Happy 44th Birthday Botswana

Sudan365: Drum for Peace

fisttap Bombastic Elements

"This global drum beat sends a warning cry. We are at the eleventh hour. Preparations for the referendum are woefully behind schedule and the risk of conflict is increasing. It is time for those governments who promised to help implement the peace agreement to develop a package of pressure and incentives to persuade the Sudanese parties to broker peace and not war,”

Dr AlBakir Mukhtar Alafif, Sudanese activist

BigUps to Diversity (UK) for being in this video.

Diva Fierce!

pic jacked from AFP/Gawker

fisttap Bombastic Elements for post title and pic

Move over Lady O (USA), Chantel Biya's (Cameroon) the fiercest of the First Ladies at the UN General Assembly. 

iAbsolutely love her hair, that furious red is so outrageous and bold, y'gotsta love it! 

Forget the sniggering NYTimes et al sniggering, it's a good look - if Rhianna or Bey did this, even a model on a catwalk in Milan, NYC or London, wouldn't the paps be snapping them up for the fashion pages and wigmakers naming weaves after the look? Admittedly, sometimes Chantel Biya gets it oh-so-wrong with the outfits, but who doesn't? Even Mrs O, SamCam, Sarah Brown and Carla Bruni have off-ish days. 

Props to Chantel Biya for the attention-seeker that she is, to be so fashion forward and fashion furious to break with the conformity and demureness of international diplomacy. Consigning her to the pile of gaudy African dictator's wives is an erroneous kneejerk reaction that's made far too easily, anyone with an eye for fashion should be able to see this hair as iconic. Yes, iconic! There couldn't be a more fitting, cliché word to use.

BTW Checkout this uber cool blog http://chantalbiyahair.tumblr.com/page/1, for pictures of Mme Biya's hair.

The Truth That Is Courtenay Griffiths

"There are no fewer than five African leaders awaiting trial at the International Criminal Court.... How is it possible that in 2010 we have a situation where every indicted individual at the International Criminal Court is African and every investigation is, guess where, Africa?....Look, I am not suggesting that African leaders should not be on trial, but I do think that everyone has to be equal before international law....Why is it that the Tony Blairs and the George W Bushes of the world are not being investigated for conducting an illegal war? I am a defence lawyer, but if Blair came to The Hague, I would definitely have to switch sides and do some prosecuting."

Courtney Griffiths, Charles Taylor's defence lawyer 

speaking on the possibility of defending Robert Mugabe 

if the opportunity ever arose.

China: The New Colonials

fisttap Seeps

This is a short documentary on the tensions between Chinese immigrants and the locals in Dakar, Senegal, from Al-Jazeera. It's worth reading the commentary below as well: 

link: http://english.aljazeera.net/programmes/witness/2010/09/20109784210335575.html

Response: This programme explores the social friction between the local people and the newly-arrived economic migrants who in my opinion represent the new colonialists - as much as they may bring economic and infrastructural development to Senegal and Africa as a whole, the attitudes towards Africans reflected in this film make me dislike Chinese presence. Yea, I do agree to some extent with Deborah Brautigam's (sorry I can't link Google, The Dragon's Gift) position on the benefits of China-Africa relations, but the Chinese are hustlers and Africans are the hustled. I've read a lot on what China has done in the Congo, Zambia and Tanzania and across the boards it's the same story: the Chinese are exploiters who don't want to integrate, flood the markets with cheap goods and they think poorly of Africans - some 'em even racist like the guy and his friends in the film. Yea I'm generalising but that's not my aim here, it's more to pose a question. Given that the Chinese are the new colonials, how are Africans going to turn around this situation to make it a win-win? If trade with the West means a two-faced exchange, like engaging in agricultural trade but getting ripped off in unfair trade tariffs and being handed aid policies like children and trade with the East means having development but also being a dumping ground for cheap goods killing local production; how do Africans change this up to become meaningful players in the global economy? It's pissing off that people continually come and benefit from us and we're still impoverished, it's pissing off that people can think so poorly of us they can dump poison in our backyards and sell us reject good, but the mother of it all is that our own leaders are so friggin' shortsighted they only see opportunities for instant personal wealth  that they will pimp themselves and the nation out to whoever's willing to pay upfront. It's rubbish really, just rubbish that the Chinese can come a set-up shop in Dakar and trash-talk Africans all they like, no different to White colonials that African nationalists fought a few decades ago. What was it all for? Fanon, Biko, Cabral and Che, what for?

