This is for the people who do not know me, but get to visit my blog and read the gibberish I blog about weekly. If you had to sit with me for more than an hour, you would get to see or hear how much I love clothes, what a book fanatic I am*today I bought Hani: A life too short, with my last 50 rands and ignored the fact that I don't have food* and most importantly how much I love this country. I was saying to Roxanne just the other day, I wish I could work for Brand South Africa, just to be able to boost people's morale about this beautiful country we live in. Then 3 minutes ago, I read an email sent by a friend, and its written by Mrs Paton and its titled, Crying for the Beloved Country. Here she writes about how she is leaving the country and moving to England. This is a woman who's husband wrote Cry the Beloved Country and fought for black people's rights during the apartheid regime. I am sad to say, even I as patriotic as I am, I felt so despondent after reading it. I truly understood why she is leaving...with that being said, I still believe I have to share this poem that I love so deeply...its just an abstract...I am an African.
I owe my being to the hills and the valleys, the mountains and the glades, the rivers, the deserts, the trees, the flowers, the seas and the ever-changing seasons that define the face of our native land.
My body has frozen in our frosts and in our latter day snows. It has thawed in the warmth of our sunshine and melted in the heat of the midday sun. The crack and the rumble of the summer thunders, lashed by startling lightening, have been a cause both of trembling and of hope.
The fragrances of nature have been as pleasant to us as the sight of the wild blooms of the citizens of the veld.
The dramatic shapes of the Drakensberg, the soil-coloured waters of the Lekoa, iGqili noThukela, and the sands of the Kgalagadi, have all been panels of the set on the natural stage on which we act out the foolish deeds of the theatre of our day.
At times, and in fear, I have wondered whether I should concede equal citizenship of our country to the leopard and the lion, the elephant and the springbok, the hyena, the black mamba and the pestilential mosquito.
A human presence among all these, a feature on the face of our native land thus defined, I know that none dare challenge me when I say - I am an African!
Beautifully written. Your love of reading comes through very strongly. Never give up on working for Brand SA. Who knows who may read your blog, discover your passion and give you an opportunity? That's what makes us as South African's great. Hope!
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