Smiles, Heart Beats and All That Jazz (Let I Dance)

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---Let I dance to the music queued in my thoughts. Let I dance. Let I dance along to the call of the Universe. Let I dance. Let I dance like today is my last and tomorrow is but a dream that I will never live out. Let I dance---

Everywhere I go and every heart I touch, I make sure I leave something that no one will ever dispose of because they can’t get enough of. Everywhere I go- everyone I see and every heart I have had the privilege to touch, a simple smile has been all I have left.

Everyday, every hour, for at least a second I smile for my heart beats; I smile and I make heart beats. I smile to give thanks, I smile in gratitude. I smile so much, in early days I did it more than I spoke, gave momma frights thinking she had a smiling mime for a child.  

This has become a lifelong habit, I feel it’s a predisposition that I have lost all control over, an inheritance from an African ancestor that now rests in their peace but has left me with a lifetime worth of smiles. Beautiful, character filled smiles, rainbow wide and bright but however remains the sweetest taboo.

You see now, I come from a people that find it hard to crack a single smile, my people they float in wells of depression and find comfort in states of regression, they gloat of peoples failures and toast to the weaknesses of others. My smiling heart belongs to a city that never rests for the wrong reasons, in this city of small town hustlers is a public that hardly smiles unless it is at the expense of someone else’s despair.

Be the Loner with the Smile...

Not only so but I belong to a culture where smiling is considered the weakness of a fool, where silence and anger are the norm. A culture that has left me reminiscing about the glory that is now gone, days when happiness wasn’t looked down upon. I’m religious about hip-hop, an era inspired genre where no season is ever dedicated to happiness. In this culture named hip hop is nothing else but raw negativity, rappers and heads walking around in side lip frowns, looking like they just caught a face-full of sun- embracing calamities, believing in sorrow- an empty tomorrow, praising struggles- grasping rage in abundant bundles.

But still I smile. Although I am born to a place that still wrestles with spirits of pessimism, inducted into a culture of misery vultures that honor and celebrate glooms-and-dooms. I go on ahead and I smile. In the midst of this cheerful complex, I maintain this smile. I contain this smile in the hope that it will become a contagious smile- that someone might catch it and never heal from it, go on to spread this smile sickness until they all start to commend it the same way they continue to do with these terminal sicknesses.

A little bling to the smile...

So until this cab driver greets me with a smile every other day, until these shop assistants act pleased in my presence, until this petrol attendant sings their words to me, until this brother cracks a funny punch in his rhymes, until this security guard pretends to laugh at my dry jokes, until this secretary lady reacts to my compliments, until this mother tells me a heart warming story while she wraps up the poone I just bought from her, until I meet a patient in a doctors room who spreads ‘positivity’ through their words and until I give out a coin to a street kid whose face shapes their life canvas in bright and colorful works of art…then allow me to turn up the tempo to my smile and dance.

Until bliss is personified in every single one of us then let I dance to the rhythms of the tales I tell. Let I dance to the stories that I speak, read and write. Let I dance to clouds of encouragement and tunes of paradise. Let I bask in this ecstasy. Let I dance to the beat of my heart. Let I dance.

*extracts from When Hip Hop Was Fun as performed by In-Q on Def Poetry have been used in these writings 

Until next post,

Africa Rising, Peace & Revolution...

Ho na le likoata tsa Basotho!

 ---Lesotho my beginning, Lesotho my ending! I will love these mountains with their deep-etched valleys. These green pastures where natures beauty overflows. Lesotho my beginning, Lesotho my ending! I will love you and your people, these brothers and sisters that reside in my mothers land---

This is an observation piece. Getting sometime out from your own people gives one some perspective, it broadens ones view on life and enlarges your frame of reference. It allows you to experience other cultures, their values and belief systems but most importantly it allows you to benchmark the progress of your own on a much wider scale.

For the past few months I have been on an observation trip, I have put my psychology cap on and been studying the characteristics of the Basotho people. I have been listening in on conversations I shouldn’t be, watching people I have never met and spoken to individuals I hardly look at twice. In these months, I have analyzed my people and although I am not done with this project of mine as yet, I have reached my conclusion…and it is that- Ho na le Basotho ba likoata!!

And by koata I do not refer to this term in the traditional blanket wearing, hit-stick carrying sense. I use the term ‘koata’ in the broadest sense as you will find out once you read on. I used to think likoata ke batho ba likoto le melamu, likobo hara mecheso kapa batho ba hae koana, boy was I wrong.

I have come to understand and even accept that there are men and women of the highest calibre who occupy the most prominent positions in this country empa e le likoata. There is also a flock of graduates let out by some of the top institutions who walk around these streets in all the bokoata they can master.

