Put The Bottle Down

I am not sume super-conservative ban-all-the-substances sort of guy, but there is one place where I draw the line: booze.

Since time immemorial, people have been getting smashed: wine, vodka, beer, port, grappa, sake, chicha (a delightful Ecuadorian drink) and those pink cocktails with umbrellas in them. There are barely any fruit juices on this earth that we have not let go rancid for our own enjoyment.

Unfortunately, the most avid consumers of alcohol are children, or those just past legality. If you throw a dart in a school, you'll hit a kid on the road to alcoholism. Unfortunately for all my nosey readers, or lack thereof, I will not expose names. After all, snitches get stitches and wind up in ditches. That being said, the youth of today have a serious drinking problem.

Liquor, while fun, is dangerous for society. The man who beats his wife? He's probably drunk. The same applies to 65% of road accidents during South Africa's holiday seasons. It also hurts our children, as their bodies are not yet ready to filter such large quantities of poison. This is especially true when party-favorites like vodka are involved.

Now I'm not judging those who drink; I'm not that sort of guy. If you want to get hammered on Friday and wake up on Monday, go ahead! I just want you to know what you are getting yourself into. Drinking numbs your ability to say 'no' to yourself and others. If you want to ruin your social media reputation, or get a criminal record, booze will certainly give you the courage to do so.

As for me, I intend to be a real goodie-two-shoes and abstain entirely. You don't have to be as drastic as me. Just remember to #thinkbeforeyoudrink.

The African Spirit

On the 8^th of May, 1996, Deputy-President Thabo Mbeki addressed parliament.

        

It was on this day that he delivered a message that would define a generation. That would stand the test of time, like the photo we just took.

He said: “I am an African.”

He said: “I owe my being to the hills and the valleys, the mountains and the glades, the rivers, the flowers and the ever-changing seasons that define the face of our native land.”

I owe my existence to the Khoisan, the Dutch settlers, Malay immigrants, and the kingdoms of our nation’s interior.

He was an African.

I am an African.

You are Africans as well.

Wayengum-Afrika.

Nne ndi mu Afrikani.

Le lona lebathu ba Afrika.

To be African is not to hold a passport. It is not living on the continent. It is not being part of a certain race, tribe, or faith. It is something in us all.

We are all African, because we have been bathed in the African spirit.

This is a spirit of suffering and hardship. But it is also a spirit of strength and resilience. A spirit of love. A spirit of victory in the face of impossible odds.

 This spirit of justice lived in the heart of a young Solomon Mahlangu, when the gave his life for the struggle.

This spirit of unity was with Tsietsie Mashinini when he organized the students of Orlando High, on that fateful day of June 16^th.

It was this spirit of having our own identity that led Steve Biko to renew our African consciousness.

It was this spirit of defiance that led our youth onto the streets in 1976. It was this spirit that was burned into our hearts, when Hector Pieterson was shot dead.

Hector was 12 when he was slain, and he was not even the youngest. These students rose up because they saw the injustice of their society. Earlier, I spoke in 3 different languages, and many of you didn’t understand a single word. This is how they felt when they, and their teachers, could not understand their medium of instruction.

But this spirit of self-determination led them to fight for what was theirs.

Their blood was spilled by their fellow South Africans, but the spirit remained resolute. The struggle carried on, and still carries on, through us.

We are now at the helm. We, the youth, are soon going to carry the mantle of this spirit. We can choose to let it wither away into the footnotes of history, or we can choose to carry on the struggle: the struggle against racism, the struggle against exploitation, income inequality, violence against women, and all the other plagues that have infested themselves in our land.

In the prayer for Africa, we call on God to “restore our dignity.” But this dignity was never lost completely. This dignity is the African spirit. All we have to do is live it.

Ngiyabonga

Dankie

Kialiboga

Thank you.

By Matthew Field ©