African Renaissance: A Revolution of the Mind?

2011-11-24T18:03:00.002-05:00

Seretse Khama: The drama of a royal romance in Botswana

24 November 2011 Last updated at 09:34 ET Help

A play about Botswana's first President, Seretse Khama, whose marriage to a white English woman while he was still a student caused a political storm in the UK and Africa, has been shown off Broadway in New York .
Prince Seretse Khama met Ruth William while he was attending law school in London and she was working as a clerk.
Both the UK and South Africa exerted pressure to have his tribal titles removed, and they eventually managed to do so, but when Botswana gained independence in 1966 he became the new country's president and she the first lady.
The BBC's Leslie Goffe went along to see the play, Blue, Black and White, and to talk to its writer and star, Botswana's Donald Molosi, about this and his other works.
For more African news from the BBC download the Africa Today podcast.

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I Will Eat What I Want

2011-09-13T12:05:00.005-05:00

Driving from Phikwe, the mining town where we lived, to our home village of Mahalapye in Eastern Botswana, my face was always pressed against the back window. I was fond of watching greener-than-green mophane trees dotted with women’s brightly colored headscarves. The women in the trees were from nearby villages close to the big road and they were shaking mophane caterpillars off tree branches to the ground for harvest.

Despite being an inquisitive child I could only squirm at the thought of eating these tough yellow and green caterpillars, and so eventually I would extract my face from the window.

Today I do not live in Botswana but I encounter many Western tourists who have explored
Botswana and they tell me, very seriously, that mophane caterpillars are a Botswana delicacy. And truth be told, I was willing to try mophane before but now that they are litmus for Tswana authenticity even to BaTswana themselves (thanks to Western travel literature) I have no desire to snack on the lovely caterpillar.

The African’s palate is always called only “cultural” and his taste understood as only “tribal” thereby leaving no room for the African’s individual taste. So, I write now of the truth that I am a proud MoTswana man who will not force himself to eat mophane caterpillars. Simply because they have thorns growing from their body.

Donald Molosi

Non-FicTion

I am so Sad About tHis. Poleni, jamaani.

2011-09-11T12:33:00.000-05:00

Zanzibar mourns ferry disaster victims

Victims of the disaster were taken to Stone Town in Zanzibar

The Tanzanian region of Zanzibar has begun three days of mourning for the victims of a ferry sinking that killed nearly 200 people.

The boat was carrying about 800 people when it capsized between Zanzibar's main islands of Unguja and Pemba.
Survivors said it was dangerously overloaded with passengers and cargo and was listing when it left port.
The government of the semi-autonomous region has ordered an investigation into what caused the disaster.
It is thought the boat capsized after losing engine power in the swift currents between the two Indian Ocean islands.
The accident happened early on Saturday and by nightfall about 600 survivors had been rescued.
'Ladder removed' Friends and relatives have been identifying the dead, which have been taken to a football ground in Unguja.
The bodies, placed in separate rows of men and women, have been wrapped in black blankets with their clothes placed next to them to help relatives find them.

Click to play

Captain Neels van Eijk from Whirlwind Aviation flew out over the ocean to help search for survivors and describes what he saw to the BBC

Rescue workers said the death toll could rise because more bodies were trapped in the capsized vessel, the MV Spice Islander.
The boat, licensed to carry 600 people, began its voyage in Tanzania's largest city, Dar es Salaam.
It took on more passengers and cargo in Unguja before it left for Pemba.
Fearing the boat was overloaded, some passengers disembarked before it left port.

"A few of the passengers managed to get off the ship after noticing that it was tilting," said Aze Faki Chande, who Reuters news agency said lost her two children and sister.
"We also tried to disembark, but the ship's crew quickly removed the ladder and started sailing towards Pemba," she said.
The BBC's East Africa correspondent Will Ross, in Nairobi, says carrying too many passengers or too much cargo is a common cause of accidents whether on sea or on land in many parts of Africa.
Survivors have described the moment the vessel foundered.
"I realised something strange on the movement of the ship. It was like zigzag or dizziness," Associated Press quoted 15-year-old Yahya Hussein as saying.
"After I noticed that I jumped to the rear side of ship and few minutes later the ship went lopsided."
He said he survived by clinging to a plank of wood with several others.
Many children were said to be among the boat's passengers.

All The Ghosts in The House Say "Yeah"

2011-09-10T12:34:00.001-05:00

Come one ghost, come all ghosts! Today is Ghost Day and I am excited about getting spooked. I observe firecrackers tinting the air in the streets and little stations of food and other items like gift vouchers set up on roadsides. The ghosts are definitely coming and they will fetch vouchers to buy stuff with in hell. I am eight years old again and mesmerized, like Santa is about to slide down the chimney and give me a toy car.

After a delicious lunch of many food items at Shabu Shabu buffet (I ate aout 20 kilos of food competing with my host cousins)I could barely walk. I waddled. I was so full. And giggly. I was in Taiwan and being able to be as sillya s I am when I am home in Botswana.

The afternoon was karaoke in the mountains at someone's house, one of the family friends. I was hoarse and sang every song off key. I even pretended I could read Chinese and sang in made-up Chinese. I goofed on and my host brother goofed right back.

Then we went shopping. I had to get some stuff and people in shops were soooo friendly. And flattering - they kept telling me how handsome I was. And I goofed, yet again, and asked if that was why people always told me I look like I am Taiwan. Of course with my dark skin and kinky hair, I am nothing like what a Taiwanese is expected to look like. But we all just goofed all afternoon.

At the Lions Club meeting I met amazing people, older men in their fifties at least. I learnt "kan pe!" a phrase that means you must empty the cup, basically down your drink. Taiwan beer was smooth and the company was welcoming and full of laughter.

