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Showing posts from October, 2010

On Matthew Parris and his comment on Africa and Missionaries

I had an itch every time I saw Matthew Parris quoted by missionaries as a stamp of approval for the work they do.  I was of the mind of getting to thinking what to write about this fella who is seemingly stuck between colonial-nostalgia and post-colonial shock.  His need for having something to say about Africa (with such limited lived experience here/limited personal encounters with diverse Africans on the longer term) is beyond me.  I suppose access to the global media has a way of making folks give an 'educated' opinion at every whim?? Search me. Anyway,  I came across (quite thankfully) these two blogs that wrote on the topic of Matthew Parris much better than I could ever hope to. Luckily there's a balance actually: the one link is written by an African and the other a Westerner. http://benbyerly.wordpress.com/2009/01/23/i-dont-need-god-but-those-africans-sure-do-on-matthew-parriss-popular-column/#comment-3908 http://wherehermadnessresides.blogspot.com/2009/01/i

My 2¢ on Florence (and Precious) Mhango

My respect for Scotland has in the past few months gone from low to zero. Sadly, while watching the Scottish blip at the Commonwealth festival yesterday I went as far as to mute the TV and wait for Indian festivities to come on again before continuing to watch the show. Scotland, not content to spawn over-zealous young Malawians (well, I have in mind one specific one) that have loudly disowned everything Malawian in themselves and seek to visit their new found zeal upon us in 2022 (or thereabouts); the Scots are now championing the misguided belief that Malawi is no longer safe for us women and girls. who forgot to send my dad the memo when I was 11 that it was my cultural duty to get married off. Well, whoever forgot to send that is 18 years late as I am still reserving my bony wedding finger for that round piece of metal. Apparently, the ministry of education didn't receive the memo that none of it's schools are up to scratch either, pity.  That memo is 46 years too late.

The Polka Dot Kerchief

It is strange how some of life’s best spiritual lessons come about in the humblest of ways. I was on my wayto church when at the corner I run into a renegade church member. You know one of those embarrassing moments when you turn a blind corner and bam! Someone you didn’t plan on meeting is right on your side of the road. So yes, she looked at me sideways and I looked at her sideway (she with an apologetic ‘don’t judge me I’m only going to other churches now until our church sorts out its mess’ look and I with a judgmental ‘you renegade! It’s because of you that people say our church is falling apart’ look. Needless to say I thought up many self-righteous things once I had passed her and shortly up the walk I noticed she had dropped a kerchief. I am eternally ashamed that I walked right past, glancing once over my shoulder once , noting she had taken the corner to right, I justified myself for not turning back. I went on to completely forget about it, after all, I had efficiently ‘ju