kagablog

….missiles launch food rockets drop aid arms buy oil gates open cans worms eat files dustbins swallow history books redo nations spin doctors remake concepts words redefine things fishes fly birds swim blood rivers spread freedom hounds walk tall scavengers dance tigers weep devil cry foul market iron fist crush trees ants hills savanna grasshopper butternut flower skyscrapers towers life people fair game shit fly high dreamers live dangerous break glass houses fire tales talk buddy wire chicken tomato words action buzz vibe play fiddle antics gimmicks chase shadows eyes shut body cold ears deaf fairy tales market squeeze labour soul dance monkey jive big daddy capital rape public life money talks clown-poets poet-clowns mumbo-jive cheerleaders rave groupies strip…..

who needs loaded guns when one word can shoot in different directions and at more than one object in one moment, and convey a myriad and variety of messages, meanings, concepts and images at once? when you say “tank”; a poor man in the remotest corner of a far-flung area somewhere in impoverished and poverty stricken limpopo province in the south africa of ‘two societies’ will be thinking of water provision, while the man in houghton will be counting money to fill his tank with gasoline and somewhere in the world people will be running for cover as tanks devour homes and graves, and women and children become collateral damage.

when you mention “water”, queen moroka will be craving for the tongue-bath of the century in the arms of a gorgeous hunk made in the image of rich forrestor, the SAB will be thinking of brewing zillions of gallons of beer flavored by black labor, and of rushing to the courts in a frantic effort to put ‘the black labour: white guilt’ t-shirts off the shelves in clothing stores, g-o-d seekers will be rushing to a baptismal, the euro-eco-sex tourists will be wanting nothing more than tanning on hot durban beach sand, pining for some exotic “jungle fever moment”, but the old auntie in mahlathini village in braemar south coast of kwazulu-natal will be traveling twenty kilometers to a public tap or climbing the hill to a well nearby and hoping for the day when “a better life all” means a running tap in her house.

as much as life is multi-faceted, words are multi-dimensional and carry the capacity to articulate poly-vocal sounds and multiple meanings. but who decides literal and literary, categorical and allegoric attributes of words; and who determines the socio-religio-cultural, politico-economic undertones of words? is it the letter and spirit of the text and its context and the writer\ speaker and the reader\ listener? do words and things have ever-ready, fixed and rigid meanings or do readers\ listeners attach their own meanings to words and things, applying their own conceptual frame of reference and world-view that is informed by their sub-conscious and unconscious or subjective and objective experiences and realities?

do words impose their own meaning on the listener and the reader , does the writer load words with his or her own meaning and comprehension of things and impose this meaning and comprehension to the reader or does the reader make up his or her own meaning of the words, based on his or her own comprehension of things?

is the meaning of the text depended on the context or does the text breathe its own life into the context? or is the meaning negotiated between the author, the reader, the text and the context?

words can build barriers and blockades and barricades and still words can destroy the barriers and clear the blockades and remove the barricades and build bridges and transcend the boundaries of time and place and move beyond geopolitical, socio-religio-cultural and politico-ideological mindscapes and landscapes. words ferment war and conflict; and words build peace and reconciliation. freedom begins with words crying for freedom and oppression begins with words justifying it. words define things but is the meaning of words or the definition of the things captured in words static or does it depends on who or what is the signified and who or what is the signifier at that point in time and place and what characterizes the particular time and space in that particular epoch?

in everyday speak words are not as complicated as they are in the realm of politics and literature. when we express ourselves on various issues in our everyday life in informal and spontaneous discussions, we do so freely, without any difficulty. we do so without paying attention to any rule or regulation of grammar or convention of literature, and without any deliberate or conscious attempt to subject what we say to some yardstick of cultural relevance or religious, political correctness…without any effort to be stylish, clinical, technical, philosophical, “deep”, “cool”, whatever.
but the minute we set out to consciously write down our ideas and feelings and thoughts and dreams and nightmares and hopes and fears and whims and fantasies and visions and imaginations, we find difficulty in expressing ourselves freely. and the moment expressing ourselves becomes a difficult thing to do, is the moment we become dishonest with ourselves and begin to jazz-up our thoughts and feelings to avoid rattling ourselves and others out of the comfort zones.

if writing is expression, then i want to write without caring about rules and regulations and customs and traditions and the do’s and don’ts from the chiefs and priests of high life\ high art\ high culture. if writing is expression, just be you and say what you feel\ dream\ visualize\ prophesy\ imagine. image yourself, your thoughts and your world. but that is not enough. writing is also about exploration …the courage to traverse hitherto not traveled paths, walk where angels fear to tread, and piss on demons’ sacred places.
it is a continuous struggle to explore alternative ways of conceptualizing reality and of seeing the world and understanding things or using words. the writer always looks for other possibilities, other explanations, other comprehensions, alternative routes\ paths\ visions.

the writer cannot be contained in the limits of time and space and cannot be a slave to practice\ convention, habit, custom, traditions and belief systems. that is not to say a writer cannot uphold an ideology or a belief system. it is to say that the writer should not be jailed by his \ her own rhetoric. but he should at all times be prepared to explore the other side of an issue. to always bear in mind the multi-faceted and multi-dimensional nature of life and human experience. to always remember to remember that life is not a one-eyed or cock-eyed creature.

a writer cannot afford to look with two or three, let alone to look with only one eye. a writer should at all times have more than two eyes and more than two ears. never close the doors and windows of reasoning, interpretation, and intellectual exertion, and learning, seeking and searching and researching. writing is more than writing.

i said it.