Authors Magazine Africa Day Special Edition by Authors Magazine

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Scholastica Kimaryo

Mzwakhe Mbuli

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Africa Day is the annual commemoration of the 1963 founding of the Organization of African Unity (OAU), presently recognized as the Africa Union (AU). The African Union, comprised of 53 member states, has brought together the continent of Africa to collectively address the challenges it has Credit: aerodrome/GARETH SMIT faced, such as armed conflict, climatePhotochange, and poverty.

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Ms. Scholastica Sylvan Kimaryo is an Inspirational Speaker, Author and Leadership Mentor on How to Discover and Unleash the Greatness Within You. Ms. Kimaryo is endowed with professional knowledge, skills, tools and personal experience for grooming Leaders to perform at their optimum potential in leading themselves as well as in leading others more happily, efficiently, effectively and in perfect health: Mind Body Spirit. This helps to tap the Healer within us, thereby enabling us to discover and fulfill our Life Purpose.

Scholastica Kimaryo Driven by the passion to contribute to better understanding and management of Chronic Stress, which is a critical underlying cause for absenteeism, low productivity, poor work relationships as well as high medical bills, Ms. Kimaryo decided to invest her United Nations Pension Fund to enroll at the Deepak Chopra Centre University in California, USA, where she studied Mind Body Energy Medicine, obtaining International Certification as Instructor for Conscious Leadership & Healthy Lifestyles. In addition, Ms. Kimaryo holds a Masters of Science in Social Policy, Planning & Development from the London School of Economics and Political Science, a BSc in Home Economics with Education as well as a Post Graduate Diploma in Development Journalism. Her working experience includes 31 years with the United Nations in several countries in Africa and different capacities and levels of Leadership, including serving as the first UNICEF Representative to South Africa and later serving as UNDP Resident Representative as well as Coordinator of the United Nations System in South Africa and the Mountain Kingdom of Lesotho. Email: sskimaryo@maadili.net Cell: (+27-72) 212-9572 Website: www.maadil.net/ Skype: sskimaryo

Authors meet Mrs Kimaryo in her exclusive home in the posh eastern suburbs of Pretoria. Authors: How long have you been living in this hidden gem? SK: I have been living in South Africa since December 2004, when I was posted here as the Coordinator of the United Nations System and UNDP Resident Representative to this country; in other words, The Ambassador of the United Nations to South Africa. At the time, there were 17 Specialised UN Agencies – including the Global Governance & Development Programme (UNDP), the Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the World Health Organisation (WHO), the Population Fund (UNFPA), the Refugess Organisation (UNHCR), the Human Rights Commission (UNHRC), the Food & Agriculture Organisation (FAO), World Food Programme (WFP), UNAIDS, the UN Information Centre (UNIC), the Trade & Development Organisation (UNCTAD) – as well as our Cousins like the World Bank (WB), the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the International Finance Corporation (IFC). Authors: How was your time with the United Nations? SK: I worked with the United Nations for 31 years in various positions of leadership until I retired in 2009. My first time to South Africa was in 1991, when I attended the historic ANC Constitutional Conference at the Salt Rock in KwaZulu/Natal, in support of the efforts of the broad-based, Mass Democratic Movement Organisation called the National Children’s Rights Committee (NCRC); which worked very closely with the ANC’s Constitutional Committee in ensuring the entrenchment of the 1979 Convention of Children’s Rights (CRC), the OAU Charter for Children as well as the Convention on the Elimination of ALL Forms of Discrimination of Women (CEDAW) into South Africa’s new, non-racial, non-sexists, democratic Constitution.

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These efforts – together with the process of repatriation and resettlement of SA refugees back home to participate in the democratisation process, led to me being posted to Johannesburg on 02 December 1992 -- amongst the first UN Teams which operated on the ground during the Transition to a Democratic Dispension, under the umbrella of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees which was then led by Mr. Kallu Kalumia, a Ugandan National and reknown Legal Eagle. As Special UNICEF Representative, our Mandate then required that we work closely with UNHCR and the National Council for the Coordination of the Resettlement and Reintegration of Returnees (NCCR), in preparation for the historic, 27th April 1994 first Democratic, General Elections. As UNICEF Special Representative, I was also a Member of the UN Team which observed political negotiations to a democratic dispensation (CODESA) as well as South Africa’s first Universal Franchise, with the UN Team being led by the late Ms. Angela King from the Carribean; then based at the Carlton Centre in downtown Johannesburg. Authors: Why Johannesburg and not Pretoria, our capital city? SK: Yes, UN only operates from the political capital city of a legitimate government. And because it was a transitional time we could not be based in Pretoria. It would have been tatntamount to recognizing the then apartheid regime. The UN only moved to Pretoria in 1995, after the signing of the Basic Agreement of Understanding with SA’s new democratic Government, as per the 1946 Geneva Convention. At the time, the priority role of the UN was to support the formulation of policies and programs aimed at Sustainable Human Development for ALL, at the centre of which was the National Reconstruction and Development Program (RDP), the crafting and adoption of a new Constitution as well as a Bill of Rights; thereby rendering First and Second Generation Rights justiciable. This was a very progressive and unique move by and for South Africa. In underpinning the commitment to peace, human development, economic prosperity and equality for All.

