GeeThandolwethu

Reflecting on the times of Siphelo “Nqontsonqa” Dyongman — Imbongi Yomthonyama | Experiencing the light of Zotsho (1990-2022) | Hitmaker | Madoda Ndicel’ Ungayingeni | Rhodes University isiXhosaTutor | Ukuhamba Kulichiza

Ukuhamba Kulichiza Zotsho! Phila, Thongo elihle! Ngubani uSiphelo Alfred “Nqontsonqa” Dyongman “Igama lam ndi nguSiphelo MaZotshwandile Dyongman. Ndizalelwe eMakhanda, eRhini. Ndiyimbongi — umbali wamabali— kunye nonobalisa wentsomi.” (My name is Siphelo MaZotshwandile Dyongman. I was born in Makhanda, eRhini. I am a praise singer — a writer of stories— and a reciter of folktales). On the…

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Let peace reign. Insh’allah!

Ramadan Kareem!

A time for fasting. A time for deep connection with our core. I feel much different and more aware. Aware of connections and disconnections, which have been somewhere deeply entrenched in the Nile of refusal; in spine.

It must be waxing crescent; it must be the moon. It always makes me feel. Must be that Pisces moon or my Taurus rising reigning during this season. I don’t know.…

Amahle Amaphuphako Brown

Amahle Amaphuphako, an isiXhosa name meaning your dreams are beautiful— belongs to a girl so beautiful the earth almost runs out of shades of brown. Her mother is a descendant of the AbaThembu. And her father is a descendant of AmaMpondomise. Her people are the first people who were seen by the English settlers settling into the warm green blankets of their earth, — I…

  My ancestors really don’t like “being polite” or “civil”. Try holding that burp because you don’t want to embarrass yourself and see how they do the embarrassing for you. Have you ever felt all the air in your body meet at your sternum like a congregation? Dare that needle not fall because the silence will sure become unbearably loud. You’ll release a burp which will travel centuries like the…

And I told her that you will meet other women even more broken and battered. I remember when she told me that she had witnessed her father kill her mother and she got over it. I asked her:

“Do you know that is how you will move through all your relationships? You will get over things without going through them. Sometimes you have to go through your dirty laundry dumped in the corner or keeping…

Grounded. Two feet in.

  two feet in

I cannot wait until the school forms our brothers and sisters – our children – fill in have a place under medical information which states traditional medicine prescriptions. Imagine a world where you proudly and boldly affirm that sethotho or ubulawu works for you when you have muscle spasms. Amahlaba. The stings from inside seek roots of what it longs for.

They sting long enough…

an afro of clouds. higher conscious. Sourced.

It feels like an awakening of the feminine It’s a beautiful experience of humility. Knees meet soil at whichever angle

You begin to dig up for the roots. That’s where the core is. That’s where the heart is. So I knelt with my posture to the sun. “Makudede ubumnyama kuvele ukukhanya”. I dug until a ball of heart buried underground looked into my eye.…

The apartheid system did more than just segregate the coexistence of people of colour and white people. On some days there were more coffins Than there were on the previous

Slip Fall the sixth floor and the same system will remain tall

Freedom is expensive You cannot even leave your house without fearing the price you will pay with your life

And if you’re black It’s more expensive the systems put to protect you them will question your freedom _ 31 March 2019, 21:02

We meet again the war

Protesting is like enhlombeni where you meet to address your issues and ills, your differences at such.

Inside a protest kukho igubu Kukho isangqi You hear the sound of your ills like ukuxholongwa. The sounds of dynosis.

But when you’ve turned your ears away from the sounds so long

you no longer resonate with the echoes of the drum no more.

The most basic have a price on them.

That’s capitalism.

30 March 2019, 15:07