*With thanks and apologies to Young Jeezy I had my first panic attack when I was 20. Up till that point, I’d never considered therapy, and had shrugged off the persistent lethargy and darkness that episodically enveloped me. I was an undergraduate psychology major, so I was especially cautious about throwing around labels like ‘anxiety’… Read More My Therapist is Black*
I barely pay attention to superhero/comic book movies unless they are directed by Joss Whedon. So last year’s pre-hype about the new incarnation of Wonder Woman passed me by. I caught the fever this year, however, upon watching the incredible trailer, and feeling that familiar but all too rare thrill of watching the story of a… Read More Representation Matters, but is it enough?
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)
Father’s Day is coming up in two weeks. You’ll be forgiven if you didn’t know that (though, perhaps not by your dad). It’s not exactly a deafening silence, but there is a distinct mutedness surrounding Father’s Day. The barrage of marketing and schmaltz and endless florals and pastels that accompanies the run-up to Mother’s Day is… Read More All I Want for Father’s Day
A number of years ago, when I was still working in the development sector, I visited an organisation working in an area in Mpumalanga that has high rates of ‘teen pregnancy’. Most of the visit was spent at the local primary school where I met girls as young as 13 who were balancing first-time motherhood and… Read More 16 and Pregnant in South Africa
Last year, when the country’s university campuses were in the thick of the 2017 wave of #FeesMustFall protests, I attended a reflection workshop hosted by the programme for which I was teaching at the time. Reader, it was not my finest hour. I was ostensibly meant to be co-facilitating the session, but ended up participating, vociferously,… Read More Lessons in allyship
They say a thin-skinned drum makes the loudest beat… Tumi Molekane, ‘Yvonne’ Many ages ago, a friend introduced me to South African hip-hop artist, Tumi Molekane. I loved him instantly. His flow is mesmerising and his lyrics are socially conscious and relevant à la Common or Talib Kweli. And although his accent is tinged with faux-American… Read More On thin-skinned drums
*Apologies and thanks to Gil Scott-Heron One of my favorite anecdotes from the iconic Tina Fey’s Bossypants concerns the equally iconic Amy Poehler. Poehler is in the Saturday Night Live writers’ room in the middle of a bit. Naturally (this is SNL after all), the bit is gross and graphic: Amy was in the middle of some… Read More The Revolution will not be Likeable*
Know that you are of woman born. You come from a long line of incredible, ferocious, extraordinary women. You carry all of their legacies and stories with you wherever you go. Honour that in every encounter with women throughout your life. The world will tell you it is okay to forget that you are of women;… Read More Things I Want to Tell My Son in this age when #MenAreTrash
About a year ago, a video on womanhood was doing the rounds on social media. It features a series of older women talking about what they feel younger women should and could do differently in today’s fast-paced world. The video was produced by a spa called Sanctuary, as part of their campaign to convince women… Read More All I Want for Mother’s Day
Rumbi Writes 
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