The 1990s, therefore, were very exciting times for and in South Africa. I feel truly privileged to have been blessed with the opportunity to witness that revolutionary transition from apartheid to the ushering in of a vibrant, inclusive, multi-party democracy, overseen by the first democratically elected President, uBaba Nelson Mandela, supported by two Deputy Presidents Thabo Mbeki and De Klerk. The first decade of South Africa’s democratic dispensation was also a very exciting time for the people of the African Continent as well as the Diaspora, not least because in the success of a Progrssive, Indigenous African-led Democratic Government lay the hopes and aspirations of African peoples the world over. With the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 marking the end of the Cold War, there was an air of hope and optimism in Africa and globally that the era for progressive governance and access to human rights for all was finally upon us. However, two decades on and we now know how much more challenging it to strive for freedom, human rights, development, racial and gender equality in a Uni-Polar World!!! But, we MUST NOT lose hope! Like smart global sportsmen and women, we MUST learn to roll with the punches; play the ball and NOT the man!!! Amandla!!! Authors: Is what attracted you to choosing SA as your second home? SK: To me as a Tanzanian, Witnessing a Free and Democratic South Africa, in my lifetime, was a political miracle! In my youth under leadership of Tanzania’s first Democratic President and Father of the Nation, Mwalimu Julius Kambarage Nyerere, we were brought up to be Progressive PanAfricanists. All Tanzanians were mobilised from the household, community village, provincial and national levels to support the Struggle Against Apartheid in Southern Africa, morally , materially and politically, NOT as a favour to the countries of southern African BUT in the informed vested interest of a United and Prosperous Africa. Hence Mwalimu Nyerere and Tanzania’s engagement with and leadership of OAU’s Liberation Committee, the hosting of refugges, the establishment of The Frontline States (now SADC), to name a few. It was indeed, in this view, that as Journalists of the day – of which I was a self-respecting Member in my youth – we played a pivotal role in supporting the Struggle for Freedom, often side by side with the Media/International wing of the Liberation Movements then based in Tanzania.

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Truth be told, few of us dreamed that freedom from the oppressive apartheid regime would have been accomplished in our lifetime! However, I for one felt both humbled and inspired to work in the Newsroom with the likes of the now Former President Joachim Chissano of Marcelino Dos Santo of Angola, Carim Essack & Joe Mkwanazi of PAC, the late Minister Dr. Manto Tshabalala Msimang (ANC), Dr. Libertina Amathila (SWAPO) now retiredFormer Deputy Prime Minister of Namibia, Tommy Sithole of Zimbabwe, Kanyama Chiume & Reginald Mhango of Malawi, now President Yoweri Museveni of Uganda, etc. For me, I was deeply inspired by these young revolutionaries who, at the time, didn’t always know where their next meal meal was going to come from, or whether or not they would would see daylight on the next day because of the ever present danger of being eliminated by agents of the apartheid regime!!!! But because THEY BELIEVED that their individual and collective contribution was important in the attainment of political liberation, I was inspired to also believe that what I did as an individual would surely made a difference!!! And Mwalimu Nyerere kept the Nation mobilised behind the Liberation Struggle. He himself declared that he would step on the South African soil ONLY AFTER universal franchise. So, you cannot imagine how exciting it was for me – accompanied by Mrs. Lisbet Palme, wife of late Prime Minister Olof Palme of Sweden and ardent supporte of southern Africa’s Liberation struggle -- to go to meet President Nyerere at the Johannesburgh Airport on the occasion of the Swearing In of President Nelson Mandela as SA’s first Democratic President!!! When Lisbet and I asked Nyerere whether or not he could believe that this day was truly upon us, he replied: “I am still pinching myself to make sure that I am NOT DREAMING!” This is how PERSONAL, Continental and Global our joy was on SA’s attainment of Political Freedom.

