The AmaXhosa are one of the nations that are found in South Africa, and they are also the party of ethics group divisions of Black South Africans in the Nguni nation. Xhosa nation originated from the Eastern Cape province. AmaXhosa nation are made up of tribes and clans. AmaXhosa roots.

“What I love about being Xhosa, I like how our society is structured in terms of the treatment towards each other, the sharing and caring mostly in rural areas. Amongst other things is our foods that are totally different and so nice” poet Fezile Noyiba.

Image: flickr.com

The AmaXhosa nation are different from other nations in South Africa, as they practice their own culture, tradition, unity, and they believe in their ancestors. Ancestors are the old deceased people from the family. People who are still alive from the family believes that the deceased bones are speaking through their dreams and they believe that the deceased family member can lead them to the right path, guide and protect them.

AmaXhosa nation believe in rituals, for example when there is a new-born baby in the family, there will be a ritual for a baby, where a goat will be slaughtered to introduce and connect or unify the baby to the ancestors of that particular clan and they do a lot of rituals with different reasons. “I love the way we perform our rituals, it really shows respect and honour to our ancestors”_Sibahle Klem.

AmaXhosa are speaking IsiXhosa language that has letters that clicks, such Q, X, KQ and GQ. AmaXhosa have their own attire, they have their own food and houses

1. Rontavel

Image: flickr.com

These are the amaXhosa houses, you can find the most of them in the rural areas in Eastern Cape, it called as Ronta. This house is built using mud, grass, sticks and kalika. When you are inside of it, it feels so comfortable and warm. Rontavel is a single room but you can find that people use it as a kitchen, bedroom and sitting room.

This kind of house is very important to the amaXhosa to an extent that all the households in the rural areas have this kind of house, they believed that the head of the family, especially the grown person to the family when they died their bodies must stay in this house before the body goes to the graves. That shows respect to the deceased and it honours them. This house is also important to the family when they must perform a ritual, they must use this house to prepare for a ritual, to make African brewed beer (Umqombothi), which is an essential to the ritual.

• Initiates

Image: flickr.com

These people are known as abakhwetha (initiates). Initiates came up after young men that are between the age of 18 years and above have to go through the ritual of being circumcised in order to be a man. This ritual starts at home and the rest takes place in the mountains and bushes where it involves men and elders only. Young men who are going through this are expected to be naked during their healing of circumcision, they must apply white ochre on their bodies, and they must use blankets instead of wearing clothes. They believe that the white ochre protects them from bacteria, infection and it keeps their skin soft. This ritual is very vital to the boys, because it is where elders mentor them to prepare them for the real world, to be leaders and to be custodians of their culture in future and elders teach them a lot of things about manhood.

• Sticks

Image: flickr.com

These are sticks that are used by young men who are still growing and elders, but they use them in different roles. Young men use sticks to fight and train themselves when they are herding cattle in the veld, to know how to fight, so that they can protect themselves. The art sticks with cow’s feathers are usually carried by head of the family when there are a rituals and other sticks are used by elders, they carry them when they are going out.

• Attire

Image: flickr.com

This is the Xhosa male attire, males are expected to wear white long wraparound clothes with black stripes and carry small towel for upper body when it gets cold. They wear beads on their heads according to the customs of their tribes. “I love our attire, it represents so much elements of ourselves from humanity, unity and transparency” Fezile Noyiba.

• Calabash

Image: flickr.com

In Xhosa this container is called Iselwa (calabash), they use it to store milk in order to ferment it, so that it can be Amasi. Amasi is a traditional prepared milk that tastes like creamy plain yoghurt. Calabash is made using a pumpkin, they take a pumpkin from the garden, clean it inside and keep it until it becomes dry. This bowl is made by wood.

• Food

Image: flickr.com

This is the imifuno (vegetables) and umngqusho the (samp with beans).  You will find different plants from their gardens, they pick plants and prepare them for a meal, they cook those plants and pour a little amount of maize meal. Umngqusho is a mixture of samp and beans, they cook them together by using those black pots outside on a fire.

AmaXhosa make things using their own hands, they plant food, they sew clothes with their own hands. Mostly amaXhosa depend on natural things, their needs are on nature. They buy few things from the stores. AmaXhosa kept cattle, goats, sheep, donkeys, pigs and chickens Therefore, if they need meat, they slaughter a sheep or their own chicken.

