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Easter in Mbekweni (April 2012)



We are approaching the Easter weekend and people are going to be observing it in different ways. Christians will be  celebrating the death of Jesus Christ on Ester Friday and His resurrection on Easter Sunday.  The significance of this in the Christian faith is that it demonstrates the power of the belief in a risen Lord.  This is viewed as giving assurance and credility of salvation.
 Someone reminded me on Facebook of Easter in Mbekweni especially when I was growing up.  It brought back memories of two events that dominated Easter in our township.  The first one was the church gatherings that brought visitors.  Easter meant that even those who have not been in church in a while went to church.  As this group we went to church in pursuant of different objectives.  Some saw the importance of the Easter weekend and remembered the sacrifice of God in redeeming mankind.  They thus reserved Easter as one of the "big days" for going to church. 
Some of us enjoyed the fact that there were visitors from outside of Mbekweni.  This meant friendships will be developed and letters will have to be written to new people.  It should be remembered that there were no cell-phones when I grew up and the Telkom phones were later introduced to few houses in the township and it made these houses a bit special as they received call for people in the entire street.   Back to Easter, some of us had far less than noble intentions for celebrating the arrival of the Easter visitors.  We prowled the streets and frequented church houses to find Easter girlfriends from amongst the visitors.  It so happened that the younger congregants also were not in Mbekweni for church alone.  Talk of multi-tasking and many unholy alliances formed on the sidelines of holly celebrations of God's sacrifice.
A second exciting thing about Easter in Mbekweni used to be sport tournaments.  In the period leading towards the Easter weekends the atmosphere would be one full of preparations.  You would hear "one lala one vuka" as people counted down to the day of the departure of one rugby or soccer team to take part in a tournament in another town.  These would be our representatives in the towns and cities that they would be visiting.  We would try as much as was possible to follow their exploits on the field of play.  The other rugby and soccer teams that were not going away would also organise tournaments in Mbekweni and this would involve outsiders (by this I do not mean refugees).   These teams from outside of Paarl would be accommodated at a school or somewhere and be entertained.  At times there would be slaughtering of a cow or sheep as part of the weekend meal and a disco and other forms of entertainment would be organised for the evenings.  Sporting games would keep us entertained during the day.    Although these were hosted by respective sporting teams we nonetheless accepted them as the guests of the township of Mbekweni.  Violence and crime are not part of my memory of Easter in Mbekweni.  We had good, religious, sporty and peaceful time.
All these happened whilst households feasted on curry fish and buns.  I don't remember ever seeing a household that cooked anything else on "good Friday".  I do not want to deal with the beliefs that accompanied the choice of meal.  I enjoyed this tradition and missed it when I was in Gauteng.
Thanks to the person who reminded me about this I now know where I want to be on Easter.  I will attend my church’s Easter Convention in a nearby town but will definitely make a turn in Mbekweni and enjoy what I can of the festivities.  I am confident that I will not regret and my time will not be wasted by being there.  I might have to be a bit careful at night because these days crime does not observe respite even on Easter.  I have lived in different areas but I still yearn for a community spirit that accompanied Easter when I grew up in Mbekweni.   Allow me to take this opportunity and wish everyone in Mbekweni and in Paarl a blessed and a happy Easter weekend.

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