Political Commentary

Bonginkosi Ntiwane02/10/2023

Speaking about the role of artists in society, the incomparable Nina Simone said: “An artist’s duty, as far as I’m concerned, is to reflect the times. I think that is true of painters, sculptors, poets, musicians. As far as I’m concerned, it’s their choice, but I choose to reflect the times and situations in which I find myself.”

Simone’s Mississippi Goddam was inspired by a number of senseless killings of African Americans, including the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.

“There are issues we live in; I think we should address these things. For me it’s always important to write about my experiences, just to remind someone else who’s also going through the same thing [that] they’re not alone,” Mandisi Dyantyis said in an interview with the SABC last year, speaking about his sophomore album, Cwaka.

Dyantyis will perform this weekend at the Back to Live concert at Constitution Hill in Braamfontein, Johannesburg alongside Zoë Modiga, The SN Project, Dumisani Thee DJ and DJ Kenzhero.

Zoë and Dyantyis are part of a crop of South African musicians who make music that accurately speaks to our times. Getting the chance to watch them live seems more than just entertainment, but a service to one’s soul.

South Africa is in the shits. If it isn’t the rampant blackouts by Eskom, it’s the sky rocketing unemployment numbers or the ubiquity of crime on our streets. It seems each waking day we’re hit by worse news of an innocent woman being brutally murdered by a disgruntled lover or murmurings of another coalition breakdown in government. Kubi.

When an artist reflects the times they’re in through their work, it’s a strong indication to their audience that they are in touch with what the people are going through. It’s an act devoid of ignorance. Although some of this art can come off as didactic or too preachy, it has an important role. “I’m not saying I’m gonna change the world, but I guarantee that I will spark the brain that will change the world.,” 2Pac once said.

Sometimes, people can’t realise the obvious and need to hear the message from their favourite artist. I’d like to imagine that when an ardent ANC supporter hears Dyantyis’ Ziyafana, they have a light-bulb moment of the paucity of good leadership in the political party. The same can be said of most political parties actually.

Like the messiest and most painful junctures in life, hard times squeeze out the best in us and it is so in art. Dyantyis’ Cwaka is a timely body of work that went into the crevices of South Africans’ realities-be it loss, frustration or dejection – without compromising on his musical genius and authenticity.

While the gent from Gqeberha’s jazz treads on the socio-political and emotive, Zoë’s music is a constant reminder to beautiful Bantu babies of their strength. Her music sits as The Mirror of Erised for darkies, that doesn’t only show black people their heart’s desires, but also calls out the bullshit.

As James Brown’s message on Say It Loud, I’m Black & I’m Proud cannot not be misunderstood, so is Zoë’s Abantu. It’s a candid conversation she has with Bantu people- touching on black on black violence, self-image, and poverty but yet the song is mighty reassuring. “This song is dear to my heart because it’s part of all the conversations we’ve been having. It’s a beautiful love letter because it’s a song that puts us in a place of realising that we commit so much violences [sic] amongst ourselves as black bodies and part of that is calling systems into place that have allowed us to think in this way,” Modiga said during one of her live performances a few years ago.

Each time I hear Dyantyis’ Iskhalo, my imagination hastily paints out the pain of those child-headed homes or the cry of a young educated person who can’t access the job market because they are without connections. These are realities that too many South Africans live with.

“It’s a song dedicated to the youth of 1976 and it’s a song that reminds us that young people are always part of watershed moments, we always make big changes,” Zoë explaining her track Intsha to Tha Bravado, a few years ago. The song echoes the zeal and fearlessness of young people.

South Africa is in a crisis and it is music such as this that keeps us going, reminding us that change won’t come until we the people do something about it.

Back To Live is presented by BandaBanda Agency and ticket are available HERE.

Ephraim Lebeloane04/05/2022

This Operation Dudula business is to our demise as Africans and if we’re not careful, wars will be created amongst ourselves that’s if we’re not already at war. Africans must unite and stop being cowards, the real enemy is the oppressor.

Nhlanhla Lux ideas and assertions about the deportation of undocumented foreign nationals as some sort of a remedy to combat issues such as crime, high unemployment and other burning matters, is misdirected effort however well-intentioned.

