Admiring faith, hope and integrity
There is a view is so eloquently expressed by the narrator in the book Admiring Silence by Abdulrazak Gurnah, born in Zanzibar, Tanzania (but now living in England) :
I knew then (not that I didn’t really have to be learned and relearned, and even then we forget them so easily and talk ourselves into something ameliorating and hopeful) that the food- stores were going to remain empty, and that schools would be without books, and the air would be filled with cruel, duplicitous promises, that justice would be just another word brayed from the mouths of the donkeys who rule us, and of course the toilets were going to remain blocked for a long time. Read more
A donation to eternity, A contribution to the future
“You must appreciate that you make history also. For history is a very human thing. We bring it into being by what we do and do not do. Thus, we must understand that everything we do is important and a contribution to that history. Every night we don’t read; every day we refuse to learn our own history contributes to a negative history. There is a quote by King Kheti found in The Husia, the sacred text of ancient Egypt which says, ‘Every day is a donation to eternity, and even one hour is a contribution to the future, ’” wrote one Dr John Henrik Clarke in “Pan Africanism and the Future of the African Family.”
I strive every day, in every way to be the change I want to see in the world, as Gandhi advised. The hwindi is oblivious to this. He is struck in his own rut, which he has been in for a long time now. I don’t know when exactly roles reversed, and we became the meek, servile sheep at his mercy. It wasn’t always like this. Yes there was that time, of crippling transport blues and debilitating winding queues (of course that seems like a description of the present) when they became kings because for a certain fee they could “allow” you- if you were unprincipled enough- to jump the queue. Read more
Why I keep on keeping on
Two life changing things happened to me in 2007. In March I collapsed and gained consciousness in a hospital bed. In April, the company I had worked for almost five years shut down. We did not receive a single penny. All this happened at a time when things were taking a turn for the worst in this country. It was not a good time to have bad things happening to you at all.
Yes, there were moments of despair. Tell-tale echoes of remorse and regret. But when I gained consciousness in that hospital bed, I said to myself- I will not die, I will live. That became my rallying cry. I heard it over and over in the stillness of my mind. It was a bright light that illuminated the deepest recess of my mind. I nurtured that strong will to life. And guess what, the ground is not yet above my head. Read more
A season of faith’s cataclysm
In its awakening self, the season now gives birth
To moments needing molding into perfection
Like a lover’s promise
Through its mists you seek
To embrace the freshness
That bursts forth with magnificence
And connects with your present being
You release your sails toward the outward bound
Looking for a new faith that will lead you on
Into un-traversed territories Read more
Speechless moon
into colour, you’re suddenly given birth,
sheltered in a
magic of silence.
away
from the ramble of your
ragged self, you erode into the
core of your world. out of your
sinews, thick clouds
splutter and ooze an
incessant froth of dark pleasures
that blinds your faith into an unending circle of
self-search. the quest of flesh coils until
you become as blunt as a heavy-hearted
prodigal. then, you begin to seek
the father of light again. die, you’ve to die
in your soul to become the break of dawn
you yearn for. Read more
Dreaming a different dream
Dreaming a different dream is hard,
A dream with eyes wide open, a dream
That makes blood within to boil with renewed passion,
A dream that weaves music like a butterfly’s wings,
Fluttering and swinging against the sun
Filled with a hope of an unfolded morrow, a dream
That fills the Soul Read more