Later I met the Thai workers at the factory that my host family owns. After my zealous "Sa Wa De Ka" they invited me for a drink. It was a Thai gin of sorts. We laughed a lot and made so many jokes that I could have sworn we shared 10 languages.

I discovered a soft drink place called Coco. I still love Ching Shin and its yummy non-alcoholic cocktails. I went to bed with a smile on my face after a whole day of goooooooofing around like a cartoon! Kan Pe!!!

MIAOLI, Taiwan :)

2011-09-10T12:27:00.001-05:00

We arrived in Hong Kong sleep-deprived and Phoebe had a cold. But both of us suddenly got excited when we realized that the long trip from Botswana had led us both to East Asia for the first time. We immediately met up with fellow SayTaiwan participants at the airport and sat down together for drinks. Phoebe observed that the waiters were putting in our orders through iPads which we thought was very exciting, tech-forward.

The flight to Taiwan was smooth and seeing a huge sign of SayTaiwan at the airport welcoming all participants was exciting and soon we were huddled up doing group photo-shoots in front of the sign. The airport staff were extremely efficient, friendly and helpful and before we knew it our visas were processed and we were collecting our luggage.

Meeting Alice was fun after having virtually talked to her so much over the last few months. We were given cellphones, welcome packets and I met my host brother, K, who took me to meet his father. On the way I was tremendously tired and kept dosing off but at the same time epically excited! We had dinner at a nice restaurant and I was happy to be using chopsticks and not making a mess at all. We got home and I slept like a log, after warning my host family that I might not be up before 9. I had arrived in Miaoli.

TAIWAN!

2011-09-10T12:25:00.000-05:00

I am off to Taiwan to celebrate 100 years of Taiwan's being a republic. The posts that are to come after this will mostly be about my trip to Taiwan. Wo ai Taiwan.

Unrest in Uganda: I hope the violence ends right away.

2011-04-29T13:59:00.004-05:00

Riots over Kizza Besigye's arrest

Click to play

Security forces try to quell the riots that broke out on the streets of Kampala

At least two people have died in riots in Uganda's capital over the treatment of opposition leader Kizza Besigye.

Security forces fired live ammunition, rubber bullets and tear gas to disperse protesters burning tyres.

Mr Besigye sought medical treatment after being tear-gassed in his car and bundled roughly into a truck when he was arrested on Thursday.

It was his fourth detention this month for his participation in a "walk-to-work" protest over high prices.

President Yoweri Museveni has said the walking campaign over the rise in the cost of living is illegal.

“Start Quote

They arrested him like a chicken thief - we cannot allow such things to continue”

Brown NdeseProtester

After his arrest Dr Besigye was charged with inciting violence but was released on medical grounds until 2 May.

The BBC's Joshua Mmali in the capital, Kampala, says Dr Besigye was taken to hospital from the court because he had been temporarily blinded.

On Friday evening, he was allowed by the authorities to fly to neighbouring Kenya to seek medical treatment.

Our reporter says footage of the arrest was broadcast on Ugandan television and the video-sharing website YouTube.

It showed plain-clothed policemen beating up Dr Besigye's supporters, smashing the window of his car and dousing the inside with pepper spray and tear gas before manhandling him into a vehicle and driving off.

Rumours spread

According to Uganda's Red Cross, two people have died in the trouble and 120 others were taken to hospital with injuries.

Internal Affairs Minister Kirunda Kivejinja said 360 people had been arrested and those injured had mainly been hurt by "stones, sticks and bottles".

Police fought with Kizza Besigye and his supporters during his arrest on Thursday

The police force was "within its constitutional mandate to restore law and order" by removing road blocks and "disengaging crowds", he told journalists in the capital.

Our correspondent says transport was paralysed and shops closed because of the widespread rioting and chaotic scenes.

Earlier on Friday morning, gunshots could be heard from different parts of the city and live ammunition was shot into the air in some areas.

The trouble started in Kisseka market, sparked by the anger over the manner of Dr Besigye's arrest and rumours that the FDC leader might have died.

The speculation about his death spread via Twitter and in Ugandan chatrooms.

"They arrested him like a chicken thief. We cannot allow such things to continue. Museveni must go," Brown Ndese, one of the protesters, told the Associated Press news agency.

The security forces were out in strength as the trouble spread across the city, our reporter says.

In some areas, the military beat up people who had resorted to walking to work because there was no transport, and forced them to clear the roads of debris from the burnt barricades, he says.

Dr Besigye has considerable support in the capital where many people were enraged by his treatment

The BBC's Ignatius Bahizi in the suburb of Kasubi said earlier on Friday morning that people were fleeing the area and vehicles were heading out of town to save them from damage.

He said when he tried to take a photo of the protesters burning tyres they turned on him and tried to attack him.

April's walk-to-work campaign, organised by several opposition parties over rising fuel and food prices, has been marked by clashes between protesters and the police and the arrest of opposition politicians.

Dr Besigye, who was shot in the hand during a similar recent protest, lost to President Museveni in a February election he says was rigged.

Before the polls, Dr Besigye had called for Egypt-style uprisings in the event of fraud.

Police responded by banning public demonstrations.

NGUGI WAS RIGHT!

2011-04-29T12:35:00.009-05:00

Although I did not watch the much-publicized British Royal Wedding (Prince William and Kate Middleton) today I caught a quick glimpse of the vows and the balcony kiss.

I could not help but remember the last time I was in front of Buckingham Palace happily posing for a picture; I looked at the TV screen animated, naming members of the British Royal Family as their faces appeared. I felt English.

