Some thoughts from Spaghetti conversations [with Nkosi Wiseman Gola]

My friend Nkosi has written for me a number of times on this blog and so it was a great privilege to have him around for a special meal on Friday night with some friends, that i wrote about over here, and i asked him to share some of his impressions from the evening: 



Conversation is an integral part of transformation. It was for this reason that I went to Brett's house together with Monde Nonabe. It was a very short notice that I invited Monde to come with me and I was so happy and glad that he responded to my short notice invite. I was glad because I respect Monde's heart and passion for change in the black people's situation. I have only known Monde not for a very long time but one thing I knew is his heart for the Lord and his heart for transformation in the lives of the majority of this country. 

During the story telling, I was moved by Monde's story of course because mostly I could identify with his story. Our conversation with Monde began on our way to Wynberg which I was already learning a lot from his knowledge about our fallen heroes in Biko and Prof Sobukhwe. Monde has a speacial ability of linking today's problems with yesterdays happenings and hopes (should haves). 

When I listened to stories from the white brothers and sisters who were there I must say that I came to realisation that they themselves are victims to a system that even though they may not necessarily love but they are beneficiaries of. I listened to one white brother with teary eyes who said that he is aware of his white previlege yet he doesn't know what to do with it. Even though I myself was moved by that sincere heart but I knew that I can't lie about the fact that there is nothing much this brother could necessarily do except to join hands with blacks in dismantling and destroying the white power structure which is the cause of every pain in South Afrika and Afrika in general. 

I was moved about the story of Jan who has been living at a black township Kayamandi in Stellenbosch for many years. He is the only white in that area. As moving this story is but it had to be made clear that for him it was a choice that he went to live and stay in Khayamnandi unlike the blacks living in that area. 

I was also moved by the story of a brother from England who moved in to Mannenberg which is one of the hardcore areas in the Cape flats. I was moved that this brother was making moves and courageous, intentional actions that were to bring about change in Mannenberg. This brother told us a story about privilege on how he managed to raise up funds from contacting few friends in a short space of time for him to be able to own a house in Manenberg. It went more touching when he told a story about how was he a victim of robbery and his house being broke into and still he had a choice to either stay in Mannenberg or to live in a white surburb. This still proves that privilege gives one choice which the black majority of this country don't have. 

Conversation that was in Bretts house was so transforming. I think it was a safe space for such a conversation rather than the social networks. It was in that conversation that I was able to look into peoples' eyes and allow them to be broken and hopeless and hopeful with all the roller coast of emotions. I think these kind of conversations can be more progressive if they could be happening all around the country. These conversations could be more progressive if they could be taking place in the workplace. I do think that conversation like prophecy did to Israel in bring about God's view to the people, conversation puts the different world views into one. The Western Worldview which is most likely to be found amongst the whites and the Afrikan worldview which could possibly be found amongst blacks. 

I must thank tbV for her delicious spaghetti and mince and I would also like to thank Brett and tbV for opening their house for such hard and uncomfortable talk.

[For another post by Nkosi where he speaks about first steps for South Africa, click here]

it is here less

so it’s finally over

i remember when it was announced that south africa would be hosting the soccer world cup and countdowns of four years or more and then 300 days and finally a few weeks and then it was tomorrow…

we missed a large portion of the group games due to being on a namibia namrocking trip but we got to watch the opening ceremony and game in a restaurant called amazink in kayamandi township [where i used to live before i got married] with a completely diverse crowd with such spirit and life which was a complete vibe

we missed south africa/uruguay (namibia) but got back in time to watch a heartbreakingly close SA/french game which at half time looked headed towards the 4-0 we needed to progress – then my buddy dunc took me to watch netherlands/cameroon live at the cape town stadium, after watching slovakia take italy out at a packed quay 4 complete with orange saturated vibe in the afternoon before the game

and then tbV, Reegs, Muscle-John and myself did the fan walk which was a complete crazy exciting buzz (yes, and vibe|) and watched netherlands take out uruguay at on broadway

and finally back to amazink for the final with some okes from enGAGE for what i thort was a pretty awful game of soccer and reffing (and the third worst one i watched after france/uruguay and brazil/portugal) and afterwards really thort they should have given the cup to germany or just maybe kept it til the next cup – way too much acting on both sides, some questionable reffing decisions (netherlands missed out on two corners at least) and yellow carding and apart from a few exciting moments and a decent goal from spain, a pretty boring affair after some really quality games leading up to it

south africa proved we can host and did an incredible job which i think the whole world is pretty much agreed on

and so far no sounds of the feared xenophobia so hoping and praying that the hoping and praying has paid off – so much good in terms of unity, bringing people together and nation spirit has happened it would be tragic to lose that now

so well done south africa – brilliant job and bafana bafana you did us proud (agonising equalising goal from mexico on that first nite)

but, having enjoyed it quite a lot, and enjoyed hanging with people, i am relieved and ready for it to be done now

too much worship not directed at or near God – too much focus away from the things in life that count – way too much distraction

“it’s life Jim, but not as we know it” [dr bones, star trek]

aaaaaand….break.

