My Destruction

By Vusi Moloi © 2009

from A Goodbye To My Little Troubles

The manufacturer
of this little thing
wanted to save it
from being burnt out
he engraved six volts
that no one should make
a mistake about it

In the same way providence
Preserve my existence
in some various ways
Don’t increase my disadvantage
like a very high voltage
For this little lamp
that lights my way
will be snuffed out
Nothing will be left
but my destruction

Contextual Commentary

Facing unrelenting adversity on his own inevitably engendered a feeling of being headed in the direction of a destructive path. The author reasoned and appealed to the Creator to remember the capacity of the creation. The author, who had known adversity since very early in life, had still not mastered the mental skills characteristic of other humans like Tibetan monks or the great Sangomas of South Africa. Each adversity made him feel as if he was a beginner and, thus, vulnerable to destruction.

About the Author

A former South African Television Journalist, Vusi Moloi is a published author of a contextual poetry book, A Goodbye To My Little Troubles, and maintains a blog, Zulumathabo on the Internet.

The African Goddess

By Vusi Moloi © 2009

Excerpt from the book A Goodbye To My Little Troubles by Vusi Moloi.

In the dark days
of my unhappy youth
I heard of your truth
Oh African Goddess, Mantsopa.
You forewarned the advent
of the invaders of the indigenous land

When I wandered blindfolded
to your historic cave near Ladybrand
your admirers spoke well of you
as a purveyor of ancient African wisdom
Nonetheless, my disdain,
blindfolded me from seeing
your physical and spiritual beauty
inside the cave
Your heart dripped with blood.

Oh African Goddess, Mantsopa
Today I sob in North America
cut off from South Africa
greatly saddened by what
the blindfold had done to me.
Mantsopa, Motherland Goddess,
My disdain was a brain drain,
and my adage that of mundane
So that I knew little
of my African heritage.
Maybe I fit Dr. Bhengu’s book:
Chasing Gods Not Our Own

Today across the Atlantic
I have shed the blindfold
like Shaka Zulu wiping izembe
or the great black mamba
shedding its fearsome skin
My wounded and parched soul
has vehement desire for you
grant me another chance
that I may have the experience
of that ancient African wisdom

Contextual Commentary

The great King of Zululand, Shaka, regularly performed a cleansing ceremony referred as “ukusula izembe” whenever he returned from a battle. The purpose of the ceremony was to remove or cleanse the blood stains from the spear. A female was believed to possess the cleansing powers.

Dr. Sibusiso Bhengu was named to the cabinet of President Nelson Mandela in 1994. Dr. Bhengu’s book, Chasing Gods Not Our Own, was based on his academic work on the process of acculturation.

The author gratefully attributes his appreciation of the great spiritual work of Mantsopa to the women of QwaQwa. These beautiful and kind-hearted women shared their cultural knowledge of indigenous spirituality with the author. The highly revered Mantsopa Makhetha (1793-1905) was a spiritual prophetess and also advisor to the great King Moshoeshoe of the Basotho people.

The scholarly friend of the author Dr. Tladi Lerotholi of the University of Lesotho pointed out, while meeting with the author at the University of St. Paul in Ottawa, Canada that Mantsopa had a contrarian view of the proverbial narrow path vis-à-vis the broad path in that she consistently asserted that it was the broad path that led to the heavens in order to accommodate more people and not the narrow path as professed by the European missionaries.

It’s the author’s view that the missionary declaration of a narrow path seems to mirror the capitalist societies where the missionaries originate in that the path to the heavens is equivalent to a scarce resource afforded only by the selected few. The author is also grateful to other sons and daughters of the African soil who continue to pay homage to the great Mantsopa like Ntate Thabo Makotoko, the highly respected social scientist and former Ambassador of Lesotho to Canada Dr. Gwendolyn Malahleha, former Minister of the Lesotho Embassy in Canada Ntate Sofonia and his family, the late Princess Maseiso of the Lesotho Royal Family and descendant of King Moshoeshoe and numerous others.

Mantsopa was later exiled by King Moshoeshoe to Mooderpoort where the author visited her sacred cave. The sacred shrines of Mantsopa enjoy active pilgrimage from various parts of South Africa and Lesotho and her sites are a candidate for the UNESCO’s World Heritage List.

About the Author

A former South African Television Journalist, Vusi Moloi is a published author of a contextual poetry book, A Goodbye To My Little Troubles, and maintains a blog, Zulumathabo on the Internet.

