Who is South Africa?

I often ask myself "What is a South African?" & despite growing up among diverse groups, I never identified with them & ultimately identified with black people who were like me i. e. listened to kwaito & liked soccer. As I grew older & got exposed to the world more, I identified with black people overseas like R'n'B musicians, rappers & black NBA players that we saw on the media. Who is South African to me remains the black guy on the streets of our townships not rugby playes & Olympic swimmers. This is who the "phenotype" of South Africa is to me, the guys we all know & grew up knowing. I know others identify as South African but they're simply an insignificant minority in my world as a black South African & that is a good thing to me, I feel homogeneous societies work best.

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What did King Shaka look like?

I've heard some people quoting from King Shaka's praises claiming that he was "like the sun" therefore light-skinned. But I'd like to ask how comparisons with the sun equate with being light-skinned? If anything, if King Shaka was light-skinned, they'd compare him to something terrestrial like the colour of a cow hide, wood or other object because very few extraterrestrial objects have the colour of any human skin. Even white people are called "ondlebe zikhanya ilanga" ('those who have translucent ears") & not "abakhanya okwelanga" ("those who shine like the sun"). King Shaka's mother was from Elangeni & there is the Langa clan in KZN, all of them are black with many being exceptionally dark-skinned so I don't think the comparisons comparing King Shaka with the sun have anything to do with his complexion. Even the whites who first saw him & drew him wrote that he was dark & fairly tall. I also don...

The problem with a single African currency.

Preword: It's funny because one of the main reasons I found the courage to blog on African matters was due to a West African(?) gentleman who proposed the concept of a said "swal" & "zul" as a continental African currency in a blog. His boldness & conviction in his idea just captivated me & today I have to debunk this idea of his. But, hopefully, Africa sees why. African technologies & financial solutions Oh, Africa. We are so romantic; "United States of Africa", "Single African currency", "African unity", "Ubuntu"... all these fluffy, lovey-dovey concepts that will be ripped to shreds in the globalised world. I debunked why a United States of Africa would likely collapse as soon as it sees the light of day. Today, I will debunk the concept of a "Single African currency" & explain why it would leave our enemies salivating. I can't blame people who like stuff like United States of Africa...

A viable single African currency concept.

The original reason why I believe a single African currency would not work. Below is how we could attempt to make it work. The many currencies of Africa. To prevent destabilization of the continent's economy, there could be two currencies: The Lami for countries lying mostly north of the equator & the Ng'ombe for countries mostly south of the equator. Both currencies would be independent with the Lami having it's bank & headquarters in Addis Ababa while the Ng'ombe could have it's bank & headquarters in Nairobi. N.B.: Gabon, Congo-Brazzaville, DRC & Kenya would use the Ng'ombe currency while Uganda & Somalia would use the Lami currency. North of equator = Lami South of equator = Ng'ombe More stable countries with higher GDP per capita could be first to use the new currencies i.e. Seychelles, Mauritius, Gabon, Botswana, Libya, Equatorial Guinea, South Africa, Algeria, Na...

Ponderings of the Man from Mpofana...

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