Today, when I feel discouraged by the current wave of Afrophobia, I remind myself of how far Africa and South Africa has come, that this is part of our individual and collective “growing pains”, that one day this, too, shall pass as we evolve and are transformed by these turbulent, uncertain times. I remind myself that South Africans have overcome unimaginable obstacles in the past and that this time, they/we will also be able to overcome and move forward together. In fact, I wish that many more South Africans would travel to different parts of Africa, to see and experience different ways of life and thus to cultivate greater appreciation of Africa’s and South Africa’s realities so that we can all co-exist in the PERSPECTIVE of mutual understanding, benefit and respect. For example, an impression has been created that there are far too many Indigenous Africans from Africa in South Africa, who are grabbing economic opportunities from Indigenous South Africans. Let’s view this as one side of the coin. On the other hand, how many Indigenous South Africans realise the nature and extent of which one of the greatest ironies of life on this Continent is that the attainment of political freedom in South Africa has opened the floodgates for Corporate South Africa to colonise the African Continent unhindered; rendering indigenous Africans even poorer than during the days of apartheid? Today, Corporate South Africa is controlling Africa’s economy: taken over the Mines, the Banks, the Tourist Industry, agricultural land, displaced peasant farmers, petty/informal self-employed traders, taken over the mobile telephony and telecommunications industry, the clothing and food trade, motor inductry, control local and national governance through unfettered corruption, to name a few. And where are the majority of southern African Comrades and former Freedom Fighters and Veterans with whom ordinary African people fought against racial, political and economic oppressions side by side?

Instead of fighting the few Indigienous Africans eking out a meagre existence in South Africa, would it not make infinitely more sense for the majority of South Africans to strategise about HOW THEY AND US can work together to reap the benefits of UHURU, instead of fighting over the leftovers falling from the opulent tables of Corporate South Africa in this country and across Africa? What do you think? You see, it is very important for progrssive Africans to handle this Afrophobia with very cool heads, lest we throw out the proverbial baby with the bath water. Political and economic myopia is a very dangerous game. Suffice it to say, it is my humble observation that the Jury is still out on HOW Leaders of African Governments and the majority of ordinary Citizens, Consumers, Voters view the current ploticial and economic dichotomy which threatens to polarise our Peoples. Heaven forbid that the powers that be should let the situation deteriorate to a point whereby ordinary citizens decide to take the law into their hands either by boycotting or attacking South African business establishments all over Africa. Let us wake up to find win-win approaches to justice, peace, wealth, prosperity, health and happiness in Africa. AM: Did you have a plan about your life? Did you know exactly what you had to do to become? SK: Thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s an interesting question. You know, from a very young age, I experienced and thus abhored injustice against women and children, especially girls. So, in my little head, I promised myself that I was going to go to school and make sure that I make my own money, help my mother and sisters and also enter a profession which would enable me to help poor women, children and communities. This was my basic vision and fervent desire. Beyond that, I did not have a concrete plan. However, in retrospect, I say that, throughout my life, God has pointed me in the DIRECTION of my heartâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s desire for human rights, justice, peace, health, prosperity and happiness.

For example, many of my generation and I were educated by the government of Tanzania through bursaries for secondary and tertiary institutions, because our parents could NOT afford the fees. We all went to universities and when we came back from whichever country of our varsity education, we worked for government or government parastatals for at least 5 years as a way of paying back our government bursaries. This is how God answered my fervent prayer to get a decent education. After working for ten years in the public service – Uhuru, Mzalendo, Nationalist, The Tanganyika Standard Newspapers as well as for the Tanzania Food & Nutrition Centre (TFNC) – I was seconded to the UNICEF by my Government for two years, which ended up with me working with the United Nations for a whole 31 years, until my retirement. That has been by divine provision. And now, I have committed the balance of my life to grooming Africa’s Leaders on How to Discover and Unleash the Greatness Within Them. This is my contribution to authentic self empowerment, which will stand individuals communities in good stead, as they DISCOVER how to embrace life with self confidence, eslf esteem, self mastery and magnanimity: Mind Body Spirit. AM: Was National Service a condition of bursary? SK: Yes, it was a way of giving back and we also trained as an integral part of a National Paramilitary Service for community security for a period of 18 months while we were assigned to different parts of the country. We truly got to know the country and feel that we were Tanzanians regardless of tribe, religion or whatever belief. We also learned discipline because part of national service was military training.

