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How we roll in the townshipsWell, there you have it. Can you believe we have come to the end of 2011 already? It has been a year of momentous change, with some cataclysmic shifts. If you do not believe me, ask Muammar Gaddafi, Hosni Mubarak, Laurent Gbagbo, Silvio Berlusconi and... I promised myself I would try to avoid writing about him, but ja, Julius Malema. Somehow, for all these folks, life is not quite what it used to be, is it? And I would add that the world is a better place for it, but that is simply my not-so-humble and very subjective opinion.
Yet, for all the change that we have seen throughout the year, some things seem to remain the same year after year. Take Christmas. It is that time of the year when most South Africans spend money that they do not really have (sorry, Trevor, but some things simply never change), eat more food than they really should and, of course, drink more alcohol than is good for their health (and that is saying quite a bit because our alcohol consumption as a nation is legendary at the best of times, even before the annual Christmas ‘spike’).
Like most of us, Christmas for me has always included spending time with family and counting your blessings while overindulging and bingeing in a manner that would make the Kenny Kunene’s, Khanyi Mbau’s and David Mabilu’s of this world very proud.
Since I am of Venda-Xhosa origin, most of my Christmases over the years have been spent in the Eastern Cape or in Venda, with either side of the family. This was before I became a tad more ‘affluent’, and discovered the joys of holidaying in places such as Mozambique and Zanzibar like most of my fellow black Saffas who make up that wonderful group called “black diamonds”.
While television was selling us a Christmas brand of snow, Christmas trees, Santa Claus and all the other stuff that defines the typical westerner’s Christmas, our Christmases were often the complete opposite.
Instead of Christmas gifts, we had Christmas clothing. This is the clothing that your parents bought for you, which you were only allowed to wear on Christmas morning (you had kids walking around every Christmas morning showing off their brand new clothing, trying to decide whose attire was better).
Then, of course, we had a great many braais. At some stage you got so sick of meat (is that even possible?), you found yourself wanting to turn vegan (okay, maybe I exaggerate a little, but you get my point).
There are other things that have characterised my Christmases over the years, such as the copious amounts of “gemmer” (homemade ginger beer) that we drank throughout the holiday season. Also, the street bashes, when an entire street in the township gets closed off and people pull up in their cars while playing kwaito or house music quite loudly, take out their camping chairs and cooler boxes and spend the evening drinking and having mini dance competitions. Also notable are the many house parties that seem to go on throughout the Christmas period, and that most basic of township rituals – sharing a quart with your mates because you all want to drink loads of alcohol but realise you cannot afford to buy sufficient amounts of it on your own, so you put money together and buy a case, which you end up sharing with the boys.
Over the years, as we have grown up, these things have reoccurred, simply in a different manner. So, for example, instead of sharing a case of quarts with mates, we now sit down and share some quality whisky; and instead of walking around showing off Christmas clothing, guys turn up in their brand-new cars and try to outdo each other in terms of who has the latest, funkiest gadgets – the more things change, the more they stay the same, isn’t it?
Christmas is a special time of the year, filled with many timeless moments and much wasteful spending, but what strikes me as most amazing about this season is that despite the different ways we celebrate and the different experiences that we have, fundamentally we are celebrating the same values that bind us together as human beings.
My hope is that however you celebrate your Christmas, you would get to experience these in some measure: family, love, giving as well as camaraderie.
Mugabe Ratshikuni