I believe it was the great Ngugi wa Thiong'o who said something to the effect that the trouble with trying to decolonize yourself or your mind is that you see just how impossible it is to do that. I thought of Ngugi at that moment because I know I would not be able to identify members of our Royal Families in Botswana (we have several such families).

I knew I did not have a picture of myself in Serowe at the Khama memorials or in Nhabe in front of Kgosi Tawana 1's old residence. I convinced myself that I was only watching a news report about Will and Kate just because I like weddings. Yes, I like weddings in the same emotional voyeuristic way I like award shows. Whatever. I knew deep down there was a connection I felt with this wedding because all my education and socialization in a former British protectorate has been preparing me to culturally identify more closely with such events than King Mswati's yearly marriages. Even in my energized Afrocentrism there are cracks that sometimes show when an event like today's Royal Wedding come up. And our hopelessly colonized curriculum on the continent is to blame for much of this.

TODAY IT'S ME - the one man show.

2011-04-27T08:21:00.004-05:00

Please look out for upcoming posts on one of my heroes, Mr Philly Bongoley Lutaaya. I will speak about the process of writing and performing a one-man show about him off-Broadway and what that has been like.

NOTIN DO U

2011-04-27T04:50:00.003-05:00

your mind is philosophy.
your loyalty epically stays in love
and you love me in a way that
safely feels something like ‘prophetic’;
you see things in my soul
that elude my ordinary eyes
and i can feel it deeply when we talk.
it is in the way you casually lean your body
towards mine and then talk half-asleep,
it is in that unutterable way you look at me when no one is around,
it is in the sweetly serious way you say we should
talk a lot so that we don’t float past each other like space men
but rather grow together entwined.
i like it when we talk and your delightful mind
sparkles in conversation and your short white teeth
reveal a sweet, rare smile behind full, dark lips because simply put,
when we are together, notin’ do u.
…you are now pressing hard against me.
and in your face i see
a fineness raw, exciting yet gentle.
all in one deliciously dark, square-jawed face…
…for there’s a fluid storm rising and billowing like harmattan
behind your pair of marble eyes.

By Donald Molosi

REVOLUTION OF THE MIND: PIGMENT

2011-04-27T04:47:00.000-05:00

speak to her in yoruba, twi, swahili, sesarwa, setswana or shona.
she may not comprehend some,
but in all she will delight in a rhythm natural to her ear,
a movement instinctive to her tongue
and hopefully a reassurance that she has a home on the other side of the sea:
my sister is the soul in Africa’s golden daughters.
she has glistening brown eyes
like one who has stared at the earth for too long,
her nose is fantastically flat,
her lips are fabulously full
and every hair strand in her dreadlocks is twisted and locked just the way it ought,
her smile flashes bright and wide because home lives in her.
sister’s skin shines dark black,
her hands heal everything they touch
and her song echoes a revolution in the valley of my soul.
today, i won’t let her cast her head down just because of skin.
Heaven fell in love with her dark black before she knew dark black.
brown skin or dark skin, it is of God not shame.
in time, these foreign soils she trots will speak her name.
and today, sister’s going to shine that black and lift her chin, like a tarnished angel that just flicked the dust off her wing.

By Leungo Donald Molosi

musing...

2010-04-15T04:46:00.001-05:00

it seems that the only good gestures that people make, or thoughts to which they lend a good word, are only the things they have had to learn, acquire. acquire and consume unquestioningly, unquestioningly until the actions soothe, and words of the promise catch the air.

Just A Thought

2010-02-28T06:02:00.002-05:00

the magnitude of humanity's plight (in our minds) correlates with its media coverage in this age (which correlates with resources/wealth.) the two are almost inextricably linked when i think of the heights of technological advancement we have reached and are still set to surpass nad what that communication technology stands for.

so, yeah the plight of the human condition is no worse than in centuries gone by, nor are the natural disasters more calamitous than before but we are just more aware of it due to technology.

2009-04-06T01:12:00.007-05:00

"Seretse" is Setswana for "wet clay" or "mud"

i shall staple this script and pray God to read it.

i see the ink on paper and close my eyes, i see a moving picture
of the epic - bloodless but grand, unknown but biblical.
i shall squiggle more words that will whisper to the grand souls of the
land, and rouse us to knowledge - how we got our colors of blue,
black and white. i am he and this blood between us is the
ink i write with, about one who bound the nation
together like muddy clay. white, black and indian; blue, black and white
- i will draft and perform. and when i get older they'll call me freedom
just like a waving flag.

FEATURE: Notable Motswana (25 Dec 2008)

2008-12-25T01:34:00.005-05:00

I have had the pleasure and honour of portraying him on stage and I hope to have the pleasure and honour to portray again, on film.

His is a heroic story of indomitable faith and vision even with the political opposition he faced from present-day Zimbabwe and South Africa for his inter-racial marriage, and it is not hard to see why his human values have touched the world over and his country Botswana to this day. Our first president, my hero, Sir Seretse Khama.

Seretse Khama was born in 1921 in Serowe, in what was then the Bechuanaland Protectorate. He was the son of Sekgoma Khama II, the paramount chief of the Bamangwato people, and the grandson of Khama III, their king. The name "Seretse" means “the clay that binds together,” and was given to him to celebrate the recent reconciliation of his father and grandfather; this reconciliation assured Seretse’s own ascension to the throne with his aged father’s death in 1925. Wanna know more? Click below.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seretse_Khama

2008-12-25T01:29:00.003-05:00

Merry Christmas! A friend of mine Sne S. wrote a brilliant poem and I thought I would share it on this blog. Here it is:
Dreamers...

I see what is not before me. Hear voices in the silence. The world is my reflector and the mirrors pierce my organs. Sparkling titillation.

