How Can Wangari Maathai Be Dead Though?

This woman was my idol, my heroine. I even blogged about her (you have to be pretty darn special for me to blog about you) and now she’s gone. Just like that. And I never even got to meet her. :(.

RIP Dr. Wangari Muta Maathai

Talent Spot; Thogi

Beautiful, smart, talented, driven, ambitious, did I mention beautiful?, passionate in one word; Thogi.

Nyambura Muthoga, model name Thogi, is a 23 year old Kenyan model who recently graduated from university with a degree in International Relations.

Modelling is more than just a woman posing for the camera. It’s an art, a form of self-expression, and Thogi, in all her mocha glory, is an amazing artist.

For more pictures and information visit;

www.gettingontherunway.wordpress.com

www.flavours.me/thogi

And

www.area1025.com for a full interview with Thogi.

Dad Impregnates Daughter & Blames Devil

Last night I decided to tune into the news on the radio and my God the story that I heard.

A Mangochi man has impregnated his 14 year old step-daughter. When asked why he did this, he claims that the devil had tempted him and he’d, unfortunately, succumbed to that temptation. It came to light that he has been sleeping with her since she was 13 years old.

Now, what baffled me most about this story was not the complete and utter shamelessness of this man, no. What baffled me the most, infuriatingly so, was what the police chose to do about it or rather, failed to do about it.

This paedophile will NOT go to jail and the police gave the following reasons:

1. It appeared that the girl, although she denies it and claims rape, was consenting.

2. They cannot charge incest as there is no blood relation between the two.

3. (And I must say this is a very stupid reason) The girl isn’t young enough for them to charge her step-father with the crime. So I assume they therefore deemed her an adult. An adult at 14 damn years old.

As I listened to the radio all I could think of was yelling “ARE YOU FREAKING KIDDING ME???!!!”. A 14 year old girl has allegedly been raped and threatened for over a year and now she’s pregnant and the police deem themselves powerless to correct the situation?? What sort of nation are we living in? Where the same institutions and people put in place to protect our youth are handing them right back to their abusers. Is this the message we want to send out? That our own country, our own policemen and women are FAILING to bring justice to those who are mistreated? So if the police are failing to protect our youth then who will? Are we just going to sit by and watch while grown men destroy the youth of our nation?

I am disappointed with the way this case was handled and I shall write to some members of parliament about this. We cannot let such people get away with these crimes.

We Dope Like That- Poem by Malawian Student Njabulo Dzonzi

Speedin’ down life’s slopes with no brakes,
Forget about the implications of our mistakes,
Wouldn’t even spend a second to consider cause,
We dope like that.
Who needs school when you can make easy money off
drugs,
We love being gangsters and hangin’ with thugs,
And forget what your parents say cause
We dope like that.
So H.I.V is out there, we’ll all die one day anyway, so if i
get it and i start with the caughin’,
Just make sure i got a good suit and look fresh to death
in my coffin,
Cause am dope like that…

Whoooooo!!

So today I finally met Q Malewezi, poet extrodinaire. It was just an amazing experience being in his presence. Guy just has a way of capturing the audience. Trust me, even if you go with a hardened heart he just has this WAY of making you listen.

Also, I met this lovely poet named Dave and hopefully he’ll email me soon so I can post some of his work here. He’s awesome too. I remember when I watched both he and Q perform I was just struck, star-struck. And when they were done I was clapping like mad, my jaw on the floor, baffled like a baboon.

I also met some lovely female Malawian poets and if they let me, I’ll. Also post their work here. Do you SEE!! Malawi is just bursting at the seams with RAW TALENT!!! It is my duty to display this to the world.

Sweet Nothings by Q Malewezi

Something needs to be next to nothing to be something
So when she told me that he meant nothing I wasn’t too
bothered
I still loved her because she had that special something
That made me into her nothing for her to be something
And ‘nothing’ became her favourite word when I asked her
What they were talking about or what she was doing or
thinking

So I decided to do something about my being nothing
I dried up her heart by holding back the rains of compliments
No more ‘baby how was your day’ and no more moaning
sessions
More hanging with the boys more passion but less
conversation
And yes less and less she felt till we saw eye to eye
Leaving me with the illusion that I was something

But all that was a lie because we became a pair of nothings
And nothing comes from nothing right
For rhythm to be, we need both noise and silence
And life is rhythm and that’s why everyone has it… right
Love is a conversation between noise and silence
Seeking the strength for my nothing in her
something

Some of us have mastered the noise of only our somethings
And have never achieved the stillness of our nothings
Living for self and not leaving any room for life’s rhythm
No rhythm for life’s melody of love to sing along to
It took me being still for her to hear my nothings
It took her being still for me to hear her somethings
It took being still to be whole and now
We pillow-talk about sweet nothings