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AM: Military training for women? SK: Yes Ma’am. Tanzania’s Ujamaa Policy granted women access to all spheres of the world of work, including the Army and the Police. It was good, especially after you finish university and you think that you are better than other people and then the first place the goernment assigns you is in a village where there is neither electricity nor running water. By the time you are deployed to serve, you really serve the nation with enthusiasm and gratitude. You find that people of my generation all returned to Tanzania/home to build the Nation, regardless of where we had been deployed for tertiary education. Likewise, after serving one’s term of National Service with the Jeshi la Kujenga Taifa, one was assigned by the Central Establishment/Civil Service Commission to where your professional services were needed. This is how in 1977, when the UN General Assembly declared 1979 as The International Year of the Child -- and every country was mandated to establish a national commission for children which would include all stakeholders including UNICEF – I was assigned by the government to serve as National Executive Secretary or Public Relations Executive Officer. Prior to that, I had been working as a Development Journalist in the Print Media and Radio. I also was a Print Media Columnist in charge of the Society/Women’s Page in the Sundays News/Tanganyka Standard Newspapers Ltd. At the time, I didn’t really want to work with the United Nations – UNICEF to begin with – because I snobbishly considered them to be “agents of imperialism”. However, I soon learned that where as those views may hold true even to this day -- because the UN is the only legitimate global platform for Nations big and small -- it was best for me to learn to play big league soccer that to be left sulking on the sidelines. In particular, I enjoyed the fact that whereas talk was cheap – and Journalists could write whatever they wanted – with UNICEF, I could write about the plight of children and women, raise funds from different governments and build health clinics, primary schools, procure essential drugs to cure people and books for children to read, find and provide clean water to communities and thus make a real difference! This is how I got hooked and remained with the UN for the balance of my public career!

AM: How did you find your time as a journalist? SK: I served as a Journalist and a Columnist about a decade. I rose to the rank of Secretary General of the Tanzania Journalists Association. It was the most educational time, but tough time as well. Although the Policy of Ujamaa granted women the right to choose their professions, Journalism was NOT considered an honourable career for women! It was in the 70s. Our culture demanded that women should be seen and NOT heard. For women to air their views in public was considered vulgar. Radio was considered better because you were not seen. So, there were more female Radio Journalists in my time than in print media. Lucky for me, my late husband, Sylvan Joachim Kimaryo, was very supportive of me. We had met at the University where he was studying Mechanical Engineering, later specialising in hydro and thermal electicity generation and distribution. So, whenever his family and friends would ask him why he did not “control” me, he would simply laugh and say: “because I know her from College!” AM: So he needed to have a strong mind? SK: He was a Self Confiedent Natural Scientist who did not feel threatened by other professionals, especiall Scoial Scientists! However, in the end I realized that I also needed to be very supportive of him. Men/Husbands who support working women are looked down upon by society, which is a significant disincentive for men. The turning point was when I heard my late father in law say to his son/my husband, after the old man had eaten and had one too many: “I am so happy I was born when men were real men. You and your wife are workers and you cannot even look after 2 children. My wife and I have 8 kids and I provided for her and the children. If you were man enoguh, your wife would stay at home and have more kids while you look after them.” Much as his son explained that we met at University and so I had a right to work, his old man didn’t buy it! It is then that I realised that there cannot be equality for women without the creation of a society that values boys and girls, mena and women equally.

