loss

I can't imagine life without loss... of life, love, truth, lies, loss of the pure existence of these words that breathe, feel and touch. My back tongue has tasted defeat far too many times that now it prides itself with loss of taste as taste buds have vacated the moistness of saliva and now hide beyond dry rivers of my soul.

Small Kitchen SportsCentre

In Kwa-Thema there is Bahama’s, Tsakane there is Chillas… in Duduza we have Small Kitchen Restaurant & SportCentre.  You may be surprised at my mention of Small Kitchen in the same breath as the other two- well fact is- there isn’t a better place for a well round sports experience in Duduza than Small (as it’s affectionaly called).  It boasts of multiple viewing areas within the venue.  From the main entrance where crowds can be seen mingling and having a laid back sitting experience, to the back entrance where crowds are often treated to Dj’s on the decks mixing the latest House music tunes- this place attracts a huge following due to its well run operations.  For the more conservative sports fan- there are sitting areas inside.   “Small” also offers “Chisa Nyama” services where visitors can purchase Meat and have it braai’d at one of the charcoal braaing areas outside.  For a small service fee (a tip) the meat is well prepared at the visitor’s convience.  Additions like Pap and gravy can be bought, together with your favourite beverages to you spirits and whiskeys.

Small Kitchen SportCentre:          Ndudula Street

                                                   076 777 9757

                                                   Facebook Search small kitchen Sportcentre  

The Diet

After a long day of tutoring… its afternoon time and for some weird reason my stomach is grumbling so hard. All I can feel are cravings of something I hardly eat… SALAD!  Wow! A very green salad, healthy and all!  I can feel that if I just get a bowl of this green dish, the stomach would stop.

Well operating on a student's low budget, the salad seemed a bit over priced, but hey tell that to my stomach and see if it was going to stop grumbling!  So… I decided to buy it and I indulged.  I ate that thing like a lion munching on a big kill… and yes you guessed right: “My stomach was as fine and still as a river in a warm night after finishing that bowl.

This got me thinking… My stomach didn't want anything else- not a pill, no slap chips but that bowl of salad.  I don’t know how this happened but I caught on to the principle. I’m sure you can relate to this in terms of your mind and heart. There comes a time when your mind and heart get tired of what you usually give them… what they consume.  They cramp with depression and bath in feelings of worthlessness.  At that time you just know the only cure is change!  A positive change: a healthy mental diet.

Our Environment can be quit hazardous to our view of life and our dreams but its only a shift in mindset and a change in perspective, a new mental diet that initiates change and relieves one of any negativity enslaving you. You need no mental cramps, you need no worries, your mind should only be stretching towards success, creating and bringing change. Grab a bowl of salad, I mean that positive read that makes your heart go "I’m born to conquer", do something worthy of who and what you want to be in the future. You know you have to move to greater heights when your heart cries for change.

Feed your mind what it needs… exactly what it needs.  Be what you want to be!

#Ngenkani

Collen Entrep Mpila

Food

Nothing can work if YOU don't- Maya Angelou

Chinese Proverb

The best time to plant a seed and grow a tree was 20 years ago; the second best time is now.

WORDS UNLIMITED Vol 1: Knock, Knock, Knocking on Library doors

Library entrance… 2pm Friday afternoon, gates opened; car wash near the entrance; guys playing football at the parking lot- Doors closed!

Does this picture make sense to you?

I was very concerning for me to discover that our library is closed due to a ceiling that collapsed weeks ago.  Such an important support structure for the youth, shut down and now being used inappropriately while matric exams edge closer and closer.

When I was still in high school, the library was a hotspot for us guys to go pick up beautiful ladies in our age group… ladies those days understood the importance of education, even for us guys- most importantly the library was an information hub where we could all go find refuge when preparing for our matric exams.  We would meet and share study tips, share study guides and share jokes.  These days our library has turned into a place where idle minds go and engage in drug related activities.

Who are we going to point fingers at when our matrics results continue on their downward slope? Are we going to point fingers at the government or the municipality? 

We should point fingers at ourselves.  We saw the problem and did nothing to solve it… Duduza doesn’t belong to the ANC, the DA, COPE or AZAPO.  I t belongs to everyone who lives in Duduza and everyone else who has his/her history rooted inside the heart and soul of our home… Duduza.

Let’s open our eyes and see passed the mistakes and seek solutions… Let’s look passed the closed doors at our library and try finding a key that would open many doors for our youth… funny thing: the key is in our hands.