Tags||Xhosa||Culture|| South Africa|| Traditions||Rural||Eastern Cape|| Food||Art and Culture||Transkei

Print journalism has been a source of current events, information and political news for centuries. For the 20 to 30 years, this field has experienced notable changes in content and format with the beginning of the internet and digital technology, causing uncertainty about the role of traditional journalism in a modern world.

Social media influenced the role of journalism by opening a huge gap to citizen journalists to take some control over professional and traditional journalists. Audiences can create their own content and they can share information about anything that concerns the public before news anchor. But it often spreads fake news.

Fake news, non-sources, inaccurate information about the incidents or events can be harmful to the public. It causes a lot of panic to the public, as all people know that fake news trends faster than relevant information.

In the mid 1900’s, there were no cell phones and cameras, basically the technology was not advanced as these modern days. There were poor devices such as Vest Pocket Kodak used to record or to capture videos and images for newspapers, so that journalists can share them with the public. During those times the emergency or breaking news that inform the public was only from the newspapers, radios and or old black and white televisions.

Even if there was an incident that happened people would only listen to it on radio. The 1940’s were times of great changes in the field of journalism. This was the last decade in which radio was a dominant medium for news reporting and dissemination.

In order for people to get news, they needed to buy printed newspapers, because there were no blogs and websites that gathered the news for them, there were no other ways to deliver the news to the public besides traditional.

 It was difficult for journalists to communicate with their audiences in the industry. In order for them to collect the news, they were needed to be on the scene and they had to write down everything that happened on that scene, so that they can be able to produce reliable information for the public. Journalists at that time were struggled to capture the videos, pictures, and recordings on the scenes when gathering the information for the news.

Modern days introduced digital platforms that improved the future of journalism. Social media launched so many platforms in the early and late 2000s, such as Sixdegrees, Friendster, Facebook, MySpace, YouTube, Twitter, and Instagram. Those platforms played a significant role in journalism and to the people as well in terms of communication and to connect with people through direct messages.  They also made practices of journalism easier, as much as journalists can now use cameras and smart phones to collect the news package. Radio and Television allowed for relatively quick story updates compared to the slower turnover of traditional newspapers.

Television and radio first created the idea multimedia, immersive storytelling experience in journalism as, seen in the ambient audio captured in war broadcasts and the elementary video used for televised news. Long distance broadcasting furthered the globalised of media coverage.

Social media created more citizen journalism, as now citizen can inform and collect news and publish to the social media. For example, when there is an incident, citizens are mostly to be the first to be there on the scene and capture videos and post them to the social media. Citizen journalism can collect news from less credible source, as they can produce unreliable or biased information to the public through social network.

That is because, all people have the right to create their own content through social networks, they can post fake news, opinions or views without any boundaries whereby people have to first verify the information before posting it to the public. It is the work of professional journalism to verify the relevance of the information before delivering it to the audiences.

Social networks can be also disadvantageous to the professional journalism than citizen journalism, because professional journalists must follow journalistic rules and norms before they publish information to the social media, whereas citizen journalism has more freedom to the society. The availability of social media to the public led to the citizens to take the advantage of citizen journalism, as it make it harder for the audiences to verify the information. It is because of the fact that everyone can be a citizen journalist.

Social media made more people to participate in the news production. Social media affected traditional media in a way that people can see newspapers as not worthy than before the establishment of social networks. It is because of the majority of people that have smart phones, laptops, television and radios to access the news or the information. Social media saves time and money to buy magazines and newspapers.

 People can access websites from the internet when they need magazines, such as press-reader by using their devices. Professional journalism also use the platforms of the social media like Pressreader to inform and to engage with their audiences. People are no longer waiting for the report from journalist. News articles are simply one click away.

Audiences are always on social networks, such as Twitter and Facebook sharing stories with their friends and families. Social media played a key role in increasing the access for journalists to the content. Journalists have more access to their audiences; they are so close to their story ideas and they know what their audience’s needs.