Whenever I see things like this, Bob Marley's Pimper's Paradise is the tune that best describes present-day Africa.

postcard from mumbai...

Mumbai, India: A boy practices Mallakhamb, a combination of traditional Indian gymnastics and martial arts.Photograph: Danish Siddiqui/Reuters

Ultimate Walk for Humanity

pic by Yasser Booley

by Kim Winter
Miyere ole Miyandazi was born in Nakuru, Kenya. He is a Maasai Warrior and social activist. His journey, uniting fellow activists, artists and friends is called the Maasai Mission and the Ultimate Walk for Humanity. Miyere left Kenya in 2004 travelling by foot to Cape Town and is currently planning on walking back up to Cairo.

Mahala: Miyere, you said you have been working on the Ultimate Walk for Humanity this weekend – Are you busy raising money at the moment?
Miyere: It is not really about money or extending a hand or bowl of begging. It’s about awareness. Money has never done anything for the continent, for the people. It changed nothing. Consciousness needs to change because this is where we see a lot of corruption.
So, is the Ultimate Walk for Humanity purely based on raising awareness?
We aren’t rehearsing our life’s journey. But have we been walking it consciously? And what will be the result? Consciousness is waking up. All around the world. How do we harness that, how do we become partners?
The resentment in our souls makes us fear each other but the time has come now for the Ultimate Walk. Look around, look at the recession, we know for sure these thing are not new, they divide people.
Ok, lets go to the beginning Miyere, how did you come to be in South Africa?
When I talk about the Ultimate Walk and the Maasai Mission, and breaking down the boundaries that divide us, those imposed barriers, it includes names. I don’t believe there is a country called South Africa. I really don’t.
How can we break down barriers based on prejudice? These boundaries were made by people making these decisions without thinking about the impact. And that is why we see what is happening on the continent today. So me coming down here was really to learn but also about inviting the world to see how we are being subjected to abuses that are not being exposed.
Cape Town was my first stop. This was the first phase of the mission – get as many contacts as possible, co-operate with other activists and be where parliament is. The main reason was to highlight the plight of the minority people from East Africa and especially the Maasai people…
You said that building connections was the first phase, so what’s the next phase of your mission?
To expose the fact that minorities are not being allowed to lead their own unique journeys.
Which different minority groups have you worked with here in South Africa?
We have worked with the Bushmen in the Kalahari and formed a lot of different forums within communities. Here in Durban we’ve been working with the Zulu people over land issues.
I’ve been working with street children, who are really a minority. Using the Maasai vision to honour these children and give them a chance to regain their dignity.
NGOs mostly rely on foreign support which is not sustainable once that foreign support pulls out. This goes back to the beginning about money. The first way to solve a problem in a community is to look at the community itself. We have a long way to go.
So, it is an issue of empowering people to empower themselves?
Yes, but the thing is we are already empowered. We have each other. We have land, water, air, and we can make fire. We have these elements of life. But it’s about land. That freedom to move as your ancestors did.
We need to liberate people into understanding the value of what they already have. It is sad to see African people selling their land and going to work in Europe because they can make money. I can’t understand this. You are leaving your land which is a part of you. Going somewhere you can’t even own land or grow your own things. Where you have to depend on supermarkets.
I trace back troubles we see today to the partitioning of the continent. If we continue to invest in these borders that we cannot define, it’s blood.
What is your vision for the Ultimate Walk for Humanity?
We are walking from the Cape to Cairo. Saying that Africa is home to everyone. With this journey I’m hoping the world will come back home and get ancestral blessings! We are not finding each other, just seeing reasons to fight. Manufacturing arms everyday. Making fences and separating each other.
The Ultimate Walk for Humanity really asks people – what is your Ultimate Walk?
Your fingerprint in this world is the only one. Where does it fit into this puzzle called life? What we have been doing is competing, living in a world of competition – but why? Why have we been competing, for what?
The Ultimate Walk for Humanity links people all over the continent and all over the world that have never been exposed, never even been heard – but they are there.
The route will be informed by finding support for these institutions that are special. Ones that take in children with disabilities. Clinics in the Congo, villages where women and children are raped – just to bring this out and see what the world thinks about it. We will come back home and see.
You are asking people to look at themselves, and ask questions about their place in the world?
Yes, their purpose in life, their responsibility. Stop being led by ego. Stop living in fear. Fear is the worst thing. Fear is one of the biggest obstacles facing this country.
Not only this country but all over the world. Look at the World Cup and the amount of people that really were surprised and thought “Wow, this is Africa!”
This is an opportunity for us to give the world a positive outlook on the continent, on its people and our intentions.

