YOUNG BASADZI - in the bedroom

my bedroom is the temporary sanctuary spatial unit where like Frida Kahlo, i can paint/write potraits of myself entirely.

Futon bed, two beautifully growing green plants in respective wooden baskets, collection of cds, main wooden bookshelf, dressing table used as an additional bookshelf, wooden tv stand used again as bookshelf and wooden computer/radio with scent of masala incesense breezing through. I just read the Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka; The quite violence of dreams by K. Sello Duiker; the Complete Poetry of Edgar Allan Pooe et al; with my old time favorites A question of power by Bessie Head; Unbearable lightness of being by Milan Kundera; Les miserables by Victor Hugo. listening to Eva Cassidy "Songbird"; Bheki Mseleku "Celebration"; Massive Attack (Mezzanine) and attending local hip-hop events on sundays around by area.

sent by shameeyaa neo waMolefe, co-author of 'I Write'.

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'i love my bedroom, it's a site for unlimited expression, unthreatened freedom.'

on my bed side is a cd player, i've been playing "the best of seal" lately. i'm reading coco fusco " the bodies that were not ours" and james baldwin's "the fire next time", seal sings "walk on by". in between i take glimpses of the garden outside, thanks to the recent rains it's looking alive again!

sent by Gabi Ngcobo, Assistant Curator - Iziko South African National Gallery

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my bedside table this morning:

Peach-shaded lamp; Hardcover Notepad; Long Walk to Freedom by Nelson Mandela, The Good Women of China, Hidden Voices by XINRAN; a year-old unopened Durex box; BIG Pen; Empty Simba chips packet...

sent by Rose Mokhosi

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Another perfect day in paradise!

On my bedside table; there is a reading lamp, an ashtray used for the junk that comes from my pockets – fuses, coins, thumb tack and paper clips. a clock/radio and two books:
Shooting the Monkey – a business philosophy by Colin Turner ; Shirley, Goodness and Mercy – a childhood memoir by Chris van Wyk, author and poet, on growing up in a ‘coloured’ township outside Johannesburg. There are no durex packets open or closed.

sent by friend to mosadzi_Rose

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I am interested in finding out what is in your bedroom, what you are reading and enjoying right now –please send an email at youngbasadzi@webmail.co.za

(last updated in April)

YOUNG BASADZI on transitions and death?

I do not cry anymore–I did cry when I could not believe NOR understand and now I think I do, so I do not cry anymore! I cried for me… the loss felt greater than me.

Transition is a hard concept to comprehend sometimes. It is said that without change, we die. So when we die – is it at a point when our bodies resist to change? physical change… healing?

“Death can only be the beginning of this journey bazalwane…” I heard this at the 'umlindelo' this as people were mourning the loss of my friend. And suddenly it changed my whole perspective on this concept of death... And knowing that my friend had for some time been ready for this change - she even wrote a poem about that. I was left with no choice but to look at this whole thing differently - that indeed it would be an even sadder loss if this life had to be the end of it all... ? So in the end, I was crying only because I felt she had left me behind - 'She should've told me... ' I sobbed.

For the living, death should be a second chance - reflections and celebrations of friendships, love and companionship with the dead and the living. For the dead, it is an end to the ever-frail flesh, skin and bones – the spirit to welcome another trip unknown to us…

Perhaps they would’ve caught a glimpse of it (the light?) toward the end…? And perhaps the same way we are born without knowledge of what our fate is on this earth, death should be viewed likewise – as a rebirth into lifetimes mysterious and wonderful yet unknown to our spirits…

Metamorphosis – growth in our mother’s wombs, in preparing us for this life! metamorphosis – rotting in the grave? preparing us for the next phase.

The body might perish, but the spirit is eternal...

We must truly be ready to let go of this life in order to look forward to the next step... We must have lived this life the best way we possibly can, healthy or unhealthy, ugly or beautiful, fat or thin, young or old – we must have done what we could on this earth as best as we could YET be able to let it all go when the time comes.

Without struggling, or regretting… smiling, happy and ready for a new birth, a new chapter into another dimension of living in order that we may continue to give thanks to the energy source that breathes life into all its creatures.

Every step remains a lesson – death is just another lesson and every breath, a chance to make a difference and be more compassionate, kind and willing to do whatever we can to make this life even more colourful than it already is. And not just for ourselves – but for all that live it…

So my lesson – to smile more, laugh alittle louder, be kind, and give more… give more of myself! Ask for guidance, seek the light, the truth – we must free and liberate ourselves of what the material world has to offer…. cos it’s not about that! Because nobody cares how classy you were, or what car you drove, or the balance in your bank account - it all becomes meaningless...

Birth bestowes upon us the responsibility of what we can offer – and when we die, it is about what we have to offered to life - THAT IS ALL THAT MATTERS!