Yoh! I can sure complicate the hell outa me. 27 years old,an average young man from e lokshini ,Philippi kas'lam. I grew up here,went to school and blew up here. Product yase matyotyombeni,my mother gave birth to and raised me but my community made me.
I'm what amapantsula,amajita,izi'gege no clever used to call "umafunda boy wase kas".An academic dope head,a fool who knows he's a fool but still recognises the wisdom of foolishness .
I went from primary school to high school/secondary without failing a grade, 1999,when I was in grade 7,I was awarded the academic achiver of the year award,an all rounder and nerd in the making.At high school it was clear,debating,journalism (Nazo mfundi) and and anything creative. Art and poetry were my best ,I always felt that I see the world different from my peers and always wanted to share the simplicity I saw when I looked at life. A chubby kinda guy with a very thoughtful smile, some would say I was the shy and focused kinda guy.I know I was one of the good ones back then. But Ruddy has always been there.
Growing up in a female headed and majority family is a mission for most young man. I lost touch with the ladies in the house when I was 14,that's how I got to move from lower to high school with a bang, I had reduced my world to just me,my books and my cartoons. Growing up in the house and township that I grew up in the,that life was odd and lonely. Teenagehood came down on me like a mad wild skin rush. I started questioning the way life is, I wanted to know and not just to know but to feel like part of it. Being a watcher at an early age can be a fatal when i"no one" is watching you. That very same year I started smoking cigarettes and a year later I got into marijuana.I made friends and fell in love with a girl I only told about two weeks back that I've been in love with her since we were kids, danm ,she lives right at the back of our house with theirs facing ours.
Anyway,life went on and I continued being umafunda boy wase kasi...but this time with a twist in it. Street cred got the best of me. I come from a people who are well known for their warmth and hospitality.And as slimy as they may be,the slums have shown me a beauty only real monks and nuns could see,pretty poverty- a love poem in motion.
I embraced the reality before me, as the generation that came before me became my moral and social compas, each one a reflection of a trait in me. I went from grass hoppers to black converse all-star boots. Learned to dance to the sound of pantsula jit-blues....Ever seen a pantsula moon walk?
Thirteen years later,when I look at the fairly new par I just bought. I can't help but feel blessed to be alive.Life is still a challenge but I'm living it like I've never lived before.
Right here is history in the making,somewhere inside the little township of Philippi,Formally known as Browns Farm.And you are part of it.
