FIVE 75
Where youth culture lives
THE STRUGGLE IS REAL
Out Of The Furnace
An exhibition through time and trauma
Bandile Radebe Fit for the future
Issue 13
MARCH/APRIL
March + April
FIVE SQUAD Editor in chief Lawrence Adams Editors Dawn Barendse Tsholofelo Molosi Design Nkanyezi Gumede Guest contributor Linamandla Mavi Contributors Bokang Shika Khukhi Masipa Nkanyezi Gumede Rethabile Kau Sean-Jules Mogane Tsholofelo Molosi To advertise Lawrence Adams 074 853 3702
The Bluetick Mindset
Five 75
@we_are_ five_75
EDITOR’S LETTER Dear reader FIVE 75 has reached it’s first year. Our journey has been full of ups and downs, we have struggled and triumphed. This month we celebrate our our struggles and the freedom we get from triumphing over these struggles. We try to remind ourselves that we have overcame struggles far greater and far more challenging than the ones we are faced. We also celebrate the triumph over the Struggle because our struggles serve as a lesson to those around us and our triumphs serve as motivation to others. This month we speak to very inspiring young people who are doing the damn thing in their respective hustles and we find out what struggles they were faced with in their journey. We also look at the struggle of pertaining self love. As you page through this magazine imagine our struggles and try and experience the triumphs that gave us our freedom
e i g g i B -
C O N T E N T
1. Five Star 3. Five Music 7. Motor Crush Monthly 13. Out of the Furnace 21. The importance of self love 27. Staying positive through the struggles 31. Cool people on Five presents Thato Jessica 35 Bandile Radebe 45. The heartbreak blues 51. Fitness on Five 59. Ability by Tsholofelo Molosi
35. 31.
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F
E V I AR T S
The struggle is and always has been real but there has also always been beauty in that very same struggle. this month we are looking at the various struggles of musicians and inventors as well as the music they made and the inventions that made them.
THERE’S BEAUTY IN THE STRUGGLE The struggle is real for all of us but for some it comes to a surprisingly good end and. The stories you’re about to read are rather inspirational and should be taken as a sign that all is not lost after a few years of difficulty, aafter all dreams delayed are not dreams denied.
FI MU
IVE USIC
EMINEM
We open this account by talking about someone who had to struggle to get into the music industry. After all the hardships and controversies he faced then and now, he became the bestselling hip hop artist of all time. His name is Marshal Mathers or Eminem/Slim Shady. During the past years, Hip-Hop has always known to be dominated by black people, Eminem being white, found it was near impossible to try and insert oneself into that type of industry but with the help of legendary Dj and Producer Andre Young aka Dr Dre, He managed to do the impossible and achieve world dominance. His dynasty still stands to this day.
HOUSE MUSIC
H
ouse is a music genre that started in the streets of Chicago then hit the shores of the motherland to become one of the most celebrated genres in the world. During the struggle when most countries in the world boycotted South Africa, house music slowly slipped in through the cracks and bit by bit, it got refined into what it is now, producing one of the best DJs and producers in the world. Look at house music as “made in Chicago and refined in the Republic of South Africa.�
MOT O
HLY NT
R
S H U R MO C
MCM
THE HORSEPOWERFUL HISTORY OF CARS
HENRY FORD Imagine a world where inventions were ridiculed and you were deemed crazy for thinking that you would have to struggle creating something because people are not convinced enough that it can actually work. That is Mr Henry Ford’s story in a nutshell. In a world where the only means of transportation was by horseback and locomotive, he invented the Ford model T and it was one of the first cars the world has ever seen and to make it more iconic, he invented the assembly line mode of production where he could produce at a larger scale and ended up selling millions of vehicles. What others saw as crazy, he saw as genius!
THE PIONEERS OF ELECTRIC CARS If you ask any Petrol head about electric cars, they will walk away from you or laugh at you if you are lucky. As much as they are environmentally friendly and all, they are not practical and they strip away everything that makes a car, like the smell of fuel being set alight or the roar of a V8 along a coast line or warming up the tires before a drag race. Against all these odds, a very short list of car makers has stepped up and changed the status quo. Elon Musk , the founder of Tesla Motors is the most famous of them all.
