It’s vital for South Africa to look deeper into the beauty of Khoisan culture
TOWNSHIP life is obviously not the most glamorous in the Cape. This is not said to make the upper class unhappy or uncomfortable, it is just a bloody sad fact. My bet also is that it will be like this for a long time.
It is not clear for me when or why it happened, but it is just a sad fact that the Cape has to face.
Obviously bothersome to me is also the suspicion that I am not the only one who sees this bothering fact, but it seems like I am the only one bothered by this sad reality. I wonder why. But is it true that I am the only one seeing it? If not, then why are you so quiet about something so bothersome?
Hey, it is not an ANC-DA anomaly, it is just a personality malfunction. Well, that is what I reckon. And it does bother me. It bothers me tremendously. Does it bother you? If not, why are you not bothered? Am I just a mugu bothered by nonsense? Please tell me to shut up. Or rather help me to get the situation meddled with and solved to rescue the physical beauty of the Cape.
It is, within me, a popular thinking that the beauty of the Cape will only properly articulated when all its inhabitants speak it. Loudly. I mean the beauty of the peninsula must be spoken out in a loud unashamed voice so that the world can hear the joys of the peninsula.
I might be overstressing it unnecessarily, but the Cape is one of the aspects that makes the country just more than rationale. It is also not merely an articulate part of this country or continent, but rather an exhibit that makes us able to articulate the charms of this thing called the world.
It is not an exaggeration when I say that in the whole wide world the Cape, in my eyes, especially Cape Town, is gloriously majestic, if one can say that. But whether one can say it or not, regard it said by me! Finish en klaar.
I am just not charmed by what I suppose is my own false view of climate change. I think that the climate is changing. I mean the summer now does not feel like the same summer then. And I ask why.
Am I just imagining it, or is there something vagabonding somewhere? Is it the damage that we have done to the environment, or are we just too dumb to admit that we have not really been nice to this thing called environment? I suspect that but, I, at the same time, cannot see how we can articulate a consciousness that can make us seem stupid because we are the ones who caused the climatic and environmental drama that is in the world’s centre stage right now, full stop. Amazingly, we do not have a green party in the province or country yet. I think we should.
I also think that our political vibe does not give much thought on the Khoisan. A mention on the coat of arms is not necessary for me. As a gesture, yeah okay. But hey, can we do more?
I was sitting in a restaurant the other day and a tannie with the looks of Khoisan was talking in that kinda Afrikaans spoken in the Karoo. She made me think that they should not only be on the coat of arms but on the programmes of universities as a subject, just as Latin was in the Eighties.
Xhosa is one of the languages that has a lot of content from these people, why not our legal courses? I do not know, but I do suspect that much of our sociologies will benefit a great deal from some introspect gained from these people.
True, they themselves need to be taught that the country views them as an important aspect of that notion called South Africa. And it is us as a nation who need to inject a Khoi consciousness into the country – deliberately. We need to do that. I would like to learn that language or languages. In fact, we need to learn that language of these glorious people. It is general knowledge that we will be blessed quite a bit by the depths that the sociology might teach us. It is common knowledge that the medical knowledge hidden amongst these people is worth more than the diamonds in our mines. Well, humble me thinks so.
It would also be nice to go to the Baxter one night to see an artistic do from and by these people. Imagine a Khoisan musical do, jislaaik! It must be sponsored by government’s Arts and Culture. They are already on our coat of arms, for heavens sake! This will be a great gesture acknowledging the many depths of the culture that these people contributed to the many humilities of this sociology and society. I have it in mind that they carry a rich depth of the many possibilities that this region carry. Let us allow it to come out.
It can only come out when we acknowledge that the depths of knowledge in the country cannot go away with the knowledge hidden in the sociologies of these people.
It is not only government that needs to get involved; I also see the involvement of corporate South Africa playing a role. Their role, however, needs to be deeper than the cynic narrowness of monocapitalism but rather a dynamic dance (excuse the pun) with the intricacies of our geopolitics. I know that you know that too. We must just preach that the many players that can make it possible helps us in creating that awareness for this country and continent.
It is not easy to convince the UN about this, but it is also not illegal to do so. Our national government can help in this regard. And when they get ignored by the UN – okay, but we tried. I am being flippant here, this is not merely important, it is vital. It is also vital for the continent to begin viewing this in some manner that articulates it as bigger than the country borders but as an issue that can benefit the continent.
The depths in the artistic beauties of these people are more than the shallow essences of populism; we need to popularise them to the depths of the progressive creative mind. We need to do it with the grace and dynamism of a humble people who must retrieve the treasures that were stolen by imperialism. We must do it now!
It is not something that we can avoid doing because if we do avoid it, it will find us and mess us up. Well, I do not want to be messed up. More, I do not want to be messed up by such an obvious point in culture. Ouch!