Technology | Journalism | Modern | Social Media | Radio | Television | Traditional |

By Bonani Tolatole

30-year-old Sibongile Mani a former accountancy student at Walter Sisulu University in East London accidentally received R14 million into her Intellimali student account from National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) in 2017. She was accused of being a thief, as she failed to report the money that was in her personal account accidentally and she spent it. The money that was supposed to be deposited into her Intellimali account was a monthly food allowance of R1400.  

Timeslive reported that Mani spent R20,000 on alcohol and cigarettes in less than two hours after she accidentally received money in her bank account and her charge sheet alleged that she spent R810 000 in 73 days. The regional court in East London laid charges against her for fraud and corruption.

Sibongile Mani is a former student of Walter Sisulu University in Potsdam Campus in East London. In 2017 she was studying her second year in Accountancy and she was also a secretary in a political party known as Pan African Student Movement of Azania (PASMA). Sibongile was born in 1990 and grow up in Queenstown.  She was raised by her grandmother, while her biological mother was working and living in George, in the Western Cape,

Mani trends on social media

Mani’s story went viral on social media after the rival South African Student Congress at Walter Sisulu University reported her after suspicions that her lifestyle had changed quickly. In September 2017, Timeslive reported that Mani faced the theft allegations after the Intellimali company investigated the errors in the allocation of the money in her personal account. The company sued her, as she failed to report the money to the officials, she spent more than R810 000.

In 2017, Mani was in and out in of the regional Court in East London, because her case had been postponed so many times. Mani’s case was postponed to August in 2017 for the defence team to get more information about the docket and get ready for the trial.

Sibongile Mani was supposed to appear in court on August 21, but she did not show up and failed to offer an excuse. This resulted in a warrant of arrest being issued.

 Mani’s supporters started to post hashtags on social media that says “#Hands_off_Sibongile, #Free_Sibongile_Mani, #Aluta_Continua, #No2corruption. Sibongile’s supporters were expressing that they are against her prosecution, although others have different views about this.

Some of Facebook users dropped comments on a post by Athenkosi Fani on Facebook. Fani  is an LGBTQIA activist, founder of BONISWA LGBTQI foundation, motivational speaker and awarded philanthropist who has travelled to USA empowering young people, he is based in East London and he is a former student at Walter Sisulu University, after the news of  a warrant of arrest was circulated, Fani, one of her supporters wrote a long lengthy post on Facebook explaining his view about Mani’s case.

Fani wrote “Many people around the country argued in a gruesome debate that never revealed answers or exposed truth that validates that our country is full of corruption and that people are not yet ready to face the reality”. Sibongile’s supporters saw this as the corruption that the country refuse to expose.

Athenkosi continued in saying, “It was evidently clear that large amount of money was not supposed to go through her account, it was money looted in which unfortunately placed Sibongile into trouble”.

Mani’s supporters agreed with Fani’s statement. “Exactly, the money was looted for someone and unfortunately landed on her student account now she is being victimized by a hyperbole journalism context that is not objective” Malisa Lyons said on the comment section.

Sibongile’s supporters agreed with Fani’s point of view to an extent that everyone’s reactions were against the system of South Africa. The supporters said that it should be the one who allocated the money on Sibongile’s account who must be facing the accusation of corruption and it must be the one who being prosecuted.

“What happened to the person who transferred this amount of money? Is that person being prosecuted?” Lindile Gqada commented as Mani’s supporter.  

Fani argued on his post saying that the system is not fair to a young woman, the youth of South Africa should stand up and support the victim. “Sibongile is a mere student she doesn’t deserve what she is going through this is high time as young people to stand up and fight for our future” Athenkosi said on his post.

Other Facebook users were not taking her side, as some of them also commented on Fani’s post on the argument “If you take something that is not yours, it’s stealing, End of story”,

Facebook users said that the money was not supposed to be used and Mani is guilty of theft. Mani should have reported the money. On the other side supporters of Mani demanded a petition to support her.