Well Deserved Order of Merit for Mr. Chrétien

By Vusi Moloi © 2009

Canada’s most popular and former Prime Minister Mr. Jean Chrétien has been honoured with a rare Order of Merit by the Queen of England. The royal prestige, described as a British and Commonwealth Order, inducts the deserving Mr. Chrétien into an exclusive royal organization which is restricted to 24 members and a few foreign individuals who can be inducted by the monarchy as honorary members. This places Mr. Chrétien alongside a very small number of foreign luminaries who belong to the Order of Merit like South Africa’s elder statesman and Nobel laureate Mr. Nelson Mandela, Mother Teresa, US President General Dwight Eisenhower, and Dr. Albert Schweitzer among others. Mr. Chrétien is the third Canadian to be honoured in this fashion after Prime Minister Mackenzie King and Nobel laureate Prime Minister Lester Person. This writer has made pilgrimages to the Mackenzie King estate as well as the cemetery of Lester Pearson both in the Quebec Province.

Special Mark of Honour

In a statement issued by the Press Secretary to the Queen in Buckingham and published in the official website of the British Monarchy, it was noted that the Order of Merit was founded in 1902 by King Edward the VII “as a special mark of honour conferred by Sovereign on individuals of exceptional distinction in the arts, learning, sciences and other areas such as public service.” This was an important milestone for King Edward VII in the early part of his monarchy.


Queen Elizabeth II and Jean Chretien - from BritishRoyalFilms of Youtube

The royal statement further noted that appointments to the Order were “in the Sovereign’s personal gift” and that ministerial advice was not required to make the appointment meaning it was not necessary to ask the permission of the Canadian Prime Minister Mr. Steven Harper prior to honouring Mr. Chrétien.

Honour Vindicates Mr. Chrétien

This Order of Merit will go a long way to vindicate Canada’s most popular Prime Minister in recent history who consistently campaigned very hard and courageously on behalf of the African people culminating in the invitation of African leaders like former South African President Mr. Thabo Mbeki in the G8 Conference held in Kananaskis in the province of Alberta in 2002 as mentioned in the book A Goodbye To My Little Troubles. The Order of Merit medal is described as “an eight-pointed cross of red and blue enamel surmounted by the imperial crown; in the centre, upon blue enamel and surrounded by a laurel wreath, are the words in gold lettering 'For Merit'.”

Mr. Chrétien’s Liberal Party utterly destroyed the Progressive Conservatives of Canada’s Irish Prime Minister Mr. Brian Mulroney in 1993 enabling Mr. Chrétien to rule Canada for 10 years until he was succeeded by his Finance Minister and former Prime Minister Mr. Paul Martin in 2003. Mr. Chrétien was made a companion of the Order of Canada in 2009. Among his impressive achievements was the Charter of Rights which he made into law in 1982 as part of the Canadian Constitution together with Canada's legend Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau and Queen Elizabeth II. Mr. Chretien was the Minister of Justice at the time.

Peacemaking Skills of King Edward VII

The Order of Merit is a highly respected royal honour and its founder King Edward VII was known for his peacemaking skills in promoting international friendships on the globe. He played a pivotal role in promoting peace between the French and the British especially since the relations between the two nations had broken down as a result of the Anglo-Boer War that raged in the period of 1899 to 1902 in South Africa. Interestingly King Edward VII only became King at an old age of 60 and ruled for 9 years until his death in 1910. King Edward VII was the son of Queen Victoria whose troops suffered a crushing defeat in 1879 in the Battle of Isandlwana in the present day Province of KwaZulu Natal where the fiery Zulu King Cetshwayo, after refusing to kowtow to Queen Victoria, destroyed several battalions of British soldiers. That battle marked the only known timeline in history where the Imperialist forces of England lost to an army of the indigenous people of the land. The son and only child of the French Emperor Bonaparte III, Prince Imperial Napoleon Bonaparte perished in this Anglo-Zulu War after he was struck down by a salvo of Zulu spears before being disemboweled. Disembowelment was meant to prevent the revengeful spirits of the French Imperial Prince from coming after the Zulu fighters.

Queen Victoria got into big trouble afterwards partly because it was believed that her beautiful daughter Princess Beatrice had an affair with Prince Imperial Bonaparte and Queen Victoria had hoped he would marry her. Instead Louis pursued an affair with another irresistible beauty of Spain Princess Isabella II which was not to the liking of Queen Victoria. Some accused her of sending Louis to his death in Zululand since she worked hard hard to get him to join that war placing him under the special care of Baron Chelmsford a British General at the time in South Africa. The death of Louis was a tragic blow to the hopeful continuity of the Bonaparte dynasty which started with Napoleon Bonaparte in 1799 and the French were understandably angered by it. He had already been declared Napoleon VI prior to his death. His father was the last Emperor before the third Republic.

About the Author

A former South African Television Journalist, Vusi Moloi is a published author of a contextual poetry book, A Goodbye To My Little Troubles, and maintains a blog, Zulumathabo on the Internet.