Proudly Mzantsi-ian

I am struggling to think of anything that can beat the awesomeness of being called a South African. I am proud to be a citizen of this scenic African land. As much as my friends from America live to believe that I own a lion for a pat and a crocodile in my door-step, I am insanely glad to be from Mzantsi.

It is only in my country where you find the President dancing and chanting with masses in the middle of his public adress and yet still walk away with his dignity. Nobody sees anything wrong about that. Its normal. Wait till he laughs in parliament in the middle of an important debate and believe it or not  people have grown to love him for exactly that.

Mzantsi has such a strong heritage our fashion sense says it better than words. Take a walk downtown in any of our cities. The colours, the culture the vibe and yes the weirdos who complete this wide colourful circle with pride. It is only in my country that you find an adult plus-size african lady wearing pink stilletos, blue pantyhose and a tight-short purple dress with shiny cystals all over Oh! did I mention the red lipstick dripping on her lips with green eyeshadow yet she is still  considered totally normal and quite a fashionista. Check the young dude who is squashed like a pock banger in those green skinny jeans and a floral shirt he is quite cool by the way- this is Mzantsi.

Now lets move over to the music scene. Our music is rhythmic, addictive, seductive and keeps you active all day. The likes of the late Mama Miriam Makeba and Brenda Fassie died having witnessed the richness of our local melody and rhythm. Our sound has evolved from the then days of Phata-phata to the present days of House Music  yet it still spells out the magic words South Africa. Did I tell you about the internationaly acclaimed Nkalakatha and Godoba? I dont care how ignorant one can be but when it comes to our music, we live you with something to remember us about in the next decades. By the way we dont need to be professional dancers to come up with a dance, the up-beat rythm that flows in our blood streams enables us to do anything close to impossible. I am talking about Twaladza, Skere, Tsipa-tsipa, Ingwazi the list goes on and to my fellow white friends, I would include english dances on the list if I knew of any- I guess dancing isn't really your thing.

Only in Mzantsi will you find the terms Coconuts and Darkies in full use despite the offensive thread all over them. When you call deserts 'sweets', you are undoubtedly Darkie and when you are black yet find tripe 'ulusu' disgusting you can be quickly thrown into the Coconuts's bin. Whats even more surprising is how we have a portion of our population called Coloureds yet in some parts of the world that is taboo to say. Oh, we are just unique aren't we. We eat worms, spice them up with flavour and give them a name 'Masonja' not forgeting the chicken intestines with grill in the streets of our local townships yet we dont feel guilty.

I mean who else goes to an internatioanal airpot and speel pooh when trying to make a point? In my country we do that. Strikes and Toy-toys are the order of the day but we still love each other so much and no we dont smell like pooh though we use it to make demands.

We have 11 languages and they are all official. So you can be in a taxi and have no clue of what the next person is saying. They can be Xhosa and you Venda and both officially rightfull to use your own language. Isn't that great! Contrary to African belief we are the only country in our continent that supports same sex marriage and abortion. We break and bend the rules and still remain the best in Africa.

Sunny South Africa, how we love you.