There were days when a society’s philosophers were a scalpel. They cut open a people’s consciousness, exposed the nakedness of sacred thoughts, and introduced forbidden ideas. Emperors used to kill and banish philosophers. Causing people to think critically is a dangerous thing to those who thrive through maintaining oppressive power. But we have become better…
So the best of Swiss journalism wrote- “This grandmother will become the boss of the WTO” and all hell broke loose. The real problem here is that there’s a culture that considers being a matriarch an insult. As if a grandmother is devoid of the kind of intelligence necessary to understand global economics and international…
We are going to situate this Harry-Meghan tale in history because it’s irresponsible not to do so. Let us remember that Harry is the child of an unrepentant monarchy that has the blood of millions on its hands, from unimaginable evils of slavery through colonization’s plunder, massacres and subjugation. The British monarchy sanctioned it all,…
That feeling again. We’re about to go on a scholarship fundraiser for high school kids struggling through poverty, and I get that same sick feeling I got when I came across Mariana’s story last month. I need to say this before it vanishes in the stream of thought and I can’t find it- Poverty is…
Growing up, I heard ogre stories in school, at home, and on VoK from a show called Land of Majitu (Land of Ogres). The show would start with ogres dancing around a homestead singing– Sisi majitu, sisi majitu / aah sisi majitu… Ogre stories are a common genre in African orature. They have a simple…
The cicadas are come and gone. It’s too quiet. It seems to me we missed something. Some ritual of sorts. We got visited by lifeforms that appear every 17 years. For a month they controlled us with their shrill non-stop chirping that sounded like deep space invasion. All sorts of incredulous stories were told about…
Part I: We saw South African small business owners weep bitterly over the vandalizing of their shops. It’s unfair, barbaric, foolish and just downright evil to steal from your own people who worked so hard for so many years to build a small business, feed their families and hold their hand out to those coming…
I think how black people wear their anger determines how far they go. I’ll speak of those I know. East Africans will tend to wear their anger six layers beneath the skin. They are afraid of its power and potential for radical change. They have also been taught to be ashamed of it, to see…
Just before he dies, the former South African president who led a white supremacist regime tries to clean up his act and hope history’s brush will paint his life with soft strokes. He records it all for public release in a last-minute mea culpa titled “FW de Klerk’s message from beyond the grave”. I think…
It’s the beginning of the war in Ukraine, and reporters from the western world seem terribly incompetent. Their journalism and intellectual idiocy that’s carelessly flying about is a thing of wonder. Turn on to any media and you hear – “spark a possible World War in Europe”, “a World War is underway”, “we are in…