Today’s blog draws inspiration from an email sent to me today by my good friend Bongi… She wrote the following to me and I wanted to share it with you…
“I am an African!”
“I owe my being to the hills and the valleys, the mountains and the glades, the rivers, the deserts, the trees, the flowers, the seas and the ever-changing seasons that define the face of our native land. My body has frozen in our frosts and in our latter day snows. It has thawed in the warmth of our sunshine and melted in the heat of the midday sun. The crack and the rumble of the summer thunders, lashed by startling lightening, have been a cause both of trembling and of hope… The dramatic shapes of the [landscape] have… been panels of the set on the natural stage on which we act out the foolish deeds of the theatre of our day.
At times, and in fear, I have wondered whether I should concede equal citizenship of our country to the leopard and the lion, the elephant and the springbok, the hyena, the black mamba and the pestilential mosquito. A human presence among all these, a feature on the face of our native land thus defined, I know that none dare challenge me when I say – I am an African! …” Thabo Mvuyelwa Mbeki
She added the following: “I guess one would want to look back and say I came, I lived and when it was time to go I left…”
How true! This is really why we are doing this trip and it was so nice to be reminded of this again… Thanks Bongi! T
Brilliant!! I am a lucky man…
Truly inspiring… Best of luck you two.
Baie mooi gese – tog so waar!