Hadouken
A few weeks ago the first lady of Zimbabwe, Grace ‘Fists-of-Thunder’ Mugabe, allegedly hit a 20 year old model (Gabrielle Engels) with a 6–1–9 in a hotel.
Around the same time the (now former) Deputy Heavy Weight Champion of Higher Education and Training, Mduduzi Manana, baptized Mandisa Duma in upper-cuts and over-cuts at a night club.
Just a 40 minute drive away from all that a group of five men (Stephan Nel, Marius Harding, DJ van Rooyen, Ockert Muller, and Joshua Scholtz) attacked a couple (Jacob and Dudu Sono) in the drive-thru of a KFC… It’s been a tough month.
Look, although I am describing these incidents in a light-hearted manner they are unacceptable. Violence and assault in any way, shape, or form should not be tolerated. It’s just wrong and it doesn’t help.
(Also, what bullshit is this diplomatic immunity thing?)
A common trend that I have seen in the aftermath of this musangwe-like behavior is an attack on people who ask why or what happened before these people got attacked?
I understand the frustrations. I understand that as a nation we are tired. But I have a bit of a different opinion:
Growing up with black parents in the 90’s questioning was not a thing you did. If you were told to jump, you would jump and pray it was high enough.
But context, colour, and meaning are everything.
So again, the First Fists of Zimbabwe should not have beat up and strangled that poor lady… that is never okay. But asking why she did it helps us understand what we are dealing with. Asking why five hungry men saw it fit to beat people up in a drive-thru can help us understand the underlying issues that we face in our country.
If we don’t dig deeper and ask why, we never get a chance to deal with the roots.
If I have not been clear enough:
- Asking why is NOT shifting the blame,
- Asking why is NOT making excuses,
- Asking why helps us understand so that we fix the right things.
Things I Learnt: Context, colour, and meaning are everything — but they are never an excuse.


