swazidayz

2006-06-23T17:20:00.000+03:00

Gospel soap by Ken Rowley Reading the Ncandweni Christ Ambassadors story last Sunday, I discovered a subtext in Khayalethu Masuku’s remarks about how difficult it was for him to live the life advertised in his songs. In fact his remarks reminded me of the story about three pastors who regularly met to discuss what was happening in their churches

2006-06-17T12:41:00.001+03:00

Mobile coffinsYes, I know this is the same title as an article written some years ago by Vusi Ginindza—I still remember him writing it; and yes, I know that that article was so hotly received that a vigilante mob of busmen descended on these same Times offices, aiming to add injury to injury; and, yes, I also know that much ink has already been spilt about the recent bus crashes; but it seems to

2005-01-14T18:07:00.000+02:00

The week that was... It's been a hot and humid week in the kingdom, with temperatures well over 30 degrees. The school results--Primary and Form Three--were published and Chelsea drew with Man United in the Carling Cup. This following of English football is a big thing here, and a lot of men take the games very seriously.

2004-04-09T15:16:00.000+03:00

Good Friday 2004 This may be one of the few places in the world that still honours Good Friday by closing down shops, businesses and almost everything so that worshippers can worship. I never thought this was a good thing in earlier years but I do now, realising with horror that our ancestors' ways of life are all fast disappearing. Or if not disappearing, they're certainly fragmenting. Around

2004-04-03T18:17:00.000+03:00

03rd April 2004 Back in action, the day after the night before. The night before was the new nightspot in the valley of heaven, Quartermain's. The joint is named after a character in Haggard's 'King Solomon's Mines', a novel set in Swaziland. Quartermain's is cool, something like an O'Hagan's. There is live music on a Wednesday and Friday, and live music is a great thing. Also, a reasonably

2002-10-05T14:53:00.000+03:00

It’s a bit much when even a word like ‘panty’ seems exciting; my only defence is that the days are hot and a lot of pollen is currently afloat on the breeze. The sap is rising and other things too. Without doubt this sap is feeling the heat. When I’m out, almost every chick I meet is legging me on—or so it seems. When I’m in, those ethereal beauties haunt my dreams.

2002-03-22T10:32:00.000+02:00

Another beautiful day, bright and sunny, blue-skied and hot with a sleek breeze to cool us down. Quite a bit happening in the kingdom but I've been too busy to post anything here. Articles are getting written though (see new stuff on www.swaziplanet.com, and the newspaper, Times Sunday) and myother blog, The Food of Love, is getting attention... Also, I've moved house, so getting plugged into a

2002-02-22T20:52:00.000+02:00

A story. A local hustler visits some people and steals their cellphone. Then he goes to town, to a well-known bar that he frequents, and starts flashing the phone around, trying to sell it. The people he robbed appear, enter the bar and confront him. 'Where's the phone?' 'Ah, let's talk outside,' he says. No sooner are they outside than the people (two men and a woman) begin to work him over.

2002-02-21T11:46:00.000+02:00

Thoughts today of Bill Gates and Steve Jobs and why they succeed in this contemporary world of ours. It is clear that most people's thinking these days is far from clear, that most people find it difficult to think and certainly don't cultivate the art of thinking. Though this might at first seem a common platitude, apt for all times and all places, a moment's reflection reveals that it isn't so.

2002-02-20T09:19:00.000+02:00

Politics still dominates the local news--Mario's sedition trial, the PM's non-apology for ignoring the rule of law, and the recall of Prince David from Taiwan to head the Constitutional Review Committee. This makes a change from last year when at this time the discovery of bodies in forests was spreading fear throughout the kingdom. The general feeling in the streets and the bars (where much talk

2002-02-19T09:27:00.000+02:00

After the sun, the rain/ after the rain, the sun/ this is the way of life, since the world begun--so goes an old harvest hymn that I used to sing as a child. Living here in the country the weather and its relation to our lives is always apparent; there's also more awareness of how animism and fertility cults developed and why our remotest ancestors saw a need for them. The seeds of my ancestors

2002-02-15T10:25:00.000+02:00

The state of the nation... Today is hot and sunny in the kingdom and flies are riding the heat like kings; mosquitoes are back in action, buzzing in a lady's ear, and snakes are hosting a slalom in my local river...yesterday I was called in to help a friend's friend, who was visibly very sick with a bronchial infection. Other friends had taken her to the hospital on the evening before and waited

2002-02-12T10:07:00.000+02:00

All the news that's fit to print... the PM is under fire for deliberately overriding the rule of law in ensuring that clerk Ben Zwane was not admitted into parliament last week or this. For many punters expressing their views in the street the PM's action is neither surprising nor worth worrying about since 'the law is bent to suit the powerful anyway--it's not there to help us'. This is a sad,

2002-02-11T13:11:00.000+02:00

This week the hotels get it right; the supermarket gets it wrong. For a long while now we've been urging the quality hotels to do something to attract locals--at prices locals can afford--and not just focus on tourists and their relative abundance of money. This week is a start: at Lugogo there is a Valentine's Day special, with a meal, bed and champagne breakfast for a very reasonable deal. And

2002-02-10T12:17:00.000+02:00

A lot of kudos arriving through the mail recently--wanna-be writers wanting to correspond, lost-in-transits missing home and loving the website, people signing up for swaziplanet's irregular newsletter, readers enjoying the newspaper column and so on... it's always gratifying to be read, and since we all love to be loved, praise is always easier to swallow than vilification. As a writer though, I

2002-02-09T08:29:00.000+02:00

Sunshine, starsign, the Beatles' I feel fine. 'Have you vertigo?' 'No, I stay just around the corner.' Embrace the new. Ooh, she loves to be embraced, embraceable you. I guess it's true that I need the sunshine. I thrive on the stuff. I'm a sun-sign myself and bop with energy on days like these. From the house there's a beautiful view of sun and shade walking on the tops of the mountains. They're

2002-02-08T11:01:00.000+02:00

Still raining... which is literally a downer (not just a downpourer). When there is blue sky and sunshine, it's always easier to wake up and get up in the morning, days have a bounce to them that they don't have when blankets of grey cover the sky. Blankets of grey positively encourage staying beneath bed blankets--whatever colour those bed blankets might be. There's a Swazi expression, 'to share

2002-02-07T11:33:00.000+02:00

After the sun, the rain... today is cold and drizzly in this mountain city. The Times of Swaziland's frontpage headline today is misleading: 'Judge drops Mario case'. 'Mario's case' is of course the sedition trial of PUDEMO leader Mario Masuku, and the headline suggests that government has done itself a favour by dropping the issue, but that's not what happened. The story is actually that the

2002-02-06T10:39:00.000+02:00

A very hot day in the kingdom... so hot that snakes are rutting in the ruts... also hot politically because of the media and public attention on the Mario Masuku Event: the 'sedition' trial. I agree wholeheartedly with Vusi Ginindza (in his 'As I see it' Times of Swaziland column) that government has scored an own goal here, drawing far too much attention to what should never have been an issue

2002-02-06T07:52:00.000+02:00

A successful, funky and fun quiz night--we almost looked intelligent, getting all those answers right! Then off for a shared pizza and a game of pool before turning in for the night and a warm cuddle...

2002-02-05T16:20:00.000+02:00

A long and busy day at school, but quiz night tonight at Ezulwini Sun. Off we go...