It’s your second last Friyay. Yay!
December is an entire mood back in my hometown. Almost each and every hood is expecting initiates to return, people are throwing traditional ceremonies for one or other reason, people are getting married, there are funerals and the nightlife is at its peak. Our small town is even smaller. People are coming down from their villages to shop. The lines in each store resemble ant colony rows, cars move slowly through the town and the taxi rank is the busiest. Maybe second busiest to the chill spots. Yeep. Ke Dezemba boss!
During this time, the race for song of the year is also on. Which hit track is going to be playing when we enter 2019? I’ll place my predictions next week. For now, I’ll go down memory lane with a flashback playlist.
8. Mdu – Mazola
7. Arthur Mafokate – Mnike
6. Thebe – Groovers Prayer
5. Bongo Maffin – That’ isgubhu
4. Mandoza – Nkalakatha
3. TKZee – We love this place
2. Brenda Fassie – Everything!
1. Mapaputsi – Izinja
These songs just summarise a phase of my childhood.
There’s a line on track 1 which goes “aksafan’ nak’dala umunt’ angene house to house ucel’ ihappy. Happy!” The direct translation is, gone are the old days when one used to go house to house and ask for “happy”. “Happy” in this context refers to treats. Back in the day kids in South Africa would dress up in new clothes on Christmas day and move from one house to house asking for treats. It was like our version of trick or treat. Only that, in our context, the costumes were normal clothes and our version of tricks depended on the household. You could be asked to dance, recite a poem from school or just simply say if you’ve passed. Treats ranged from sweets, choice assorted biscuits or, if you were lucky, you could get a slice of cake.
I participated in this tradition back in the day. I’d barely sleep the night before from the excitement. When it came to “happy”, however, my two left feet didn’t help much with the dancing lol…I just looked cute and told them I passed. We’d move from house to house and repeat this routine. Oh, the joy of being young! There were years, too I should add, when we became a bit mischievous and explored some experiments. Oh, you know…what happens when you add Disprin tablets to Coke? Let me not say enough about those.
Those days are long gone. I hardly even see the people I grew up with when I’m back home. We’re in 2018 and the memories of childhood still fill me up when I’m back here…
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