Hee Lesotho le tletse likoata hleng beso! Ho na le likoata in the public sector who feel that we are at their mercy for asking to be served with a smile, likoata that feel like they are doing us the public a favour by actually doing their jobs. Ho na le likoata that check in at work at 8am everyday and knock off at 5pm but would never produce a work plan, progress or monthly report on any given day. Koata tsena are the same ones that will piss on your hair if you dare interfere with their game of solitaire or hearts, the same kind that will turn you away in a line ha u ka fihla ten minutes before lunch asking for help. Hela, for the sake of your sanity, I warn you in kindness fellow Mosotho oa heso to stay clear of koata tsena cause they master the art of sulkiness and are quick to drain the energy out of you.

Bathong ho na le likoata Lesotho mona! Then there are the ones that sit in the private sector and franchise shops acting like they’ve made it in life. Ho na le koata tse lulang Times mane, Litaleng  kapa eona Café 72 from Monday to Monday picking on girls or waiting to get hit on- talking about how well off they are or how they only roll with rich men. Tsena tsona li koata are the type to drive a LAND Rover yet they have a LANDlord. Bari tsena tsona hee are the kind that show-off by any means necessary, they have credit and bills that run all the way from Thaba Bosiu and past Menkhoaneng but will still maintain their image around Maseru hangouts. Koata tsena are quick to spot, they are the ones with the car keys dangling on their fingers and phones all around the waist lines. Ke ba mona with the tightest dresses and highest of heels, glossy blood red lips and weaves getting flicked from side to side. These ones speak of how elite they are, they look down on the rest of my people, if you’re not a part of them then koata ke uena to them. This kind of koata knows all the expensive alcohol names and will only sip on Henney, Chivas Regal or Johnny Black cause they are too legit to be drinking little boy liquor.

Beso ke re Lesotho le patetsoe ke lipoko-poko. Koata tsa Maseru ke tse fetang tsa ‘Masemousu. Terotsoana ena ea heso e tletse mahipi ka li colour blocking le li accent tse mona tse kang motho o lutsoe ke sekhohlela se sa feleng, ma pantsula ka li dickies le all star tse lits’ila le li kool kids ka li nerd glasses and personalized t-shirts, acting like they run this town.

And then there was koata tsa banna who are stuck in archaic times where women were objects of their affection and served no better purpose. Tsena tsona likoata are the kind to go around raping little babies and elderly women. These are the ones that abuse our women, kill our women and shamelessly speak down on them. Psychopaths, who feel nothing and do nothing to better the state of our nation. Bathong! Hole tsena would probably rape men as well if they don’t already…uena hee you are a target because of your sexuality, you need not mention you are either gay or lesbian around them cause they will come for you claiming to heal you from the ‘devils’ that ‘possess you’.

 

Jonna ka mokhoa oo koata tsa heso li leng ngata ka teng, I will never finish. Fela ho na le tse ling tsa bo ‘m’e, tse mona tse bitter. Dear God, ho na le bo ‘m’e le bo ausi ba bitter hleng! The kind that does not want to see anyone succeed more than them or be better achievers than they are. Koata tsena are the ones that spread the gossip and love to hate, they are quick to judge and will be the first to tell you about your nasty ass uncut toe nails or your oddly shaped nose…they know your every move and are at the forefront of wishing you’d fail in life. Tseke-tseke tsena tsona hee ha li ts’abe le ho u loea ke bolila bona bo ba ts’oereng. Ke ba mona ba ratang li ‘haters’ always quick to give a shout out to them and speak about how they are thankful for those haters cause they make them better in life. Bana bona will ask for the price tags of those shoes you got on and will make you feel like a fool for dressing in bargain items.

E be joale ho na le meqhaka e mona e ratang bokuli. Is it the actual being sick part they love or is it how they seek pity? I do not know. I personally think this kind sits at the top of the likoata hierarchy. They are the ones who will start by saying “Ke tlo ts’oara ke sefuba hakae fela” and then when the bed binding flu comes they talk about “Ache ‘na ebe hobaneng ke ratoa ke sefuba tje?” This tribe of likoata enjoys pity parties and will drag you down with them if you are not too careful…they enjoy being miserable and will always see the negative in any situation; they never seize to complain about how horrible everything is and how they would do a better job than anyone else. Oe! Koata tse!

Nke ke ka qeta hoba joale haeso Lesotho koata li ngata. Le ha ho le joalo, I still love some of them hoba ke tsa heso. I still appreciate the flavor they bring into my life and those around them and I still pray that batla sokoloha bokoateng bona ba bona. Lenna ke le tjena ke koata ea Lesotho, a proud one-e mona e nahanang e tseba haholo. Ke mpa ke its’ilisa ka hore haeso ke habo likoata.   

Until next post,

Africa Rising, peace & Revolution