After her last concert performed in Italy on 9 November 2008 the great South African singer and freedom activist passed away at aged 76.
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This new release and first book by South African author Sihle Khumalo, details his travels from Cape to Cairo by public transport.
‘I had always wanted to write a book but I had never known what type of a book I would write. As my 30th birthday was getting closer I thought, why don’t I do the Cape to Cairo – which I had always wanted to do - and then after the trip attempt to write a book based on my travels and thus kill two birds with one stone. As they say, the rest is history.’
Read Pete “the meat” ’s review below:
From Cape to Cairo - that’s the intention, and that’s the span of the book. Shades of Kingsley Holgate and extended family, with Land Rover engines rumbling and belching, and loads of red rum around camp-fires at night! Maybe a lion roaring, or some hyenas yelping in the distance!
Well - not so, when Sihle Khumalo describes his real-life encounters. Same route, by and large, that many have traversed over the “dark continent”, but somewhat unusual, and a great deal more stamina required by the writer! Because, when the perspectives are flowing from an obviously suave, worldly-wise African graduate of Uni and sometimes life, choosing to get down and dirty on the roads and buses that span this large and complex continent we call home, this make for excellent reading, as well as some good laughs
So, sit back and travel tightly with our friend Sihle, as he buses through most of southern and eastern Africa’s states, backpacks through some very odd places, joins queues for hours at border crossings, gets mildly irritated at fruit and food vendors, becomes furious when he isn’t offered a lift in an air-conditioned 4×4 (with a license plate not far from where he started, two months prior!)………..and you find that he has crept right under your skin, whether it’s superficially black or white! Recall as you read, the personal resolutions he vows to keep, on his return to normality in SA (be worth finding out how our friend is doing on those, I suspect!). Chuckle at the ladies he tries half-heartedly to hook up with, en route, more out of curiosity, it seems, than serious intent
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Volunteering holidays are a highly enriching and immersive way to experience a foreign culture at the most grass roots level.
A number of exiting and exotic opportunities are now listed on Bootsnall, where you can choose your destination, activities and budget.
Most include accommodation and some include meals and excursions, all look like fantastic life changing experiences.
These selected opportunities currently exist in South Africa:
Animal Rescue society near Cape Town, South Africa:
This centre is a domestic animal rescue organisation located near Cape Town. Their goal is to provide animal health care and sterilisation to the local impoverished communities along with running an adoption programme for abandoned stray animals. Your work here will take on many roles from feeding and caring for the many animals to working closely with staff as they go out into the local informal settlements to collect, return and vaccinate animals on site. There is also the opportunity to work along side the resident vet, who requires assistance daily; this is not for the faint hearted. On quieter days you can get involved with a programme called ‘Open Paw’ which is a training programme to help the dogs understand basic commands helping with the adoption process.
Lion Monitoring Expedition in South Africa:
This is a chance for any lion lover to get up close and personal with these magnificent predators and other African mammals. Work alongside experienced researchers while learning and putting into practice, tracking and research techniques in South Africa. The reserve is based between the small towns of Gravelotte and Mica in the Limpopo Province and covers over 30,000 hectares of African wilderness. It is home to elephants, leopard, white rhino and various antelope species; you will be in the midst of some of the worlds most fascinating wildlife on a day-to-day basis. This is an amazing opportunity to learn about conservation and predator management, while enjoying a truly wilderness area, excellent wildlife viewing and at the same time contribution to African wildlife conservation. Your assistance in actively monitoring a lion pride is vital for the future development and success of this project and would make a fantastic addition to a gap year, sabbatical or annual holiday.
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I was about to try and compile a list of the extensive and mostly unintelligible slang used in South African “English”, but the good folks over at wavescape have done such a good job that I needn’t bother. I have included the list below and will add in the ones that I find missing.
Some might prove useful to travellers here, but more importantly, reading them will give you an insight into our complex dialect, and the reason we get portrayed as either villains or morons in American films.
Below is a passage of the most cryptic slang available, which you can use to test your South African-ness. You can then decode using the dictionary, which I will try to keep updated. Please feel free to send me any omissions/corrections that you find.
As with most slang, it loses a lot in translation, For instance “I will Donner (Daw-ner) you” politely translates as “I will hit you”, but that just doesn’t get across the true gravity of the threat.
