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.

 

THE AFRICAN PENGUINS!!!!!!

 

The African penguins are found off the coastlines of South Africa and Namibia, they breed on islands. Males and Female’s penguin look almost identical to each other so its kinder hard to tell which one is the male or female.

These penguins are vulnerable to extinction because of the oil spills that threatens the survival and also people would kill them for their eggs and that alone has led to the drop number of their population. The African penguins lay two eggs at a time and both parents take turns to incubate the eggs and in feeding the chicks. Chicks are the baby penguins, it takes between 38 and 42 days for the eggs to hatch.

The newly hatched chicks are blind and completely helpless and for the 30 days of the chicks lives the penguin parents protect and feed them until they are fully grown and can take care of themselves. These penguins can live under water for like 8 to 10 minutes without drowning.

They feed on small fish for survival and some ocean animals, they love busking in the sun to keep their bodies warm and staff. They kinder like look like birds hey when you like carelessly glance at them. African penguins used to be called the jackass penguins because of their braying call. I would like people to take a very good care of these animals as they can’t survive when they spilled with oil since their feathers are so short and cannot help them swim well in the waters.

Life in the streets

Living in the streets of East London is nothing new or scary anymore to the young man Xolile who’s only 20 years old. He moved from Centane to the big city to seek a better life, little did he know that the life he once dreamed of was just only a dream. He could go for days without food and sometimes he ate from the dustbins and that made him vomit and he had no choice but to go to bed on an empty stomach. He is living from begging people for food and money.

When things didn’t go as he imagined he resorted to drugs and pick pocketing people for a living. It is the survival of the fittest out there because not every day you get food and nice place to sleep on. It is dangerous even for the hobos at night, the old guys intimidate them and they beat them if they don’t follow their rules, like stealing for them.

In winter it’s even worse, there are no blankets to keep him warm from the cold. If I get lucky and find myself something warm to wear I pray wholeheartedly to the almighty even if the clothes are rags. I never imagined that I could be living from the streets and asking people for food let alone stealing from and sometimes it gets hard because I get forced to stab people when they try to resist me.

I cannot go back home, I don’t have money for transport and I don’t think I can be able to live without my drugs because they are inside my blood I live for them. I wouldn’t want my family to see me this way at least if I go back dead I won’t see the disappointment from my parents. I wish I can do better for myself and go back to school but it’s impossible, the drugs control my life. My life is so hard I sleep on concrete every night of my life with cupboards covering me, the police chase us from the streets and I find myself homeless for the second time. When I am high on my drugs nothing matters anymore I don’t feel anything, I don’t think about my family if they care or they’ve given up on thinking I am dead or something.