Force of Presence

"The blows stopped, and I knew I had crushed him. I had crushed him with the sheer force of my presence. I was there, and would be there to the end of time: a perpetual symbol of his failure to have a world without me. And he walked away to his car, a man without a shadow. The sun couldn't see him"

From Njabulo Ndebele's short story "Fools". This character (Zamani) says this after withstanding sjambock blows. He did not run and at some point started laughing until his attacker gave up and walked away crying. This reminds me of the concept of a 'soft vengeance' that is found in Albie Sachs' writings. As Albie puts it "Soft vengeance is the triumph of your life, of your ideals, of your goals."

I agree with him, as in the case of Zamani, it is the sheer presence of a you that is an undeniable force even though some wish you were not. Just triumph and that will be the best vengeance, the soft one.

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Paarl Uprising 1962

Growing up in Mbekweni I got used to being associated with the Pan Africanist Congress (PAC/Poqo) when visiting other townships. This is because Paarl has been viewed as a PAC stronghold since the 1962 Paarl uprising that was led by that organisation. The history of the PAC struggles can not be told without mentioning Paarl 1962. That was when a mass uprising consisting of hundreds of men took place. They marched in the morning of November 22 from Mbekweni and Langabuya to town with the intent of attacking the police station and prison. The Late Minister of Justice in the ANC led government Dullar Omar recalled this event when accepting an award for Human Rights in 2004. Omar who, in 1963, was one of the lawyers who were to defend the men recalled that: “ The PAC was particularly active in Paarl. Suddenly hardly without any notice the so-called Paarl riots (the Poqo uprising) exploded on the South African scene. These poor migrant workers had had enough. They marched through

Marching against apartheid education

I am the fifth from left in this 1990/91 Education march: students linked arm-in-arm do a toyi-toyi dance during a march to the Houses of Parliament. Student leaders handed over a memorandum to an official of the State President's office calling for the creation of one education department and for the president's intervention in the improvement of facilities. — with Luvuyo Zantsi, The current deputy minister of police, Bongani Michael Mkongi ,is the tenth person from left. the late Ntuthuzelo Ngwane, Sipho Kussie, Bhabha Dantile, Bhabha Ntshobane, Mcebisi Tshandu, Patrick Lakabane and Songezo Mjongile, who was to be the Western Cape province secretary for the ANC at Parliament of South Africa around 1990/1 .

Visiting Dachau Concentration Camp Memorial

The Main gate at Dachau concentration camp with the words 'Arbeit macht frei'. It means work sets you free. The Gas Chamber Dachau concentration camp memorial site building and yard. A crematorium to burn the dead I took time one Sunday morning to visit the Dachau Concentration camp memorial site when I was staying in Feldafing, in the State of Bayern. The memorial site is said to be one of the first concentration camps established by the Nazis. It was located in the small town of Dachau approximately 10 miles northwest of Munich. It was quite an eye opener. When you are there you just realize the cruelty of it all. It hits you that thousands of people were imprisoned there without trial. They were tortured and many died. It is not an ordinary tourism site. It is sad. Jews, Russian prisoners of war, Jehovah's witnesses, gays, Intellectuals, communists and anyone who disagreed with Hitler became a victim.

Just Thinking

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