Rise Up, Africa

Inspired by the film 'Blood Diamond', in which Leonardo di Caprio as Danny Archer says "God left this place [Africa] a long time ago." But I know He hasn't.
(Lines 4 - 10 are lines from various African countries' national anthems)

Africa, God has not forgotten you
Rise up, Africa
God has not forgotten you
You will have a nation where peace and justice shall reign
Under your black star of hope and honour you will under God march forever more
You will again prove that truth can win after all
God will bless your land and nation and justice will be your shield and defender
Your glory will be raised high, God will hear your prayers
Your pride will be worth your esteem
The happy days of which your ancestors dreamed will come for you at last
North, South, East West,
God hasn't left you
God will forgive you
God will heal your lands and your hearts
Your minds will be made new
Your children will see all the beauty that they were destined to see
Your lands will be fruitful
Mother Africa, you are beautiful,
Your smile like the sunrise after a stormy night
And as the sun rises each day, you too will rise again
Riddled with wrinkles, your face tells a thousand tales of injustice, corruption, violence, but the sparkle in your eyes signifies hope
You are a mother who has prayed for her children
And your prayers will be answered
Africa, God has not forgotten you

El Amor Es La Palabra

So what with Valentine's Day being tomorrow, I thought I'd write about it. Go figure :)

Personally, I'm a fan of V-Day, though I've never done anything to celebrate it before (we won't talk about what happened a few years ago with some any guy, his friend, my house and monopoly lol) but it seems like a great reason to celebrate. It's all about love, right?

After doing some research, I've discovered that no-one actually knows for definite what its origins were, some seem to be pagan rituals from the era of the Roman Empire and others from the Roman Catholic Church, the most popular is the tale of the Bishop Valentine. Apparently, under the reign of Claudius the something, marriage was forbidden because this emperor believed that the reason for low recruitment to the army amongst males was because they did not want to leave their wives and children. Despite this decree against marriage, Bishop Valentine performed weddings in secret as he felt it to be of great importance. One day, he was discovered and thrown in prison and subsequently beheaded. During his time in prison however, he fell in love with the jailer's daughter and the night before he was to die, he sent her a letter which was signed 'From Your Valentine' and behold, the a tradition of being someone's 'Valentine' commenced.

Anyway, aside from tradition and these tales of old, it's still a fly day in my opinion cos it's all about LOVE. The greatest gift of all.

It's just been like a keyword of late; it feels like I never really cottoned on to how bananas love actually is! It's CRAZY. This is God's love by the way. The love through which the whole world was made. The love by which the whole world was saved. Unconditional love. Everlasting love. Overwhelming love. Mind-blowing love. Man oh man, it's a beautiful thing.

V-Day doesn't even have to be about like you and your guy or girl. If you're in a serious relationship, then obvs like, you can dedicate the day to each other, that's special lol. But if not...tell your mum you love her, tell your best friend you love him/her. Even better, tell your enemy that you love them. That'll be tough, but when you let God's love work through you and manifest to that person who you really, really don't like, it will be amazing. [Before doing this, you have to forgive them as well. Unforgiveness is a major hindrance to true love].

Also, I think it's okay to say that Jesus is your valentine, even when talking about it in a romantic sense. You're in love with him right? He is your lover. So, yeah. Makes sense to me.

Well, these were my musings on Valentine's Day. I think I'm gonna go write some sonnets :)

In preparation for reading week...

So, I headed to my uni library today in pursuit of Ntozake Shange's acclaimed play 'For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide/When The Rainbow Is Enuf' (I'm yet to watch the film, grr)
I found it, happy days and decided to take out the copy that included two other plays - 'Spell #7' and 'The Love Space Demands'. I noticed that I was in a pretty fly section of the library, plays and poetry and so my eyes began to wander across the shelves; drawn in by the old-school hardback and gold lettering, they stopped at 'The Collected Works of Effie Waller Smith'. I carefully pulled it out, opened to a page at random and it was filled with short poems and the line 'Our Father, whose unchanging love/ Gives soil and sun and rain.' I was sold, into my clasped arms it went, resting against the Shange play. Walked a little further down the aisle and happened upon Tennessee Williams' plays, I haven't read anything he's written which I think is terrible, and so I grabbed a title I knew well 'Cat On A Hot Tin Roof'. (Desperately wanted to see that on Broadway - Phylicia Rashaad, love her - but I missed it). This then reminded me of Langston Hughes who I love so I took out a biography of his life and his own autobiography 'The Big Sea.'

Content with my findings I proceeded to the checkout machine when my mind suddenly remembered Jeni's disso. bell hooks was someone whose essays I really needed to get my hands on, so I looked them up, wrote down the code and made my way to the 5th floor - sociology
section. On my way however, I passed world literature, sigh. I had now acquired Wole Soyinka's 'Ibadan', 'South African Short Stories' and 'Inside Black Australia - An Anthropology of Aboriginal Poetry' (Ridiculously hyped about that).

I finally make it to the 5th floor and locate all bell hooks' books. I think, okay, let me just get one cos you know, I've got enough already. But I was really struggling to chose, it didn't occur to me that I'm here for another month so I could always come back for a next one, so I got four. 'Black Looks', 'Sisters Of The Yam', Talking Back' and 'Ain't I A Woman'.

Twelve books in total. And I'm looking forward to a magnificent reading week of actually reading. (It doesn't matter that these books aren't part of my course...extra-curricular, mind-opening, all that jazz. Yeah.)

I'm yet to finish my book on The Hottenot Venus by Rachel Holmes. Brilliant by the way, highly recommended.