Rainbow Nation My Zulu Arse, by Sihle Khumalo

Rainbow Nation My Zulu Arse. A voyage around Mzansi, rants and raves included, by Sihle Khumalo. Penguin Random House South Africa. Imprint: Umuzi. Cape Town, South Africa 2018. ISBN 9781415209547 / ISBN 978-1-41-520954-7

The author of Rainbow Nation My Zulu Arse, Sihle Khumalo, takes you with him on this exciting journey through lucid prose and impish humour.

Sihle Khumalo  

ZASUKA-HERE WE GO

South Africa, my homeland, had just celebrated 22 years of freedom and democracy, and I thought it was time, as part of moving forward, to look back. After all, it is through understanding and appreciating the past that one is able not only to understand and fully explain the present, but can also, with some degree of certainty, pre-empt what the future might hold. What also inspired me to look back was the fact that 2016 had seen South Africa commemorate, in some cases with huge fanfare, a number of milestones. [...] On a personal level, a few months earlier I'd turned 41. One thing about the 40s is that you are almost certain that now you are moving into the second half of your life. You are now confident and comfortable in your own skin, so to speak. Therefore, you start saying things you genuinely want to say, the way you want to say them. No more sitting on the fence. Sadly, many people are not wise enough to have a full appreciation of this phase in life where you, the main protagonist, no longer give a rats arse if what you say or do pleases your friends, the community and the society at large. That's why they call it a midlife crisis'. The poor philistines. What is erroneously referred to as a midlife crisis should be called, in fact, life's greatest epiphany: the oh-shit-I'm-going-to-die-one-day' moment. It is after this awakening that you start, from other people's perspectives, doing stupid and unexpected things. You start becoming round in their square-shaped lives, and thus do not fit. What I am 100% sure of is that you have not lived your life to its 100% potential if 100% of the time you comply 100% with society's expectations and norms. Still on a personal note, during the previous year I had diagnosed myself as someone with the drd-jr gene-often referred to as the wanderlust gene. It is correlated, according to one psychology blog, with 'increased levels of curiosity and restlessness'. Prevalent in about 20% of the world's population, according to a National Geographic study, this gene results in people who generally embrace movement, change and adventure'and are more likely to take risks, explore new places, ideas, foods'. In my 30s, I had travelled to more than 20 other African countries, and had written three books about my trips and experiences. Now that I was in my 40s, I thought I should traverse my native land, just-as one song from South Africa's famous band Stimela said-to 'look, listen and decide'. As far as I could recall, five travel books by South Africans travelling the entirety of our country had been published in recent times. Dana Snyman wrote On the Back Roads after doing his trip mainly, as the title suggests, on the back roads. In 2012 he published The Long Way Home: A Journey through South Africa. Justin Fox's The Marginal Safari chronicles his travels along the coast of South Africa. Luke Alfred decided, early one Sunday morning, to explore his native country, an experience that gave birth to the book called Early One Sunday Morning I Decided to Step Out and Find South Africa. Blacks Do Caravan covers Fikile Hlatshwayo s trip with her family as she visits caravan parks throughout the country. [...]

This is an excerpt from Rainbow Nation My Zulu Arse, by Sihle Khumalo.

Title: Rainbow Nation My Zulu Arse
Subtitle: A voyage around Mzansi, rants and raves included
Author: Sihle Khumalo
Publisher: Penguin Random House South Africa
Imprint: Umuzi
Cape Town, South Africa 2018
ISBN 9781415209547 / ISBN 978-1-41-520954-7
Softcover, 13 x 21 cm, 296 pages, 1 map