What's on Mthoko's mind?

The concept of a king or chief, I believe, is as old as the concept of leadership & so, perhaps, is older than humanity itself seeing as many animal species have leaders. As the human population grew, empires began to form &, thus, emperors. The king (or emperor) was a man who sat around the fire to discuss the land & settle disputes with his advisors (early parliament & government) in antiquity. The king led his soldiers into battle as the monarch of his nation. The king entrusted certain people to ensure the tribe has water & crops, he would gather the best hunters to hunt for meat if there were no domesticated livestock, these were early ministers of agriculture & water security. The king would choose certain men to lead certain regiments (his commanders & generals). The role of a king was very hands on & advanced unlike the largely ceremonial figures we seem to have today.  If the king grew distant from his people, the people would get rid of him...

As AFCON is happening, I thought I should do a list of my Top 15 best footballers in African football history. Based on performance & accolades:  1) Samuel Eto'o 🇨🇲 2) Roger Milla 🇨🇲 3) Eusébio 🇲🇿 4) Essam El-Hadry 🇪🇬 5) Mohammed Salah 🇪🇬 6) Sadio Mané 🇸🇳 7) Abednigo Ngcobo 🇸🇿 8) Michael Essien 🇬🇭 9) Didier Drogba 🇨🇮 10) Rigobert Song 🇨🇲 11) Emmanuel Adebayor 🇹🇬 12) Jay-Jay Okocha 🇳🇬 13) Vincent Enyeama 🇳🇬 14) Laurent Pokou 🇨🇮 15) Kalusha Bwalya 🇿🇲 The names on this list are probably expected but some odd choices explained;  • Essam El-Hadry is an AFCON legend & applied his trade in diverse lands, he has the second most appearances for the Egyptian national team.  • Abednigo Ngcobo played during a time when black players in South Africa couldn't represent South Africa so a Black XI was chosen once for a one off occasion where they beat Argentina. He's probably the best footballer to come out of South Africa.  • Drogba at numb...

These are the leaders I feel made a monumental difference in the African continent & made improvements for the betterment of their people as well as Africans in general:  1) Hannibal: I feel this man is the original King Cetshwayo, he fought against the Roman Empire inflicting devastating defeats. He was a general in the Carthage military. I feel his name has echoed throughout history for a reason & should continue to be immortalized through the ages.  2) Akhenaten / Amenhotep IV: I, actually, did not believe that Egypt had black Pharoahs but to my surprise, they did. Egypt was conquered by an African tribe called the  Nubians  from further up the Nile.  3) Sankara. 4) Idi Amin: I feel Idi Amin Dada challenged the inferiority complex that is so frequently bestowed upon Africans. Even if some claim that he was mad, I think he turned the tables on the global status quo. When Africans were thought of as obedient & submissive to ...

Greetings reader of the What's on Mthoko's mind blog. A man's life can be full of heartache. Among these heartaches, he experiences as a teenager when an ex walks off with another or when a guy breaks up with his girlfriend. As we grow, we become indifferent to relationships, they become less new as we get used to adult hormones or when we get more stable partners & life partners in the form of spouses. Even so, a long time partner could simply divorce should there be  "irreconcilable differences" i. e. some kind of betrayal . This leads me to this story of the concept of being a traitor, whether it's being a traitor to a group of people, a nation or individual - I think it humane to, at least, explain your choice before pulling off any kind of betrayal stunts. I just watched a trailer to a Luis Figo documentary & the prime focus of this documentary was when he left Barcelona for Real Madrid. This after mocking Real Madrid when he won a trophy with Ba...

Energy in South Africa is, currently, a hot topic because the state's power supplier is allegedly said to be failing, as well as the constantly increasing price of petrol (gasoline). Some leaders of our land still feel there's a need for oil so they can get money from petrol tax & companies that want to mine oil in South Africa. I suppose SASOL could also make fuel from coal & that would benefit South Africa. But my argument will always lean towards electric powered vehicles & machinery because, personally, I like electric as opposed to fuel engine because electric vehicles & devices are easier to operate, service & repair. Fossil fuel is good for heavy duty vehicles because the battery on electric vehicles is heavy. In fact, it is said that electric vehicles are on average heavier than the average petrol-powered vehicle of the same class. But what could be done for vehicles over a specific weight category is simply add interchangeable solar panels on top wh...

I have little reference on the place of homosexuality in society other than religious scriptures but I'm not very religiously biased & believe all people have a right to live as they please so I, naturally, came up with an analysis.  The top four countries with the biggest gay populations are said to be 1) USA, 2) Thailand, 3) Brazil & 4) South Africa according to this suspicious source on Yahoo. It seems suspicious but probably does have a ring of truth. Note that multicultural countries do tend to have more homosexuals in their population for a much darker reason than we assume. Traumatic events in a country or individuals history tend to lead to homosexuality if not thoroughly analysed, identified & cured. What we should do more often as people is psychoanalyse where homosexuality comes from & use historical sources to find it's real purpose in our societies. I feel this should be done now more than ever because of the recent outbreak of the monkeypox disea...