Another book I would recommend to read is called Wild Beauty: New and Selected Poems by Ntozake Shange. She compiled a collection of poems that were new and poems from previous works. The most unique about this poem was that it was written in English and Spanish. The moment you start reading the first poem in Spanish, the English version is on the next page. Definite read.
This is a really interesting site and in it some really thought provoking insights are raised. At this time when SA is undergoing a historic Land Expropriation ‘revolution’, even though it is still just a proposal at this point. The views of this ‘Common Law Grand Jury’ are a great addition to the robust debate.
We Must communicate and singaxhamazeli (to act irrationally and haphazardly) … because, yes the Land must be justifiably returned to the Natives, but it must be done wisely. Enjoy reading this and feel free to submit your comment.
REUTERS/Siphiwe Sibeko
Zimbabweland kicks off 2018 with three articles republished from a series coming out in The Conversation, each on commenting on different land and agriculture policy issues under the post-Mugabe dispensation. This is the first.
In his inaugural address the new President of Zimbabwe, Emmerson Mnangagwa, confirmed that land reform was both historically necessary and irreversible. He also made a commitment to compensate farmers who were forced off their land during the fast track land reform programme of the 2000s.
Many international commentators read this as a sign of a more inclusive stance that could benefit economic recovery. Indeed, the recent reinstatement of an evicted white farmer is perhaps an indication that things are changing.
Mnangagwa has no option but to tackle land reform if he’s serious about getting Zimbabwe’s economy back on track. This is because agriculture continues to play a significant role.
Zimbabwe’s major land reform…
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« Scapegoating has not helped any nation to evolve ; Nigeria won’t be the exception. The best approach is to search for the cause of the failures and confront it. A country where politics is the chief means of livelihood is sitting on a time bomb. This perception brings about « national cake syndrome »; national cake brings equity in public office; equity in public office reinforces rotational presidency; and rotational presidency, in turn, nurtures the agitation for national conference. »
Robert Nwadiaru introduces us to the present-day Nigeria, the African Giant, a country with infinite riches, both natural and human, yet which still struggles after more than half a century after the independence.
The book that critics have compared to Chinua Achebe’s The Trouble with Nigeria from 1983 transports its reader to Nigeria and makes him feel like he knows it intimately ; the fine geographical details, as well as the constant references to the…
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Part 1: An Introduction to Zimbabwe
A cold mist rises over the rejuvenated Mosi-oa-Tunya
The waters of Kasamba bezi are rumbling with the voices of their distanced children
The tongues they shout with are foreign
None remember the semiotic invocations of the BaTonga
The ululations of the KaLanga
Those who tamed the Land after the BaTwa had run and painted it with their dreamscapes
None can dance to the liquid melodies of Mbira and Kalimba
And the Ngoma of Nehanda and Nzinga is all but totally forgotten
The cold mist meets the raging heat of the clouded valleys
And the rain falls incessantly like the urging of a black woman in the throes of the Spirit
Like the woman, we are a people in trance
Fed by foreign settlers who till our soil with nonchalant glee
Disregarding the ancient rituals of appeasing the ones who first prepared the ground
The treasures of old Bulawayo are plundered and squandered
We are no longer inhaling from the nchelwa and the national totems are bought and sold in markets all over the world
These are the ruins of the once and future Queendom of Great Zimbabwe …
One of the problems with Black superheroes in Marvel and DC comics is that they may look Black, but very rarely do they reflect the experiences and struggles of Black people. This was a point that was made Kenneth Ghee who explained in Black Comics: Politics of Race and Representation that: “Historically in comic books and movies, the Black superhero operates in a totally Eurocentric (White) context; no Black family, no Black lover, no connection to community or culture…For him (and for us and our children) there is no Black consciousness or Black cause, only a generalized ‘humanitarian’ supportive role from a Eurocentric worldview and perspective.” Given that the Black Panther movie is set to be released next month, I would like to point out that one of the unique things about the Black Panther is that he is one Black superhero who has to confront many of the problems…
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“The Lord God said, ‘Behold, the man has become one of us, to know good and evil. Now, lest he put forth his hand and take also the tree of life and eat and live forever, [ let us] send him forth from the Garden of Eden…”
I have been re-reading Fingerprints of the Gods: A Quest for the Beginning And The End, the seminal work by the dexterous Graham Hancock. Hancock who is former East African correspondent for The Economist and has travelled widely around the worldis also the author of The Sign and the Seal, Lords of Poverty and several other monumental works is not the subject of this story. What I want to talk about is so obvious as to seem trivial, yet the magnitude of its eventual revelation is so crucial.
