'Ma Ravan" Spectacular

During the Grahamstown Arts festival I attended the show Ma Ravan, a show of ritual dance celebrating the fallen ancestors of slavery and struggle.

The show begins with a chanting of names of those that have fallen while fighting slavery and oppression. The names range from Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa and Senegal.

Beginning with a simple dance and then a slow introduction into the invitation of the ancestors. The climax is when they begin to unfold the pain behind the rituals and why they were created.

It is performed by four men who can sing, dance and actor.

The centre piece of the show is the ravanne, a drum which is found in all Indian Ocean islands, Eastern Africa, India and Sri Lanka.

A truly spectacular performance of ritual dance which received a standing ovation

Pic: Le Monde.Fr

DURBAN FOR CHRIST

At the beginning of this year the annoucement of Durban for Christ was made by Pastor Le Roux and what seemed to be vague at the time has no grown to a phenomenon. I thought to myself, here we go again anothe SDA(Seventh-Day Adventist) programme, that will probably have another old man talk about the coming of christ or the love the God has for use and for some sort of reason I just lacked interest in getting involved.

Let's Get Started

I believe it truly began on wednesday 22/04/2009 when Pastor Alden Ho began with a youth talk about getting involved in church and we shouldnt be mistaken about being the SDA church. Uncle John called me and said "Im on my way so better ready cause Alden Ho is having a youth talk at the Pinetown church" and I said "Im done already just waiting for you." The excitement gripped me to the point that I forgot to bring a Bible, notepad and a pen, stupid I know!!!! So anyway I got into Uncle John's car when he arrived and then I asked "Has Alden arrived?" and Aunty Jenny answered "He's sitting right in front of you, my darling!!!!" as her and Gennivve broke into laughter and Uncle John proceed to introduce me and said"Hi, how are you?" with embrassment peaking through my voice. Not phased by my mistake a conversation began about the church and the hate mail he recieved from Helderberg( that the headquarters of the SDA-South African Division and is also the college where you study for degree with Biblical studies as well). We then proceed with a discussion about American politics and the SDA Division there in the States.

The Talk

I have never anyone assure me of being in the correct church or let alone say its okay to have doubts and correct them. It was the first time I have ever a pastor say something like that. He also said there is much work to be done and the needs us the youth to get involved so forget those old people who hold offices in church and majority of the time they look like this" Either they are white haired, grey and thin haired or no haired." Funny LOL

He continued his campaign through to thursday and launched on Friday. His first sermon, seminar or series whatever you want to call began with the theme of Matthew 25 v 1-5 which talked about the Virgins that had oil in their lamps and the Virgins that were foolish and didnt have oil in their lamps and missed the bridegrooms arrival. All this happened at the Westridge stadium.

Now ther is soooooooo much to write that once it is complete I will complete this segment in life and proceed to share with the world.

Being Back at Varsity

Being back at varsity has been a very unique experience because at the beginning of this year I
doubted my ability to continue the journalism programme. Primarliy because I wasn't happy in my class particulary the attitudes amongst the other students.

For the first time in my life i witnessed violence between two students something that never happened before in my schooling career. I also had a lack of interest in the programme itself until i was chosen to attend the future Journalists Programme which re-inspired my passion for journalism. By no means am I saying that everytime things go bad that I loose interest in something or someone but what Iam saying when the situation gets out of control and you just can't stand it anymore what then do you do.?

Do you just accept it or do you take a breathe and figure out what is more important.? I found it difficult to sit back and accept and in actual fact I wanted to drop out of University and the only reason I didn't was because there were too many people close to me that I would disappoint. So i decided to slack around a bit, that resulted in me not handing in an assignment for one of my subjects and failing to contribute to group work properly and the truth with that is I hate group work but I had no chice.

So since FJP I have been re-inspired and feel like there is a chance that i could make it in the industry.

FUTURE JOURNALISTS PROGRAMME

I have had a full circle moment at the Future Journalists Programme. The experience and opportunity to be able to meet new people who share the same goal as yourself is just absolutely amazing to me.

I had never imagined myself attending this programming purely because the guy that went before me was the top student in his 2nd year clas and I on the other hand was one of the top students and other people had better results then myself and to add to the bonus Bongani was picked and he is the most deserving person in my opinion.

When i arrived at Grahmstown i felt like i was in another country because it just doesn't look like the rest of South Africa, it actually looks like we are in Europe. Excitment filled me from every toe to every finger even though it was cold outside. My first interaction with FJP's as we call ourselves was Andile and Lucky who are from the University of Zululand. The next person was the coordinator of the programme whom in their first e-mail came across as a male but is actuall very cute young women, although I must state that she is very short and pietie and in actual fact I thought she was quite small until I got used to Mo, her is Moagisi Letlhaku.

The next people were Anele and Chwathiya from Rhodes University, oh by the way Anele asked Bongz if we knew Sizwe and you won't believe it, but the world is actually very small cause everyone knows each other in some way. We everyone arrived and waited at the parking lot I got to see some new faces but didn't actually talk to them. The camp while that's for another posts. Guys thanx for a great time!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1

Why are MOTHERS so DIFFICULT

This morning my mother woke me up during the early hours, round about 5:20am and asked when and what time I was coming home from my trip to the Future Journalists Programme in Grahmstown, I will explain later on.

I then try to utter some words in my sleep and then get off the phone. She then calls later in the day and asks the time that I will be coming back. I tell her and she says she will fetch me from the station and I said to her why? because its going to cost money for her to fetch me and I don't like wasting money and she always make reference that she doesn't have enough cash.

I then tell her I'll catch a taxi home and she must fetch and wasn't necessary.Okay it may have been slighty cheecky but it wasn't in a way to intentionally hurt her, however I feel that I need my own space and need to deal with life's difficulties on my own and not to have to rely on my mother all the time.

She then sent me a message saying that if I think that iam better than myself or with better people or got a boyfriend that telling me these things im just remeber that she can make my life miserable to the point that I would commit suicide.

I must just say its not the first time she has said this to me and at the time the thought was interesting, however I have grown up and matured. I want to be able to stand my own ground soo many people around me say that "Wena, you must learn to do things on your own." That's what Im trying to do and every time I do that i always seem to get on the wrong side of my mother. I just can't seem to understand why she is trying to be so difficult. This whole thing has nothing to do with the people I've meet and infact there is NOOOOOOOOOO boyfriend, but that it is me who it is me that wants to experience through different eyes and Knowledge.

To those of you who don't have pestering parents who love to make assumptions just because the tone of your voice has changed and simply because you want a little freedom. You'er lucky.

I just believe that a young person should be given that opportunity to grow and understand by themselves and not to have someone hanging over their head threatening them all the time. My greatest fear is that I will ultimately resent her and live a life of regret just because I had to go through her in order to live my dreams.

Why the hurt and pain, we don't need to hurt each other all because we lack UBUNTU. Xenephobia is not the way to go, wanna blame some lets look at ourselves, the government, our history and finally lets consider being in that persons shoes.

Xenaphobia

What ever went wrong with this country. I have never seen so much HATERED amongst people, yes the governments to blame for not doing their jobs, but come on do we have to burn, scorn and killings. We need to stand against the government not against our selves PEACE