Contact

To all my fellow radio friends with whom I attened the workshop in Johannesburg in June 2008, would be great to have some sort of contact with you all! It was great to be with you and would like to keep in touch and maintain the professional relations you and I had. If you would, please post something or send me an inbox. For security reasons, I can't divulge my email address on this post but will send you a message in your email addresses.

Forwarded Emails

If you're anything like me you probably hate forwarded emails, I mean they're not real nor original. Sometimes they make sense though; just like this one I have posted below. Someone sent it to me; I read it (it's bit long but), however it leaves room for thought.

YOU ARE A SLAVE............

"Why do we laugh at a black man/black people who are struggling to speak/write English and not laugh at (white man) speaking appalling Xhosa/Zulu/Sotho /Tsonga " We all have done this, thought that boxers/soccer players are idiots(Nomvete, Vuyani Bungu) because they cannot speak good English. Ever thought about De Klerk who does not know a single Xhosa word, He cannot even pronounce your name to start with.

In the office they pronounce your name wrongly and you just smile. You are impressed when Mrs van Wyk is trying to speak Xhosa/Zulu. In 15 yrs she managed to learn Molo/Sawubona only...and you are impressed by that sick crap.Why does it never occur to you that Mrs Van Wyk is an idiot, a certified moron...who is not capable of learning one single African language"

What is compelling me to be writing this email in English not in Xhosa??????? ?

I know all the recipients are either Xhosa , Zulu , Tsonga , Venda or Sotho; therefore they will be able to read and understand this email. Having realised that I still continue writing in English. My excuse "I am faster when I write in English (Crap!) I was not born speaking English. Listen to your voice mail. It is in English and how many whites call you compared to the blacks????. Why do you have to cater for the 10%. You do not even have a white friend yet your everything is in English. That is pathetic.

If I told you that I had a degree in Xhosa/Sotho you would all laugh for you do not see why someone in his right mind would want to a degree in Xhosa/Sotho.Yet French classes are over flowing...My sister cannot even write isiXhosa/Sotho she detaste the language and know one should be learning isiXhosa/Sotho.

Afrikaans are preserving Stellenbosch, RAU, Tuks ( Pretoria ) and all the varsities in the Transvaal region....What are we preserving Unitra will be closed...UniVenda may follow suit ..Uni Zulu maybe on the pipe line (But we have Fort hare).. Afrikaans (7% of the SA population) have 5 universities that they control. Little bit on maths; there should be 64 black varsities to level the grounds. That would be a waste I agree but this serve the purpose...

Nokia recently introduced a phone with menus in Xhosa/Zulu/Sotho...we think that "it for people who cannot read English", Amaqaba. When you phone vodacom service centre you always press 1 (to be helped in English press 1, Zulu press 2 (Xhosa), Sotho press 3, Afrikaans 4). Why is it that you'd rather stammer than speak your own language.

We are all slaves ..Our minds have been crippled and we will never be free until we free ourselves... "Emancipate your selves from mental slavery none but ourselves can free our minds"

Why can't we all just get along?

I went to a fast food restaurant this morning and I happened to sit across a Muslim couple who were also having their breakfast. The couple was adorned in their traditional Islamic attire; the man was wearing a galabiyya and the woman was wearing an abaya. An abaya is a flowing and non-clingy dress which covers a woman’s entire body including the face, with a bit of space left for the eyes. Now, eating for this woman, proved to be quite a difficult task because each time she was putting food in her mouth she had to lift a part of the abaya in order to eat. On more than one occasion, our eyes met, and I could sense that she was feeling self-conscious. Feeling a bit awkward myself, I quickly looked away, but only to be led by my eyes back there again. As much as a part of me felt like letting her out of her misery by going up to her and ripping the abaya off her face, but another very sane part of me told me that this was her choice and I should respect it. Which is more than what I can say for controversial columnist Jon Qwelane who recently wrote a column against gays and lesbians entitled, “Call me names, but gay is NOT okay..." In the article, Qwelane writes: "The real problem, as I see it, is the rapid degradation of values and traditions by the so-called liberal influences of nowadays; you regularly see men kissing other men in public, walking holding hands and shamelessly flaunting what are misleadingly termed their 'lifestyle' and 'sexual preferences'."As you can imagine, this article got quite a response from both the gay and lesbian community and civil society alike.

In his response, Qwelane’s said he was exercising his freedom of speech but even my 12 year-old sister will tell you that freedom of speech shouldn’t infringe on human rights. But what troubles me more than anything is the intolerance shown by someone who is supposedly the custodian of society. As a media practitioner, Qwelane knows that he has a responsibility to educate and inform society and not in any way incite or write anything which can be interpreted as derogatory. But Qwelane is not solely to blame for this article because he may have written it but he didn’t decide that it should be published. In a newspaper, an article goes through no less than three people before final publication. So this was a collective decision which may have been informed by revenue or the staff at Sunday Sun are homophobic. No doubt, the media plays a major role in shaping our society whether positively or negatively, and in some parts the media does tend to sensationalize and put profit ahead of content. Besides, the South African Constitution clearly stipulates that gay and lesbian marriages are legal, so whether anyone thinks it’s right or wrong is immaterial. I don’t even want to get started on ANC Youth League president Julius Malema’s utterances because he’s just not worth me mentioning him. But a person I will mention is a Cape Town Christian preacher who referred to Islam as a “puppet religion.” I’m a Christian myself and I may not read the bible as much as I should but I know that one of the central teachings of Christianity is tolerance and not being judgmental. The way that I see it is that it starts with acceptance; accepting people for who they are and respecting them for choosing who they want to be. I think once everyone gets their heads around that, we’ll all be one big happy family.