Miyere, when you speak about the Ultimate Walk for Humanity, you say “we are going to …” – who is this “we”?
“We” is my society, my community, culture, and myself – I know I represent millions and millions of people. I represent my ancestors. My fingers are my great, great grandfather’s. My eyes are my mother’s. It is not only me.
“We” to me is the walking together, knowing that we come from the same root. When we talk about the African continent and humanity, we come from the same root. We are all human beings. That’s the world walking together.
How long is the journey going to take?
People always ask that and we always tell them humanity plans and when it doesn’t happen we get disappointed and angry. So our destination is about breaking down barriers and borders – about self-defined peace!
When I can move without carrying what has been imposed on me, then I will be at peace. I think the Ultimate Walk for Humanity, its destination, is when we are able to see each other as people. See each other as people and walk together knowing that the future depends on us.
As Mandela once said – “It’s all in or hands!”
And he’s been through it all. He might have done some things that I don’t agree with but he has taught us. That man really put across that it is in our hands, and what are we doing with it?
Are we just going to celebrate him and not take his journey seriously? That would be betraying him – as we have so many other people who stood for liberation. We have betrayed them in many ways. We can’t continue preaching the person without living what they asked us to do. Gandhi said “be the change that you want to see in the world”.

jacked from: http://www.mahala.co.za/reality/ultimate-walk/#more-10992

Interview by Kim Winter & all images © Yasser Booley.

Qaphela Caeser:

a multi-disciplinary adaptation of William Shakespeare's Julius Caesar set in present-day South Africa by theatre-maker Jay Pather. Based in a world of power struggles and politics, Shakespeare's classic text about honour, patriotism and friendship has been reworked by Pather to examine corruption and political power from a modern African perspective. 

At Cape Town City Hall this weekend.

pic n blurb jacked from Mail and Guardian SA

RIP Lews Nkosi

pic jacked from BooksZA

I had the honour of being taught by Professor Lewis Nkosi, one of the Drum generation writers in SA, and I was very saddened to learn of his passing. He was one of the coolest, funniest and sharpest lecturers in African Studies, coming to his class was such a relief after being tortured with contemporary literary theory. You could laugh out loud in his class and engage in thought-provoking discussions with this koolkat - that's what he was a very wise, engaging smooth cat rather than stodgy academic - you know them types.

Lewis Nkosi, you will be missed.  

This is from Books SA:

The giant of South African letters and one of the last remaining voices from South Africa’s famed Drum generation of writers, passed away yesterday in Johannesburg, after a long illness. He was born in December 1936 in KwaZulu Natal, making him 74.

Nkosi’s first novel, which won worldwide acclaim, was Mating Birds. It was banned by the apartheid government; Nkosi lived for long periods in exile, particularly in Switzerland. His last novel, which I [Ben Williams] had the privilege of editing, was Mandela’s Ego. It was shortlised for the Sunday Times Fiction Prize.

His publisher, Annari van der Merwe said:

“If I think about Lewis, two things come to mind: the brilliance of the man’s mind, and his sense of irony – of self-irony. And of course he was quite naughty, but endearingly so. For all his bravado, he was sensitive in a way that few men truly are. There was a real empathy with people – and he had a very broad perspective, from having lived in a different cultural environment for so many years. The devil inside him prevented him from taking things too literally. It’s difficult to think of somebody so vibrant not with us any longer. He will be greatly missed.”

Chuuurch!

If you're black, have some damn pride in 2010. Stop saying things like,
"I just knew that business wasn't gonna last when I heard Pasipanodya took over. Ah, typical of us mabhoyi."[blacks]

Stop
that shit, people!

When Hitler slaughtered the Jews in Germany,
did you hear white people walking around declaring,
"I just knew one of us motherfuckers was gon' do some shit like that.
Typical of us Caucasians, we're fucking racists, man."?

 Words by Zakeo Zakeos  of

The Silent Musings of A Mad Zim Executive

Words of ZakeoAAAWords W

Stop Badmouthing Your Country to Foreigners:

When is the last time you heard a Brit say: "You know, England is headed nowhere. What a shit country this is, if I had the money I would move to Uzbekistan coz this country is going down the toilet"?

