Out-a-Line

Posts

Leon bridges - Brown skin girl acapella cover

Glory

As the whirlwind ride that is the events slows to an emotional cruise, we have the following to celebrate: EVERYTHING!!! So many amazing athletes represented our continent with pride, where do I even start! We wish all the athletes in every discipline all the best in these and the next games.

Africa and her Africans

We as Africans are not divided, we are just not united. We strive to be more western, more ‘international’ when it is our own customs and ideals that are and always will be our future and survival. It is with the help of the writers Mark Twain and Oscar Wilde that I will write this piece, this story that deserves to be told. The unassuming wise-words that have sprung from the mind of Mr.Twain and Wilde are what inspire the writer in me, but it is the African spirit and tenacity that fuel my aspirations. We start with Mr. Oscar Wilde who says, “The only duty we owe history is to rewrite It.”, a relevant statement at this point in the African journey. For many African States it has been a hard and turmuilous journey to secure and maintain freedom, made even harder by external influences that have succeeded in fuelling conflicts within these newly formed states. From the eras of chieftaincies and kingdoms, Africans have been able to assimilate into and engulf other cultur...

Blake on Black

It is eighteenth century North America, where the slave is freed yet still imprisoned in his skin as an inferior human; seen as barbaric and immoral because he is perceived as a godless man and given the solution of redemption through conversion to a western faith, that will only result in him being acknowledged as a reasonably learned child in his youth and twilight years. Blake, along with other poets of the century, wrote on their disapproval of the treatment of the African community and commented on the issues that were attached to the topic such as the use of religion as an excuse to mistreat blacks, the human rights of Africans and the observation of their emancipation. The poem “The Little Black Boy” comments on these issues, Let's assess the ways in which the poet represents the relationships that the Black Boy depicts he has with his mother, the English Boy and the creator. Let's also analyse the use of pronouns in the poem and the images related to colour an...

Nothing PAP about this Flex

In the days before snap-backs and letter-man jackets were big in this hemisphere, when Kwaito was still King, Siyabonga Ngwekazi was rocking his own style. We should have known he would rise to the levels he has when we were tempted to watch that basketball show on a Saturday afternoon, knowing full well that soccer was our fix. We should have guessed that we would be hooked on this man’s style and charisma when he appeared on our screens again and again, first on Street Journal (2005), Real Goboza (2008), Metro FM Music Awards (2007) and when he graced the screen in 2009 with the now infamous Nonhtle Thema on Vuzu, we were sold. He branched out into the radio business, hosting a show with MTV’s Sizwe Dlomo on YFM – I remember a time when I didn't like hip- hop that was a time before “Seez and Scoop”. He now ventures into the world of fashion with his brand P.A.P, he calls the men’s clothing line “Pieces by PAP”, PAP ( Parental Advisory ...