To begin with, when people speak of undocumented foreign nationals, we all know they’re actually referring to other Africans who are living in South Africa. The self-hate amongst Africans is sickening, behind closed doors people still refer to these Africans as “makwerekwere;” which is indicative of how we as Africans we view ourselves. African people dare say the European must go back to his continent, but it’s morally permissible to stone an African to death just because he doesn’t have a piece of paper to validate his existence as a human, forgetting what the European did. The fact is, as people of Ntu (Ntu is the Supreme African God, hence we call ourselves Abantu), we find ourselves at rock bottom because of the oppressor but we keep looking elsewhere.

Operation Dudula’s chief principle is that if we deport all the undocumented foreign nationals, then black South Africans will have jobs and crime rates will drop. This is pure gibberish, the reason black South Africans don’t have jobs is because the oppressor killed our ancestors and stole our land and its resources. Our job as Africans is to work the land and nurture it so that it nurtures us in return. I am not even gonna talk about the corrupt black elite who benefits from greedy corporates and capitalism and is a loyal servant of a monstrous system that keeps raping Africa and its children. These scumbags have given the oppressor amnesty for his sins in return for riches. The European has never paid for his sins and he’s not even apologetic, he walks as a free man because he knows he runs the machine.

Another matter that people like to reference when they’re trying to run away from the fact that they hate other Africans, is the issue of crime. I personally didn’t know that crime has a nationality, it appears that when an African from Zimbabwe or Nigeria or wherever in the vicinity of Africa commits a crime, there’s emphasis and the crime is not treated as other crimes that might have been committed by others despite nationality. All criminals should be treated the same and the law must punish the perpetrators accordingly. And we should never forget that the biggest thieves and criminals are the ones who killed our ancestors and did all the other atrocities one could think of.

Operation Dudula cartoon — A cartoon by Carlos Amato, originally done for New Frame.

Isn’t it ironic that when it comes to issues such as that of the Khoi and San people who are still not acknowledged nor recognised as people of this country there’s no militancy; it seems as if we suffer from selective activism. Even when you fill forms there’s no Khoi and San box to tick, this is a clear indication that the government doesn’t care nor recognise the Khoi and San people, and mind you, we’re talking about the aboriginal people of this land we call Mzansi Afrika. Not even their dialect is recognised in the eleven official languages, but surely, you can’t miss English and Afrikaans, it’s even written in bold.

As people of South Africa we have been fooled numerous times by our leaders. The youth mustn’t be myopic when seeking new candidacy to fill in the position of a black messiah. To me, Operation Dudula is a quasi-colonial psychosis system and mass self-hypnosis. This is reanimation of the Pass Laws, the oppressor has taught us to afflict ourselves on his behalf. It’s like the Isotope phenomenon, you can’t use the same elements and or instruments to remedy a system that benefits from disunity and expect different results. We should always remember that, divide and conquer is ruthless tact but a genius plan.

Another important factor to note is that whenever there’s politically ideological mass movements-vigilantism and mob justice are always accompanied by violence and war. It’s belligerent. So even if the intention is pure or sincere things tend to go astray because you’re dealing with individuals and many personalities. The great Ngugi Wathiong’o said it better: “you can’t make an omelette without breaking eggs”.

Tomy brother Nhlanhla Lux, your industrious energy, leadership skills and militant approach is remarkable and much needed to help bring the revolution but I don’t agree with you on this one.

Bonginkosi Ntiwane11/12/2021

This is the first of a two-part book review of The Lives Of Black Folk, a collections of essays by a variety of Bantu writers. It is the brainchild of online magazine, Culture Review. I was fortunate enough to have first dibs on which two chapters I would review and I instinctively wanted to talk to and about Abantu and Azania-which are the second and fourth chapters respectively. Khulisile Nkushubana will share his two cents on the first and third chapters, A Disturbance and Culture in part 2.

In that disappointing final episode of Game of Thrones, a shrewd Tyrion Lannister said something poignant as he was pleading the case for Bran Stark’s kingship. “What unites people? Armies? Gold? Flags? Stories. There’s nothing in the world more powerful than a good story. Nothing can stop it. No enemy can defeat it.”