Are you tired of Americans abroad saying:
" I'll never go back to the States, dude, hell naw. I mean, what for, there's a recession, executives are stealing money, fuck that, I'm gon' stay right here in Abuja."

Please, stop being an ass about your country.Yes, we have problems, but if all the brains that could help solve our problems stay away until "things get better", how will they ever get better?

Let's bitch to each other, but not to outsiders. And let's bitch with a view to improving things. Coz no matter how much your punk-ass settles in wherever you are or how realistic your accent sounds, you will always  be just that. A punk-ass foreigner, yeah?

Words by Zakeo Zakeos of The Silent Musings of A Mad Zim Executive

postcard from the maasai mara...

jacked from the beautiful www.stoodinthemasaaimara.com,

subject to copyright, iHope it's cool iStole a pic.

Wanna Start A Riot? Bread's The Thing, Bread Always Does It

Scenes from the recent two-day bread riots in Maputo, Mozambique which ended this morning. Following a 30% hike in bread prices people took the streets in protest, blocked the roads and looted shops. At present it is unknown who organised the riots, through mass texts and emails encouraging people to riot. Above are some scenes from the riots:

1.  A young demonstrator helps to setup a fire barricade to block out the police.

2. A demonstrator throwing a tyre onto the fire barricade.

3. Calm restored in Maputo, today and people are queueing for food, however, there are still reports of violence in the outlying areas of Benfica and Hulene.

4. Police patrolling the city.

New Bread Price: US $0.20

Average Lowest Salary / Month: US $37

Body Count: 10

Injured: 288

Acts of Unjust Violence by the State: Countless

(police ran out of rubber bullets and started using live rounds,

thus killed 10 people, among them a 12 year old boy...SMH)

All pictures from BBC Africa, Reuters.

Freshlyground: Mugs too Chicken to Change?

ZOLANI on CHICKEN TO CHANGE' MUSIC VIDEO from ZANEWS on Vimeo.

In collaboration with the cartoonist, Zapiro, Freshlyground, one of CapeTown's feel-good funk bands released yesterday, 'Chicken to Change?', a cheeky song challenging President Mugabe to give up power. (If you think you don't know Freshlyground, think Shakira. They were the South African group found purely by chance to sing backing vocals on Waka Waka).

On the one hand I'm thoroughly amused by the thought of George Charamba, Mugabe's pressman foaming at the mouth and threatening any broadcaster who dares play the song in Zimbabwe with imprisonment under POSA (Public Order and Security Act: a draconian censorship law maintained from the colonial days (so much for African nationalism, huh)), and he's prob'ly on the phone to Bra Juju Malema trying to get Freshlyground, 'the bloody agents!', arrested under the proposed censorship laws in S.A - that the legislation's not yet been passed is besides the point, OTOH there are two things I'm uncomfortable with/dislike: a. that it's cute and rather simplistically positions Mugabe as 'the problem' when the situation's more complex than that and if Freshlyground are going to invoke 1980 in their video then, the expectation of a little more is warranted - no? Or maybe not, perhaps I'm r--e--e--e--a--a--a-c-h-i-n-g for things, and should just go with my initial reaction which was and still is, it's a really kif song!  ... but there's side b. which is less about the song and more about reception: that this may give more ammo to a particular group of Rhodesians as they call themselves (to be distinguished from White Zimbabweans), these are White settlers 'in exile' still moaning about the good old days before Mugabe became Hitler and how they wish the Blacks had never taken power in the first place. Checkout this picture of Zapiro's Mugabe and imagine what an old Rhodie might think:

jacked from the Zapiro FBook Group.

Sho 'nuff it's a funny caricature and would prob'ly make a great postage stamp, but there's also alot more that could be read into it. Of course artists shouldn't be censored from making art on the basis that it could incite a few nutheads out there, both the die-hard Mugabe loyalists who would see this as disrespectful representation and the Rhodies, who in the context of negative press Mugs has rightly n wrongly recieved, never hesitate to trot out their 'Mugabe the Baboon' images. Obviously I'm not trying to put this on Zapiro or Freshlyground, I'm thinking out loud out, or at least trying to...