sent to meet her from the world cup round two

five centimeters…

from a huge upset and a big chance of Bafana Bafana progressing to the second round of the world cup which no white person predicted (let’s be honest) – oh wait i mean expected cos i spent the whole week predicting a Bafana Bafana 2-1 win over Mexico and it was that close – just sent-to-meet-her’s past the post to deny what would have been an incredible victory

we decided to go watch in Kayamandi township where i used to live and found a restaurant (which was Amazink, no i mean that’s the name of it – it was pretty good though) and arrived early for the opening ceremony to find we were in a room slash courtyard/amphitheatre full of black-people wannabes (hey at least i lived there. ha ha. nah guilty as charged). and very few black people and were super bummed but fortunately we decided to stick it out and whe  the game started at 4 there was a brilliant mix of local (black and white) and foreign

and that’s how you gotta watch Bafana Bafana play. i remember watching England take on Germany in a pub in a London which is the way to do it, but for Bafana Bafana, that was the place – bunch of us from enGAGE (church) some with shirts, some (including me) with faces painted and many with vuvuzellas and just a complete vibe\

and when we scored! aw man. priceless. noise and chanting and singing and shouting and hugging and for the next twenty minutes absolute celebration (til they scored – man we came so close to holding them out – still think we gifted them that goal though by trying for offsides press – ai dangerous stuff, apparently) and it was really phenomenal

i would imagine the fan park would be number one prize (if you can’t make the actual game) but the thought of hours of travel and waiting and then hours of travel back does not do a lot for me – easy access toilet and drinks and a bunch of friends and new friends and a 5 minute trip home – i’ll take that

but ja, i think there is a lot more expectation now, especially watching how useless uruguay were against a not-much-better france – but sadly we will be in namibia namrocking and road tripping and so will probably have to come back to hear the results unless we can find a tv on the way… go team, you made us proud

it’s not stalking unless you’re planning to kill someone

so i was at the beach yesterday which i really don’t do enough and was actually in the water (ditto) which was amazingly warm (or maybe amazingly warm for cape town beach water – i am not really a swimmer type person usually because i find the water too cold but here i had to be in to watch the kids and it was surprisingly not that bad) and i started to watch people

i love watching people – not in a hunt-them-down-later-and-leave-disturbing-messages-made-out-of-letters-cut-out-of-magazines-and-the-newspaper kind of way – but just seeing how people (who don’t know they’re being watched) behave or look or speak

and it was great. firstly there were these three young and little girls who were having an absolute blast in the waves near us and just seemed absolutely content and happy and vibing with each other and laughing a lot.

then there was a very young and little dude who was trying to catch a wave on his surfboard and just wasn’t able to stand and as he went past me i said to him “so close dude” and he responded “yeah and so far” and i gave him a bit of a Robin-Williams-in-Dead-Poets-Society-and-Good-Morning-Vietnam-type pep speech about how he could make it and how he shouldn’t give up and so on and he went off and the very next wave… he tried to stand up… and didn’t… but i think he didn’t stand up a LOT better than before I’d given him the talk…

watching him a little bit more and first picked up his mom in a full wet suite surfing near him and helping take him out over the waves to get to a good spot to try again, and then his dad also full wet suit, also surfing and i thort, “wow, that is so super uber cool” cos you know what they say, ‘the family who surfs together… um… something something together’ or something like that, but it was great to see this family, obviously loving each other and loving hanging out together doing stuff

then there were these two guys walking along the beach together, obviously friends. the one guy had no neck whatsoever, you know, one of those head-almost-directly-on-the-shoulders type guys, and as i noticed that i looked across at his friend and noticed that he had almost too much neck, and so it was quite an interesting combination of neck and no-neck walking down the beach together – how about sharing some with your friend, neck!

and then there was thug body boarder. now i know you can’t call someone ‘thug’ not in a bad way but i really don’t mean it in a bad way. if this guy was in a british football movie he would be in the credits as ‘football hooligan #4’ or something like that – just looked like a bit of a bruiser, big oke, well built, huge tattoo down his forearm and kinda thuggish… which is relevant, cos if i just said a big guy on a body board then it loses momentum. cos i watched him catch a wave and ride it for a long while and he had the biggest most contentable smile on his face, the kind of smile that only an 8 year old can have when he eyes ice-cream or the parents of a toddler when he finally poos in the pottie you know. It was incredible – this dude was absolutely enjoying himself to the extreme

and obviously a bunch of other people but those stood out. and of course the ten kids we had brought to the beach from kayamandi (the K) who were having an absolutable blast. brilliant just watching these kids come to life and just completely thrive in the water.

i love watching people. guessing who they are and what they’re about. watching interaction between people who really care about each other (and there are a lot of those on the beach – maybe those who don’t care enough stay away from the beach a lot more) and just seeing the absolute power of love in action.

capitalise on this.

yesterday i was at strand beach. and it was hot. very hot. in fact at one point in was standing by myself in the sea, watching over the kids from the township house we had taken there, and i thort to myself, “wow i am burning, with a capital ‘B’!”

followed by the thort, ‘what a dumb saying? why do people do that? it’s [insert word] with a capital [insert first letter of word]’

because the word ‘burning’ in my sentence would not have had a capital ‘b’ it would have just had a regular sized letter b. if it was a person’s name, that would make more sense, as in “hey it’s Kevin with a capital ‘K’” cos that actually would be authentic, but then i think that might just get on peoples nerves a bit or make them edge slowly away from you, avoiding sudden movements or eye contact.

so stop capitalising people. is all i’m saying. just say “wow, it’s REALLY hot today with no capitals whatsoever” – and don’t actually say the “with no capitals whatsoever” bit, that was more just a guide. oh and i just wrote ‘really’ in capitals so you could see what replaced ‘with a capital H’ so it’s not really in capitals.

and to cap it all, this commentary is from the guy who writes completely in capitals (it’s neater and i’ve been doing it since high school) and yet types his blog with an almost complete lack of capitals in places they deserve to be.