Simply Philile

As I reflected on yesterday’s public holiday it occurred to me that King Sobhuza II is one of the most celebrated ancestors of this country; within the kingdom and beyond the immediate borders for his role in the mass movement of decolonizing Africa.  In this realization I further recognized that I’d thought of the late king as an ‘ancestor’ – something that Swazis are increasingly wary to associate with apparently because any ‘traditional’ practices and rituals related to ancestors are evil and therefore bound to cause delays on the highway to heaven. ‘Traditional’ medicine (herbal and spiritual healing) was what ALL Africans used before the colonizers that King Sobhuza II and his peers at the time eventually drove back to Europe arrived in Africa.  But like with many other distinctly African features, we have gradually lost and shamelessly demonized and despised our ways in favor of the new ways.  Of course, like King Sobhuza II is reported to have sai...

People who are about to offend you often prefix their hogwash with, “Don’t take this personally; it’s not personal…” Of course it’s personal because all offences are. What Hlaudi Motsoeneng is doing as the Chief Operations Officer of the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) is highly personal to me…and should be for all humans in the 21st century. Many will only realize how personal it is once it reaches the levels of # ZimbabweShutDown that we’re currently witnessing on the other side of the Limpopo River – where the ruling government is clutching at straws; shutting down the public’s access to information on social networks such as WhatsApp.  It’s the usual bully tactics of ZANUPF at play - restraining freedom of expression and association. In an unprecedented move, Zimbabweans are saying it loud and clear that they can take only so much molestation in their lifetimes; it’s personal. The government which has ruled since Zimbabwe’s independence in 1980 h...

It’s quite touching to see so many Swazi being vocal about the injustices happening around the world; from killings of black people by white police in the U.S. to the ‘light’ jail sentence meted to paralympian Oscar Pistorius for the murder of his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp in February 2013.  In fact, Swazis are raging mad at these current events and one can’t help but wonder where this outrage disappears to for (many) similar cases rotting in Swaziland’s legal and justice systems.  Do these voices stay trapped beyond the border never to return when time comes to question our own? A natural death of a family member on its own is extremely difficult to accept even over many years and not even a death row sentence is comforting for some whose family members were murdered.  So I imagine it would definitely sound insensitive and probably unfair to Reeva’s parents if I told them “At least you saw and got justice for Reeva” because what‘s always been said is t...

It doesn’t surprise me that a pastor like Andre Olivier of the famous Rivers Church in Johannesburg has uttered remarks widely perceived as racist to his multiracial congregation where he implied blacks were disadvantaged because they are lazy and whites privileged because they work hard. I don’t have to be Pastor Jeremiah’s ex-wife to testify that Pastors generally never loved us. Pastors and church members have increasingly found themselves in the list of repeat human rights offenders in my short life and quite frankly, their spiritual healer counterparts, the sangomas seem to be more deserving of my resources including time and money. There’s no escaping Christianity and its teachings and activities when you grow up in Swaziland –almost every other corner houses a church.  There was certainly no escaping Christianity in my mother’s household where the teachings were drilled into my skull ever since I could say the word “Make”.  The religion has useful teac...