Latest news with #Bantu
TimesLIVE
3 days ago
- General
- TimesLIVE
Unifying fish curry and pap
This month commemorated the June 16 youth killed in 1976 in Soweto while protesting the injustice of one of apartheid's most evil tools of oppression: Bantu education. Enforced in 1953 as a racially segregated and inferior education system for black South Africans, it aimed to destroy minds, imaginations and self-esteem, stripping black people of everything but the need and desire to serve white people, to instil the belief in racial hierarchy and white superiority. The 1976 Soweto uprisings contributed to the eventual dismantling of apartheid and brought international attention to the injustices of Bantu education and apartheid laws designed to divide and conquer. I'm enraged by the cruelty and injustice in the country and world now. What can we do to make a difference and create a more united, liberated world around us? Creating a feeling of home for myself and those I care about is one of my life's missions. Feeling at home is medicine. Food creates a sense of belonging because everyone everywhere eats. It is what makes us human. If we learn to understand people through food and how to touch someone's heart through their taste buds, the world would feel like a softer place. Where people are divided and pitted against each other, food can be a tool to build a sense of value and that every individual is important. Food can send messages that we are loved, seen and worthy and have a right to exist and tell our story. Fish curry and pap, also called Kali, is a dish eaten in KwaZulu-Natal where people of Indian, Zulu, European and mixed heritage unite and enjoy eating it with their fingers. It is a recipe for love and unity. Fish curry and pap Serves 4-6 Fish curry ingredients: 2-3 tbsp coconut oil 1 tsp mustard seeds 1 tsp coriander seeds 1 tsp cumin seeds 2-3 dried red chillies a handful of curry leaves 2 large cinnamon sticks 1 large onion, sliced 5 tsp medium Packo Masala or similar 5 tsp chilli powder (or less) 1 tsp turmeric powder 1 tsp cumin powder 1 tsp coriander powder 1 can tomatoes 8-10 cloves of garlic 2 tbsp tamarind paste 1kg kingklip, hake or similar white fish, cubed Method Prepare all the ingredients — peel garlic, chop onions, use a blender or food processor to purée tomatoes and set aside. Add oil to a pot, add mustard seeds, cumin seeds, coriander seeds, red chillies, curry leaves and cinnamon Once the mustard seeds start popping, add onion Once golden brown, adjust to medium heat Add masala, chilli powder, turmeric, coriander power, cumin powder Add tomato and garlic, then cook until a chutney Add tamarind, mix well Add fish and close the pot without stirring Allow to cook for 10-15 mins.
Daily Maverick
24-06-2025
- General
- Daily Maverick
Embracing imperfection: Why I choose authentic errors over AI's polished prose
I want to delete Grammarly and other AI editing software. Because I want to make the same old and authentic syntax errors. I want to write with grammatical mistakes and spelling errors, because there is something very sexy and original about that. I want to stop using platforms that impose prefabricated styles, that insist on front matter and formatting before truth, that demand cover pages as if meaning needs a passport. These are bureaucratic standards rooted in Euro-American notions of order, hierarchy and tidiness. They do not understand my Bantu education context. They cannot interpret my African oral tradition metaphors and Inanda proverbs. They want to universalise thought and smooth over difference with bias. Because writing in English is itself a struggle and a triumph. Full stop. My stylistic mistakes represent writing back to the Empire. Writing to my own audience, who understand both the meaning and the context of what I say. My grammatical mistakes are not accidents. They are resistance. They are freedom. Full stop. Writing with invention Every so-called syntax error Africans make is Shakespearean. It is writing with invention, bending language into meaning. And yes, we interchange past and present, call he she, and arrive at a point in a roundabout way. Because our lives are circular. Our stories spiral. Our logic loops back. We always return to where we started, no matter how long the journey takes. Like rondavels. Like amaziyoni, round and round. This reality does not fit the templates of the Empire. That is why our Bantu education English is marked with red and blue lines, suggesting changes that must be made. They are not corrections, actually. They are borders we must refuse to respect. Microsoft Editor doesn't understand this spiral. It treats my detours as mistakes and my emphasis as overreach. It flags sentences that carry emotional weight, asking me to 'clarify' what is already felt deeply. But our writing is not always for clarity. Sometimes it is for echo. For memory. For return. Grammar and AI proofreading platforms are part of an epistemicide. They dictate how we think, what we say and how we conclude meaning. They tell us to break paragraphs that carry too much emotion. They whisper: 'Too many ideas in one sentence.' But what if our thinking is braided? What if our logic spirals like praise poetry? Do you think Mazisi Kunene's epic would have made it through these softwares that dislike our metaphors and flag our proverbs? These things want our stories boiled and trimmed, polite and universal. These tools are like an excited first-time supervisor — insecure in his authority — imposing his will over students, mistaking dominance for mentorship. QuillBot is even more dangerous. It does not just suggest, it rewrites. It paraphrases away the soul of the sentence. It swaps out rhythm for neatness, fire for flatness. It does not understand that when we say: 'I am going to borrow you money,' we are not being incorrect. We are being intimate, local, rooted. QuillBot wants fluency, but not flavour. It wants output, not voice. Their proofreading is ideological Their proofreading is not just technical. It is ideological. It trims dissent. It disarms memory. It says: 