You think of me,

Approaching-

Jagged glass protruding from each orifice

You cower

Down.

For comfort, you tell yourself.

I see.

But what of us dreamers?

Eye sockets in-verted

by glass

Do you judge our glazed expression? Think us vacant

Charmers.

This is pure

allure.

Walk around in our breath.

A child sans ploy. An adult sans image.

Very, very, veritable.

For me, for me, formidable.

FEATURE: Notable Motswana (22 Dec 2008)

2008-12-25T00:56:00.007-05:00

She is my dear friend, she is former Miss Universe and one of the most intelligent people I have ever met and she is a Political Economist and an actress at the same time. She was one of the best athletes at my high school, and Botswana's pride and joy. Mpule Kwelagobe.

Mpule Keneilwe Kwelagobe of Gaborone, Botswana was crowned Miss Universe in May of 1999 in Trinidad and Tobago.She was the first Miss Universe Botswana and the first Miss Botswana to participate in the Miss Universe pageant.

Since being crowned Miss Universe 1999, Mpule has been recognized and honored as a human health rights activist, especially for her fight against HIV/AIDS and advocacy for youth and women to have greater access to sexual reproductive education and services.

HAMBA, JUBA! ( GO, DOVE!)

2008-12-23T14:08:00.004-05:00

Sometimes I am serious. This is one of those rare times when prudence moves out of feeling's way, and anger chills my heart into stone, and briefly become deaf to God. And briefly I want to say that if I cannot amount to anything of worth in your eyes, it is neither my fault nor necessarily true; if my art negates my critical, intellectual and scientific faculties as far as you are concerned, fine; if calling you invites you to insult our callings, convictions and couth, you need not worry about any more unwanted invitations; if our laughter is a lack of dignity, we have nothing to apologise for; if my privateness be a curse and your judgement be friendship, then this love we had for you has just begun to keep a record of wrongs. If you're a dove, I beg you to take your thoughts to flight and leave us in peace.

Yours,

Me and my friend.

From bbc.co.uk

2008-12-13T04:25:00.000-05:00

UK caused cholera, says Zimbabwe

Robert Mugabe has said the West was plotting to use cholera to invade

The cholera outbreak in Zimbabwe which has left hundreds dead was caused by the UK, an ally of Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe has said.

Information Minister Sikhanyiso Ndlovu described the outbreak as a "genocidal onslaught on the people of Zimbabwe by the British".

On Thursday, Mr Mugabe said the spread of cholera had been halted.

But aid workers warned that the situation was worsening and the outbreak could last for months.

In his comments to media in Harare, Mr Ndlovu likened the appearance of cholera in Zimbabwe to a "serious biological chemical weapon" used by the British.

The Zimbabwean minister for information blames Britain for the cholera outbreak

He described it as "a calculated, racist, terrorist attack on Zimbabwe".

Mr Mugabe has already accused Western powers of plotting to use cholera as an excuse to invade and overthrow him.

Earlier on Friday a senior South African Anglican bishop said that Mr Mugabe should be seen as a "21st Century Hitler".

Celebrating Sir SERETSE KHAMA

2008-11-29T21:24:00.005-05:00

I have been performing a stage show on the controversial of Botswana's first president Seretse Khama's marriage to a British woman in the late 1940's. Some of the articles on the show are below. I will put up clips once the DVD is out. http://www.mmegi.bw/index.php?sid=6&aid=11&dir=2008/November/Tuesday25 http://www.berkshirereview.net/theater/dialogue_one_08.html http://www.advocateweekly.com/inberkshires/ci_11026128 http://62center.williams.edu/62center/event.cfm?eid=174

Cheers,
Donald.

Nervous About Response to Obama...but happy.

2008-11-09T22:56:00.004-05:00

A few things make me nervous about Barack’s winning. Here is a few on my mind right now:

- The celebration and jubilation that is buzzing through Kenya is great but is its magnitude misplaced? If it is in fact appropriate then I hope that it does not give way to ridiculous expectations upon the Obama Administration vis-à-vis US-Kenya relations etc. That makes me nervous.

- The state of African-Americans – I hope that the African-American will not now walk around with extra padding on their shoulder because this is a step towards the process of leveling the field as opposed to tipping the scales in the opposite direction to the status quo.

- The White Americans – I hope they don’t feel too complacent by having voted for a Black president and actually start acting the way their vote suggests they are beginning to think about racial politics.

- The Foreign Black Student From Botswana: I hope everyone will stop trying to drag me into false solidarity based on color.

That said, CONGRATULATIONS PRESIDENT OBAMA!!!

RANTING: Barack's Glory Casts A Shadow on Me

2008-11-09T22:30:00.006-05:00

No rain on Obama, but read on.

Barack Obama is on his way to becoming the first Black President of the US. As a political scientist and someone interested in world politics I see this as a miraculously good thing in many ways including symbolism of progressive thinking of the American people, the changing of America’s face to a world angry at and sometimes hateful towards the US etc.

That being said, I do not have an emotional response towards the outcome of Obama’s run. I do not even use such words as “victory” to describe it. Whose victory? I may love Obama as a leader but truth is though I may live in America but I am still a foreigner looking in on American politics. They do not make me react on a personal level as opposed to an intellectual one of a voyeur. And this distant reaction of mine has earned me a few odd looks from the Americans I speak with who expect the opposite.

WHY cannot they understand that I will not sing praises for Barack based on the fact that he is Black and so am I? Given the History Barack’s presidency will be making, will American people assess their understanding of a compartmentalized understanding of identity being the basis for phony solidarity? I respect the man as a leader, not for the fact that he is my color.