Elon Musk
BMW joined in the electric car craze with their i series cars including the i8 and i3 which are actually selling quite well
AND ALL THE WAY FROM CROATIA The supercar was capable of producing 1224 Bhp and the Rimac concept as seen on The Grand Tour rolled over by Richard Hammond. Through the adversities and the high mountains, the car makers had to climb to state their case. It seems that they have succeeded because almost every major car company is gravitating towards making an electric car. The future is electric
OUT OF THE FURNACE
Written by Nkanyezi Gumede
H
istory always shows us that oppression cannot and should not stand and that the oppressors will eventually be destroyed by the oppressed. Someone once said that that when the poor have no more food left they will storm the ivory towers of the rich, bear the brunt of electric fencing, kill their dogs and eat the oppressors. Unfortunately life happens in circles and in this context that means there is always going to be some form of oppression to fight. Coming from two separate but incredibly similarly oppressive regimes and eras Wolf Werdigier and Willie Bester continuously strive to do their artistic part to create a dialogue around the trauma and the lessons learnt and acquired from years and years of oppression from one sort of government to another. The two world renouned contemporary artists have gone on a journey of friendship, exploration and lament as they travelled from galleries to junk yards in search of inspiration and indeed materials to construct the paintings, sculptures and installations they use to create conversations around oppression and struggle that continue to be glossed over by society.
We are constantly told never to forget certain struggles and eras of devastation and despair and it would seem these two artists agree wholeheartedly, especially because they both grew up in incredibly oppressive regimes. Wolf Weldigier saw the ins and outs of the Nazi regime and lived through it as a Jewish boy who simply had to survive but wouldn’t do it quietly. He makes art that does its part to shout his disgust toward oppression. Willie Bester believes that there can be no freedom without political freedom. Bester is a resistance artist who creates paintings, installations and sculptures that cry for the suppressed people of South Africa and demand their emancipation. He grew up in Apartheid South Africa where he fought the Apartheid regime as part of a group called Visual Arts which fought the regime from within the country. In the 90s Bester’s works became more and more popular until he reached his current world renouned status.
The pair bring their experiences forth in a beautifully storied exhibit of pieces of work that spread a message of both raging and subtle revolution and rebellion. They come straight out of the furnaces of both fire and brimstone as well as inhumane injustice to light a fire in any onlooker to take a new look upon the oppression of one man upon another and take even the slightest bit of action against it. The curator of the exhibition, Beathur
Mgoza Baker (a former journalist and student activist) put this spectacle together in what was her own journey of meeting her heroes and then getting to work with them on a topic that threaded all three of them together, historic oppression. She told us that the fact that someone wanted to take something from her made her realise that she is invincible and precious as well as that if she is essentially invincible the arts are not and she could make it in, which she
has so beautifully done. The staggering emotion brought forth by each and every piece fills the viewer with a joyful burst of inspiration and a searing need to look back in history, have a conversation or two about it and then shed a tear for those who didn’t make it out alive and those who made it to physical freedom but still have their minds caged in self doubt and self hatred. Werdigier and Bester aspire to empower the people who have been downtrodden
by the past. They do this through their art and they aim to send messages to the populace of the world that perhaps it makes no sense that after all this time that societal oppression still continues to ravage black people and Jews. “Why?”, Werdigier asks, “is it that black people are still subject to oppression even today all around the world? And why is it the Jew is always persecuted and killed?” “It makes not sense at all”, he says but he’d like to find the truth.
These artists bring forth a discussion about trauma and tolerance that perhaps we have forgotten to have in South Africa. We have largely glossed over the subject of the repercussions of those who oppressed back in the day and nstead we have moved forward into a rainbow nation that turned out to be hiding quite a lot of darkness from the past. Younger people may not necessarily know where to begin with this kind of discussion and as such it is quite important that they get to see pieces
like these and in turn get to “touch history” as Mgoza Baker put it. She also said that she’s rather worried about our generation since we don’t have a common thread that can be used to drive us forward “like a steamroller.” but she hoped that we would gravitate towards art and theatre to find that common thread and cohesion. Werdigier told us that he believes that all generations have the right to live from zero but that every new generation would live a lot better if they studied
a bit more about history because all the fights that are being fought in this day and age have already been fought before and history holds the key to finding the solutions for those fights. Bester’s position on the youth in art and indeed in South Africa as a whole is that we all need education and plenty of it. “People don’t necessarily understand politics”, he says “because we cannot wait while someone causes more and more damage to a country and it’s people before we
hold them accountable.”, he continues to say that “if my hand is caught in the cookie jar I must be dealt with appropriately and held accountable for my actions.” Bester grew up labeled as a coloured but resents the term because it comes from the Apartheid system and stated that if his father were still alive today he’d say that we cannot use archetypes from that era to move the country forward. He also told Five that the term “affirmative action” would’ve been taken as a insult by his late father because affirmative action is merely getting benefits because of the colour of one’s skin and that is exactly what South Africa should have been liberated from at the end of Apartheid. Out of the Furnace by Willie Bester and Wolf Werdigier is on from the 14th of March to the 14th of April at the The Melrose Gallery in Melrose Arch and it is one for the books. You definitely don’t want to miss it, Its a really good show.