'Consider softening your tone,' as if we are too sharp, too raw, too untrained in their image. But we were trained differently. Our street education was cracked but full of soul. Using Grammarly is like asking a colonial governor to edit your liberation song. He will suggest changing 'freedom' to 'civil order'. Microsoft Editor will break your verses into neat administrative bullet points. And QuillBot may reword your pain into a LinkedIn update. They may delete the drumbeat altogether. These platforms are a free pass to newspaper sub-editors — they simply copy, cut (for length) and paste. So bring back my Bantu education English. Bring back the crooked tenses and the double negatives that know what they mean. Return my split infinitives, my hyperbole, my outrage. Bring back the brokenness that speaks whole truths of my background. I do not need correction. I need patience. My language does not need fixing. It needs listening. I quit proofreading software. I return to my Bantu Education English. Its structure may not be polished, but its meaning glitters. PS: Busani Ngcaweni grew up at Inanda. At the local Gingqimboza Primary School, his English teacher never came to class — she was doing life, getting married and having babies. At Ohlange High, his English teacher from Phoenix only taught novels, asked girls to sign Whitney Houston and practised yoga, not a single grammar lesson per curriculum requirement. DM
IOL News
16-06-2025
- Politics
- IOL News
Mashatile's keynote on youth empowerment: A look at South Africa's progress since 1994
Deputy President Paul Mashatile delivered the keynote address during the Youth Day commemoration. Image: Jairus Mmutle/GCIS Deputy President Paul Mashatile has delivered his keynote address at the government's National Youth Day commemoration event in Potchefstroom, North West. In his keynote address, Mashatile took the opportunity to reflect on what he termed the major victories of the democratic dispensation. 'While challenges remain, allow me to briefly reflect on some of the major victories that our democratic dispensation has registered in advancing youth empowerment since 1994,' said Mashatile. 'Firstly, at the Basic Education level, we have transformed the matric pass rate from 58% in 1994 to a historic 87.3% in 2024. This is the result of three decades of making education an apex priority of government. Video Player is loading. Play Video Play Unmute Current Time 0:00 / Duration -:- Loaded : 0% Stream Type LIVE Seek to live, currently behind live LIVE Remaining Time - 0:00 This is a modal window. Beginning of dialog window. Escape will cancel and close the window. Text Color White Black Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Opaque Semi-Transparent Background Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Opaque Semi-Transparent Transparent Window Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Transparent Semi-Transparent Opaque Font Size 50% 75% 100% 125% 150% 175% 200% 300% 400% Text Edge Style None Raised Depressed Uniform Dropshadow Font Family Proportional Sans-Serif Monospace Sans-Serif Proportional Serif Monospace Serif Casual Script Small Caps Reset restore all settings to the default values Done Close Modal Dialog End of dialog window. Advertisement Next Stay Close ✕ Ad loading 'Our basic education system has gradually transformed whilst redressing the generational legacies of Verwoerd's Bantu education system. While we are not yet where we wish to be, we are also far from the inequality and disregard inherited in 1994,' he said. Secondly, Mashatile said in higher education, South Africa's National Student Financial Aid Scheme has been a catalyst for widening access to higher education for the marginalised. The scheme has grown from a modest budget of R33 million in 1991, serving only 7,240 students, to over R52 billion today, funding more than 1.1 million students at universities and TVET colleges. 'As a result of this sustained investment, the demographic composition of our higher education system has been fundamentally transformed. In 1994, there were 266,190 black students, representing 50.4% of the total student population. By 2020, that number had grown to 862,313 black students, constituting 80% of enrolments,' said Mashatile. He said South Africa has also met and surpassed gender parity in higher education participation rates, with over 60% of graduates from colleges and universities now being young women. Mashatile said at the beginning of this month, 205,000 young people were placed in jobs through Phase 5 of the Basic Education Employment Initiative as part of the Presidential Employment Stimulus. 'In 2023, as our democratic dispensation turned 30, the Department of Women, Youth and Persons with Disabilities made a commitment to move beyond advocacy and begin to conceive nationwide transformative projects, with a particular focus on poor and marginalised communities,' he said. Earlier, Mashatile said on Youth Day South Africa honours and pays tribute to the valiant and fearless young people who stood at the forefront of the liberation struggle on June 16, 1976. 'Regardless of their youthful stature, the youth of 1976 stood strong in the face of the oppressive system of the apartheid regime. They faced death with unwavering determination, fuelled by a vision of equal rights and a more just society,' said Mashatile. 'It has been 49 years since that significant day, yet we will always remember the student leaders like Tsietsi Mashinini and Hastings Ndlovu who orchestrated the mass demonstration that transformed our nation. 'We must never forget those who joined the long list of martyrs and paid the ultimate price for our freedom. These are the young brave souls who fought for a dream that they never saw come to life, a dream that continues to inspire and guide us,' he said. By taking action in 1976 against an enforced Afrikaans language as the exclusive medium of instruction in African schools, Mashatile said those young learners were carrying out the path of struggle defined by their forefathers through the Freedom Charter.