...Moving on, if we still have a forceful opposition in Zimbabwe, not the newly come fat cats enjoying the ministerial perks of an inclusive government and not the ones who see the inclusive goverment through rose-tinted spectacles, compliments of Tsvangson Opticians, but the real members of the opposition, doing hard graft in the trenches whose slogan is Chinjai Maitiro (Change Your Ways) they will know how to use this song to invigorate the populace. And if they can't/don't maybe, Mugs will prove he isn't too chicken to change and giveup coz his body's weary.

 Checkout The Grauniad for more info on the video.

Personal Mandelas

Jacked from the kif, Mahala, a piece by Phumlani Pikoli on Bra Juju, (Julius Malema) the New South Africa and the Nelson Mandela myth.

Smuts Ngonyama once infamously, symptomatically said: “I didn’t join the struggle to be poor”. We know all about that now! Shit Julius wasn’t even a part of the Struggle – and he’s definitely not struggling being poor. As erroneous and conceited as that statement is though – I get it. Smuts and many others like him heroically “faced the evils of an oppressive system” put in place long before their parents even made eye contact. They deserve acknowledgement, fuck they deserve way more than that, they should be revered. They suffered their entire lives growing up poor categorized like chattel – then channeled their anger into collective political consciousness – taking on a universally reviled system that threatened death and torture (and way more than you and I can ever imagine). These guys are heroes. They ought to be rich, right? They ought to be rewarded. The real question is how does a liberation movement – full of heroes – become a functioning government – full of selflessly efficient servers of the people? Given the sad historical litany of ones that have tried (and mostly failed) throughout the African continent – it apparently doesn’t.

The ANC and corruption seem to walk hand in hand. No escaping it. Look at our President. Schabir Shaik’s get-out-of-jail-free-card. Thabo and his government at least tried to cover up their shit (that labyrinthine arms deal). uMsholozi's [Zuma] just don’t care anymore. It looks like Bheki Cele, National Commissioner of the SAP [SA Police], just had a reporter arrested for what we still don’t really know. Something to do with Mpumalanga and a forged document. But in the week of his arrest he reported that the Commish acquired a R500 million estate at the expense of tax payers. Money surely better spent on actually training the police. Why are you entitled to such lavish splendour, Herr Commissioner, when you are barely doing your job? Why should you get to go on not doing it in such comfort? Does it make it easier to shoot to kill?

The ANC and “entitlement” make love like two varsity first years. Often, badly and with messy technique. Julius Malema. The genius. Secreting entitlement-sickness into the mind of the already entitled – the new elite. He’s the guy who uses apartheid speech like “eliminate the opposition”. Calling rival parties cockroaches, as of the Rwandan genocide of 1994. He’s also a guy who didn’t play a role in the Liberation Movement. Who isn’t an entitled hero of the Struggle – coasting on past glories he had no hand in. His piddly Youth League presidency is in a Gucci cloud of controversy. Malema’s predecessor handpicked him for the job, the results of the poll were contested so they adjourned the conference and it only resumed once his leadership was “officially accepted”. The integrity of that election, like so many in Africa, is still contested. So much for the democratic process. That’s right. South Africa’s most dangerous village idiot is a plant. He has no formal legitimacy. He was never voted in.


But Black entitlement has a kissing cousin – white guilt. They need each other. They feed on each other like cannibals. White Guilt plays truth or dare, like late blooming teenagers. Truth is admitting guilt (if any – and there ought to be for most white South Africans). Dare is actually doing something about it (actively redressing the wrong in your community and working to alleviate it).

Good DA [Democratic Alliance] supporting, Mandela loving liberals don’t even mind being led by a woman – as long as she’s surrounded by a “harem” of male advisors! Sexist? Who cares as long as she gets people out of the Khayelitsha [township] toilet system. As long as real change happens in people’s everyday lives. Liberals need to act for change now (conditions are just as bad if not worse) and get over feeling frozen about what happened back then. It’s a karma thing. They feel bad, but not bad enough to share their assets. Whatever that would mean. They’re guilty not stupid! White liberals (and really most white people here, now, are in effect “liberals”, purely by accepting the progressive constitutional framework of the country) know what’s going on – but do nothing except feel bad – which makes them feel good.

Lucky for them they’ve been given a sort of get out of jail free card – BEE [Black Economic Empowerment]. It’s a nice way of saying “Well although most of the country’s fucked up we can fix it by giving the already educated a high position in business. That way it looks like we’re rectifying a broken system!” Even Helen [Zille] – voted best mayor in the world – is hot for black leadership.