Th of s
he importance self
by Khukhi Masipa
L
ast month, I graced readers with an article on self-love. In this article, I mentioned that ‘the love you have for others is a reflection of the love that you have for yourself ’. The article had some suggestions on how to take care of yourself and how to practice self-love. However, this article will be based on something a little different. It will be based on the reflection of love and how it can be your resolution to difficulties one can be faced with. The reason why self-love is imperative is because in life you will be exposed to obstacles. You will be challenged, knocked down and burdened. Your troubles will come in different forms and you may find yourself having issues relating to your career, relationships, your overall health and your identity. Love is the grace that allows you to start the process of healing and set yourself free from challenges. To show love is to show kindness, humility and compassion. Love is empathetic and nurturing. To love yourself is to be disciplined to choosing what is good for you and not necessarily what you want. One might say that I am idealistic and love is not the answer to socioeconomic issues that people face which is understandable. However, if people acted in love and pushed this love forward, other people could be empowered. For example, If our political leaders did their jobs out of love, human rights would be at the
forefront of policies made by legislation. When a person acts out of love, they are choosing to act in a manner that is productive and conscious. Furthermore, to show love, one would need to know how to love and the process starts with yourself first. If you’re at a point where you feel like life is not great, and you are not where you thought you’d be in your 20’s and you feel undervalued, you need to know that you are not the only one and because you are not the only one, you need to forgive yourself for making mistakes. We are all not perfect and we are all still learning on how to give ourselves self-love, you need to take time to discipline and reward yourself, take time for you and get structure in your life. Come to the realization that you need to do what’s good for you mentally, physically and emotionally in order to see a difference in your life. Realize that every action that you do should be from a place of love. It is through love that you want the best for yourself and others. It is that want that then allows us to want to grow, evolve and become people we are proud of. Struggles allows you appreciate the destination and the destination is what makes the struggles worthwhile. Love is what chooses the destination. Love for oneself is what keeps one going when it seems like everyone and everything is against them. Let love be your beacon of light and your guide. Take care of yourself and in that way, you will always be on the right path.
Staying positive through the struggles A Quick word
by Nkanyezi Gumede
“
akuvelwa kanye kanye kunge madlebe embongolo
L
et’s be honest with ourselves here, life isn’t all that great. Especially in the 20s. Something somewhere always seems to be falling apart. Its so bad that us Zulus have a saying that goes “akuvelwa kanye kanye kunge madlebe embongolo” which is to sayhta everything works out eventually but not all at once or at the beginning. This is where the struggle for optimism starts. All the views you have on all the problems you face come under the sort of scrutiny that would crack a seasoned politician and the only way to survive all of this savage testing is to adjust your perspective and look for the good in all of it. Ever heard the saying “survival of the fittest”? Well if you haven’t then this is a good day to learn that if you do not
”
adapt to your surroundings you shall be destroyed by them and a really big part of adaptation is your perspective and your determination. Interestingly those two factors feed into each other so the more you have of one the more you’ll alternatively get of the other. Its a big win win situation for you.
All that happens in life is what is meant to happen, if you adjust your view of it all to fit the guidelines of optimism none of the invasive tragedies of existence will phase you to the point of destruction. You’ll be able to cope with it all and maybe even cope very well. But staying optimistic in times of distress is in fact quite the struggle. No one has so little going on in their lives that they would voluntarily opt to take on the deep dark corners of
the human mind with a smile on their face. You need to choose positivity, you need to then fight to stay within positivity. It won’t be done for you. But at the end of it all there is one important thing to remember, there’s beauty in the struggle and there’s also beauty in what results from the struggle. Its not all bad but its not at all easy. Think of it as finding the joy in the journey. This is but a quick word in favour of optimism and positivity. However the fact is that not matter how much you’re told to be positive or the amount of times you’re shown the bountiful benefits of this positive outlook on life it will always come down to you at the end of the day to make the positive choice. So unless it’s HIV choose to stay positive despite all the struggles.
Cool People on Five presents
THATO JESSICA A Rising R&B superstar
Thato Jessica is a force to be reckoned with, a woman chasing her dreams! The 25-year old is bringing a new flare to the South African R&B and Hip Hop scene hence her home town, Botswana is already buzzing with her music.
