(So in albei tale vir ons Engelse vriende)
posted by elmwes on May 8th, 2008
As far as my sentiments about SA are concerned, it is based on experiences - personal as well as those of family and friends. The divide between the haves and have-nots is widening. Now not a racial divide as such, but the unfortunate reality is just that the poor are getting poorer and that there are millions of unemployed people across the racial divide, many who have no other hope of survival but through theft…a culture of violence that just begets more and more violence…!
However much I sometimes want to deny it, my roots will always be there. More than roots…my sense of belonging…my equilibrium… Sitting around a big bonfire here in the UAE, the distance melts away, and I find myself on African soil. Smelling the rain on the red-brown earth, seeing the incredibly beautiful sunsets, the thorn trees, the spontaneity of a young girl swaying her full hips to the unique kwela sounds…the sun beetles, the lonely cry of the fish eagle, the restless Cape of Storms that is so completely free and I am filled with a longing so deep that I can’t even breathe.
O what joy it is to be alive - to live life’s contradictions - to love and hate, cry and laugh - all at the same time. To miss my country and the special people whom I love deeply, yet not to miss the fear…uncertainty…At this point though, my heart is compelling me to make a u-turn…to weigh up the sense of belonging and being with my loved ones…
So ek luister nou maar na Johannes Kerkorrel se weergawe van “Al le die berge nog so blou”…en ek dink aan die Drakensberge…God’s Window…Blyderivier Canyon…Kaap Punt…Houtbaai…Stellenbosch…En ek wonder oor my heimwee. Is dit omdat ek ouer raak? Is dit omdat die materialisme van hierdie wereld vir my te veel word? Is dit omdat ek weet hier is geen toekoms in die UAE vir my nie? Omdat my hart daar in iemand se hande vasgehou word? Sien ek dit nou in ‘n romantiese lig? Sal ek gou ontnugter word nadat my huis die hoeveelste keer leeggedra is?
Ek weet nie. Ek gaan nie nou antwoorde soek nie. Weet nie of daar ‘n antwoord is nie.
So let me end this reflection with the words from “The Ancient Mariner”. The Wedding Guest (who had been obliged to travel from land to land, never knowing when the agony of remembrance might return.) And let me share with you the message of love and reverance that he was obliged to share:
He prayeth well, who loveth well
Both man and bird and beast.
He prayeth best, who loveth best
All things both great and small;
Or perhaps I’ll become the Ancient Mariner himself, who said:
O Wedding-Guest! this soul hath been
Alone on a wide wide sea:
So lonely ’twas, that God himself
Scarce seemed there to be.
I know I’m avoiding the issue of my future. Charles F. Kettering said (very wisely):
” We should all be concerned about the future because we will have to spend the rest of our lives there.”
And then, of course, one should never forget the warning left by Benjamin Franklin:
” Does’t thou love life? Then do not squander time, for that is the stuff life is made of”
Because time cannot be expanded, accumulated, mortgaged, hastened or retarded…
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1 comment:
Eish, hoe verlang ek nou terug Afrika toe!!! Daar waar die fisante in vroee more die nuwe dag aankondig en terselfde tyd die koedoes waarsku dat ek oppad is.
Nou die oggend, dit was `n naweek gewees, toe word ek en my pop wakker met `n fisant wat skree, ek dog eers ek droom, sy staan op en kyk by die venster uit en ja rerig daar sit die knaap onder een van die dadel bome en vertel vir die hele wereld hoe hy ook Afrika mis, hy het onstnap uit die dieretuin, ons kry so van tyd tot baie van hulle in ons tuin.
Afrika sal maar ons huis bly, maak nie saak war ons bly nie!!!!
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