What's on Mthoko's mind?

Port Shepstone is a small town on the south coast of KwaZulu-Natal known by the locals as "eSayidi".  In Port Shepstone, attractions include; Port Shepstone Museum, the annual Sardine Rush, a mall, two shopping centres & the beach.  Port Shepstone was settled by British, Boers & Norwegian settlers during colonisation.  By Port Shepstone is the suburb of Marburg where it's said Emperor Shaka met with Henry Francis Fynn in 1828 after the Zulu's Mpondoland campaign in present-day Eastern Cape. Descendants of Norwegian settlers in KwaZulu-Natal include cricket all-rounder Lance Klusener & South Africa's most successful football coach Gordon Igesund.  Despite many groups living in Port Shepstone including those of east African, west African, southern African, Asian, Arab & American descent, it remains a Zulu-speaking town.  Famous names to come from this small town called Port Shepstone include:  • Naima Kay (Singer...

If there's history to be learnt at school, it's the history I'm about to write below because we seldom hear of anything other than King Shaka in our history. We forget that there were empires & chiefdoms he worked with during his time & that existed before his time. Who he perhaps borrowed the concept of his Zulu state from. Because we often do think that King Shaka sprang out of nowhere & what he was doing was unsual. But we don't think "Yes, his deeds were unusual but were maybe not uncommon." Because when we look further into our history, we find that the ancient King Dlamini himself was said to have united the Swazi nation in a similar way to King Shaka & further into the Zulu clan's history, King Munguni united the Qwabes, Mbathas, Ndwandwes, Gumedes & people of the original Zulu kaMalandela as amaNguni. So today I have decided to shed a little light with what I've learned from various historical sources including maps, books, ...

A lot of my former peers are in Gauteng, Cape Town & even various places overseas. This could've been me if I was more responsive to peer pressure. I truly believe one of the main reasons KZN is not on par with, at least, the Western Cape is because of the exodus of it's sportsmen, academics & intellectuals. There's almost a hidden agenda to get talent out of KZN. The equation is simple, the more educated people there are in a place, the more cultural & economic development they make. Now, when all the academics & learned people of the province are running off to other provinces, it becomes more difficult to compete economically. Uneducated people can literally have all their resources stripped away from them because they don't have the know-how to use them optimally. Uneducated people would rush off to get foreign resources even if they had the capability to obtain the same resources in their country, that is "A failure to use their minds" as ...

If you read some of my blogs, you'll notice that I study history a lot. I was searching for old currencies used in South Africa one day a few years back & discovered something which was called by indigenous people of KZN as "ukhence" or "inkence" . To this day, a colloquial word for money by indigenous people is "inkence". This currency was said to be so popular among indigenous people that it infiltrated popular culture of the time viz. "Wangishaya ngokhence."  Officially called Stratchan & co. token coins , it was likely the first mainstream currency used by indigenous people other than cattle, tools, weapons & crops even though it was said to be minted in England.  Examples of Strachan & co. token coins & coin denominations. They claim the hole was so indigenous people could wear it with beads but maybe it was also for the practical purpose of saving metal to make the coins.  The Str...

I am a Mpofana & not exactly proud of that fact but believe in justice & see it fit that we as the Mpofana obtain our former lands, these being:  • the area where my ancestor Geya lived by Harding, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa,  • the area south of Durban (known as The Bluff) & surrounds,  • the area where Mpofana Local Municipality currently is. These could be three chiefdoms where three Mpofana kings/chiefs (Swazi or Zulu-speaking) could rule over. N. B. Any Mpofana that lives in those areas to be chiefs. It would be strange having a chief that does not live in his chiefdom. We see all these tribes & families getting their lands back because of South Africa's land restitution programme & I see fit that the Mpofana should obtain the lands they ruled just two centuries ago.