Thato’s music carries an international sound that can transcend through every kind of culture and language. Her musical dream is to create and infuse the modern R&B sound with the African narrative and image. In April 2018, Thato released her much anticipated EP titled “Rehearsal” consisting of three hit tracks “Problem, Freedom and Addicted, which national radio stations are currently playing on rotation. To bring her single “Problem” to life, she features rapper Veezo View.
“I collaborated with Veezo View because I wanted to capture the expression of people in a relationship who confront each other about their relationship problems. In the single, we raise various issues with the intention of ultimately resolving them” concludes Thato Jessica. Check out Thato Jessica’s latest single https://youtu.be/KzTFdoM_i10 For more updates on Thato Jessica’s follow her social media Instagram: thatojessica Facebook: Thato Jessica Twitter: @thato_jessica (Go ahead, click the links)
Bandile
Only the fittest will
Written by Nkanyezi Gumede
Radebe survuve the future
Photography by Blacklit Media
B
andile Radebe is not only a fitness guru but a force to be reckoned with. The calaesthetics aficianado and fitness trainer is ready for the future of fitness and training. Radebe co-founded B-Coached in 2018, a lifestyle training and fitness brand that centers around training people to be better versions of themselves physically over the world wide web. He was also featured on eTV’s Morning Show as part of the team of trainers in the fitness segment of the show. Radebe told Five that he would now like to branch away from being a sporty, active trainer and start a couple more entities of his own that all revolve aroud being faster, stronger and fitter. He’s not your average trainer anymore, he’s beome a fitness entrepreneur and we wanted to get some insight on who he is, how he lives and what his future looks like.
When did you get started with fitness?
I started back in high school but I only made a career out of it in 2015
Have you always wanted to make a career out of it?
Yes I have. I ome from a sporting background and so I’ve always wanted to be apersonal trainer
Who has been your biggest inspiration?
Definitely my mom. She has always believed in me and she has a never give up attitude
How did you start B_Coached?
B_Coached is an online training company I started with my business partner, Candice. We both love functional training and so we wanted to build a brand that was true to us
What’s your aim with B_Coached? Online and functional training are the future. We’ve created this brand to change people’s lives. We are offering an lifestyle of trainng anywhere with a personal trainer in your pocket.
How has being in the fitness industry changed the way you view the world? Fitness, entrepreneurship and life in general share a common thread in that if you can excel in the gym then you’re probably living your life optimally as well. If you give 110% in your training, finish every set and rep you condition your mind to finish every task and be more consistent too.
What has been the most difficult thing about being a fitness entrpreneur? Consistency and the fact that I wasn’t patient enough to grow in the industry.
What has been your highlight so far in your journey through fitness and entrepreneurship? Getting interviewd on live TV adn being part of eTV’s Morning Show. That was really cool.
What have you got planned for the future? Lookout for the name “Performance”. That’s all I can say for now.
The Heartbreak Blues by Linamandla Mavi
“
You never should’ve loved me. You never should’ve touched me, You never should’ve, never should’ve told me
”
You loved me and you would never leave me Never Should Have - Ashanti
T
hese lyrics have made perfect sense to most of us, if not all. You never understand lyrics until you are going through what the song is about. Love songs make perfect sense to us when we’re in love. Anthony Hamilton’s Best of Me, Beyoncé’s Dangerously In love and all the others you can think of. We all understand them when we’re in that moment but the worst is when your heart is broken and every word in the song is exactly how you feel. Heartbreak is terrible, when your heart is so broken you can physically feel the pain and all you wanna do is be silent and cry about it. Have you ever had your heart bro-
ken so bad by someone you thought was the one and then… it doesn’t work out? It doesn’t matter who you are, if you were in love with someone and by some unfortunate luck it ends, it will get to you. We may all deal with pain in different ways but it gets to you; physically, spiritually, emotionally, mentally and sometimes even sexually. And do you know what happens afterwards? You get so hurt and damaged that every time someone tries to get close to you, you fall back and feel uncomfortable. You close yourself up from love and from everything that’s remotely close to it. And the more you try to get out there again things don’t work
out. The more they don’t work out, the more you feel like it’s useless and you’ll never find “The One”. But you can’t do that to yourself. There are so many things to do, after that break up, to make yourself feel better about it, you can think of it as freedom. You can travel if you want or get a new hobby, learn a new skill or language. Just do anything that will get you out of that hurtful place. And get your mental, emotional, physical and spiritual positivity back. And maybe even get your sexual healing on.
