Crouched behind a thicket, Mirundi tried to catch his breath. He quickly lifted his hand from the floor to catch the sweat that had started dripping from his forehead. His hand was shaking uncontrollably, jerked back and forth by the fear of getting caught again. Mukaajanga, the chief executioner, had sent his men into the forest to find Mirundi who had escaped the fatal march to Busega for execution by decapitation and fire.
Continue reading “Martyr”Author Archives: Pat Kayongo
Online Communication & Social Hierarchy
There are a plethora of ways to communicate online, both with people you know, and people you’ve never met. But something the makers of these tools fail to mould to, is the social hierarchy and human structures in which they are used. There are three examples that come to mind.
Continue reading “Online Communication & Social Hierarchy”Stimela
23 June 1898. Mqanduli, Tembuland.
“But who’s going to teach our sons to become men?”
Continue reading “Stimela”Familiar Spirits
The eerie cold breeze from Fourways Memorial Park cemetery slips into Daudi’s open window during the fourth watch of the night. The blue radiance of the moon and the stars fill in for the lights darkened by stage 5 loadshedding. As the nighttime creatures prepare for their retreat from the incoming day, the familiar spirits plan for Daudi’s encroaching alarm clock.
Continue reading “Familiar Spirits”Super Apps vs WhatsApp
Over the last little while, there has been this rise in Super Apps, these apps that attempt to be multi-functional “mobile malls”. In South Africa, Vodacom has released VodaPay where one can “enter” multiple stores to shop their products. Nedbank has Avo where one can also shop for products, except they are categorised by the type of product instead of by the shop. Even Snapscan, the payment app, has diversified and has started offering more products such as prepaid electricity and payments of entertainment events.
Continue reading “Super Apps vs WhatsApp”Use Local Technology Services
On 18 September 2022, the Competition Tribunal of South Africa ordered that bank accounts of the Sekunjalo Group of Companies should remain open after closure by some banks, and imminent closure by others. The reason the various banks were closing the accounts of Sekunjalo was because of reputational risk associated to findings of a commission, which implicated them in wrongdoing with the Public Investment Corporation.
Continue reading “Use Local Technology Services”Park Games
As the shedding of the luck-bean tree forms coral carpets on the grass below; as the birds begin their morning song earlier into the fourth watch of the night, calling the sun to come out to play; as new flowering greens shoot out of chronic brown branches; urban nature dances to the joyous drumbeat of spring.
Continue reading “Park Games”Mammon
The cool winter’s breeze whispered through the open window, singing along with the familiar sound of the occasional car passing by outside. As the cool air gently brushes across her arms, Gladys Tyamzashe’s strands of hair stand up, mounted on the goose bumps of her aged and wrinkled skin. The discomfort of the cold is appeased by the comfort of the sounds of life outside her window.
Continue reading “Mammon”Co-Operatives and Platforms
In the early 20th century, cotton was a common cash-crop grown in the area that is now modern Uganda. As the new British protectorate was becoming increasingly integrated into international commerce and trade, individuals and families also had to adapt and find ways of acquiring currency for the changing economy. In adapting, many starting growing cotton and coffee, which was then bought from individual farmers by merchant middlemen, who then marketed and sold the produce to those who beneficiated the product, such as ginners in the case of cotton, and to industrial centres in Western markets.
Continue reading “Co-Operatives and Platforms”Fort Hare
11 January 2033
Towards the turnstiles of the Chartwell Gautrain station, Tengo saw Gerhhadus. They were both on their way to the factories of Modderfontein to begin another day of labour. Out of his pocket, Tengo took out his port to send Gerhadus a vibration to acknowledge his presence.
Continue reading “Fort Hare”