Corruption| Prosecution| Warrant arrest| Sibongile Mani| Millionaire| Fraud| Theft| WSU student| Money

By: Bonani Tolatole

The rising star Amanda Faku reveals her versatility  

Photo by: Thabang Buthelezi

The South African singer and songwriter Ami Faku, pursued her dream after she became the top 16 in The Voice SA competition. Her singing career flourished from there onwards. She had managed to release her first ever album titled “Imali” in 2019 under Vth Season recording label. For someone breaking into the industry, her album was much recognized.  She also featured some well-known artist which only acted as a catalyst in the music industry propelling the young star further in the industry. Ami collaborated with prominent artists like Sun EL musician on the song “Into Ingawe”.

The album “Imali” was released just few months back in September, the 27^th 2019. Her album has 11 tracks which are Inde Lendlela, Ubuhle Bakho, Tshomi Yam and many more. Ami Faku Recent Songs . “Imali” loosely translated as money, is not only the title of her album but also the title of one of the tracks included in the album. The song was written by her and Blaq Diamond whom was also featured on the song. This song emphasis the truth as she advocates the common belief that money is everything, and everybody needs in life. But ultimately, it encourages people to stand up for themselves, prioritise their happiness.

Video by: PLATOON LTD

The Imali song is very emotional track and relatable. In the verse and the chorus that says “Andinayo imali, ndihluphekile, Ndithandazile, kuzolunga nini?”, “Ewe ndifile engqondweni, Inkathazo azipheli endleleni yami” meaning “I don’t have money, I am poor, I prayed, when will it be okay? Yes I died in my head, my problems seem to never end”. Thisexpresses the hopelessness and the troubles of her life that are never-ending, because she have been pleading with God to give her strength to face the challenges of life and to be successful but her prayers seem to be in vain.

This emotional verse that Ami Faku sang addresses her struggles and the bad lucks she faced or faces. I felt connected immediately when I first heard her song on the radio playing. It was this captivating, soulful and African ring to it that hooked me on the spot. When I downloaded the song I kept wanting more her because of her relatable lyrics. Every word she sang seemed to describe my life as sometimes I would also wonder about why is my life different to others and incessantly going wrong for me. But even so, she urges the need to move on and keep pressing you just never know. Each verse or chorus of Imali track is for everyone as one can easily relate to because of the way she tries to project hope, faith and patience to the listener.

She is very descriptive and realistic about basic things in life which anyone undoubtedly can learn from, and that shows ingenuity not every artist can portray lyrically formulating a bond between the listener and the artist. Another verse that caught my ear and resonated with me was by Blaq Diamond which says “Ilanga liyoba linye, izinyembezi zami ziyophenduk’imvula, izithukuthuku zami zibe iz’busiso, izinto zibe lula”, meaning that one day his tears will be the rain that will shower all the bad lucks and his struggles will turn into the blessings after God answered his pleas.

See imali lyrics

Video by: PLATOON LTD

There is also a hit song titled “Ubuhle Bakho”, this song is the vocal point of Afro soul music. The rhythmic beat is relaxing and soothing to the heartbroken. Ami Faku in this song or track, praises her lover, giving the assurance that she won’t do him wrong, through this lyrics “Ndize ngobuhle, Nangozithoba, Ndithembe ndiyakucela, Andisose ndikumoshe”- I came with beautifulness, calmness, please trust me I won’t mess with you ”.

See Ubuhle Bakho lyrics

All of her songs take the Afro Soul music listener through an emotive personal journey which she encapsulate so seamlessly. The songs have the ability to vividly tell her side of the story and all the experiences in her past life, so it is not just emotive feeling she exudes lyrically but educative.

Ami’s album is honest and it is tied to a calming morose mood or ambience. Her sound is mature just right for both the young adults and modern more mature. This debut album revealed Ami’s versatility and her writing skills.

On this album Ami Faku embraces her origin and her ethnicity by the she sings using her mother tongue, Xhosa and also her Album represent Africanist (Sabelo, 2019).

PROFILE FEATURE

A radio presenter of Umhlobo Wenene fm Mafa Bavuma tell us about his career as a radio presenter.

I grow up in a small town that is in between Port Elizabeth and Grahamstown   which is Alicedale. In my childhood I was  one of the most quit person, even now most of the people are still wondering about this character of being funny or making jokes, talkative and laughter in the radio, because  when I was growing up I was the kind of  person who liked to be alone and kept quiet during the people, playing alone at my home and I was not involved in any sport activity in my community.