But BEE isn’t working. Firstly it only caters to a few. “Few” being those already expensively educated. The few – with good contacts – good family backgrounds – with money – who got past Bantu Education, a system designed to educate them into being gardeners and maids. Secondly black executives often do little more than dance metaphorical jigs for their white bosses. While they get paid well – bosses and shareholders reap the real profits. Does the coordinated exploitation of black labour ever stop? Like Chester Williams playing for the Springboks all over again. It’s tokenism without real mass ownership and control.

Guilt is a way of justifying inaction – it excuses the more pressing need to change what is happening right now. Press restrictions, police brutality, rampant corruption. Guilt is useless to the country, it keeps you frozen in place looking back. It’s also one of the “indulgent pleasures” of being a member of the Lucky Sperm Club. The privilege of guilt. White guilt. You better believe poor black communities aren’t guilty. They’re fucking angry.


Not for them regular international travel and holiday homes. They can’t flee. Australia is a notorious refuge for disgruntled whites who’ve swallowed the hype of a failed South Africa.
It doesn’t have to be Australia either. Troops of Afrikaaners are being granted passage back to The Netherlands!

“Okay manne – now that we’ve gotten what we needed there’s nothing left here for us. The natives grow restless – let’s give it back to them. We’ve taken all the good shit anyway.”
Imagine that said in a dik Afrikaans accent to a huge gathering of armed men (armed with Castle beers) in khakis (by Country Road) while women in doeks [headscarves] (by Gavin Rajah) clear out beautiful Cape Dutch homes and load ox-drawn carts (gas-chomping 4X4’s) – making ready for the great trek (a flight to Antwerp) that is to follow. Full circle. History repeated as farce.

Remember Madam and Eve – when it was still funny? Around the first democratic elections. Now that was the new South Africa in action. The dream of a nation tired of slaving for less than minimum wage being given the opportunity to stick it to the Man. Or Madam. Running up a massive telephone bill, sleeping on the ironing board and pissing off the old and alcoholic racist crone. Black people loved spurring Eve on. Whites resented the depiction coming to pass. It’s all funny until somebody has to pay the maid. Or worse, fire her.


White Guilt and Black Entitlement is a dynamic – a double helix at the heart of new South African identity – which lets the truly culpable hide from responsibility. Look at how we go on letting Zuma cover over his mistakes.

Are there things that we really should care about? That we really shouldn’t go on letting anyone get away with? What about: Health care, education, housing – you know, “service delivery”? There is supposed to be a delivery of service right? What gets whole communities out on the streets and in the faces of the police? Legitimate, genuine wants and needs not being met by the State. That’s the root of the problem. The truth behind it all.

 Did the rot set in centuries ago? Was it the Verwoerdian annus mirabilis of 1948? Whatever the roots, that stinging legacy of deprivation is very real for black people. Very much alive and well in this country. It explains a hell of a lot. Both black entitlement and white guilt.
 It’s why our current leadership are so gluttonous – attempting to eat a country’s wealth, a country that, until very recently, systematically treated them like shit. A Charter with a snappy name – Freedom something – was once drafted in a place called Kliptown. “All shall share in the country’s wealth” was one of its abidingly powerful fever dreams. Yet to come to pass. Yet to be fulfilled. In fact we’re drifting further and further from it. The Freedom Charter has never been more urgent.

How do you tell someone they’re not entitled to the things they need – just to have a normal life? The things we take for granted. Shelter, opportunity, enlightenment, a full belly. The basic middle class niceties. Someone who doesn’t know whether or not they’re going to eat that day is not entitled to the food you can afford to buy. Why not? Who’s responsibility is that?

The Ruling Party has gone from “A better life for all” to “creating connections for a few.”
We need to stop waiting on another Mandela. They only manufacture those – world historical spirits – every 92 years or so. Wouldn’t it be nice if each household in the country had one? A Personal Mandela to make everything alright. If we did have one – he might whisper in our ears: Stop feeling entitled to what you haven’t worked for. Stop feeling guilty for what you haven’t done. Get involved. Fight the power. Inspirational shit like that.

If Diego Rivera – the great Revolutionary painter of the 1930s – was painting a picture of Black Entitlement and White Guilt – he might have depicted an embarrassed Zebra being served crisp green grass on a platter by a mule. Would we get the allegory though?

Banksy in Mali

all pics jacked & arranged by konwomyn,

compliments of banksy, googleimages &  madam & eve, subject to copyright.