Ponderings of the Man from Mpofana...

I'm just watching some of the matches of the 2023 FIBA World Cup & analysing how Deutschland won the cup. I'm currently watching them wipe Japan away by a twenty-point lead in the second quarter in one of the group stage matches if I'm not mistaken. Some may wonder why Rui Hachimura wasn't selected despite no news of him being injured, I'm not sure myself. A lot of other really good players weren't included in their national teams for this World Cup.  Team USA   No country had more notable omissions like the USA, their Olympic basketball team for the 2024 Paris Olympics looks more like the Team USA we're used to ("assembling the Avengers", as they say) than a team led by Anthony Edwards & Austin Reaves who are both very capable players but are not on the level of Steph Curry, Kyrie Irving, Kevin Durant & LeBron James. Then, strangely, in the Olympic roster for the USA men's basketball team, Austin Reaves was omitted. No...

Who really are the best footballers in the history of football?  Everyone has their opinion & I have my own. I base my list on talent & accolades, some may lean on one or the other but I think my list is balanced & these are both the most talented & decorated footballers in history. The only flaw may be that I felt I had to select defenders also so the list is not just purely attackers. There's a formula to calculate the best overall player for the conjectural Zulu "Iligi yesizwe" which also considers goalkeepers & defensive players as well as attacking players by how competent they are in play rather than who was more visible, but it has not been used here. These are just some players I've researched & feel are the world's finest:  1) Pele, 2) Messi, 3) Cristiano Ronaldo, 4) Eusebio, 5) Diego Maradona, 6) Josef Bican, 7) Sergio Ramos, 8) Fabio Cannavaro, 9) Ronaldo Nazário, 10) Ronaldinho 11) Cafu  I could've been biased & put in ...

I-Sumer yisona sizwe esidala ukudlula zonke eMesophothemiya, sasikhona ngonyaka wama-4500 B. C. Abafundi bomulando nokwasemanulo bakholelwa ukuthi lelizwe laseSumer lakhiwa ngabantu abasuka e-Eshiya yaseNtshonalanga, ngoba ulwimi lwesiSumeriya akulona lwesi-Semitic (lwesiSulumane kumbe lwaseSirayela). EBhabhiloni kwakungenye indawo yaseMesophothemiya eyakhiwa ngama-Akkadian.  Inkolo yaseMesophothemiya ithi ul'wazi lwabo lwaleth'wa ngokuthile okuvela emanzini. • Epic of Gilgamesh   • Epic of Gilgamesh II • Ihubo (Epic of Gilgamesh) ngesiSumeriya

To me, Xhosas are like the Nguni nation that didn't get the memo. Swazis are known allies of the Zulu, so are the Ndebele, even Shangaan & Ngoni hold similar relations with the Zulu. The Ndebele & Swazi have even gone to war against adversaries alongside the Zulu. All these groups show fraternity with the Zulu except the Xhosa. This, obviously, has a root & history. Much of Xhosa history, before the 1800s is unknown. During the 1800s is when the Xhosa received many "asylum seekers" from the period of turmoil happening in the land of their northern neighbours, the Zulu. This is when Xhosa history began being recorded using European & modern methods. The Xhosa were initially said to have lived between the Sundays River & Mthatha River... after colonisation, the Xhosa language spread among the Mpondo & tribes living north of the Umzimvubu River. This likely being due to Xhosas being used by British colonialists to spread Christianity & to halt Zul...

My first encounter of the concept of homogeneity came when I read how some Italian football dignitary of sorts commented on when they beat a team that was a combination of every nation in the world (the French national football team) with just Italians at the 2006 FIFA World Cup. This Italian football boss then went on to mention the various Italian tribes (Campanians, Etruscans, Sicilians, Lombards etc.). I, in fact, kept that Kick Off magazine where it was reported he said what he said - it has Ronaldinho in a red jacket on it's cover - but seem to have misplaced it somewhere. I didn't think of it much at first because I simply thought this Italian man was just running his mouth, but I've had this concept of homogeneity at the back of my mind for a long time. After hearing this, you then compare which football teams do better, is it black teams, Arab teams, mixed-race teams... simply, football is a European sport so Europe should be better at it. So it's not an accura...

I know of people who wanted to go "back to their roots" but became disappointed when they were rejected by "their people" or their culture wasn't as great as they thought it would be. Who's fault is that? Very few black people grew up in a "true black culture", many of us have been hybridized by globalisation. Even people who grew up in a black society have Eurocentric influences in their education & way of life. Virtually, no black society in the world today has no European or Asian influence... the very clothes we wear are a Western creation. But borrowing cultures is not always a bad thing, exposure to European ways has improved our way of life to an extent & it's up to us to weed out what we don't want from this adopted, foreign way of life. The European way of life is a jumbling of many cultures worldwide & Europeans keep what works best for them. Hoarding whatever works from other lands & making it distinctly for thems...