I studied in Alicedale at Hendrik Kanise Combined School, but it was starting from sub A to standard 10 by that time, so after that in 2001 I enrolled in journalism at P.E Tech College in Port Elizabeth, which is now known as Nelson Mandela University. In 2005 I graduated in journalism. I started working at TRU fm in 2008 as a news reader. In the same year 2008 there was an opportunity in Umhlobo Wenene fm that needed a producer of current affairs, so I applied for that position. Therefore, I started working in Umhlobo Wenene fm on the 1^st of September in the same year 2008 as a producer of current of affairs, but I ended up presenting the current affairs.

In 2009 we were going to the elections in Pretoria and in Cape Town, but I was based in Cape Town and another team was based in Pretoria. In Cape Town I was supposed to be with Mr Bhekwa Lindani, but he could not make it. So, in Cape Town I was given 5 minutes in the windows to present and they were impressed about my way of presenting. When I came back to UMhlobo Wenene they offered me to present (Laphuma Ukhwezi) in current affairs show and I also did the ( Zibuzwa Kuthi) show. In the Breakfast Eyondlayo Ekuseni (BEE) show I got there in a funny way because I entered there to read the headlines but Mr Patco Mafani was still there by that time and after I presented the headlines, he made a funny joke then I laughed. After that they started to ask me to join them in BEE show and then I became a part of a BEE show voluntary, but in 2012 I ended up leaving the BEE show. In 2014 listeners demanded me to come back to the (Breakfast Eyondlayo Ekuseni) BEE show and I came back to be the part of BEE show fulltime until now. I just resigned from the news in the end of May as I wanted to pay my focus on the BEE show, because I was between news and BEE, so now I’m presenting in BEE show fulltime.

Now I’m working as a radio presenter and I just graduated for Honours as a Postgraduate in Xhosa at Nelson Mandela University but for now I have not yet enrolled for the masters, because next year in 2020 I’m also planning to do the masters. For now, I’m working as a presenter at Umhlobo Wenene fm and I also do a lot of gigs such as MC, motivational talks and even (deejaying) sometimes.

Passion inspired me to be a presenter because even in school when I was growing our teacher liked to ask one learner to read the book like novel in front of the class, I was always volunteer myself to read. In my home there was no television, radio was the only media I knew by that time.

I faced challenges when I was trying to achieve my dream of being a presenter because my parents disagreed with me to do the journalism and in high school, I was doing Commercial subjects, so they wanted me to enrol for B.com. People had always convinced me to not enrol for Journalism because there is less salary in Journalism, but I did not listen to them because as I said before that being a presenter was always my passion. I overcame all those challenges by pushing myself and I never gave up because I knew what I wanted in my life. I remember my first job when I was in a community radio where I was earning R1000 per week, sometimes I walked to the workplace because I ran out of money for transport. Sometimes I get there late until the breakfast show guy complained that I am ruining his show and he will report me to the manager because of being late, but I told him my story and he understood, so these are some of the challenges I faced.

In 2018 I published my book “Born For This”, the purpose of writing this book was to encourage children who grew up in the rural areas/ town and  who has the same background as my mine, to encourage them to forget about the thoughts of how are they going to make it to the tertiary institution because of their backgrounds or the situation of their homes, because before I go to the tertiary institution my father sold his cow, so  that I can be able to study my first year. What encourages me the most is that if you have a dream, do not let your background determines your future and never let the situation of your home be the barrier of your dream.

This is an example post, originally published as part of Blogging University. Enroll in one of our ten programs, and start your blog right.

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You’re not locked into any of this; one of the wonderful things about blogs is how they constantly evolve as we learn, grow, and interact with one another — but it’s good to know where and why you started, and articulating your goals may just give you a few other post ideas.

Can’t think how to get started? Just write the first thing that pops into your head. Anne Lamott, author of a book on writing we love, says that you need to give yourself permission to write a “crappy first draft”. Anne makes a great point — just start writing, and worry about editing it later.

When you’re ready to publish, give your post three to five tags that describe your blog’s focus — writing, photography, fiction, parenting, food, cars, movies, sports, whatever. These tags will help others who care about your topics find you in the Reader. Make sure one of the tags is “zerotohero,” so other new bloggers can find you, too.