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A: What has been life’s greatest lesson for you? SK: I re-tyered from the UN at age 60, therebyclaiming my freedom to Be and serve humanity in my own personal capacity as a global citizen. During my 31 years of service with the UN, I observed that throughout our lives, we have been groomed to be COMPLIANT AND NOT CREATIVE public and corporate servants, with emphasis on servant. In our upbringing – through education, religion, and church – the majority of us were brought up to fear authority and punishment by God. The employment system does not reward creativity but conformity. We learn to be people pleasers: good boy, good girl! We even learn to self-sensor. Few leaders/employees have the moral courage or the emotional fortitude to do the right thing rather than the politically correct thing. However, such pressure and behaviour do not sit well with the subconscious, the spirit within us. Over time people start to drink, get into substance abuse, drugs, and promiscuity becomes part of the game. Over time, employees and their leaders become discouraged, demoralised, stressed out, depressed, not least because people who use you do not respect you and you know it. Upon reflection on the lessons I was learning through the school of hard knocks called “work place”, I figured that there MUST be a way through which one can live and serve as a principle-centred leader and LIVE to tell the tale!!! So, I promised God that if He let me live to be 60 and walk out UN on my feet and not as a basket case due to the stresses and strains of working in a global platform of a myriad of vested interests, I would invest my UN Pension and the balance of my life to find and share the knowledge, skills and tools on How to Discove and Manifest the Greatness Within You and I. That is how come I enrolled into the Deepak Chopra Wellness Centre University in San Diego, California, to study Mind Body Energy Medicine. Upon my return to Africa, I established and registered Maadili Conscious Leadership & Healthy Ligestyles Coaching Services – check out www. maadili.net/ -- including the Testimonials Section -- and be inspired. “My People Perish for Lack of Knowledge!” If I knew then what I know now! I feel God has been grooming me for the role of a female Moses ……. At least for my children and grand children. We live in a global playing field for which many of us had little or no preparation, little knowledge on the art and science of living a happy, prosperous life!!!!

A: You are a female Moses? SK: Yes, I am a female Moses. My African Dream is for a Self-Confident, SelfMotivated, Inter-dependent, Just, Happy and Prosperous People at Peace with themselves and with each other. Self-Knowledge is KEY! And I am a true Daughter of Africa, who is in a hurry to share the knowledge, skills and tools on the art and science of living in this complex, rich and beautiful Continent of ours. Moses spent his first 40 years being groomed to be the Pharao of Egypt, his next 40 years in the desert being groomed to be a humble leader by herding sheep. Then at age 80, God gave him another 40 years and called him/Moses to lead his people out of Egypt. I figure I have done my first 60 years of on-the-job ftraining…. Now, it is time to invest my next 60 years giving back to my people..… AM: How far are you with your 60 years? SK: Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! I am 66 now and I am looking forward to my next 54…… Well, I am counting on God granting me longevity to serve His people. With God, everything is possible. In ancient times, people lived to be 900 plus. So, it is possible, right? Right! A: Oh really? You look awesome at 66! SK: Thank you for the compliment. AM: AM is about people who write and read books and I am listening to you and wondering where you fall in this spectrum…. SK: I read Sisi…..First of all I started as a Journalist and a writer by nature. I have co-authored a book titled Turning a Crisis Into an Opportunity: Strategies for Scaling Up the National Response to HIV and AIDS in Lesotho. It was sold on www.amazon.com for a while but now it is out of print. However, an electronic version is available on the Internet. I have also finished writing a book titled Investment in Workplace Wellness Is Good Business. I am also working on an auto-biographical account – may be satire – about international development cooperation platform. So, watch this space…..

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AM: Have you published anything else? SK: You see now…what I learned to do as a journalist is that you either publish or perish! Every country I have gone to whatever work I did we published it. I also made sure that in every country I went to I prayed to God that I left some legacy. For instance in Tanzania, we managed to persuade the Rotarians to pay for the translation and published in Swahili and publication and distribution of a book called ‘Where there is a doctor’ because everywhere I went there were no doctors….. there were nurses who worked like doctor and I thought they needed something. That book was launched nationally in 11/12/1979 in Tanzania by President Nyerere. A: What is the translation of where there is no doctor in Swahili? SK: Translation is: Mahali Pasipo na Daktari - that it the translation. Its publication and distribution throughout Tanzania was sponsored by Rotarians Tanzania. Then I worked as Programme Officer and for a while was assigned to the National Food and Nutrition Centre and the Head of the Publications Department which I had to start from scratch. We started a number of journals and publications one of them being the Tanzanian Food and Nutrition Journal. I then I went to Botswana and worked on issues and the one issue I identified in Botswana was that Botswana was always praised for having the best national food security whenever I went to the field there was hungry and malnutrition so I actually wrote a theses because that issue was sore in me, the issue of Hidden Hunger – the difference between national food security and household food security. The nation may have a lot of food but they are a number of reasons why people cannot have access to it. So I went back to school in 1990 – The London School of Economics and Political Science and actually applied my mind as to why was Botswana’s food insecure. So I wrote a book, my theses of The Hidden Hunger: The case of Botswana which was really looking at national versus household food security. In Liberia, we worked during the war time under sanctions there was nothing there were many issues. Firstly I looked for money to immunize all the children regardless of whether they were under the government or rebel territory and wrote the national program for Liberia children and it’s published. In SA, there is number of publications one of them is a reflective book…..one of them during UNICEF is are children people in their own right or recipient of welfare or how seriously do we understand the importance of childhood. The book is there.