I was enthralled by the 181 pages of The Lives of Black Folk, but the Abantu chapter was particularly special to me as a storyteller and an avid consumer of chronicles. But these aren’t the fictional tales of George R.R. Martin. The stuff on Abantu are real accounts from real people, abodarkie abanjengami nawe. In his intro to the book, editor and founder of Culture Review magazine Kulani Nkuna describes the hardcover as “A disavowal of the black condition as it currently exists, and the seeming disruption brought about contemporary challenges. It is simultaneously a mourning and a celebration-of blackness in all its attendant vicissitudes.”

A Letter To All The White Women Whose Panties & Bras I have Worn by Palesa Nqambaza is one of the stories on Abantu. Nqambaza details how she was a lifetime recipient of hand-me-downs of underwear from white women, who employed some of the women in her family as domestic workers. Nqambaza, who is a ph.D candidate at Wits, Politics Department and is a sessional lecture in the same department, addresses this demeaning part of her life with a sense of humour. “They raised you until they were ultimately employed by you. You in turn, have raised my bum. Yes, white women, you are my bum’s keeper,” she writes. Yet she calls-out this false-sense of goodwill white women possess. “…you just came from a world where someone else could be a site of your garbage disposal; a world of excess. And (thank God for philanthropy) a landfill opened up to you in the figure of my aunty. She represented lack, an abyss waiting to be filled by that which you needed to dispose of.”

It’s cute how Nqambaza’s criticism ends with her aunt’s employers, not her aunt who has been handed these personal and used items for years and yet hands them over to relatives. The letter also highlights the generational disparity between Nqambaza and her aunt’s feelings towards white women’s behaviour in this regard. That her aunt still hands her the black garbage bag with clothes, despite the fact that Nqambaza is now a middle-class educated woman who can afford, is telling.

Under the title Working Women, the real life accounts of black women toiling for their children, interviewed in the 1980s shows just how much things remain the same as they change. The story of Dolly, whose husband was jailed in the 1960s and was forced to do extra work to support her two children, could very well be a story of a women living in South Africa today. “I became a prostitute because of circumstances. I was struggling. Most of the time I to borrow money,” says Dolly.

She was a sex worker from 1964 to 1984. “I used to operate in Hillbrow a lot. But nowadays I haven’t got a place to go during the day, You’ve got to go maybe in a passage. It’s risky. It’s very risky. Prostitution is not nice at all. It pays…it does not pay. No.”

Perfect Hlongwane’s Dignity Isn’t Always Pretty (for Fikile ‘Bra Fikz’ Magadlela) talks to the struggle black creatives wrestle with, when it comes to the balancing act of making a living through your art without devaluing the artwork or yourself. Yet writer Hlongwane addresses this animal through his friendship with artist Bra Fikz. You can listen to the audio version of Hlongwane’s letter here.

The Abantu chapter has 13 colourful, unique, educational and real-life anecdotes that display the intricate beauty of our humanness as black folk.

Makhafula Vilakazi’s Ulele is a timely opening piece to the Azania chapter. He poignantly titled his poem Ulele, which talks directly to black folk’s lack of urgency pertaining to issues of land. An extract from the poem:

Udakwe kamnandi um’Afrika omuhle,

Udakwe yivangeli;

Udakwe yindlala;

Udakwe yis’thembiso sika Nelson nabashana bakhe base

Luthuli abarhudulwa amaKula nama Juda ngesende;

Udakwe yisikoloto saseNedbank;

Udakwe yinhlamba zononkroyi we’shwaphha om’biza

ngemfene ezweni lakhe

On Whose God Is It Anyway? Pastor Xola Skosana, a former pastor of 30 years talks about unshackling from the chains of slavery, religious slavery that is. “May I add and say that the church captures the heart and imagination. The gun, the school and the church do a complete work, in the process of making a slave,” writes Skosana who now runs Kilombo Village, a home for Run-Away-Slaves.

“So, when a slave burns down a building in a system that maintains his/her slavery, and stands by to watch the flames engulf the building, it is a beautiful moment. It is the closest thing to the possibility of undoing what was done to make him/her a slave. When the slave finally wakes up, not even Jesus will stay inside the church; for the furry will be too much to bear.”

Romantic as this sounds, I was left with more questions than answers after reading the former pastor’s thoughts and ideas. Since religion and spirituality are different things, I got a sense ambiguity about what a run-away-slave is in this sense. I was expecting him to introduce perhaps into the conversation, ideas about black spirituality or a more nuanced conversation about religion. Be in ancestral worship/belief or the discussion about real Jews being black.

