expiry date and to stretch a metaphor by Prof Ramose, it is hardly the mirror that reflects the real image and identity of the indigenous people standing in front of it.