There most interesting book which I co-authored and edited with 3 others is a book on HIV/Aids in Lesotho called Turning a Crisis in an Opportunity: strategies for dealing with the national HIV/Aids crisis in Lesotho it was published and available in hard and soft cover and online. Last year I wrote a book called Investment in Wellness is the right thing to do. It came back from publish and edit and I want to change it because it reads too much like a textbook. I want a human interest story. I want to write a book which includes those stories but personal. The 2 titles I have in my mind is called Born Again and people will think it’s a Christian thing but I like to let people look at being born again as holistic transformation – mind, body and spirit. Maadili is Swahali for ethics, values and principles. Maadili signature leadership program is called “How to discover and unleash the greatness in you”. It’s a 5 module program which can be done in 2 days actually so over the weekend, which gives people knowledge skills tools for discovering who you are really. How did God make you and what are your God given strength and how do you know them helps people discover your God given strength – how do you know them? After 5 days you will be your own analysts and your therapist, 24/7/ And then you will also know by just filling out the mind, body type questionnaire from page 2 – 5 you will know what mind body issues you have to deal with at the moment and the other sessions teach you….regardless of who you are you have can determine the ability to be yourself and with others is a reflection of how you deal with the inside. I am a person who eats knowledge I have been reading all my life. I was the first girl to go to school in my village. I started with except MacMillan which used to sell books I started with British….I will go and look for a book – how have working women dealt with issues. I read and went back to school in 1980 and finished my first degree in 1971 and went back to London School to do my Masters and in 2010 I went to Choptra University and as an instructor and went to take Mind Body Spirit lectures. Currently I am still reading. I spend a lot of time reading and when people are crying about a traffic jam I have audio books; I take my iPod and take my books and listen.

A: What kind of books did you come across as you travelled around the world? SK: There is no uniformity. It’s true that if you want to hide something from an African man you put in a book and in writing. A lot of that is true but not only for African. I find that the reason why that is that case is that we have an oral culture and we so we tell stories good that we also believe our lies. In other cultures that had reading and writing for a long time, people read to their children. My mother read to us. Her father was a first teacher in our village and read holy scriptures to us remember being a small child and look at a book and look at mouth and eyes and said O also want that and developed a hunger for reading and knowledge. It is not difficult to understand why so many Africans are really good at oral cultures but they don’t read. I have also found countries with many amazing numbers of intellectuals who carry out many meaningful and progressive debates. Nigeria comes to mind. Yet I cannot understand why it has for so long being led by soldiers many of whom have not been educated. Nigeria has the highest number of progressive intellectuals. Kenya comes to mind. Ghana as well. When you go to French speaking countries – Mali, Senegal, Ivory Coast, Gambia, Sierra Leon, there are so many intellectuals but now if you take a census right now, the majority of the brain power of Africa is overseas and holding very key positions even in NASA and Space Research because of many reasons that we won’t go into now. Apart from very wealthy in minerals and agriculture our greatest wealth is the brain power. A: Do we have write books and publish and pass on? SK: No we just have to be critical thinkers – the greatest challenge for the world and more for Africa because we have an oral cultures through TV, Internet and all social media – Africa has been the fastest consumer of mobile telephony; again we are consuming knowledge, culture and political beliefs without having the necessarily foundation for critical analysis and therefore for choosing. I go back to Tanzania for Christmas and look at the youth and I get surprised at what clothes they are wearing – Am I in America or in Tanzania the way they are dressed. Idolatry is a sin. Why is a human being an idol? Who are we idolizing? People in the public media? Are they the moral leaders? The challenge is how to raise kids because they know so much stuff that they cannot deal with and don’t have an opportunity to become children. They start experimenting….children at 10 years going to drug rehab centres and having children. So the info super highway has overridden the authority of teachers and parents. Drug and substance abuse has become part of the popular culture. 31