Words Unlimited. Vol 1

Kev

Anyone who knows who we can talk to about us fixing the collapsed ceiling, please email me his contact details.  nigelduduza31@gmail.com

DAILY BREAD

We live in a place full of so many opportunities- some look at it with a different eye, an eye of self-pity… where there are scarce resources lies great opportunities.  On our daily bread this week: “Blessings ignored become a curse”- P.Coelho.

dream weaver

At a rapid pace our community is employing more and more aspiring youth faces at the corner store- watching the days go by and no plans to find real work... the only hope of economic upliftment smoked down with every drag of a splif, a joint and a casual smoke.

These young minds with dreams have lost hope and whats more depressing- the very parents that raised them have also given up on them.  It is the sad reality at the palce we live in- lack of opportunities, lack of information on opportunities and lack of self awareness.

We pride ourselves with this badge of ours: Duduza, we try to exhibit our riches to the outside world while some are ashamed to even mention their true hometown- adopting places like Tsakane, Kwa-thema, mainly because everyone knows of these "on-the-map" places from the east.  Here's my challenge to you:

We live in an undeveloped place where unemployment is not our neighbour but part of our household- I challenge each and every one of us to create at least one job opportunity for the guy next door.  It doesn't have to be- a managers position nor do have to do all the work for him... all you can do is just share the bit of information that you have, to him it may be just what he was waiting to here.

Let's weave a dream for this community of ours- lets pull our resources together and give this dream life.

nigelduduza31@gmail.com for any ideas- ke new york.

FREE

"The warrior of light hears someone say: 'I need to understand everything before I can make a decision.  I want to have the freedom to change my mind'

The warrior regards these words suspiciously.  He too can enjoy that freedom, but this does not prevent him from taking on a commitment, even if he does not know quite why he does so.

A warrior of light makes decisions.  His soul is as free as the clouds in the sky, but he is committed to his dream.  On his freely chosen path, he often has to get up earlier than he would like, speak to people from whom he learns nothing, make certain sacrifices.

His friends say: 'You're not free."

The warrior is free. But he knows that an open oven bakes no bread.

- PAULO COELHO.

POLITICAL VERB

The political climate is just as unpredictable as today’s weather- the effects of global warming seem to be having far reaching effects to even the political arena where rivalry reaches boiling point and civilians remain the main victims of this dog- eat dog- world.

This week we saw Mr. Malema go to court to defend a revolutionary song that is said to incite violence against farmers- an ANC BOER took to the stand to defend this song while outside the courtroom unemployed youth came out in numbers to show support for their controversial leader.  Now I pose this question: is this song and all the publicity it gets, moving us forward?

Psychological teachings describe a black mind as one that values the past more than the present and the future- we look at our past and turn our backs against the future to put it plainly.  I personally love the song and all that it stands for- however I believe, currently it is being used as just another tool to deviate the real agenda in the country.

W e are fighting a new revolution… a revolution where we seek to be financially free- what’s the use of having a democracy that baths in misuse of public spending, high level of unemployment, high crime rate and a legal system that gives special treatment to the elite.  We are fighting a new revolution- a fight against poverty, lack of sufficient health care for the masses; we are fighting corruption in public offices… it is DEMO-CRAZY!

A new song will be born come the day the country feels it’s had enough with the current leadership, till that day- I guess we have to sit and watch the current leadership make mockery of a revolution that was fought and won with lives lost underneath the scorching Sun.

MSHINI WAM...

This coach is not as comfy as an old couch 
Cursed by the previous regime, it seems yet… 
Air-born hands remain high 
As the cry… freedom, 
from this baggage as it continues to pile up… 
sluggishly… like movement made by prey into the snake’s stomach. 
But now this prey comes from the slumps 
Unashamed it feeds on crumps. 
Look at the fear on eyes of the Caucasians on board- 
Can’t be described because everyone keeps quite on this train. 

Then they come, tossing their hidden cards: 
“Show me your money” 
I’ll scam you some more, but first, kiss the feet of my floor. 

In this snake’s pit, we sit in rows until the snake spits 
Congested… 
Of to the city of gold with spades, but some carry guns and knifes, 
To a few, it’s a joy ride… 
While others try to unblind us by playing guitars and singing praise, 
So reach down into your pockets because tomorrow might never come 

But the politician came… 
Took a shower, train… stop. 

Service delivery left undone because “Umshini wam” 
Is still being sung. 

THE WARRIOR

The warrior of light listens to Lao Tzu when he says that we should let go of the idea of days and hours in order to pay more attention to the moment.

Only in this way can the warrior resolve certain problems before they occur; by focusing on small things, he manages to avoid longer calamities.

But thinking about the small things is not the same as thinking small.  Over-anxiety ultimately banishes every trace of joy from life.

The warrior know that a great dream is made up of many different things, just as the light from the Sun is the sum of its millions of rays.

- P. Coelho
Warrior of Light.

