I love Cape Town, that’s it, maybe it’s because I don’t let those that are referred to as racist to try it on me, I simply tell them to fuck off or rather I think I would do that.
Cape Town is seen by most South Africans from other parts of the country as a little country, far from the rest of South Africa. Many go there for a week or two and come back having formulated an idea about it, the dominant being that it is racist and expensive to live there. But my point is not about Cape Town per se.
This I suspect is how most Africans see South Africa. We are seen as that country within the continent that tries so hard not to be part of the continent. After all we are the ones claiming that our fellow African are taking away our jobs etc. and by the way, we are that way. We see the rest of Africa like the west sees Africa.
We don’t travel, we don’t have any African countries in our plans to travel ( not that we travel anyway as stated before).
We claim to be experts on what Africans need but we only know about Africa from what we have been exposed to from the media, we are better than the rest of Africa we think. And intelligent we think we are.
But how does a clever being like a South African stay unemployed while many come to South Africa to cut our hair, plet (sp) the hair, work in restaurants, and sell drugs to us if we are clever and intelligent as we would like to be seen. Maybe we should just travel a bit, get out of living inside our heads and see the rest of OUR continent.
STOP thinking that you are better than other Africans and start realizing that you are holding the rest of the continent back. Shame on you, you speak about African leaders and countries as if you have been on the ground.
You live in Bloemfontein, but you have never even been to Lesotho (actually you don’t even have a passport), you are in Nelspruit but you have never been to Mozambique, you live in Mafikeng but you have never crossed the border to Botswana.
My point: please realize that ignorance of reality will not protect you from it. Stop living in your head. suggestions for 2015 resolutions:
1. Get a passport, and go to one country on the continent. Just one.
2. Take French lessons
3. Read African literature (not much at exclusive books)
4. Learn more about the continent.
5. Come to terms with the fact that you are like what Cape Town is to some South Africans, as a country.
Bra Given
Given SHINGANGE 