Rebel in a Bubble

Flower shop. Yesterday I went to a flower shop. My friend’s sister had given birth to a baby girl and I was on my way to the hospital to see them. The flower shop was packed, florists moving up and down, flower stalks being picked up from different vases and buckets and put together for different customers. It was like a bee hive!   Then I realised most flowers being prepared were wreaths. This week there’s been so much sad news everywhere. Note, that I say sad not necessarily bad. I’ve learnt that not all sad things are bad. Sometimes they are unexplainable courses of nature. Or so I believe. Anyhow, there I was amidst such colorful, beautiful flowers of all types, put together to celebrate the dead. There were daisies and roses and lots of flowers whose names I didn’t know. But they were beautiful, at least that I know.   A number of wreaths were on the floor while others were still being prepared on a huge table. The florists attended to them with such care you w...

No clue how to begin Dusty shoes all there in No mud to leave a mark Yet scars that blur the heart No sanctions to create some limit Beyond measure trying to zip it No hearts to decorate or draw But glitters everywhere show Oh my I could go mad I still think it's not so bad No heaven could be so pure Perhaps I sound imature But birds know no wings For all that ever wins Is flapping from sky to sky And wind does not stand by Perhaps I make no sense Even when I am so tense I tend to stutter About things that matter  

WHEN GOLD DIGGING ISN’T SUCH A BAD IDEA Recently I have talked to people and worked with clients/organisations that are asking the question; what is going on with today’s male child? I should say, that there are men who are on track, but popular opinion shows there is something that has gone completely wrong with today’s man. Some organisations blame it on the problem of absentee fathers in the recent centuries. I shall not mention names, as I prefer to write this like an ordinary observer in the web of our social norms, not a researcher or anything ‘official’. A long, long time ago, some people wrote books and told their children that the role of the man was to provide for his family. Years passed by, the man provided; the woman maintained the home and looked after her husband and her children. But as time went by, humans, as is their making, kept evolving and there were no bushes to hunt, and earth became very mean and difficult for man alone to provide. So woman also went o...

I WOULD LIKE TO WALK NAKED. On my recent visit to Kuron, in South Sudan, I found myself thinking how nice it would be if I walked naked? The people we visited are the Toposa, a very neglected tribe in   the south east of South Sudan. They are a sister tribe to the Karamojongs of Uganda and the Turkana of Kenya. They are quite a big group scattered all over East Africa, from Uganda to Ethiopia. Apart from being pastoralists, they are often known for not wearing so much. They are usually adorned in multicoloured beads and wrappers that they either wrap around their lower half or tie across one shoulder. Many sub tribes of this ethnic group in many countries have adopted the culture of clothes, even though they are usually the last ones in each country to shade off the traditional dress code of their ancestors. The Toposa of South Sudan however, have not yet fully embraced this stage of evolution. The very first people to wear modern clothes are the school girls and boys at t...

Feeling like a fool. So recently I make my way into the police station, to report a case. There were several officers in argument about I don’t remember what, and one of them offered me a seat. And to him I poured my unsettled heart, and he listened quite intently, and later called his colleagues to attention. “So this lady here,” he starts, in Luganda, I don’t know whether he thought I didn’t understand Luganda but it didn’t matter later because when I intercepted later in Luganda as well he still continued. “This lady here is reporting a case about someone that’s calling her.” “Does he threaten you?” asks one of them. “No, but-” I try to explain again. “He tells her sweet things. He vibes her” the officer I talked to comes in, smiling a little and the rest of the male officers look at me. “But lady,” one of them says, “women are meant to be courted. He is courting you”. I am thinking, Jesus Christ! “Yeah,” another one says. “Maybe he liked your eyes. You have beaut...