Good to be, and have a "River" -- all at the same time...

I had this kind of 59th birthday weekend, Family (best viewed, full-screen)!:

'Rest in peace, Madiba. Thank you for everything.'

My youngest son called me today to tell me that Nelson Mandela had died. I didn't know.

I'd been almost totally tuning out all TV (except for The Dog Whisperer twice a day) because of all those, "Buy this! Buy that!  Get yourself knee-deep in debt you can't afford!" ads since the Black Friday madness began.  I thanked him, and then sat with myself to reflect on what I deemed my then, very small voice for divestment and revolution in South Africa after graduating from college in 1978.

My headline above, taken from The Daily Maverick, encapsulates Mandela's life for those younguns and others unfamiliar but, my most favorite take-away from the piece, comes from the Madiba I loved the most!:

On 12 June 1964 the judge found all but two of the prisoners guilty and sentenced them to life imprisonment. Mandela was sent to Robben Island, where he would remain for the next 18 years. During his time there his mother and son died, his second wife Winnie was banned and subjected to relentless harassment by the apartheid police, and the ANC became a movement in exile. In March 1982, along with Sisulu, Andrew Mlangeni, Ahmed Kathrada and Raymond Mhlaba, Mandela was transferred to Pollsmoor Prison. President PW Botha offered him conditional release in 1985, in return for renouncing the armed struggle, but he refused, saying: "What freedom am I being offered while the organisation of the people remains banned? Only free men can negotiate. A prisoner cannot enter into contracts." (emphasis mine)

The Changeling will, no doubt, be in attendance at the funeral, totally oblivious to what that last emphasized sentence above even means -- much less, "taking history in his hands and bending the arc of the moral universe towards justice!"  Too bad.  Unlike the Emeli Sandé we see below, his half-white/half-African self was NEVER as socially conscious as she:



In this special edition of IDEAS, entitled "The Mandela Tapes" (a podcast which this old-head has still not figured out how to post!), Rick Stengel, a young reporter chosen to record Mandela's life story, was working in South Africa for Rolling Stone magazine. From 1992 to 1996, Stengel shadowed Mandela, using his small cassette machine to record the stories which would help in the writing of Mandela's autobiography, 'Long Walk to Freedom'.  Listen to it Family, then, draw your own conclusions.

Peace...

Related:
- Mandela: a Dissenting Opinion
- Telling the Truth About Nelson Mandela
- NELSON ROLIHLAHLA 'MADIBA' MANDELA: AMANDLA!
- U.S. Lionizes Mandela In Death … But Treated Him as a Terrorist While Alive
- Celebrating a life fully lived: Rest in power brother Madiba
- NYT Takes Mandela's Death as a Chance to Mock His Fight to Free His Country
- ANC on Mandela: 'The Large Baobab Tree Has Fallen'
- Nelson Mandela: Obama, Clinton, Cameron, Blair – Tributes of Shameful Hypocrisy
- Mandela will never, ever be your minstrel.

End of self-imposed "Radio Silence"

I realized I needed to just be still the last month or so as life happened around me.  Plenty's made me stop and look at where I've been, where I am -- and most importantly, where I'm going in relation to this perennially, screwed-up country and world in which we live.  "Radio Silence" was necessary for my soul.

A family member's debilitating illness that led to yet another funeral this year, along with frustrations with my only brother and thousands of miles driven with my road-dog, Blanca as a result -- have all had me carefully ordering my steps.

I'll publish the final part of "Preserving cultural identity in the face of institutionalized white supremacy: Another Home-going -- Pt. 1" about Veronica Brown tomorrow because I just have to, then I'll move on to Part 2 of the series which has been bouncing around in my head like crazy given all I've been processing lately.  In the meantime, listen to my beautiful, young sister sing about what I've been deeply feeling about US since I've been gone:



Hang in there with me, Family...

Tonight...

Thank you, A-Beat -- cuz this is what I'm feelin' tonight (full screen is best!):



*bows, low* -- SO  MUCH Dignity and Respect for these young warriors (from an Old Head for whom the obvious is often painful)...

Emeli Sandé -- Live at The Royal Albert Hall

I watched this incredibly classy, beautiful young woman on PBS last night while trying to get away from the show-all-your-naked-ass, patriarchal and sex-driven, superficial "entertainment" (and I use that word lightly) usually offered up by network TV today -- and exhaled.

I'm absolutely in love with this daughter of a Zambian father and British mother -- born and raised in Scotland!

Let's be clear -- I could give two shits about Beyonce allegedly shearing her locks (do we even know they were actually her locks, or those she bought for effect?  I'm just sayin').   IMHO, she's got nothing on the young, beautiful, tastetful, respectful of her elders (no alleged owl costume for her, even as she stands in the individuality of her tats!) and socially conscious, Ms. Sandé who is certainly, globally -- of the diaspora.  She's who I thought WE would be after hundreds of years of slavery and Jim Crow (seems her audience is on that same page, even as the majority of her back-up singers and musicians reflect her African heritage)...



I watched her earlier this year on Tavis Smiley's show and thought to myself, "This is how that whole integration thing should have played itself out -- that the progeny of such a union would see, hear and feel -- "the truth."  Then, I bought everything of hers on iTunes that I could. Please do enjoy the profound beauty of this young Sister why don't you...



I think Labrinth will definitely be giving John Legend a run for his money, literally -- no?



How many of us have Best Friends "who keep our head above the water?"



"If you're too big to follow rivers, how you ever gonna find the sea?" Lawd ha' mercy, this child is such an old soul (I hear Nina whispering)!!



'Tis not that bullshit "Hope," dribbling from the Changeling's lips on the regular that's for damned sure!  She makes me proud.