B O R D E R S

2008-02-05T15:36:00.000-05:00

I recently had an interesting talk with my friend Chenjerai about borders. He is from Zimbabwe and I am from Botswana and so naturally we spoke about borders' cultural impacts pertaining to Southern Africa. ''You see, my brother, look at the map of Zimbabwe - it is like a teapot and you know British people like their tea,'' he joked about why it was in the interests of the first world to keep the borders intact.

He opined that they needed to be erased because they were not drawn by the southern Africans and they divided ethnic groups and were designed to keep the people there under colonial control, and so borders weakened the region's voice in world politics. He called what we know as countries in that region today as ''constructed nation states''. It is the classic divide and rule argument.

This got me wondering about how borders have exclusified languages or dialects...I hope there is such a word as exclusify, but what I mean is if a Shona person spoke Kalanga with a Shona accent in Botswana they would probably get flak for it, and if I as a Kalanga speaker have taken flak for speaking Shona ''funny.'' Shona and Kalanga are in some respects like Texan English and the English one would find in Wales, so they are not completely dissimilar. Once upon a time, they were the same language but a border ran through it and now it lives between them.

Now everyone holds onto their version of the language and makes it an exclusive mode of communication that the speakers of the other versions have no right to. Would this have happened due to natural migration without set territorialism through borders? I don't know. And is exclusivity bad? Does it assert new notions of identity and embrace that new cultures form over time?

I am still ruminating on this subject and what my fascination means, so feel free to scribble your thoughts aboutr borders in Africa...

STILL HERE

2007-12-19T10:20:00.000-05:00

been scared and battered.
My hopes the wind done scattered.
Snow has friz me,
Sun has baked me,

Looks like between 'em they done
Tried to make me

Stop laughin', stop lovin', stop livin'--
But I don't care!
I'm still here!

Langston Hughes

THE DEATH OF LUCKY DUBE

2007-10-28T06:26:00.000-05:00

Lucky Dube. Where I come from, his name has become synonymous with all things pertaining to humanity and its self-regulating capacities. For decades, his music spoke of the virtues to which South Africa aspired and thus assured us that even with the indelible setbacks apartheid, we still had the power and indeed the will to self-regulate as a people, turn around our thinking and reach for the ideal that is The Rainbow Nation.

There really is nothing I can write about this man that would really capture the way he changed my life personally as a black child growing up exposed to apartheid South Africa, and simply as a member of the human race.

His death is a shock to all of us and it honestly pisses me off that people can just randomly shoot a father in front of his children, hijack his car and expect to get away with it. Rest in peace, Lucky Dube.

SEUNG CHO: LIFE AND LIVES

2007-07-30T03:28:00.000-05:00

you closed it by taking yours.

you upset Paradise on that day when

like a demon,

you took many.

yet like a phantom unwelcome

you had chosen to live yours invisibly.

could i reduce yours to a psychological concept and

damn it thereafter, i would.

instead, i speculate:

what will your answer be when ezekiel's bone-miracle shall happen again?

Don Molosi

just my take on it...

2007-05-24T00:34:00.000-05:00

Conflict arose between the refugees after the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) intervened in the matter, and improved the squalid living conditions of the refugees. The Chadians got embittered by this gesture as they resent having foreigners enjoy a better standard of living than Chadians, in

Chad

. They also fear that the Chadians’ economic power over Chadians might translate into political power. Although this may be a valid argument on realist and moral grounds respectively, the Chadians overlook the positive aspects to hosting the Sudanese such as the provision of cheap labor. The Sudanese, by virtue of having better living standards are able to consume more Chadian goods, which lubricates

Chad

’s gun-arabic and agriculture-based economy.

A similar situation is current in

Botswana

where multitudes of Zimbabwean immigrants flee because of

Zimbabwe

’s dire political crisis. The Zimbabwean immigrants although responsible for a considerable proportion of the crime in

Botswana

, offer cheap labor and also create a market for jobs that the Batswana look down upon and do not take up themselves such as being a maid. This thus refutes the argument that foreigners necessarily take the locals’ jobs. As immigration politics around the world take the center-stage, the xenophobia and paranoia sitting deep in the host countries’ psyche surface. Furthermore, the inseparable good and bad of immigration to the host country can be seen through time irrespective of whether the immigration was coerced or voluntary. By the time humans notice that immigration is not sustainable, tensions are already irreparably grand and there is only one way to go from there: “violent correction”.

2007-03-18T14:01:00.000-05:00

HE IS THE HORMONE OF GREED ITSELF!

by Donald Leungo Molosi

blubbery in nature, the grimy hormone drips, sits on our heads from above.

It quivers joyfully and oils itself from your mothers’ blood, my fathers’ sweat.

"We have said we will never collapse, never ever. We may have our droughts, our poverty, but as a people we shall never collapse, never ever."

your hunger is different as it is for power.

for too long hunger made me believe.

for too much desperation, i acquired a new faith and

this new religion’s ghost is a large, round and greasy hormone.

whatever shall the ghost answer on that day?

"We don't mind having sanctions banning us from Europe. We are not Europeans."

i don’t read the herald anymore.

for too long my hardship made me believe that ndarara kana mararawo. no, robert,

you did not wake up in the night and hear the cries of a pregnant woman miscarrying because of starvation.

"Why foist this food upon us? We do not want to be choked,

we have enough."

tell me, robert, what shall your answer be when you shall walk the land like any man,

when I, my neighbor, and pamwe chete all of zimbabwe shall seek an answer?

HORMONE OF GREED IN BLOOD!

2007-03-18T13:50:00.000-05:00

Robert Mugabe

Torture victim of Mugabe's regime
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

2007-03-09T16:49:00.000-05:00

AFRICAN FILMS ONLINE!!!

