I was born here, all my life has been spent here and though it is my sincerest wish to see the other parts of our great world,I would consider it a great shame if my last breath were to leave my lips while I was on any other land.I love these people,I feel as if I understand them even though I may not always agree with them.I speak of course of africa furthest south,now a democracy,and it’s people.I love it and I love them.
In what is still yet a short lifetime;I have been blessed to meet bapedi,basotho,amazulu,the english,afrikaners e.t.c and among each I am fortunate to name at least one friend.In all of those I have met,a significant part of who they are is determined by their culture and upbringing but every one of them is mostly an individual with unique wants,needs and insights.I have come to realise that everyone wants one thing:happiness,though they define this happiness differently.I dare any owner of a heart to know these people and not want only the best for them,to meet them not as a picture behind a television screen or as the subject of a headline in a newspaper and not love them as I do.
This is a tough country to live in,not the toughest,but tough enough that the question:is it worth it? can be justifiably asked.Is it worth waking up in the morning when you have no way to feed your family?When even if you have a job,18% or more of your day is spent working for a government which promptly squanders your effort?When being killed or raped is just one among many terrors stalking you?When you have to spend more and more on the things you need and it seems like there is nothing you can do,just accept that life was supposed to be about working for wealth but now you are working as hard as you can just to avoid poverty.
I guess the answer differs for each of us,for me it is no,it is not worth it;but I believe in these people,perhaps foolishly,I believe I know them and they are known for defying the odds not because mandela was able to change them but because he recognised what was in them anditwas love.In spite of it all,I realise that even though it will be difficult to fix things,if all the good people give up then the difficult suddenly becomes the impossible.I love this land,I love these people;my land,my people,south africans.