Athambile Masola, Thought Leader
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| Athambile Masola |
“Every black African everywhere is rightly or wrongly
perceived to originate — a contentious concept in itself — from somewhere.
Almost overwhelmingly that somewhere is consensually assumed, indeed believed,
to be an idyllic village perched somewhere far away in rural crevices. Even
today, when someone asks you in the city, or at a dinner table somewhere in a
little town, where you come from, your heart beats a millisecond faster than
before. You break into a cold sweat, the wine and cognac you just consumed
quickly evaporates through the pores as you over-contemplate: Does he want to
know where I pay my taxes and my children go to school or where my folks,
mainly my grandparents, come from? It can be unsettling.”
— Bongani Madondo