Ok, so youtube made it easier to share African music and videos. There's also more resources online such as AfroVision.
Check it out and you won't regret it!

ANOTHER BIG AFRICAN FILM

2007-03-07T16:29:00.000-05:00

Giving. Is the act of giving good or baneful? Is it the act itself or the ideas behind it, the dependance it breeds? What about all the aid Africa is receiving from outside? Does it do more harm or good? Hold that thought.

You've seen Hotel Rwanda, Catch A Fire, Blood Diamond....and another African movie similar to these three is out. It's called BAMAKO and addresses just the issue of how responsible the WTO and IMF are responsible for Africa's economic quagmire... click on hypertext and check it out.

Next post: Why Do We Need non-African actors to star in African Movies or not?

2007-03-02T10:30:00.000-05:00

TURBULENCE!

in the proverbial accord of hand

and glove, does the

sea flirt with you as

i watch from the plane.

- turbulence! -

land of Nkrumah, of gods and gold:

land of Ghana, wonsu saa biom.

your tears salted the sea once when

it beguiled you like a harlot, and

history taught your children to dread ships.

- turbulence! -

it is time for a new thought.

so, yes,

i like flying.

it gives me a mischievous anonymity and places me

above time, above place.

above history’s tears.

GHANA ULULATES AND SO DO WE ALL!

2007-03-02T10:14:00.000-05:00

On March 6, the country of Ghana will be celebrating its 50th independence anniversary, and the continent of Africa will be celebrating with Ghana on that day.

Ghana was the first African country to break free from colonisation and thus inspired fellow African states to follow suite. Next, I'll post a poem I wrote about Ghana some time ago as I saw Ghana from the plane.

REINCARNATION BACK : a love declaration

2007-02-18T16:54:00.000-05:00

i gather my

fragmented shadows,

write a tragedy in an act

and bring us back.

for you mon coeur, i must

find a way back into this skin.

i have missed you.

time was fleeting

and my spirit

though blithe and hopeful,

stifled

like a drudge

in oppressive academia,

was singing a monody

to an untimely

grave.
darling theater,

in your name i reclaim my center.

Love the Migrants. Benefit. Hate Them Quick!

2007-02-06T08:07:00.000-05:00

51% of Americans in 2001 wished to see the government make it harder for immigrants to enter the United States. This is interesting not only since most Americans are immigrants themselves, but also because four centuries ago America engineered a forced immigration of West-Africans to American soil as it was in America’s economic interest. The United States now claims to hang its head low in shame at its history of the ‘peculiar institution’ of slavery. Dignified as that declaration appears to be, it does not change the truth that the country economically benefited immeasurably from the breaking backs and bleeding hands of slaves whose free hard-labor is responsible for today’s flourishing of US insurance companies like Aetna and banking firms like Fleet Boston. Slavery’s economic self-aggrandizement was part of the reason slavery seemed sustainable because of the US’s consumerist modus operandi. Proportionately, slavery lingered for almost three centuries.

Kufuor Wins!!!

2007-01-31T10:33:00.000-05:00

Congratulations to Ghanaian president, John Agyekum Kufuor who just got elected to be the new Chairperson of the African Union for the 2007 session... So, President Kufuor is the second civilian Ghanaian leader, after Dr. Kwame Nkrumah to chair the Union. He takes over at a time when Darfur in Western Sudan has become one of the more intractable African "problems" confronting the international community. Eish, maybe if the AU had a little more resources, it would have more influence...

Thoughts...

2007-01-29T01:14:00.000-05:00

The experience of being back to Jo'burg and Cape Town to do Theater has been a wonderful one. Ga a bo motho go thebe phatshwa (There is no place like home). The heat here is scorching, I am talking 40 degrees celsius. So yeah, in a nutshell the snow that awaits me in Massachusetts will be a shock to the system.

I just finished a book on one of my beloved African politicians - Patrice Lumumba and I will post a review of the book soon...

More and more I feel that Pan-Africanism was/is an ideal that was used to restore dignity to Africans, and people of African descent after colonialism and to intimidate the colonial master. I feel as though some of its promoters such as my beloved Mr. Lumumba may have known that it was not feasible but still preached it for the above-mentioned reasons...

Take care everyone..

Africans and Accents

2007-01-14T02:32:00.000-05:00

Many Africans who speak English have different kinds of accents influenced by where they grew up and the other languages they speak. An accent is described as a mode of utterance peculiar to an individual, locality or nation. This dictionary definition makes it sound like your accent is a part of your identity and is something you should be proud of but I have met many Africans who are not proud of their accents.

In Botswana the closer your accent is to that of native English speakers like the British or the Americans the more people envy you. If you have what I call a “raw Botswana accent” people tend to look down upon you. This is partly due to that most of the people with the raw Botswana accent come from public schools while those with the near perfect English or American accents come from rich private schools where some of their teachers are English or American. Thus in most cases your accent gives away your social status. Many people try so hard to perfect their accents in order to give the illusion that they went to rich schools or good public schools in the city. Most radio stations in Botswana nowadays seem to be hiring people who have accents that come close to those of native English speakers. The question this raises is does having a near perfect accent mean you have mastered the language better than someone who speaks it with their natural accent? I have met a few Caucasian people who spoke my language with my accent and I was impressed so I wondered if this meant that I had to master the American accent in order to impress the Americans with my English.

