GIVING BACK TO THE COMMUNITY

The learners from Walter Sisulu University in East London who are doing their first year in media studies started a non-profit organization to help the underprivileged high school learners from around East London. The aim for this organization is to help young learners with school stationary and also sanitary towels for young adult women. It is so heart-warming to see other young adult learners embarking on journey to help others. They are also motivating these learners to never stop dreaming back and that they must never allow their condition from their homes to determine their destiny.

There is a saying that says ‘it takes a village to raise a child’ and these young learners proved that to be true. They are hoping that their organization will grow into a bigger organization so that they can be able to help other underprivileged learners not only from East London but all over Eastern Cape province and maybe all nine provinces.

              

They named their organization the Eastern for Africa Foundation, the first school to gain from these aspiring young journalist was Wongalethu high school from Duncan village in East London. They gave 25 learners school stationary and sanitary towels to young females. It has been a long journey for them because they have been up down looking for sponsors and it hasn’t been easy, but it was all worth it in end because they were able to help those learners.

   

          

AMAMPONDO TRADITIONAL ATTIRE.

Amampondo are a Southern African ethnic group, they are the descendants of the AmaMbo from the Transkei region in the Eastern Cape. They speak the Mbo language also known as isimpondo which is a mixture of isiZulu and isiXhosa. The pondo nation stretches from valley of Ingeli mountains to Libode, the Pondo people are very unique with their language and their traditional attire. They have beautiful landscapes and they are also rich in natural resources, their wildlife is very beautiful.

Most of the powerful and influential people come from this tribe, I am talking about the likes of Oliva Tambo and Winnie Madikizela.

The amampondo tribe have unique traditional dances and cultures, they own the imfene dance, where they make a train like line and then they dance to the rhythm of the maskandi song with their sticks waving in the air. Both men and women can perform imfene

Both men and women undergo a ceremony called umphahlo where they go to a certain place at night and dance and sing to their traditional songs and maybe one man can find himself a girlfriend. The pondo people love to dance a lot and they have the spirit of Ubuntu and they are very proud of their culture and their uniqueness. 

                                                      Mr Oliver Tambo Statue.

Mr Oliver Tambo was born on October 27 1917 at Nkantolo village in Bizana pondoland district, he was the president of the ANC during the apartheid regime. As a young boy Mr Tambo herd his father’s cattle with his fellow herders and he soon learnt to hunt birds, and took part in stick fighting and models animals from clay.

He attended school in Ludeke Methodist School which was not far from his homestead and also attended at Holly Cross Mission, for his tertiary education he was admitted to the university of fort hare. In 1940 was expelled for participating in a student strike. He was a teacher and then a lawyer.

His statue in Bizana was built to honour his memory and to let his legacy live on. The statue was built near the public library and everyone can go there and read all about him. The Bizana municipality also initiated a program under Mr Oliver Tambo to help those who do not have the means to go to university and further their studies, they help them with applying through university and pay for their fees especial the deserving children.

An old church in Bizana where Winnie tied the knot.

The Methodist church is an old building church in Bizana that was built in 1912 at Ludeke location. Nelson Mandela and Winnie Madikizela tied their knot in this very own church. The church is in Bizana at Ludeke circuit and it now an old building even the church members no longer use it. They’ve built a new church next to this old building and they didn’t demolish this one as it holds a significant history of this country.

Mr Mandela and Mam’uWinnie were married in June 1958. The Bizana municipality has decided into turning this church building into a monument or heritage site where everyone can come and read about the wedding that took place and other important historic things that happened in this church. Winnie was also a member of this church and she died a member of the church although she was now based in Johannesburg.

I believe that this church was also used as school during the apartheid regime and most of our Bizana heroes and heroines attended their primary education in this very own church and indeed this church holds a significant history. The big church ceremonies like the Easter ceremony is held in this church well the new building every year, all the surrounding circuits come to this church.

THE GERMAN SETTLER MONUMENT

German monument is built in east London, eastern cape to celebrate the centenary of the arrival of the first settlers. The memorial stands on the slopes of Signal hill on the esplanade of East London. The monument has the figure of the father mother and the son facing out to the ocean, behind the sculpture is a wall with panel and depicting and illustrating the history of the regions German immigrants

The German settlers first in East London in 1857 and they were recruited by queen Victoria’s secretary of war. They came here with their wives and children as military settlers to British kaffraria. The German settlers were promised the ownership of land and homes of their own.

The regional monument to the arrival of more than 2000 German men, women and children settlers has over the years cemented itself as one of the icons of East London’s esplanade. This monument is a tourist destination of some sort because anyone who had no knowledge about the German people in South Africa can come to this esplanade place and read all about it as there is some information on the wall about the settlers.

The German people were recruited to south Africa to fight in the Crimean war by queen Victoria’s secretary for war, the only immigrant’s settlers that were recruited were mostly the agriculturists and general labourers from the Prussian provinces of Uckermack.

UMEMULO

Umemulo is a traditional Zulu coming of age ceremony for women, it is an important ritual that celebrates a young girl’s journey into womanhood. This ceremony is done by the girl’s family and it is conducted by the father of the girl or the old uncle if the father is not around.

This ritual involves a lot of work by so many people who are going to be part of it, there must be a cow when this ceremony is conducted and a Zulu traditional beer to please the ancestors. This ceremony is done when the woman is in her 21 years of age, people think that only a virgin young woman is allowed to have this kind of ceremony, women with children also gets this ceremony.

When is young woman undergoes this ceremony old women teach her the values of life and how to respect her body and culture, but most importantly how to respect her parents and even other parents who are not her parents, as we all know that saying that says ‘umntwana wam ngumntwana wakho’.

There are other young girls who accompany the celebrated woman and they sing and dance to traditional songs. The woman gets presents from her family and her friends, her head is filled with money as the people stick it in.

The father then spills the girl with bile from the cow and also teach her more values.

ZULU TRADITIONAL HEALER.

Traditional healers are practitioners of traditional African medicines in the country, they use their medicine to heal people who are sick and do not believe in the western medicine. There are different types of traditional healers, and they are Isangoma, Inyanga, and Umthandazi.

All these types of traditional healers play different roles in helping people, using different kinds of mutis/traditional medicines to heal people’s sicknesses. Isangoma is healer who believes in ancestors to help them with their work of helping people of their illness and spiritual difficulties. Traditional healers use traditional huts and they keep all their staff there and this room is called isigodlo. Not everyone is allowed in that room and there are certain rules one need to follow when entering isigodlo, one of those rules is to take off your shoes and a woman cannot enter with their trousers on they must show some respect for abantu abadala.

Isangoma uses bones and impepho (incense) when talking with their spiritual ancestors and when someone came to them for assistance and guidance, there are different ways that the izangoma take when they are initiating or ukuthwasa, some they do it in the waters and some they do it in the wild. Being a sangoma is a special gift one gets from okhokho (ancestors) and one must obey their ancestors (amadlozi) because they can get angry if their orders are not followed. Every now then a sangoma needs to make umqombothi (a Zulu traditional beer) and slaughter a chicken to please their ancestors. They get names from their mothers who initiates them like Makhosi or gogo or thwasa. In their wrists they wear skins of a cow or goat and traditional beads and they have their own clothes that they wear. They carry with them ishoba that they use every time the spirits talk to them.