Activating a Thought Leader In Me

I just blend in, doing what others do. I try not to look out of place, they can’t see that I’m different, they can’t see that I’m not from where they are from. I smile because I have to, I laugh because they are laughing, at what? I am not quite sure. I try to be normal but what does that mean, when I don’t have a home to go too after all that smiling and laughing, when I don’t have food to eat. It’s difficult to think about the fact that while I suffer and struggle, there are people my age who aren’t. I wish I was one of them, those who don’t have to worry about what to eat in the morning or the evening, I wish I knew where I would go to sleep, when I’m done blending in. what if my parents were still alive, would this be my life? I guess I will never know. I am tired of people laughing at me, I’m tired. Even though I’m tired it won’t help, I still will wake in the morning earlier then everyone else, I still have to get dressed up and blend in, with an empty stomach and a smile o...

It took time for us to realize that there was power in our skin colour, we grew up in towns and went to schools that did not value our skin tone or our languages. We grew up trying to emulate whiteness because our teachers and white schoolmates respected us more when we sounded like them and acted like they did. There was a desire to be like they are, to live like they did, our parents seemed to smile more when we spoke “perfect” English, their kids were like the white kids, they too could be at the same level as the white parents, sit in the same room at prize giving and have pictures of their kids in a classroom full of white kids and a white teacher. What was better than your child being like a white child? We are models of our parent’s dreams, we are the example of “freedom” for them. We too did not understand the enormous responsibility that was handed to us. This responsibility to prove that we have defeated the system, that the ANC government led by the former late ...

Women are so afraid of being right and questioning power, the power we fear the most is male power. I grew up with the sweetest and most humble father, and my mother was so different, she was loud, very strong and she was the disciplinary in the home. Although my mother was the one who would discipline us and shout, we still feared our farther more than our mother. My father has never hit us, never really shouted at us, he took us out more than our mother, he did everything he could to make sure we were happy, but he was a man and society taught us that men are scary, powerful and more important than women. I remember we feared our father more than our mother, if one of my siblings said, “I’ll tell dad”, I would be so afraid, but if someone said I will tell mom, I had no big issue, I knew she would shout and smack me if need be, but it was just mom.   The reality of society is that men are made more powerful then need be, we grew up in a social system that discredits the aut...

There is something special about a woman who loves herself, a confidence of self-assurance and a smell of power. A woman has many ways to show her confidence and love for one’s self and many women choose clothes as the choice of weapon. They choose to love themselves and wear that love on their bodies, in well-tailored power suits, gorgeous long or short well-made dresses, or they spend thousands on Rands on one item, it’s their damn money, they should be allowed to spend it any way they wish, shouldn’t they? It is so difficult for people to comprehend that women can afford themselves and that women sometimes look good for themselves and no one else. This seems to be a confusing concept for so many people, including other women. There always must be an external reason as to why a woman can afford to buy expensive jewelry or for her looking as good as she does, she must be doing it for a man or a man is doing it for her. I don’t know how many times I have been in situations wher...

I have had the most difficult time trying to understand the concept of radical economic transformation. What does it really mean and who is it really for? I have read the documents and articles pertaining this transformation and what it really is about and who its beneficiaries are. Women and youth are the main beneficiaries of this concept, it is about radically elevating the process of sharing the economy with these groups and providing well needed support to the groups.  It is a great concept in theory, but the implementation plan is lacking, there seems to be no clear plan of action by the current government of South Africa, as to how this radical economic transformation will be put into motion. My worry is that there seems to be old methods of economic transformation being used, these vehicles have been previously identified, but have benefited only a few. SEDA, ECDC, NYDA, IDZ’s and other government funding schemes are benefiting those who have access to the inform...

i decided to write a poem today i decided to take my paper and pen and write a poem, to write what is in my mind and heart i decide to write a poem today in hopes that someone will read it and love it i decide to write a poem today i had something to get off my chest i decided to allow someone to enter my mind i decided to let someone to know me deeper i decided not to keep my heart and soul to my self i decided to allow someone into the deepest part of my thoughts i decide to write a poem today i decided i wanted to allow someone to know to know how i love God i decided not to be ashamed of my love for Jesus i decide to write a poem today i deiced to write a poem for Jesus i decided i had to much inside and i need to let it out i deiced that i can be myself today i decided to not be afraid of the world to allow negative comments to make me stronger i decided to allow the thick snow to be my blanket i decided to allow my fear to be my fuel i decided to write a poem t...

She is South Africa's Warrior Queen. - We cannot deny that she joined the peoples organization because of her husband, however she was not made by her husband, she was a single mother and became a mother of the liberation movement and the antion. She became a leader in her own account and she fought side by side with the rest of the comrades. " i deliberately exposed myself, to a lot of harassment, for his name to be remembered." This woman and many other female comrades, continue to be uncelebra ted and their legacy to be neglected. “I became a symbol of resistance. " That was why the past governemnt wanted to destroy her. The pressure to free the struggle prisoners, came from the unrest she was leading in the country, along with the comrades left on the ground. The liberation movement has kept very patriarchal face and I fear the lack of role playing in the ANCWL. # Amandla https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wq_axQthHrY

Whites have learnt the power of organised economy, where they structure their economic power in such a way that it stays within the circle of white minority rule. White privilege is one of the best preserved institutional systems. While Afrikans can organised themselves in protests and marches, there is a lack of education on the institutions they are protesting against. With no understanding of the enemy’s strategy or knowledge of the type of virus you are fighting, the symp toms can mislead the diagnosis. The best example of this is the recent incident of Qwabe who chose to leave a condition to the waitress should she qualify for a tip. Qwabe noted the symptom, which is the displacement of the Afrikans land. The power of the white man in the South African context was shown when the privileged group raised over R150k to show that they don’t need the Afrikan man’s money, because they own the land, the economy and the Afrikan. Unknowingly or knowingly the white South African ...

The issue of social change pertaining women can only transform when women themselves, come to the Awakening of their selves. The idea of transformation and policy can only work when women who are in strategic positions within the political, social and economic spheres are able to talk and stand up for themselves. At the moment in South Africa there seems to be number of women in strategic position within the public and government fields, but very few of them are making tang ible change in the advancement of women’s right in their constituency. We have political organization that have women’s league, who have not utilized their positions in the leagues to advance the general South African woman rights. As a woman is involved in youth politics and activism, it worries me when still I cannot find adequate writings and books on Afrikan woman, who were part of the movements to liberate South African, woman in Afrikan stories of liberation have no names, rather there are attributed as ‘women...

The  ANC  does not bring up the Apartheid only during election, the apartheid legacy is every where in South Africa. Zuma and the ANC has just become a great divergence for racist whites and privileged minority of South Africa. Firstly Zuma and the ANC are not powerful enough to put us (SA) in the financial mess we are in, for those who read and maybe have a bit of African and general political and econ omics background would Know, that the previous government left a huge debt in the hands of the incoming democratic government. which until today has not been cleared or lessened. The ANC government, has had to try a feed, clothe, house and try protect millions of black people, who where displaced and are in poverty for hundreds of years, at the same time protect those who coursed the problems ( whites). It is nonsense that these privilege whites have lied to thousands of Blacks of this beautiful land and using a puppet to lead our people to the fire. Zuma and the ANC leaders ar...