The accent issue gets complicated when an African moves to a place with native English speakers like America. The first thing a person in America notes when they talk to you is your accent. Many of them politely say they love your accent leaving you to wonder if they really meant it or it is their way of telling you that you are odd. You pray so hard that during your stay in America you will absorb some of the American accent if you are ashamed of your own and you celebrate when someone notices an ‘improvement’ in your accent. If you do master the accent you feel a sense of acceptance by the Americans because we all want to feel accepted but guess what? Many of your friends back home in Africa are waiting to hear your accent as soon as you get back and if it is too perfect they will accuse you of being less of an African even though they too would like to have an accent like yours. Talk about complicated!

A possible solution is for us to realize that there are many English accents and there is no one right English accent so we should take pride in our accents.

Iyo Ndzimu wangu! (Oh, my God!)

2007-01-08T12:01:00.000-05:00

I am leaving for South Africa tomorrow to do Theater in Jo'burg and Cape Town. I'll be there for a month and I am the only non-American in the group. The questions I am getting are ridiculous!! Wish me luck.

"Oh, Donald, like since you're half South-African and you've been there before, like, should I take my digital camera with me 'cause I might get robbed, you know, like the black people might still be angry about apartheid and all..."

"Like, do they see a lot of Americans down there? 'Cause I mean if they do, they've probably heard we're coming and they're expecting gifts. Like, we can't give them much, we're college students...I mean, charity is what the US is known for..."

Iyo Ndzimu wangu!!

Yeah sure, my pet elephant has already run up to the top of Kilimanjaro to send smoke signals to the entire continent to say you saviors are coming.

Pride nurtured by Elitism?

2007-01-08T11:25:00.000-05:00

Tumelano's comment on "Is African Renaissance of the Mind" made me think of something. I wonder whether it matters what kind of social class an African associates with in US once in the US for them to be proud of being African. I mean, if you come here and go to the most expensive boarding schools, elite colleges, you're in an environment that is likely to release your appreciation of Africa (big place, I know) by just giving you the chance to be proud. Would you think the same way if you had come here and begged on the street and ended up in the projects? I think probably not...especially if you came from the bottom of the barrel in Africa to begin with.. I could be wrong, though.

ma soeur

2007-01-07T16:46:00.000-05:00

speak to her in yoruba, twi, swahili, sesarwa or shona.

she may not comprehend some,

but in all she will delight in a rhythm natural to her ear,

a movement instinctive to her tongue

and hopefully a reassurance that she has a home on the other side of the sea:

my sister is the soul in Africa’s golden daughters.

she has glistening brown eyes

like one who stared at the earth for too long,

her nose is fantastically flat,

her lips are fabulously full

and every hair strand in her dreadlocks is twisted and locked just the way it ought,

her smile flashes bright and wide because home lives in her.

sister’s skin shines dark black,

her hands heal everything they touch

and her song echoes a revolution in the valley of my soul.

today, I won’t let her cast her head down just because of skin.

Heaven fell in love with her dark black before she knew dark black.

brown skin or dark skin, it is of God not shame.

in time, these foreign soils she trots will speak her name.

and today, sister’s going to shine that black and lift her chin.

Donald Leungo Molosi. 2007

no, really, what's up? kanti senzeni?

2007-01-07T00:32:00.000-05:00

I found it both somewhat futile and thought-provoking when yesterday Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo gave a speech in New York City addressing representatives of the African Diaspora and warned the Diaspora about another “Scramble for Africa”. Obasanjo was basically saying that unlike the scramble we already know of (colonies and slaves), this time the world’s great powers will come after Africa’s energy resources especially those found in the Gulf of Guinea. He said that the scramble is “being led by China from the East and the US from the West”. Three things intrigued me about this:

1. How much can Africa really protect herself from the scramble? Do we have the capacity, considering that a lot of our self-protective capacities are in the West’s hands? We are not in a position to put the West, or even the East in sanctions because their trade feeds us, among many other reasons.

2. Obasanjo asked the African Diaspora to join Africa in its efforts to protect its resources. This is where my cynicism about Pan-Africanism shows up. Really, African-Americans see themselves as first American and secondly of the African Diaspora, if at all they acknowledge the latter. So, you can figure whose interests they will have at heart. Use the same reasoning for other groups in the African Diaspora and you’ll see this might not have been as grand a move towards progress as Obasanjo may believe.

3. I ask myself if the scramble ever stopped after the slavery and colonization. And if Obasanjo is right that something really huge and explicitly nasty is coming, whose help do we seek?

COMFORTABLE IN YOUR VERY OWN SKIN

2007-01-06T02:43:00.000-05:00

Djimon Hounsou from Sierra Leone

Alek Wek from Sudan

they are too dark for whom?

It is hard to define the standard of beauty or decent looks for a continent of people as vastly diverse as far as looks go as Africans. People throughout the continent come in all shapes, sizes and colors, and even more interestingly, the standard of who looks good might have this same complexity within one African country. I can think of how difficult a task that would be even in my home country of Botswana, a country of less than two million people.

But one thing seems to be common throughout the continent’s psyche though – the belief that the lighter your skin, the better you look. Most of the publicized stories about this are about West Africa but I believe this mentality to be all over, like a huge cancer imperceptibly eating away Africa’s integrity.

Colonization may have played a part, yes, and passed the baton to 21^st century international media. But those influences are from without Africa. What about the negative messages we send from within the African continent to other Africans on the continent that darker skin is uglier? In my opinion, we as Africans facilitate the duping of our very selves, yes, certainly as an effect of what we have been taught and believed for too long, but is it not about time we put integrity back into having African features? Can we ever separate our views what we've been indoctrinated with? I don’t know how we can put gorgeous back into dark skin in our minds, but time is running out for you, Africa. Too many of your daughters die physically and in the soul using toxic creams to make themselves look lighter. And too many are paying the price in other ways such as at the link below:

http://www.mmegi.bw/2006/October/Tuesday3/298357583761.html

MUTED DRUMS!