Welcoming the Initiates

Every year around June and July in South Africa during school vacations is time for young men and women to go to circumsation school in this beautifull country of ours. Since the government has taken circumsation as one of the traditional rights of citizens, it's now managed by the Department of Education and Health. Now guys and dolls who are from there come with certificates not just like us in the good old days.

As I write this all over villages today people are celebrating the return of initiates from the bush even in my village

Makotse Women Club Celebrate Youth Month

They say "wa thinta bafazi wa thinti umbhokoto". Yesterday women from the village of Makotse here in Limpopo celebrated youth month in style . Instead of long speeches the women gathered all the village children for a village cleaning campaign and painting of their dailly drop-inn Centre were they gathered kids from four years upwards to do the paintings for their centre. Well since it's school holidays here in Mzantsi youth never dissapointed they turned in their grooves to make sure that their village even if it doesn't have tarred roads looks beautfull like they do.


When asked about the purpose of celebrating this the Manager of Makotse Women Club said, "We need to keep our children a little bit busy cause once they get tired of playing they start thinking negative things like indulging in unprotected sex, which will lead into teenage pragnancy, theft and the unwanted preading of the HIV/AIDS pandemic."

Whistle for Freedom

Thousands displaced and more than 60 reported killed...
In almost a month of appalling suffering and xenophobic violence was the scene for Zimbabwean Joshua Mambo Rusere counseling people twice broken by violation,
first in Zimbabwe and then at the hands of their ‘brothers in South Africa.
Through it all Mambo Rusere kept the recording date at a small studio in Northern Johannesburg a priority, determined to record songs of hope.
He and The Vic Falls Mbira Group made their way through dangerous streets armed only with mbiras and gentle percussion instruments, determined to lay down their emotionally charged songs in a CD fittingly titled “Whistle for Freedom”.

In the midst of xenophobic chaos in his adopted home and political turmoil in his country of birth, Mambo-Rusere,
a welfare officer for the Zimbabwe Political Victims Association, is determined to use the most powerful means he knows to communicate his message to fellow Zimbabweans.
As a musician and poet he has captured his heart in songs on an inspiring and emotive CD, which encourages his countrymen to go home in peace to vote. He is not aiming for a Grammy Award or for platinum sales but for the successful communication of a message of hope. Mambo-Rusere is himself a victim of Zanu-PF brutality and current xenophobia but his spirit remains positive and optimistic.

Mambo Rusere hopes to have the songs on air by the end of this week
(13 June 2008). And is relying on international stations like Voice of America to flight them; hopefully they will be heard over the airwaves in Zimbabwe. But the harsh truth is that there are no opposition stations left in Zimbabwe. The CD will be distributed for no financial gain. What the group wants is only that the message is heard in this powerful plea and a vision of a new era; a new hope for ravaged Zimbabwe is realized. They need media and broadcast support to help raise awareness and get the message out.

The CD is available. Recorded and mixed as a labour of love & support by composer Nik Sakellarides, of the Pink Room, Johannesburg. The sleeve features artwork by internationally acclaimed Zimbabwean artist and activist Chaz Maviyane-Davies.
The project has at its helm Elinor Sisulu from the Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition (084 402 4931)

The project co-coordinators are still in need of financial support to offset the cd replication and packaging.

The CD recorded in SHONA is dedicated to a new Zimbabwe – and annals this desperate period in the History of Zim and Southern Africa.

Visitor 25041 @Constitutional Hill

On the 07 of June 2008 we visited the Constitutional Hill in Johannesburg where we were told about the history of our beautifull country South Africa. Actualy this place was the worst prison of its time.Where most of our leaders were kept. On my arrival home I decided that I should narate the story of what I know about the place called Constitutional Hill to my mother. I didn't know that I was talking to someone who knew the place as the most known prison of her life time when she was still a resident of the famous township in Soweto Kliptown. Telling the real stories from a woman who arrested for brewing traditional beer in a 100 galons drum which by then was actually the largest.She told me that she was placed in one of those worst cells most of you saw from some of those pictures my colleagues send to this blog untill my father came to pay the fine of four pounds the following day. I asked her about the night in a single cell and she said : "son I couldn't even stretch my legs ,the only thing was that you will have keep crying when you think that to others it my be worse to them ." She told me a lot about the place about the famous prisoners like Joe Mshagane and others her experience in that cell really traumatsed her for only that night she know's the place very well . Ooh she also referred me to some oldies of their time to get the real story from them 'cause my father passed away in my infancy so some of his friends are still there to narrate the story to me about the famous Number Four Prison before it was taken to Diepkloof in Soweto . I come with real people who maybe were the so called boses of the prison who are not on their list there at Constitutional Hill