It’s time for a reassessment I am happy that the AU is talking again about African Renaissances so that by 2013 Africa will have prosperity and peace and people who are self-confident and self-reliant and prosperous at peace with themselves and others. Its time! A: What are you currently writing that will released soon? SK: It is that book…..the book which I also want to write and have a title for it because The Born Again is for everyone, male or female…. but I want to write the book about me as a woman, an African and female leader, who spend so many years working with the UN and the title of the book, the theme is: Who does she think she is? A: Wow! Brilliant Mme Kimaryo….Thank you very much it has been beautiful 1 hour of chatting. We should end on that note: Who does she think she is? I truly believe that South Africa, Africa and the world will benefit from reading more, for example, it’s just the two of us seating here but reading will help so many people who will never have an opportunity to sit next to thought leaders like you. They will benefit from reading and learning more from your past 65 years and in the next 60 years of you. That’s the power of books. I wish you the very best Ma with your next 60 years! I have been blessed. SK: All the best to you and congratulations to you for launching this important means of educating, informing and motivating our people!

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He has a zest for life. One can sense it from his charisma. He moves with zeal as he takes a sit in his elegant black leather and steel-trimmed office chair at his Johannesburg suburban home. He smiles, leans slightly against the wall and postures himself before voicing his desire to see vigorous social cohesion amid the African citizens once again. He has a calm personality but Mzwakhe Mbuli, affectionately known as ‘The People’s Poet’, is a true liberation fighter. He doesn’t mince his words when he advocates for the restoration of human dignity and peace among fellow Africans. He emphasises that “An African can never be a foreigner in Africa”. His latest compilation “Africa for Africans”, a six-minute song which features at least 40 artists across the continent, has received overwhelming support locally and abroad. It was a logistic challenge that he managed swiftly with the support of his industry colleagues such as Don Laka among others, within a short space of time. It was during the same weekend in which the South African Music Awards (SAMA) ceremony was taking place at the Sun City Superbowl. The lyrics of the song basically condemn human injustices and promotes unity.

The People’s Poet reminds the people of Africa about self–love “An African can never be a foreigner in Africa” – Mzwakhe Mbuli

Mzwakhe Mbuli 34

Spitting on the graves … The song was compiled in the wake of the recent brutal attacks on some of the foreign nationals living in South Africa. An act which he denounces as barbaric and ignorant of the role that liberators has played to free South Africans from racial oppression. “The people who were carrying out xenophobic attacks were spitting on the grave of Nelson Mandela, spitting on the grave of Julius Nyerere, spitting on the grave on Samora Mashele, spitting on the grave of Robert Sobukwe”. He equates hating fellow Africans to self-hate. In his latest album entitled Tribute to Mandela, he performs a poetic song entitled Afrophobia in which he cautions Africans of what he terms “selective morality” and “selective love”. He questions how can people love and adore African icons and celebrities yet hate citizens of those countries? He hails freedom fighters such as Kwame Nkruma and sports personality, Maria Mutola alongside many other African well known personalities. Coincidentally, the album was release at least three months before the break of xenophobic violence, a situation which he describes as “prophetic”. For a moment, he glances at the portrait of Nelson Mandela mounted on the wall across the room and poses a provocative question: “Nelson Mandela’s wife Mme Graca, is from Mozambique, where do we draw the line? He further reiterates that the national soccer league in South Africa, it is by law that the teams have at least four foreign nationals. So this means we have at least 160 players within the PSL league which are foreign nationals. Ms Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma is the chairperson of the Africa Union. “These show that we are part of what is happening in the continent”, he adds. The attack on fellow Africans pushed a panic button and sparked fury throughout the continent which brought dire consequences for local artists such as Ringo Madlingozi who called off his trip to perform in neighbouring Zimbabwe. However, the courageous People’s Poet travelled to Namibia to receive the “Artist of the Month” award in the midst of the xenophobic chaos at home. I had to convey the message on behalf of South African artists that that we distance ourselves from such acts. Not in our name”, he adds. He believes that music has a great impact on society. “Musicians have a strong voice, we speak louder that the politicians”, he said. He further welcomed government decision to ensure that the African Union will be sung at all soccer games and in schools.