Overall I enjoyed reading The Lives of Black Folk. It felt like being in a room with Bantu people, listening to each other’s stories and finding ways to attaining true freedom.

I believe black South African from different walks of life need an opportunity to read this book, as a reminder of one’s blackness. In the book are artworks from black superstars such as Thabo Lehobye, Sive Mqikela, Thonton Kabeya and Ayanda Mabulu- the artworks were a cooling interlude between the hard-hitting black experiences on paper.

The book is available at Book Circle Capital (27 Boxes), 75 4th Avenue, Melville, Johannesburg.

Then via email at
sales@culture-review.co.za

Whatsapp at 076 616 2845

Admin1801/25/2021

In the first episode of Urban Ish On Lock on Tha Bravado, shot at Tembisa’s art hub 4ROOM Creative Village, Bukho and Finesse Keys have a dialogue about the toxic relationship black men have with money. Being the first month of 2021, we thought it appropriate to discuss money because of the role it play in our lives.

In the video the two hosts delve into where this toxicity stems from, its consequences on the black man and greater society whilst searching for ways of mending this fraught relationship.

Khulisile Nkhushubana02/18/2019

It has been almost ten years since I was traditionally initiated in Xhosa manhood and I remember it like it was yesterday. The blood, the gore, the endless days of pain mixed with sleep deprivation, wishing that this archaic shit would end so that I could get back to civilization and resume my life in modernity. Personally I was indifferent to the whole idea of ukwaluka but at the time I was living under my parents roof and they are rural to the bone, so a ghetto kid did what he had to do to survive.

The ritual is designed to be traumatic so that the knowledge imparted unto you by elderly ‘wise’ men is seared into your memory like a brand on a cow’s behind. Unfortunately most boys come out of the whole shebang with a solid grasp on the finer points of misogyny and alcoholism.

Xhosa initiation rites seem to no longer serve their intended purpose, which was to nurture loyalty in young man and instil a sense of pride in them for being tough enough to survive the entire brutal experience. This was necessary in a precolonial South Africa, where bitch-ass-niggerisms couldn’t be tolerated because as the saying goes ‘you are only as strong as your weakest link’. The tribe could not afford to be weak, with megalomaniacs like Shaka Zulu prowling the land for villages to conquer.

Traditions should only survive due to the pragmatic value they have to a society or a community. If that set value is no longer readily apparent, then modes of thought, attitudes and behaviours become toxic. Their preservation is generally due to sentiment. As an economically poor people who do not have a working knowledge of our culture before colonialism, we desperately hold on to pieces of ourselves. Like a tortured soul tightly holding on to a piece of a broken mirror hoping to get a full picture of the beauty they once had. I think the reason we do this is because we want to feel like haven’t assimilated the coloniser’s way of life, it is reactionary.

Tradition is a function of culture, along with language, fashion, art and belief to name a few of its elements. Its unadulterated practice in isolation does not make sense because its intended function out of context will not bear the anticipated results. For example, educating children in their mother tongues but public and private institutions of consequence communicate is English. Having worked in the retail sector as a cashier, I saw the inferiority complexes that my co-workers had when they had to deal with an unreasonable Caucasian customer because they did not have a proper grasp of the English language. The very same people would have no problem dealing with an African customer who spoke the same language and exhibited the same kind of unacceptable behaviour.

I can already hear the culture Nazi’s shouting “in order to know where you’re going, you must know where you come from”. In principle I agree with this idiom, but in life I’m not a prisoner to it. I understand the profound desire that we have, as Africans, to be masters of our own destiny but we should not let it blind us in our actions. We should look at the world for what it is, rather than looking at it as what we think it used to be. The reactionary tendency to romanticize precolonial African culture is doing us no favours in reclaiming our sense of identity and sense of being. Instead we should consciously and consistently repurpose elements of our culture so that they are useful in addressing present day challenges.

For instance I think the tradition of ukwaluka should be used to instil:

· A culture of brotherhood amongst Xhosa men

· Tolerance for other people’s point of view and cultures

· The value of discipline and perseverance

· A demonization of alcohol and drugs

· An internalized understanding of how to treat African people regardless of gender, tribe or class

The value of human life.

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