At the feet of a Goddess – Moemise Motsepe (a.k.a Warrior of the word)

I thought I’d write you a poem

a poem of love

paint you a garden with words

and place you on the throne of my cosmos

I thought I’d write you a poem

and whisper metaphor after metaphor

as I a take a tour into every pore of you

sing melodies to your eternal spring

& for once put aside the question

The land question & forget my legacy

as a graduate of blood

I thought I’d write you a poem

an Antonio Jacinto masterpiece and toast to your smile

the testimony of the flower in you

that wine & the magic of being

with the jazz of poetry

suckle your nectar

savour your juice

taste your essence on my tongue

as I swallow the sour sweetness of you

I thought I’d write you a poem

& erase this deficit off my conscience

so that I too may worship without burden

at the feet of the goddess of romance

I thought I’d write you a poem

a poem of love

and dazzle you, weaken you

soften you, intoxicate you

marinade you

tame the tigress in you belly

& pay homage to the art in your heart

with that most potent, most virile

most electric, most beautiful

form of human expression,

A poem!

DOOMED YOUTH

As a family rebuilds after devastating floods and as the homeless try to find warm shelter before the coming winter season; we – in little known Duduza – watch, with sterile eyes, at the next generation flock our busy streets on Fridays to parade their “well- earned wealth”.  These boys, still breastfeeding in adolescence, go about their business of boasting “their wealth” amongst their peers by flaunting designer label items and vomiting squalid “rituals” of Ultramel pouring on fellow “opulent” opponent.  I did mention that these boys are barely into adolescent stage thus why am I surprised by this act of stupidity?

Call me old-school but shouldn’t there be a moral fibre that our community should provide for these kids where entertainment is concerned?  Or should we again blame the likes of Mashobane who used to walk into his club in Atteridgeville with R50 notes worth the value of 5 to 10 thousand rands, throw them in mid air and watch the crowd fight each other on the floor for the loot?

I am not going to blame Mashobane or his sushi pals!  I blame the parents that failed these kids at a young age… parents who opened Spitz accounts and splashed their credit on Lacoste shoes for their toddlers while a government grant remained a critical source of income in the household… parents who forced a fake silver spoon down their kid’s throat while the only nutrition the boy knew was malnutrition.

I am no parent nor do I have a parenting manual- I am just a writer expressing his views… and what I see is a flock that’s no better than your nyaope-smoking crowd… Idolising material wealth, in thee end they’ll do anything to feed this big-shot impersonation.

In the words of Jesus: “Forgive them father for they know not what they do.”

Kev.  

THOUGHT...

                                                THOUGHT

Standing, thinking, brewing in my golden pot

In this sedative, I pour adverbs, consonants and adjectives

Just a taste from this potion shall make us multiply

All wanting to testify in poetic justice…

Just the pure scent from the words we write

Make us want to recite and some how rectify all

the misfortunes and confusions happening all around us.

As my potion starts to boil

I pour Africa’s soil as a ploy to revive my African brothers and sisters

Their party wanting egos and

Their one night stand status makes them blind

Starring at truth in the eye, Yet…

Turn their backs and allow the same truth stab their backs.

But along came a thought…

It’s power… infinite

It’s the same thought burning all around us-

From Rastas behind burnt bridges burning fire…

To mc’s under siege battling to own the seven seas

This thought is igniting sparks for poetic justice.

Just for now, let’s allow this thought to freeze time…

Just for now, let’s allow this thought to hypnotize us

I emphasize let’s float on top of words and sympathize for the ignorant.

Just for now, let’s allow this thought to use us

In it’s potion…

So we can be sedatives

for confused minds

Sedatives for confused minds

Sedatives for confused… minds.

Kev.

SKAAZ IS BACK!

KASI RAP.

He raps with a certain vernacular swagger that oozes streets cred, his lyrics are yet to hit mainstream airwaves however this born rapper continues to deliver a unique sound that is bound to raise heads in the near future.  Simphiwe Chirwa, also known as Skaaz, has spent the better part of the Christmas break fine tuning his latest album titled: KASI MENTALITY.

Some of you know him is the co-founder of Imbawula Arts production, others with more Duduza hip hop intellect- know him as one of 3 members of the now defunct hip hop crew Bon Tsotsi.  This soldier of the game is aiming to raise the bar on what Duduza Hip Hop is all about, or should I say: “Kwatsaduza” hip hop- as he puts it- when he launches his latest album on the 26^th of February 2011 at Monty Motloung Hall.  He is sure to make us stand up and take note as on the day Duduza will be invaded by hip hop artists he worked with on the new album- from Lady Devine (kwa-thema) to Iminkhonto (KZN) and also keeping it local with the likes of Black Caesar and Viro and many more artists who also had a hand on the album.

For more details on the album launch, please check your event guide…

To get copies of my interview with Skaaz and also a sneak preview of the new album- keep me posted yeh.

Kev.