Nyiko Speaks...

What a day, what a day, a day that the history books will remember. A day that, I have no doubt has moved us closer to the realisation of the ideals of the Revolution. Who was it that once said that each generation must discover its mission, fulfil it or betray it? I believe that those must have been the words of Afro-Caribbean psychiatrist, philosopher and revolutionary whose works are influential in the fields of post-colonial studies and Marxism:   Frantz Fanon. As a keen follower of student politics (given that I myself am a student) across South Africa, I have followed with devout commitment the developments as they unfolded regarding the #RhodesMustFall Movement as well as other developments as they relate to “decolonising” our national spaces, in particular institutions of higher learning. The call for genuine transformation is long overdue. The pace of transformation, particularly in the space of higher education has, for the most part been sluggish. I unequivocall

This is one of those rare and prized moments when I am travelling with my aunts and uncles to my cousin Rhulani’s wedding celebration – or rather part 2 thereof– in Thohoyandou, Venda. The first instalment of the wedding was last week, on the 19 th of September 2015 and what a beautiful day that was! We are on the road as I write this, driving through scenic routes, with a village or a township appearing here and there.   We are a party of six: my mom, my two uncles, my two aunts and I and since my uncle is the resident DJ and co-pilot on this road trip, there is a Shangaan music blaring in the background. I must say that the iconic and rhythmic instruments together with the simple yet creative lyrics invoke a sense of nostalgia. For some reason or the other it reminds of years gone by, at my grandparent’s home in Chiawelo, Soweto. On any given day outside, you could hear this kind of music playing somewhere a few houses down the road. The sweet melodies of Thomas Chauke-like

This is one of those rare and prized moments when I am travelling with my aunts and uncles to my cousin Rhulani’s wedding celebration – or rather part 2 thereof– in Thohoyandou, Venda. The first instalment of the wedding was last week, on the 19 th of September 2015 and what a beautiful day that was! We are on the road as I write this, driving through scenic routes, with a village or a township appearing here and there.   We are a party of six: my mom, my two uncles, my two aunts and I and since my uncle is the resident DJ and co-pilot on this road trip, there is a Shangaan music blaring in the background. I must say that the iconic and rhythmic instruments together with the simple yet creative lyrics invoke a sense of nostalgia. For some reason or the other it reminds of years gone by, at my grandparent’s home in Chiawelo, Soweto. On any given day outside, you could hear this kind of music playing somewhere a few houses down the road. The sweet melodies of Thomas Chauke-like

Sometimes, she catches her mind wandering. Wandering into worlds that she had told herself were no more. Worlds that she had told herself no longer exist. Those worlds used to be beautiful places, places of serenity, and places of dreams. But she soon realised that what had made those worlds magical, was because he was there. In those worlds they had co-existed, in those worlds they had breathed the same air; they had lived under the same skies. Beautiful blue skies with no clouds in sight, the sun shone brightly. By night, the sky was a perfect black, with a big full radiant night ball suspended in the atmosphere. If that moon could sing it would have looked down upon them and render a celebratory song in an unknown language that their ears could not make sense of, but their hearts could understand perfectly. Then, as though suddenly, clouds began to gather. They gathered as though responding to the sound of a mighty horn calling all soldiers to report for duty, for a battle tha

Isn't it just strange how on a random day, a song starts playing on the radio and that song evokes a certain memory? Yeah, I'm sure sure we can all identify with that. For me, it actually goes beyond music evoking memories of days gone by. In fact it's quit bizarre, and I think that as an antidote, perhaps if I write these down, it will serve some kind of therapeutic purpose. It's funny how a lot of these random things take one back to a specific time in history. But hey, don't they say that when the world gives you lemons, you make lemonade? Well, in that case here's to making lemonade - cheers to the memories of days gone by. Oh yes, let's not forget that each time we make lemonade, we ought to make double sure that the bitter seeds have been removed. So if you are reading this, fill your glass to the brim and enjoy my sweet (seed-free, figuratively speaking) lemonade. In some instances, I may offer a bit more detail regarding what I have termed the &

Sometimes, you need to stand still in order to move forward.  The other day I was  traveling from Johannesburg to Cape Town. The flight duration is normally just under two hours on a good day, on this particular day the flight left Johannesburg and halfway towards our destination the Captain announces that we are making good progress on the trip and all conditions (weather etc) are in order and a such we should reach our destination 15 minutes earlier than scheduled! Now for me it's always great news when a flight lands much earlier than expected, because that just means that one can get on the business of the day without delay.  As I'm having a mini victory dance (in my head of course), I'm thinking "this is great, it will give me a head start in collecting my luggage, getting my rental car and generally sorting out all the necessary logistics and I will get to my meeting early, yippee..."  About thirty minutes later, the speakers come on, interruptin

Several days ago I had a dream. A dream that left me feeling in awe, feeling excited., feeling an inexpressible joy. Throughout that day I told anyone who cared to listen about this dream!!! Well, so here goes. So it seemed like any other ordinary day...until I heard the news! Not sure whether it was e news or SABC, but either way the news anchor reported that, now wait for it......she tells the nation that Jesus is coming back!!! Now of course He is coming back, I know that. What was so striking in this dream was that they were reporting it as though it was already happening! The news anchor further stated that when Jesus arrives, He will start in Soweto (lol, I'm pretty sure that this has something to do with our Good Friday celebration at Orlando Stadium) and make His way through the country.  I was so excited, and couldn't wait to meet my  Saviour, my Redeemer face to face!!  What a dream. It left me feeling all sorts of happy and joyous and calm and excited and r

What a good laugh I had with my girl Dee last week Friday, me in Pretoria and her in Beijing! It has become a habit that now and again (probably too often in Dee's view), I call or send her a WhatsApp message and re-live the good times that we have had in the past, in particular our all-inclusive, all expenses paid, green braclet holiday in Zanzibar in 2012! We then progress to recalling everything from how we "won"the holiday in the first place, our journey there, time spent in transit in Nairobi, our arrival in Zanzibar and how in our excitement we got into the first car that we saw without even first ascertaining that the driver was actually taking us to the correct resort. We talk about the food we ate, the sandbank in the middle of the ocean, rowing in the ocean and at some point being the only natives on the beach. We then noted that we cannot talk about Zanzibar without going back to our time in the DRC in 2011. That was another epic experience, Che*, Dee and

The 21st of January 2015. What an amazing day I had. I wonder what accounts for the feeling of excitement and happiness on one’s birthday. Perhaps it’s the knowledge of knowing that you have completed yet another 360 degree revolution – metaphorically speaking, perhaps it’s all the pressies that you know are coming your way? Well I guess different people have different reasons why they find their birthdays significant, different from the other 364 days in the year. This year, I wanted to take in every moment of the 24 hours of my birthday. I wanted to deliberately live out each of those 1440 minutes of my birthday. Well, I can’t really explain why this would be the case this year, but either way that’s what I did. When the clock struck 00:00 on the 21st of January I was actually still prancing around the house, in and out of my parent’s room and in and out of the lounge busy chatting about all sorts of things to my mom and dad. Earlier the previous day I had collected my Afric