I don’t want to be an angry black woman. Trust me. No-one wants to carry around this bile, bubbling just under the surface of every interaction one has. I also don’t care to fulfill whatever stereotypical view people hold about black women. There are so many of those, aren’t there? About our sexuality, our bodies,… Read More Angry Black Woman
In the midst of an exhausting week, news broke of a paper published by University of Cape Town Professor Nicoli Nattrass in which she posits a few reasons for the low numbers of black South African students who choose to study environmental and natural sciences. She writes: [Such subjects] struggled to attract black South African… Read More The Unbearable Whiteness of the Environment
You are not an accident where no one thought it through The world has stood against us, made us mean to fight for you And when we chose your name we knew you’d fight the power too Brandi Carlile, ‘The Mother’ In late 2014, I was six months pregnant and watching in horror as a… Read More There is no answer, but my children are the answer
My husband almost died last year. It is exactly as dramatic as it sounds. For all of my attempts to reduce it, reshape it, banish it from our minds and hearts, it is what happened. At some point during the terrifying 48 hours in which his condition was worsening, there were two battles raging. The… Read More Weathering
My son started at a new school a week or so ago. Other than his father, he is the bravest person I know, and I know he is going to be just fine. In time, he will be fine. In the meantime, there are wobbles here and there. I am doing my very best… Read More Black Boy Joy
When I was 8-years-old, I had a friend named Jade. Jade lived next door and was an only child to adoring, attentive parents. I was a year or so older than her and we went to different schools, but we bonded over our shared admiration for her impressive suite of Barbies. Her parents weren’t crazy… Read More Heavy Hangs the Head
Motherhood. They say it takes a village, and let me tell you, ‘they’ were understating it. The truth is, it takes several villages, one for each child, and then one for each life stage your children will drag you through. One of the villages I have sought constant comfort from is that of fellow mothers. Woman… Read More #MamahoodSoWhite
According to all manner of South African media, it was #BlackMonday yesterday. Although I did not wear black or pray for the lost lives of South African farmers, I could not escape the blackness of the day. It rolled over me as I scrolled through pictures of white people proudly displaying the old South African… Read More Just another tragic Monday
Or is that 800,000 problems? That’s more or less the amount of money that infamous Walter Sisulu University student, Sibongile Mani, spent of the millions that were mistakenly deposited into her account by some hapless financial firm entrusted with the management of National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) funds on behalf of her school. Much… Read More 14 Million Problems and Mani is Only One
Parents of black children do not have it easy. The world is an ugly place, but it saves its most brutal faces for black people. But even before all that, before our children learn of the violence, both casual and profound, that lies in their path, there are the awful silences. Children’s stories, in print,… Read More On the beauty of black story(tellers)
Rumbi Writes 
You must be logged in to post a comment.