‘Mzansi’ means ‘south’, but refers specifically to South Africa. South Africa, for all its development and westernization is still Africa, and has some of the most amusing quirks I’ve ever encountered. Most have to do with policy, language barriers and culture. No, you can’t have it your way The first time we went out for […]
Friday, August 12th. The weather forecast called for rain, and a slight drivel brought mist and mud to Qolweni. It was late afternoon, and the cows had already come in from the pasture. Two boys sat in the dimly lit room of the man from Port Elizabeth’s house. Are you tired of being bullied? Are […]
The road to Cape Town is littered with beauty. It is as though God reached into His sack or art and inspiration, gathered a fistful of its contents and cast it wantonly upon this singular corner of the Earth. It is adorned with shimmering lakes and onyx black rivers; as well as cattle, sheep and […]
Sometimes going into the townships is like going into a war zone, and watching the dead remains of the troops that live there miraculously get up day after day to trudge through life. I look at the carnage all around me and ask myself how it’s possible. How do people go on like this day […]
Abortion. Termination. Right to Choose. No matter how you dress it to suit your sentiments, they’re all synonyms for the same thing: a baby is about to die in the womb. As the abortion debate rages on across the globe, advocates for and against the procedure have largely left one crucial party out of the […]
Have you ever been in the middle of doing something strange, bizarre and flat out WRONG with your spouse and paused to ask yourself “Is another couple somewhere in the world doing this exact same thing??” You have? Me too! Remember when you were standing at the altar, and the pastor sold you both on […]
I knew something was terribly off when Charter Communications began to pare down services and channel options for its ‘valued customers’ while charging them the same rates 2 years ago. They started with channels I hardly watched – CSPAN and the like – but when they took away G4 my disappointment gave way to full […]
July 27, 8:06 am: Hey, do you want to go bungy today? 10:16 am: Missed call from 08….. It was Brittany; the White girl with an adrenaline addiction. It wasn’t that I was ignoring her calls and texts – it was just that my body was still recovering from the unaccustomed exertion that I had […]
Have you noticed this anti-kid movement gaining steam in recent months and weeks? Large corporations and small businesses alike are beginning to impose bans on small children, preventing parents and children alike from patronizing particular establishments. Hey, we live in a free world and capitalist society and businesses are allowed to admit whomever they please […]
Yes. That is exactly what you think it is. That is a picture of my BUTT, which Robberg mountain essentially handed me this weekend. It never would have happened if I hadn’t been following after White people, pretending I could should do the things they do. These “white people things” include mountain climbing, shark tank […]
“There are days when I wake up, look in the mirror and get so frustrated with my hair. Whenever he hears me in the bathroom fussing with my hair I’ll hear a ‘click!’…and when I turn around Mario is taking a picture of it. He loves everything about it: the texture, the curl, the coils. […]
Yesterday I was trolling Yahoo News and discovered that Dakar has its own fashion week! The organizer of the annual event is privately organized by model-turned-designer, Adama Paris. The event is in its ninth year and if I’m so fortunate, I plan to attend the 10th showing in 2012. Young Africans are returning to their […]
“You guys should do township tours as a family. A day spent with you, and our teen birth rates would go waayyy down.” – Michael L. Yesterday we went to Sedgefield Market on the N2 with our missionary compatriots. Marshall and I are the only ones with kids. Everyone else in the group is a […]
My thighs had begun to burn and weaken when Marshall suggested I turn around. “Why don’t you try it backwards!” he panted. I rotated my rear and placed it in Marshall’s view. Our synchronized movements immediately felt more natural. I gasped my relief. “Isn’t that better?” “Much,” I breathed. We’d been walking up the steep […]
Two nights ago one of my childhood friends died in his sleep. He was 27. His sister, the oldest of 5 kids, was my best friend and he and my brother used to play together. We were an odd bunch in those days – one of the first ‘hybrid Ghanaians’ living in Ghana. Our common […]
God is, among other things, really super smart. And in His infinite wisdom, He has given me the gift of a knack for the written word but kept me safely sequestered from employment as a child novelist, animation script writer, copy editor for a children’s series and/or all things having to do with educating children […]
If you didn’t have thick skin before you had kids, you will certainly develop it afterwards. From the moment a child is conceived, he/she changes your life. From morning sickness to stretch marks to, hair loss to weight gain, nothing ever is really the same – and that’s just in the first two years of […]
Okay, Folk. I hate to talk about you, but you know how we are. Every time a Black person tries to do something positive, there are at least 40 other Black people waiting to pull them down. A few weeks ago, I brought you the story of Celia – the kind hearted woman who took […]
As some of you guys know, my sister works for a government agency. Her job is so top secret that she once described it as “tracking blue otters through Iran”, which is total malarkey. As riveting as her job may be, her manager makes working there a living hell. It has been asserted in […]
One of the reasons I love travelling and talking to other women is because I discover that when it comes to certain issues, we are all pretty much the same – we just come clad in different clothing. One issue in particular that we show solidarity on his how to chastise a man once he […]
Driving through the township of Kurland, I noticed a number of signs: ‘Elephant Sanctuary’, ‘Snake Sanctuary’, ‘Wolf Sanctuary’, etc. I was a bit skeptical at first, because I wondered how feasible it was to have any sort of animal sanctuary within walking distance of a small village. There were no apparent wires or walls anywhere…perhaps […]