IOL News
16-06-2025
- Business
- IOL News
‘We have transformed the matric pass rate': Deputy President Paul Mashatile's Youth Day message
Deputy President Paul Mashatile delivered the keynote address during the Youth Day commemoration at North West University, Rag Farm Stadium. Image: HigherEducationZA/X Deputy President Paul Mashatile has delivered his keynote address at the government's National Youth Day commemoration event in Potchefstroom, North West. IOL reported on Sunday that Mashatile will stand in for President Cyril Ramaphosa as the keynote speaker, as Ramaphosa travelled to Canada for the G7 Leaders' Summit. In his keynote address, Mashatile took the opportunity to reflect on what he termed the major victories of the democratic dispensation. 'While challenges remain, allow me to briefly reflect on some of the major victories that our democratic dispensation has registered in advancing youth empowerment since 1994,' said Mashatile. Get your news on the go, click here to join the IOL News WhatsApp channel. 'Firstly, at the Basic Education level, we have transformed the matric pass rate from 58% in 1994 to a historic 87.3% in 2024. This is the result of three decades of making education an apex priority of government. 'Our basic education system has gradually transformed whilst redressing the generational legacies of Verwoerd's Bantu education system. While we are not yet where we wish to be, we are also far from the inequality and disregard inherited in 1994,' he said. Secondly, Mashatile said in higher education, South Africa's National Student Financial Aid Scheme has been a catalyst for widening access to higher education for the marginalised. The scheme has grown from a modest budget of R33 million in 1991, serving only 7,240 students, to over R52 billion today, funding more than 1.1 million students at universities and TVET colleges. 'As a result of this sustained investment, the demographic composition of our higher education system has been fundamentally transformed. In 1994, there were 266,190 black students, representing 50.4% of the total student population. By 2020, that number had grown to 862,313 black students, constituting 80% of enrolments,' said Mashatile. He said South Africa has also met and surpassed gender parity in higher education participation rates, with over 60% of graduates from colleges and universities now being young women. Mashatile said at the beginning of this month, 205,000 young people were placed in jobs through Phase 5 of the Basic Education Employment Initiative as part of the Presidential Employment Stimulus. 'In 2023, as our democratic dispensation turned 30, the Department of Women, Youth and Persons with Disabilities made a commitment to move beyond advocacy and begin to conceive nationwide transformative projects, with a particular focus on poor and marginalised communities,' he said. Earlier, Mashatile said on Youth Day South Africa honours and pays tribute to the valiant and fearless young people who stood at the forefront of the liberation struggle on June 16, 1976. 'Regardless of their youthful stature, the youth of 1976 stood strong in the face of the oppressive system of the apartheid regime. They faced death with unwavering determination, fuelled by a vision of equal rights and a more just society,' said Mashatile. 'It has been 49 years since that significant day, yet we will always remember the student leaders like Tsietsi Mashinini and Hastings Ndlovu who orchestrated the mass demonstration that transformed our nation. 'We must never forget those who joined the long list of martyrs and paid the ultimate price for our freedom. These are the young brave souls who fought for a dream that they never saw come to life, a dream that continues to inspire and guide us,' he said. By taking action in 1976 against an enforced Afrikaans language as the exclusive medium of instruction in African schools, Mashatile said those young learners were carrying out the path of struggle defined by their forefathers through the Freedom Charter.
Entrepreneur
13-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Entrepreneur
Entrepreneur UK's London 100: Frobelles
Frobelles is the UK's first afro hair championing dress-up game, founded by mother-daughter duo Alyssa Awuah and Yvonne Ottley-Awuah. Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own. You're reading Entrepreneur United Kingdom, an international franchise of Entrepreneur Media. Industry: Entertainment Frobelles is the UK's first afro hair championing dress-up game, founded by mother-daughter duo Alyssa Awuah and Yvonne Ottley-Awuah. It was created after Alyssa, at just six years old, asked her mum why none of her game characters had natural afro hair like hers. With some graphic design experience, Ottley-Awuah mentioned to Awuah that they should just create their own game. Together, they brainstormed three main characters: Coco, Kelli, and Krista, all with beautiful Afro hair that could be styled in various ways, including puffs, Fulani braids, and Bantu knots. Frobelles has surpassed 100,000 downloads, launched in the US and has a worthy place on the Entrepreneur UK100 list!