Existence is a journey, the tale of the journey, It is a story told from within as it carries the seeds of ultimate becoming. But what are we becoming,? has the Earth changed so much since the days of the First People or the people Before any past recollection?
As the Earth revolves in its Sun-ward Orbit
Rings ..
Strings
Stirrings
Rumors mingled with the un-drying blood of war
War mongers and accountants, and Lawyers work hand in hand
Privatize, Patronize and Compromise before we self actualize
Dream merchants selling opiates the the people
Blown by the audacity of Hope borne on the wings of Faith, Imagination, Longing
What The Earth Feels that It Becomes
What We know so far is a fragment of what we have known
and a fraction that fragment cannot contain what we can become.
Knowledge Is Infinite!!!
The Bright Star of Knowing Exists Against The Sky of Unknowing
Cloudy with a Chance of Icicle Showers
Black Bulls Grazing in the Grass
White Birds Chatting On The Branches of the Tree of Life
Asking for yet another curfew
Another Sky to Drop Bombs From
Tarnishing the images of a once and future great creator
Until The Earth is Replenished Again
The People Deserve …
Part 1: Leadership in crisis
We can debate unto infinity about the impact and value of Afrikan leadership on the careworn citizens, all our debates and multi-levelled reasoning would lead us nowhere fast unless we can somehow find out from the led, or the ruled, just what makes them tick.
What makes other people leaders and others mere followers? There are historical, social, psychological as well as political reasons why some people say that the people deserve the leaders they get. In order to find out more about the relations between modern Afrikan peoples ad their leaders, among the questions we would ask are:
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Prologue: The promise of Africa, as a vibrant strong player in the global economy, remains steadfast, especially, after an impressive 15-year period of steady economic growth. During that period, per capita GDP surged to an average of 3%. However, more recently, this remarkable upturn in the continent’s development fortunes, have diminished, raising concerns about Africa’s renaissance. Nevertheless, the continent, through its vision 2063, the“ Africa We Want,” remains steadfast in its efforts to build a viable and prosperous home for her people and at the at the same time, contribute to the global economy.
This grand vision for Africa, notwithstanding, requires that the fundamental levers for development be engaged. Agriculture is one of the fundamental levers needed to actualize Africa’s Vision 2063. Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth originating in agriculture is twice as effective in benefiting the poorest half of a country’s population as growth generated in non-agricultural sectors…
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One of my favourite book titles must be Sembene Ousmane’s God’s Bits of Wood. It speaks poetically of the existential position of an embattled and suffering humanity. Ousmane deals most creatively with the lot of Afrikan people and the struggles we go through under various forms of colonialism.
I have read this novel, a very long time ago, during my formative years of being introduced to the awesomely endowed African Writers Series, a trademark of Heinemann, a division of Reed Publishing ( USA) Incorporated. To say that the African Writers Series and the Caribbean Writers Series is a treasure-trove would be an understatement, but I have yet to find the words to describe the wealth of knowledge and joy I have found in exploring all those stories from all over the Afrikan and Diasporic world.
I am about to re-read Sembene Ousmane’s God’s Bits of Wood, ( I aim to write at length about the literary and film works of this great Afrikan artist and prophet -) and I am so excited. The blurb at the back reads:
“‘Eversince they left Thies, the women had not stopped singing. As soon as one group allowed the refrain to die, another picked it up, and new verses were born at the hazard of chance or inspiration, one word leading to another and each finding in its turn, its rhythm and its place. No one was very sure any longer where the song began, or if it had an ending. It rolled out over its own length, like the movement of a serpent. It was as long as a life.’
In 1947-8 the workers on the Dakar-Niger railway came out on strike. Sembene Ousmane, in thhis vivid and moving novel, evinces all of the colour, passion and tragedy of those decisive years in the history of West Africa.”
