Simply Philile

E.X.A.C.T.L.Y!!! That reaction you just had reading this headline is the reason why gender parity ‘advocacy’ cries like “Men are trash” are a problem. “Men are trash” has been trending on my Facebook timeline for a while now and more intensely over the past week or two.  I’ve tried hard to avoid being part of the debate in past months because of how quickly it tends to derail to accusations and even profanities and how you haven’t dotted your i and omitted a full stop in a sentence. But I’ve always felt a sense of duty to give my contribution towards shaping our societies, so I’ll address a few issues raised by this feminist rallying call. Firstly, before I’m accused of pissing in the face of the ‘Woke’ and on the feminist agenda, let me state it outright that this is not an article aimed at telling feminists, who are mostly women, what to say and feel about what they have identified as their struggles or even how to react to vignettes of their experiences with the t...

How about compulsory Sign Language? Did anyone of our education, public policy and even politics experts consider this question when listing all the compulsory things to tick off of a Swaziland politician’s bucket list of orders to announce before they turn President Mugabe’s age?   Ok, maybe not the bucket list but who’s ticking off OUR Vision 2022 list? Does it answer my question; how about compulsory sign language and braille to accompany the compulsory Christian and siSwati teachings? Or do we want deaf and blind people to be the heathens that we think we are not when we banish their cursed bodies to dark hell holes - away from contaminating OUR society? I will refrain from my usual banter of questioning the who, what, where, when, why and how that informed this ‘avant-garde’ decision because I love siSwati like I love Miss – the teacher who made me fall in love with the language in high school. I remember as a new job seeker in my early 20s; during Joburg in...

We’re midway through Africa month and this has made me think a lot about what it means to be an African in 2016.  Of course I could never define my Africanism without reflecting on my identity as an African from Swaziland. One of the things on my mind is our language siSwati; how it has evolved and with what consequence. Have we lost ourselves in translation? Maybe it’s the nostalgia on being home a few weeks ago where I attended a traditional Swazi wedding and listened to recordings of the radio show of yesteryears called Khala Mdumbadumbane that got me thinking about this thing that separates us from most Africans called siSwati. Spoken Word To be honest, I never really took an interest in this popular show when I was younger – I only paid attention, in fact only some attention, on the days that it drew controversy and the protest of women’s empowerment groups who denounced it for its sexist approach to addressing some issues.  This was mostly because by t...

The ridiculousness of the things I see and hear about marriage these days, particularly as it relates to women is increasingly disturbing.   It all has me asking what Tyler Perry asks with his movie title: Why did you get married? Additionally, why are we getting married? I'll start with the woman in the mirror. In my 37 years of living I've agreed to at least three marriage proposals. Reflecting on it today, I realise I agreed only because they had asked.  Yes, I'm polite. I’ll blame my parents for this because discussions on manners and love featured more prominently than marriage – marriage was just never really a thing in our household. Hence ‘knowing’ serious follow-up questions to ask when a proposal to lead me to a place called 'Happy Ever After' is made wasn’t part of my reflex. It probably serves me right then that “uNumber one” as Gogo Louisa would say, dumped me only a few months after I’d taken him to my parents and allowed him the priv...

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...

Next Tuesday is International Women’s day. One of my friends remarked how boring a topic this is when I told her I was considering it for today’s article.  For my part, I was reluctant at first to write to this subject because I feel that I’ve been writing quite a lot to women’s issues over the past few weeks. But sanity prevailed when I realized that for the first time since I started ‘teaching’ about Women’s Day over two years ago,  I have national reach through this column, to help correct the inaccuracies around Swazis celebrating ‘Women’s Day’.   Yes, we seem to be the perpetual victims of passive alien culture consumption, leading us to celebrating historical events that have nothing to do with us. Quite frankly, it’s been excruciating to observe practically the whole country – public and private entities, invest financial and emotional resources to commemorating Women’s Day on August 9 of each year.   As, I recall, there was e...

Let me start by stating that the content of your feedback on last week’s article [White Wedding: A Cultural Faux Pas] is appreciated and it prompts me to write a ‘part two’ on the subject and so it shall be in the near future.  By the way, please note the conversation always carries on via twitter (@masangopm), I encourage you to reach out. I’ll stay on the home turf today; sharing insights on how understanding the story behind the story always helps us better govern our communities and our countries, of course starting with governing our homes. Yes, everything is personal. And if it never is for you, then you might be on the wrong planet. In her early days as a published writer, world-renowned Nigerian author, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, reminded us of the dangers of a single story. Underline dangers and keep this word in mind as you continue to read.  The single story is just that; having a one dimensional outlook to any situation and this can negatively affe...