In the morning when i wake up i do the normal thing of reaching for my phone. Sometimes after taking it i realise that maybe i should not have done that since whatever i may come across may determine my whole day. So i did the same yesterday, this time i ended up playing the brother while lying on my back. Meaning i decided to offer brotherly advice to my sisters and brothers, sending them SMSs.
I laid it bare, because they have done some things that have disappointed me. For one, my youngest sister asked me to buy her some boots called Palladium for her birthday which is in November. Boots? in summer i wondered she said they were summer boots apparently. So i told her i do not have the money, but asked how much they cost, she said its Ok, i can meet her half way with R500, R500! and she says its half way, which means they cost maybe a R1000. The response was a quick No. At the back of my mind I am thinking whats wrong with this girl that she asks for such a lot of money. She is in Grade 11 for goodness sake. I recently told her i am here to support her in her “studies”, well i might have not been that specific but i think it is obvious though. It left me wondering, no actually, i just got more disappointed.
I then sent an SMS to my younger brother asking him what his plans were. Well he has not responded unfortunately. He is the cool guy in the hood, he even gets asked to be a grooms man by seriously old people, or maybe its because he is as handsome as his brother (Me). But he has not been that active i think, and i was also disappointed by him. And then there is my other sister who recently turned 21. Well she is something else. She also got an SMS.
Today, after a bit of thinking i think i might be missing something. The township is killing us. We cannot continue to think that these young people decide to be the way they are without taking into consideration other factors that are at play here. i mean after all, the sole reason for the establishment of townships was to put black people as far away as possible from the economic bases and just have them there as reserves. Which means when you talk soccer, black people were put there just so that they can come in when there is an injury. its a wack example, but its ok.
I actually think it is unfair of me to think that just because i escaped whatever it is that is doing this to our people, i am now better and that i have earned the right to tell them how disappointed i am in them. I think most of us do this. Without even asking them how they feel when they wake up and they have nothing to do. Without asking them how it feels like to have to ask for money for bread from your parents, or how it feels like to see people that you went to school with come back driving cars and buying you beers even though you were the best performer at school.
If we are to solve the problems that we are faced with, we need to deal with ourselves first. We need to first stop thinking that we are better than those that have not arrived where we are, “Yet”. But most of all we need to talk to them and try and figure what we can do, together with them to solve whatever problems we may together identify.
I don’t think all these unemployed young people, who either join gangs, steal, drink, do it because they have a choice. There is something that we are missing and until we deal with our townhouse arrogance, nothing will change.
I think i must apologise to them.
Given SHINGANGE 