OC 154 South African Podcast

We start of this episode by talking about the weather, the UK weather.

Yeah, I know, but I promise, it is not as boring as it sounds. Full disclosure, this is not a part of the

conversation that would typically feature on the podcast to be honest, because we start recording as

soon as we get into the call, so that we can start naturally flowing into the topics we had planned to

discuss on the day. So trust me, we did not plan to discuss the UK weather in this podcast. The

reason I decided to slide in this conversation into the podcast is because the conversation takes an

interesting turn, and it touches on some of the things I want to discuss on our post mortem episode.

We then take a quick dive into an extremely controversial topic, which was sparked by the Dave

Chappelle’s recent comedy special on Netflix, The closer, the topic of the LGBTQI-2S +, and trying to

get to the bottom of the outrage that we see levelled at Chappelle. H, being a big fan of Dave

Chappelle, gives us his philosophical perspective of the arguments that Dave Chappelle puts forward

in the Closer and tries to weave together Dave’s arguments from all his other specials over time, to

put this particular special in perspective. 

I also share a very disappointing experience that my friend

and I had with a group of gay guys back in our days as students just to add into a point that H had

made. On the aftermath, there are some contemplation I had about the difference between sex,

sexuality, and sexual orientation, and how these interact with the social politics in today’s day and

age. I will go do some reading on this and I will give you my full analysis on the post moterm episode.

On the flip side of the Dave Chappelle’s special, there is also a topic of Black Lives matter versus

Black Consciousness, as we take a look at chapter 14 of I write what I like, and how the Black

Americans conceptualise the idea of race, in a country where they are a minority, versus how the

black South Africans, and Africans at large, should be thinking about how we should assert ourselves

in the world in the continent that we are a majority. H gives us the case study of Thomas Sankara

during the 1980s Burkina Faso, and how he stood his ground against the French colonisers. This is

another part of our conversation that I would really like to do a deep dive into for the post moterm

episode.

We discuss these and many other topics, please be on the lookout for part two of this episode as we

continue our conversation.

Welcome to the OC 154 podcast

In this first episode of the podcast, H and I are having a look at the indigenous South African languages.

So, during the month of June, Motsweding and Lesedi Fm celebrated their birthdays, and we thought, this would be such perfect time to reflect on the state of African languages, and to also interrogate the role that the vernacular media plays in growing and advancing these languages.

As you will hear, the conversation quickly morphs into a debate about how the pedantry that surrounds the use of these languages, hinders their day to day use, and arguably their growth too, you know. 

In this brief argument, you really get to hear how our respective life experiences and upbringings really shaped our attitudes towards our mothers’ tongue. 

So, I grew up in a Tswana speaking town in the Free State, and I went to the township schools from the beginning all the way to my matric year, and H on the other hand, comes from a Venda speaking family, but spent a greater part of schooling years in Gauteng, and went to a former Model-C school.

I spoke my mother tongue for the most part of my schooling years and H had an almost opposite experience. And you can really hear how these opposing experiences filter through to our conversation and the views we take in this. This is truly a South African conversation more than anything, I am sure many can relate to these kind of dynamics.

At some point in the podcast, we also have a look at the vernacular radio stations, where we shine a spotlight on the state of these radio stations at the current moment, and whether they are living up to the expectation we have of them, and whether they will survive these technological times where the internet is overtaking everything.

At the beginning of the podcast, we reflect on our failed attempts of getting into radio, which I promise will make you feel good about yourself, lol.

This is a subject matter that is really close to our hearts, so I really hope you enjoy the podcast.