As men, do we know how to engage with women and engage on women’s issues? We are sons, brothers, uncles, husbands, boyfriends, friends of women who deal with a myriad of economic, physical, mental and sexual assaults on each and every day. In 2016 silence is tantamount complicity. We can’t just throw around imaginary threats...
Tag: Vus Ngxande
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How I Came To Understand My Male Privilege By Experiencing Racism …
A few months ago, I was watching a documentary about the history of the formation of our country with my son . It touched on topics such as slavery, colonisation and apartheid. While we were watching he turned to me and asked, ‘Papa, why did white people do this to us?’ It is not that...
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Happiness Is A Four Letter Word: The Men
The movie “Happiness Is A Four-Letter Word” opened a few weeks ago with record breaking stats in just 10 days. By all intents and purposes, the film – a screen adaptation of the book by the same name, written by Cynthia Jele – is a chick flick; the three leads are all women, namely, Nandi...
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Kojo Baffoe – Life Aficionado …
There are innumerable definitions of what the measure of a modern man is; each one has a brush wielded by subjective hand seeking to land a mark on an already soaked canvas of pop-opinion. However, there are men who don’t wait for society to paint a picture of who they should be. These are men...
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Rebuilding The Black Male Child – Entitlement (Part 3)
Entitlement The idea of entitlement is sometimes confused with some sense of ownership. This is partly true. Ownership is a very simple concept; a state of being an owner. Also, ownership of material objects or entities is very simple to understand. But, entitlement in our society takes a different form when it comes to men...
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My Mistakes …
One of the most difficult things to admit, even to us, is that the mistake is ours. It’s easier to point fingers and blame someone else for what could be purely your fault. This is true in our personal lives and also in the corporate world. Who takes the blame for a break-up in relationships?...
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Rebirth of Black …
Remember when you finished high school? It was your first taste of how life calls on you to make decisions that don’t involve your friends. You realised that friendship is not necessarily forever. Pacts made about pursuing the same careers don’t work out. You realised that driving a Ferrari is easier said than bought. Your...
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Letting Go …
How do you know when it is time to move on? How do you know when you have done all that you can and nothing you do from now will change anything? Someone whom you used to think you couldn’t live without, their grave looks just like any another now. Maybe the memory of their...
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Nelson Makamo: The Art of Business
In Art To see Nelson Makamo’s work is to bear witness to brush strokes that carry life like energy and vibrancy. It is to instantly remember some of the fondest memories of your childhood. As one avid fan of his work once described it, ‘his work is like the sound of the ice cream truck coming...
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Social Media and the Black Identity …
History has made being black into a ‘thing’. A polarising existence that seems to be perpetually at odds, to be defended, to be questioned, to be probed and to be constantly (self)aware all the while wrapped up in stereotypes. The black body has long served as a canvas on which some of the darkest moments of human existence...