FOR A BLACK (read: AFRICAN) STUDENT, EVERYDAY IS A STRUGGLE

By Samson `Chessa" Zondi

In the Nux publication of May 2007 an article entitled “Equality among students” submitted by Andrew Wright, which attempted (although with little, if any, success) to respond to T.Dladla’s thought-provoking and progressive commentary, left me with no alternative but to respond to Wright’s article
Perhaps, I must mention that by virtue of the fact that we are academics in a pot (i.e. still studying); one would expect that whenever we engage in the festival of ideas or debates, we would at least demonstrate that we are indeed university students. I mean that, it is becoming common within academic environment that in some intellectual wrestling (for simplicity sake) debate, you will find contention/s that have no reference to actual debates being justified to make certain misleading views, Mr. Wright article demonstrate this clearly, and is therefore tantamount to a fairytale.


However, one must pardon him because-as I have previously indicated-we are, in the ultimate analysis, academics in the pot. My brother myopically argues that race has nothing to do with any students’ academic performance. He bases this on his past failure of which, he says, would not have occurred if race (white to be specific) has any influence in the lecturers who assess our (students) performance. Irrespective of whether he once failed or not, it is shortsightedness of the worst form to attempt to dispute the fact that race has no influence in students’ performance or arguably anything the former (students) does......More

Leremi dies in a car accident

Today is a very sad day for all Sundowns and all soccer loving people of South Africa. We have truly lost one the finest talents this country has to offer. He truly was a Gift to the beautiful team and game Gift Leremi (born October 13, 1984 in Soweto, Gauteng) is a South African football (soccer) midfielder for Mamelodi Sundowns in the Premier Soccer League and South Africa. According to news reports, the player passed away in a car crash on Monday 03 September 2007 near Johannesburg, South Africa. 'Bafana player killed in car crash'.The reports has not yet been confirmed as there has no been official statement from the club. More to follow.

Socialist On Board- Battle Of Ideas

By S'yabonga `Kotini' Nene.

In the context where one has just celebrated women’s day I think it becomes more pivotal and imperative that we engage on introspection where amongst other things we will assess and evaluate our attitude and role towards gender equality and women emancipation. The harsh reality is some of us continue to pollute the society by propagating views which seek to say men and women are and will never be equal to men. One needs to put this into perspective, when oppression came in, it was introduced through pseudo realities that white is better than black and men is better than women. As young people of today we should remain implacably and vehemently oppose to such while cherishing the impeccable character demonstrated by young people prior democratic breakthrough (1994) in their fight for freedom. I think it is a common course that no-one wants to regress the strides they had made and in the light of that we remain charged with the gigantic responsibility not only to emulate what they did but to take the struggle forward. Young people located in tertiary institution have a tremendous task of making sure that when they go back home programmes that seek to uplift the society in general and young people in particular are initiated, coordinated and facilitated by them...


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The Blacker the Berry the Sweeter the Juice

By Osama kaSethenjwa Dumakude

Your melanin can sometimes be a curse. I was born black and bieng black can make you a suspect.
The reasons I say this is because it’s sort of like I was born with all the negative black stereotypes. Because I am a young black man, people expect me to play basketball and football coz I am black. People expect me to be a great pansula or a gunman because I am black. People expect me to listen to rap ,kwaito and maskandi because I am black. Nobody expects me to swim better than Roland Mark Schoeman merely because I am black.When I was younger than this I met a beautiful chick working in the bar and I adored this sleek young woman a lot. He was extremely dark skinned - "navy black". She had a friend who was "so light he could be white". My brother was beside himself. "Why", he asks "do you have to like the dark one?" "If you have children with her" she shouted "they will be too dark!" I remember saying to him: "The Blacker the berry the sweeter the juice." And he rejoinder - "Yeah, but who needs diabetes. - Mazwendoda Mkhize

From then I have ben asking myself: what makes one blacker than the other? Is it the colour of the skin? Is the culture or lifestyle he/she opts to pursue? Are we black by virtue of our surnames or names or our deeds?Some of us associate “black” with primitiveness, death, morbidity, intimidation, coldness, and uncertainty. In interior design they associate white with cleanliness, optimism, safety, innocence and enlightenment. These entire connotations may differ from person to person. The reasons for this are various, but the most widely accepted explanations are that night is experienced by humans as negative and dangerous. In traditional class-based Western cultures "pale" skin indicated genteel domestic or intellectual indoor-work as opposed to rough outdoor labour in the fields. In our daily discourse we use words like blackmagic, black comedy, blacklist, blackmarket, black sheep, black propaganda etc to refer to undesirability. All these words have negative symbolism surrounding a word “black”. A black cat often means bad luck and that you will probably not live. If you sink the black eight-ball in billiards before all others are out of play, you lose. During the Apartheid era( and even today) the school boards were black and they were using the white chalk to write on. What can you say about this? However black have positive symbolism. Ask any Kenyan Maasai person, they will tell you that the colour black is associated with rain clouds, becoming a symbol of life and prosperity. In fashion black is considerd reliably stylish.. Black can also be seen as the colour of prestige: for example, limousines are usually in black and black tuxedos are worn at black tie functions. Black can be seen as a colour of seriousness and authority. Many priests traditionally wear black. Lawyers and judges often wear black robes, as are university graduates.

However , being black these days has been made easier than before. Thanks to affirmative action. I personally don’t think affairmative action does our country any good. The fact that we were socio-politically disadvantaged does not mean we have to get preferential treatment. It is a modified form of apartheid directed to whites. Affirmative action is an indirect form of racism, causing unemployment, disenchantment and a new generation of odium and bitterness amongst whites. This beast called Affirmative Action will never be the answer that South Africa needs, rather the problem. Do I have to be proud of the job that I got just because I am black? What if one is white and yet did not benefit from the past apartheid government. Is it fair for Trevor Manuel’s (heis white)child to benefit from affairmative action? Ponder about this!!