Those offended by foul language may want to skip the rest of this post.
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Wow!, what a stir Bok Van Blerk’s song has caused among Afrikaners in South Africa!
The song can be heard chanted at pubs, rugby games and the furore surrounding the song is on every talk station and in every paper. The song has been banned and then unbanned at Loftus Park stadium and I have a feeling it’s going to go a lot further than that.
The song is about a hero general in the Anglo Boer war, Jacobus (Koos) De la Rey, who won international acclaim through many victories against the British and his astute military tactics.
The song reads as an dramatised historical account of the Boer war, but in the current South African climate, it rings strongly of a veritable “call to arms” for the Afrikaans nation against oppression. Bok Van Blerk has denied any political subtext, but it’s mass adoption and cult status is not due just to its “catchy tune” (it is very catchy though)
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Growing up I lived and breathed the work of South African writers like Stuart Cloete, who chronicled the history of white South Africa in factual novels that appealed very much to a child steeped in the ideals of empire. Cloete related rather one sided tales of the Great Trek, the Anglo/Zulu War, the Anglo/Boer War, as well as the various sideshows and sub-adventures that all went to build the complex human mythology of white South Africa.
Wilbur Smith
Another in the genre of historical fiction was the extraordinarily successful Wilbur Smith, who created the renaissance hero Sean Courtney. The fictional adventures of Sean Courtney visited all the major events of South African history that could plausibly be slipped into the span of one man’s life. Smith’s were among the more racy versions of popular South African prose, compared at the time to Harold Robbins, and with such immortal explanations for large African backsides as the necessity for a heavy hammer to drive a long nail.
South African Literature
While this is great reading material - for a 12 year old at least - South African literature is a different animal, and as the maxim goes - that out of hardship and repression comes great art - so South African writers have produced a long and august body of work that once again stamps the nation as something more than just a run of the mill developing country.
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Facebook has really taken off in South Africa, in the same way that Brazil took to Orkut..In droves.
This group has a nice list, highlighting some endearing (and some not) South Africans idiosyncrasies.
Please note the crime references in this list pertain mainly to Johannesburg 
You know you’re South African when:
* You call a bathing suit a “swimming costume”
* You call a traffic light a “robot”
* The employees dance in front of the building to show how unhappy they are
* The SABC advertises and shows highlights of the program you just finished watching
* You get cold easily. Anything below 16 degrees Celsius is Arctic weather
* You know what Rooibos Tea is, even if you’ve never had any
* You can sing your national anthem in four languages, and you have no idea what it means in any of them
* You know someone who knows someone who has met Nelson Mandela
* You go to “braais” (barbecues) regularly, where you eat boerewors (long meaty sausage- type thing) and swim, sometimes simultaneously
* You know that there’s nothing to do in the Free State
* You produce a R100 note instead of your driver’s license when stopped by a traffic officer
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In the ancestor worshipping traditions held by the majority (80%) of South Africans (Zulu, Xhosa, Ndabele and Swazi) the Sangoma is the primary and sometimes exclusive healer and counsellor.
There is no governing body to control who is, and who is not, a sangoma, anyone can claim to be one (there are over 200,000!). Traditionally a new sangoma is called by an initiation illness, often psychosis, headache, stomach pain, shoulder or neck complaints. After which they will undergo “Thwasa”, a period of training including learning humility to the ancestors, purification through steaming, washing in the blood of sacrificed animals, and the use of Muti, medicines with spiritual significance. At the end of Thwasa, an animal is sacrificed to appease the ancestors.
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Its nearly time for the 2007 Cape Town Festivall. The dates are from 3 March - 24 March and comprises of hundreds of shows (Many of them free) all over Cape Town.
There is live music, plays, comedians, film, fashion and all sorts of performance and static arts. An extensive schedule as well as general information can be found on the official website.
Tickets for the non-free events can be booked at Computicket.
There is no better way to see such a cross section of the huge cultural diversity and artistic styles that South Africa has to offer. It …
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I love hearing strange traditional tales from foreign lands, so I thought I might introduce you to some eccentric South African stories that people grow up with here.
I distinctly remember a time swimming at Muizenberg when some swimmers started screaming and shouting that there was a Tokoloshe in the water.
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