Mzwakhe is no stranger to controversy in his music career. His first album entitled “Change Is Pain” was banned by the apartheid Transvaal Publication Board due to one song. “They singled out a was a song titled Joseph Chintsongo which was about a Mozambican man who lived in South Africa for 27 years and then the South African chased him away. “They banned the entire album because of that one song”, he sighs. In the album worked with then Kenyan Guitarist, indicating a close relationship that exists between African artists. Collaborations such as Into Yam’ by Ringo Madlingozi and Oliver Mtukuzi , recent performance by Salif Keita in Durban, big events such as Arts Alive and Macufe is an indication of unity amongst African artists and should be celebrated. “Africa Day should be celebrated throughout the year, it should not be celebrated only for one day in May. The love of the African people, the cultural diversity should be celebrated daily”, he said. The Africa for Africans collaboration song was scheduled to perform at the Gallagher Estates where the Pan African Parliament was held. Mzwakhe’s message for this year’s Pan African Parliament, which was held on Africa Day celebrations was centred around unity and self-love. “What is good is that we all took a stand to say ‘not in our name’, so we must isolate those is behind these attacks”, he adds. Mzwakhe points out the horrible incidents that have tarnished the image of Africa, by terrorist extremists such as the Boko Haram and Al Shabaab. “For me there is no better way to condemn the cruellest acts of human butchery of killing students at Garissa University in Kenya and attacking people while shopping at the Westgate mall. The kidnapping of the girls that came back with some of them impregnated by these soldiers”. He points out that even if rape was being used as a weapon during wars, it was still wrong. Mbuli welcomes the intention of the UN do “declassify” rape as a weapon during conflict. He also feels that it is unfortunate that we have wars based on religion, considering that colonise countries follows the religion of their past oppressors.

Mzwakhe is irritated that Africans have become ‘carbon copies’ of European cultures, a stance that have been normalised and often joked about. “We are right in the middle of Soshanguve and Mamelodi, but when we order food we call them ‘Greek salad’ and we refer to ama-chips as ‘French fries’.He points out that most parents today are fascinated that when their children speak English fluently, yet do not understand African languages. He emphasises that we need to be mindful that English fluency is not equivalent to intelligence. “Every language is part of human culture. We must be proud of our seSotho, isiZulu and our other languages”.

Mzwakhe believes society should condemn the warlords that are hell-bent on making sure that they perpetuate misery on our people such as the famine situation in Sudan. “I don’t believe God’s mathematics was wrong….that in the world there were going to be too many stomachs and less food, less gold, less mineral resources. It is human greed that actually caused famine, hunger and colonialism”, he said.

When he is not composing music and writing poetry, Mzwakhe encourages the youth not take advantage or underestimate the liberation that they have through motivational talks at tertiary institutions and churches around the country. He also speaks strongly against substance abuse. “They should be mindful of heroes such as Hector Peterson, Mitah Sathekge and Emma Ngobeni had to die so that the youth should live a better life today. They should not boast about ‘nyaope’, woonga and other harmful drugs”. He believes that ‘lost kids’ should be supported and steered towards the same direction as those who excel at school. “Most people who occupy influential positions in society had a role to mould the youth. It takes a village to groom a child”.

Mzwakhe commend the government for considering to reinstate religion at schools. He is shocked at the rate at which violent crimes has infiltrated schools, something that was unheard of. He highlights the level at which nudity has intruded the society, a point which was raised by young man during a community discussion forum in the West Rand recently. He indicates that youths blamed the media for bombarding them with nude “Page3” pictures, positioning women as sex subjects.

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Mzwakhe is playing a vital role in honouring the unsung heroes, mostly artists, of the liberation struggle through Siyabakhumbula Awards. He founded the awards over five years ago and has received support from the government and the SABC. The Minister of Arts and Culture, Mr Nathi Mthethwa was quoted saying, “These are the men and women who have provided hope and inspiration to our people. Every individual who has been recognised has made a unique contribution to the redefinition of the South African narrative”. Mzwakhe received a letter from Nelson Mandela when he was still imprisoned prior to 1994. “There are people who would have loved to shake hands with Mandela”. If you got recognised by Mandela, it means there is something that I am doing right. What more inspiration would I want?” he says he blushes. Mzwakhe has performed at numerous times at states’ functions, including the Presidential Inaugurations at the Union Building. He has played a significant role in government He also participated significantly during Madiba’s memorials and ultimately at the funeral. Even during his busy schedule, Mzwakhe still makes time to support young and upcoming artists. He has discovered the popular group “The Soil”. However, he believes that awards are a better way to expose upcoming artists. His choice of the Bob Marley’s “One love” song as his callers’ mobile phone ringing tone is a true reflection of his mission to promote love and unity amongst Africans. He stands up, immaculately dressed in black and white colours, leads the way to the exit. Outside his white house, is the manicured lawn and neat paving. He takes a selfie with a star-truck reporter before he disappears behind the shiny metal gates of his home.