Getting yourself out of that dark painful hole is not easy but at some point you gotta get out there, You do not have to get into anything serious too soon but you have to get out of that hole and meet people. You cannot be sad forever. Just know that it is not the end, and there’s someone out there just for you, someone who won’t break your heart and we all deserve to share our happiness with someone special, don’t we? So, you’ll find that person. It just takes time and a few heartbreaks. But it does get better.
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F
S
E N S T I
ON FIVE by Sean-Jules Mogane
W
hen we often talk about
Building summer bodies in winter
building our summer bodies in winter people often look at us in awe as most people don’t go to the gym in winter as its cold and everyone is indoors and eating a lot and gaining weight. The first thing we need to understand when starting with the summer body building is that it is not easy especially in winter, so we need to start with the right mind set and always be prepared. Winter gym clothes are needed and also preparing your clothes a night before is important cause in the morning when your mind is set and ready for gym you do not need to be running around looking for your socks or gym towel as that will make you late and spoil your mood, something else we need to remember is the importance of meal prepping , we normally prepare our meals during the weekend for the week so you need to load up on a lot of Tupperwares. what most people do is from April they start with bulking that’s when they put on a lot of muscle mass but that also comes with fat being put on and then from June the cutting phase starts tats when a lot of mass and fat is cut down and weight loss and body toning take place
,its better to start early rather than later cause it’s a long and difficult process but the ones that start early will be feeling good and energetic when summer comes and shouldn’t find it hard to put in a workout with all the busy summer schedule. When it comes to building summer bodies we mainly focus on high intensity training that includes a lot of cardio and functional training, in cardio we include running that can be done on the road or on a treadmill for 15-20minutes and then there is also swimming which is a full body workout so 10 laps in the pool is enough. When it comes to functional training the exercises we do focus on the whole body the exercises are jumping jacks, push ups, squats, plank, high knees, bicycle crunches, burpees the whole workout should be an hour and then there are also aerobic classes one can take so you burn off a lot of calories. That’s normally an hour to an hour and a half
Let’s debunk some food myths MYTH
Certain foods like grapefruit, celery or cabbage soup can assist in burning fat and make you lose weight TIP: the best way to lose weight is to cut back on the number of calories you eat and be more physically active.
MYTH
Fast foods are always an unhealthy choice and you should not eat them while dieting
FACT
No foods can burn fat. Some food with caffeine may speed up your metabolism (the way your body uses energy or calories) for a short time but they don’t cause weight loss
FACT
Fast foods can be part of a healthy weight loss program with a little bit of know how
TIP: avoid supersized combo meals or split one with a friend. Drink water or fat free milk instead of cool drink choose salads and grilled food like grilled chicken and grilled fish
MYTH
I can lose weight while eating whatever I want TIP: when trying to lose weight you can still eat your favourite foods as long as you pay attention to the total number of calories that you eat
FACT
To lose weight you need to lose more calories than you eat
MYTH
Skipping meals is a good way to lose weight
FACT
Studies show that people who skip breakfast and eat fewer times during the day tend to be heavier than people who eat a healthy breakfast and eat four or five times a day. This is because people who skip meals tend to get hungrier later on and eat more than they normally would
MYTH
I don’t need to diet or exercise if I’m taking weight loss supplements
FACT
Practically every supplements label not to mention every weight loss expert and dietitian will tell you that if you want to shed weight you will also need to eat a healthy diet and exercise regularly
ABILITY I believe that animals, plants, the wind and the spirit of a human being who has left this caged world all know the definition of freedom, or rather, they could be freedom themselves, if one wished to describe them that way. Will the living human being ever be free? Free from judgement by society, free from selfish criminals and free from themselves? Meaning, will they ever fully forgive themselves for every transgression they have committed? Some people are called “animals” because of their behaviour/conduct? Though, what peoples do not realise is that a person can behave unruly because they are driven crazy by being in a cage, they need freedom! Another sad unrealized part is that the animal itself lives a better life than that of a human. A life of freedom and freedom only! A cage can be defined in any way you want, but I describe it as money! Money! Money has caged humans by its existence. Why do humans need money to have what they survive by as humans? Isn’t the earth ours? Can’t we eat anything that grows? Even the freest component in the circle of life is put a price on it according its flesh. This is ridiculous! We don’t have the ability to live freely. Freedom is essential, through freedom, you get to understand yourself more. Bring back the freedom humans were meant to have, the world could have probably been a much better place without a cage built from currencies and paper.
THE END