2007-01-04T01:58:00.000-05:00

A friend of mine, Annie recently shared with me an Afro-politically-conscious song I found extremely inspirational. It inspired me to scribble a poem as I listened to it and I wrote the poem below. I think it reads better in its original two-column fomat and I did not go back to edit it because it has an honesty about it I did not want to tamper with yet. What do you get from it?

***

WHAT IS MY REVOLUTION?

We were taught, sometimes in a very
positive way, to despise ourselves and
our ways of life. We were made to
believe that we had no past to speak of,
no history to boast of.

Khama. Mandela.
I speak your names for your spirit
marches inside me.
Ke leungo la tiro ya diatla tsa lona:
I am the fruit of your revolution

It should now be our intention to try to
retrieve what we can of our past. We
should write our own history books to
prove that we did have a past…a nation
without a past is a lost nation, and a
people without a past is a people
without a soul.

Khama, I saw a drum today.
I literally saw a djembe head that had
been slashed with something sharp,
What use is it now?

And what use are my words if
my poem, devoid of craft, fails to
convey the tragedy of a mute drum?

What use am I, impounded in
these foreign mountains to beg and sigh?

We have known ironies, insults, blows
that we endured morning, noon, and
evening…

Who will forget that to a black one said
“tu”, certainly not as to a friend, but
because the more honorable “vous” was
reserved for whites alone?

Who will forget that to a black one [says]
“tu”, certainly not as to a friend, but
because the more honorable “vous” [is]
reserved for whites alone?

Lumumba. Nkrumah.
In the sound of your names I hear drums
that would not be muted by blood and
fire. Though your drums played loudly,
You fathers did not warn me.

…equal opportunities. It is an ideal
which I hope to live for and to achieve.
But if needs be, it is an ideal for which I
am prepared to die.

Mandela, remind me.
Something, bite me; ruffle me.
Something! Shake off this
cancer consuming my capacities

Sound of drums, wake me up to a
revolution.

The emergence of such a mighty
stabilizing force in this strife-worn
world..[it] should be regarded not as the
shadowy dream of a visionary, but as
practical proposition, which the peoples
of Africa can, and should, translate into reality.
Tomorrow may be too late and the
opportunity will have passed, and with it
the hope of free Africa’s survival.

Nkrumah, I saw a mute drum today.

Is African Renaissance of the mind?

2006-12-27T16:23:00.000-05:00

According to Wikipedia AFRICAN RENAISSANCE is "a concept popularized by South African president Thabo Mbeki in which the African people and nations are called upon to solve the many problems troubling the African continent."

Two years ago I was in high school in Connecticut and I was one of about twenty black students out of six hundred, and the only African student at the school. So, you can imagine how excited I was when one of the teachers invited me to have dinner with his Ivorian friend who he was friends with. The excitement was out of the relief at the fact that I wouldn't have to explain every detail about myself such as how come I speak good English although I am a Motswana. Or so I thought.

Dinner time came and about five people were there altogether. Naturally, at some point the group conversation touched on Africa, and many questions were asked by the non-African people in the room. The questions ranged from what people do for Christmas to totems, in our respective countries. As I listened to the Ivorian girl speak I realized that she and I had different views of the continent and what it does and should stand for. She spoke of hopelessly inept youth who turn trigger-happy due to boredom, greedy leaders who embezzle government funds, the "uncivilized" nature of Africans responsible for AIDS spread. It was clear that she had decided to put the African part of her identity behind her. She looked down on everything African, she had given herself an American name and swore never to set foot on African soil.

She spoke of how Africans will never have appreciation for the beauty of their beaches, that Africans use them as dump sites. At that juncture I added that although I am not West African and have never been there, I don't think such a strong and negative generalization can be used to answer questions from people who know nothing about the continent of Africa. I was adamant that there are many positive things about Africa that don't get the airplay they deserve and used the richness of African cultures and excellent African literature as examples. She spoke of how African culture is barbarism and gave Rwandan genocide as an example. Everyone but I was amused. I realized that our accounts were bound to be different by virtue of where in Africa we had lived, and our individual experiences. I also realized she might have left Ivory Coast for reasons considerably different from the ones I left Botswana, and that there is usually an element of truth in stereotypes, this incident made me ask myself a lot of questions.

But considering how cross we get for Western media's portrayal of Africa (e.g. NY Times front pages), if we are to contribute to African Renaissance, how do we as Africans talk about Africa to people who know nothing of the continent? How do we avoid perpetuating stereotypes and still speak of the negatives that exist on the continent just like any other?

I began to wonder if there is any way we are to speak of the continent as Africans when trying to impart our cultures to other people. It is no use moping about the effects of colonization on our inferiority complex as Africans. Obviously I would realize that not all Ivorians would share that girl's sentiments, but would the rest of the non-African world? It seems to me that together with an economic revolution and such, Africa is desperate for a mind-revolution so that even when we speak of unflattering realities in Africa we do not shoot down our integrity and dignity as if to say that the like of Lumumba and Biko died in vain.

With this I wish everyone a happy 2007 and look forward to your responses.

African Renaissance: A Revolution of the Mind?

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Seretse Khama: The drama of a royal romance in Botswana

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REINCARNATION BACK : a love declaration

Love the Migrants. Benefit. Hate Them Quick!

Kufuor Wins!!!

Thoughts...

Africans and Accents

Iyo Ndzimu wangu! (Oh, my God!)

Pride nurtured by Elitism?

ma soeur

no, really, what's up? kanti senzeni?

COMFORTABLE IN YOUR VERY OWN SKIN

MUTED DRUMS!

Is African Renaissance of the mind?