Proudly South African

fisherman....umdloti beach


monkeys in the backyard



night skies...bela bela



bela bela....mpumalanga



johannesburg from westcliff

what is it about ex pats/immigrants...or those people who leave their home countries and settle "where the grass is greener"....more often than not they spend their time, trying to convince themselves that they have done the right thing.it is a lifelong comparison between what they left behind and the lives they are living.

what beats me is the superior holier than though attitude, they exude, especially when they have settled in first world countries. i attended a family dinner some time back, in attendance were family and neighbours (note i do not say friends) now settled in Toronto Canada, my dander had risen octaves at the dinner conversation, because they spent the evening lambasting all the ills that is south Africa. pray, tell me ,why do they take retirement packages and return to this horrible savage land. or why are their kids enjoying cheap university educations in South Africa? when they are now citizens of another country.it's cheaper,... dunh!!! . and here i am paying my tax, living in the third world and not enjoying all these benefits. when they left for greener pastures, nary a thought was given to this country or its development, so why rape our good nature now. if you have nothing good to say then don't say anything at all.

i am a firm believer,that, when one decides to immigrate the objective is to embrace your adoptive home warts and all, having one foot in South Africa and another (for argument sake) in Canada serves no purpose. it manages to ensure that the immigrant remains rootless and unhinged, never knowing where they belong. the same applied to my forefathers when they arrived in South Africa, the difference is that we became and are South African. yes my grandfather was born in the village of Kholvad in the state of Gujarat in India, and that makes us of Indian origin. the Indian we are is a cultural and ethnic one, what i truly am is A South African. my accent, my manner,my obligations, when i sleep at night the sounds of the African night, my neighbours dogs, the cursing drunk walking down the road, the screeching cars, the smells these are all African, they belong to the soul of me,

my eyes do not close nor my nose smell, the spicy scents of India, the smell of raat ki raani, jasmine,vendors singing their beautiful tunes in Hindi,Gujarati,Malayalam, the flat guttural tones of South African accents are my lullaby.the vast blue skies, the ever present smiling sun, the browns of the highveld,....these speak to my soul.

i am but a visitor in the land of my ancestors, the shiny brown of my skin, the lustrous curl in my hair, my little nose and almond eyes, they are evidence of my ancestry, a history that adds value and spice to my home, the land that is South Africa.

this is the feeling you should have when you immigrate to another country, lording it over what you deem your country bumpkin cousins, and feeling superior because you have made it out,...is not testimony to being of any country. it smacks of displacement and anxiety, a feeling of non belonging. so i can say i am South African and proudly so.

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