Hey chill – you were (also) born in July

Is it my imagination or is it true? Everybody has some excitement regarding the month of July. It could be a narration shared with a special friend, or a secret about how the speaker was actually born in July.

“But please don’t tell anybody, it’s a secret. I am only sharing it with you.” Or blatant: “I was born in July but because I am a humble person I do not go around creating publicity around it!”

The likely joiner here is a narrative that makes you promise not to tell anyone. Is it my imagination or is there a new tendency to want to be born in July? I only became aware of the July craze after noting that Madiba was born in July. Or is that again my imagination?

I am currently struggling to listen to the radio or switch to a TV channel where somebody is not related to Mandela by confession, but is, “only born in July”. I have been listening to the radio and got informed that Bantu Holomisa was born in July.

Sitting in some public spaces in Khayelitsha I discovered that everyone there was born in July. I began to suspect that I might be the only one not born in July. And just when I was concluding that “July birth syndrome” was a Khayelitsha phenomenon, I noticed that some of the folks in Mitchells Plain “don’t wanna boast, but I was also born in July. The people at Groote Schuur they also know that”.

I might not know it, but I do understand. I am just worried that when everything important refers to July, what’s going to happen to the rest of the year. I am eagerly waiting to see what the vibe is towards Christmas. It is general knowledge that the majority of South Africans are Christian. That is a fact. No debate. I do, however, as a journalist, wish to humbly say that the current Nelson Mandela affinities are expressed in some fashion that wants to walk the Bethlehem way.

And then I must stand and halt the process!

I am also somebody who was baptised in the Anglican church and later in anti-apartheid times sang holy songs in protest against the evils of the time. In other words, while I believe in the greatness of Madiba, I struggle to see his deification. He might not have been open to the Communist Party but I do not see this as anti-communist. His open mind sometimes reminded one of Moses or some of the biblical persona of that calibre, but his dynamism in social reading was a deeper universalism than current political discourse allows. Do I sound like an unholy Mandela preacher? No intention.

I do, however, feel slightly offset by a sociology that has a limited script with a loud chorus on the spiritual. It is not too easy to articulate but it is necessary that we escape the narrow confines of the current social reality, not only of South Africa but the world.

Yes, that is in my opinion the challenge that people such as Nelson Mandela throws in our arms. I am not dismissive of a potential academic rhetoric that pretends a holy interruption here because it might be dancing to the many tunes of a complex society. So there it is! I have said it! This South Africa is not what should merely be regarded as a nation state in a geography called Africa. I do not have a hunch in this or that direction but am uncomfortably confronted with the unavoidable lack of certainty. This is not intended to be political introspection but something bothering me says “this is not about what you want”, it is a conversation that must happen on something broader than the narrow confines of a mere nation. Having said that, one wonders where to now?

Okay, let us go to PJ Powers who in my opinion must be the star who musically decorates the month of August. She was not really liked by guys like PW Botha. I am not even sure if FW de Klerk has her music in his house. The point is that she also has her birthday in July. One of the radio stations that I regard as a beacon of the airwaves in the country had a beautiful moment with her this week.

To be frank, I constantly felt, as I was listening to her radio moment, that I was not impressed by the talk but would rather listen to the music. I later felt ashamed of that because of a sensation that was telling me “you are limiting people to the simplicities” of simple cultural articulations. And that is not really, in my opinion, the bigger essence of this thing called South Africa.

I felt bothered by this too, because I was eager to hear a voice that says it is time for us to just enjoy life with its straightforward beauties and uncomfortable jokes.

I am glad that July came and went with the exciting feeling that we have become aware of that beautiful, but many times distant, essence that needs to remind us that, “Hey my brother and sister, chill please!”

I remember that in the 1980s and 1990s we were not really comfortable with chilling. Now we must learn how to chill. I propose that the Ministry of Culture be allowed (with a budget of course) to teach us how to chill. I also suggest the majority of the content be beautiful things like music, painting, theatre, poetry, dance and other artistic things that will help us smile. I am saying this because, with my limited knowledge, I am one of the experts who knows the depths or breadths of a South African smile.

Okay, I am saying that for this purpose we can also allow Bonteheuwel smiles, although we all know that they are not really that great (because of the gaps). I am not trying to push an upper class identity, no I am not, but between me and you I think that in the whole Cape there is no better smile than a Camps Bay smile.

When, one day, my friends from Germany came here they said so. And when I doubted them a bunch came from South America and, without having spoken to the Germans, they repeated the essence. Needless to say that when I tried to educate them about the false intricacies of a smile, they all told me that they would only understand my revolutionary input if I could do it with a Camps Bay smile. And so for years, without telling anybody, I tried to practise a Camps Bay smile. I still might not have got it because I am not living there, but I am not going to say I have a Khayelitsha grin. Nor am I likely to say I have a Site C grin! I am asking you, why?

I am not really fond of saying those people smile better than these, but I have a humble opinion that sees me vote for a Camps Bay smile.

I have no middle class tendencies but let me quickly confess that there is a potential class suicide to be committed if I am offered a space in Camps Bay! Understood?