Akanyang Africa An informed view through the African eye

About

Media and Politics Freak Blogger

Akanyang Africa is a platform that hopes to address, challenge and solve somewhat controversial yet important subjects informed by the societal and daily life experiences and its environment – directly and indirectly – all over the world from a South African perspective.

Akanyang is a young man who grew up in South Africa’s North West province at Seoding village near Pampierstad township alongside the N18 running from Mafikeng to Kimberly. Akanyang started school at Rebone Sediba (sa Thuto) Intermediate school, formerly known as Espagsdrift Primary school in 1992.

Before doing his Grade 10 at Pampierstad’s Reitlamile Middle school in 2001, he looked after his father’s (Jack) sheep and goats after school every day, Saturdays and Sundays included – despite hating this at times – until matric in 2003 and even during the holidays while at University of North West’s Mafikeng campus between 2005 and 2007.

In April 2008, Akanyang graduated his Bachelors of Administration majoring with Human Resource Management and Public Administration. This after completing the programme in the previous year.

During his final year Akanyang worked as a Student Assistant in the university’s School of Accounting and Management and as a feature writer to the university’s The Album newspaper, before it was closed and just two months after joining it in May that year.

It was also in the same year that he entered the Shanduka Essay competition on how South Africa could half unemployment before 2014 and won a one year once-off subscription of one of South Africa’s financial and weekly magazines, Fin Week.

It was after and even before joining and leaving The Album newspaper that Akanyang developed more interest in reading and researching extensively that he later decided to continue writing on his blog, at the time, to which he had not written on since creating it in 2004.

Akanyang as a human being, a brother and a cousin (to some people) is complex to describe as he also finds it difficult to describe himself to other people. This could be the result of his somewhat complicated and difficult character and personality. Besides finding himself difficult to describe, Akanyang is a very nice guy whose voice – if you have not met or saw him or even heard it before, not that he is ugly such that one cannot even look at him or anything like that – can be very deceiving.

Interestingly, Akanyang is very much into current affairs (AM and PM Live are his favourite current affair shows on SABC’s SA FM radio station and he very much adores Tshepiso Matlwetla) and insightful reading and research (Sunday Times and Mail & Guardian being his favourite weekly newspapers such that he would get kinda get sick and not well if a weekend would go by without having read any of the two newspapers).

Akanyang, among other things, is an understanding person with a sense of good sense humour not all people would find funny; very thoughtful and careless with money at times but for good reasons; detests people with a high-handed attitude because he also has one (for defence purpose only); does not like looking down on others or being looked down at cause he sure will have you taste that same medicine; loves his big family (except those who think or act like they are rich, that they know better than others and look down on others) and everyone else unless you show and give him the impression that you do not like him.

Akanyang does not like calling people his friends for he is afraid that those friends would or do not even regard him as such. Therefore, he is very careful and skeptical on whom he calls his friends. Just be careful that you do not fall on this category because otherwise he would just regard you as some of the many people he knows and meets around and everywhere else.

Most importantly: Akanyang is not into soccer, does not watch it let alone follow it and hates it when guys (and everyone else, including his relatives and family) talk about soccer around him. This, one must confess, is despite Akanyang having played soccer with his neighbours while growing up. But talk about general issues from politics and most things then you will know just good and well-informed he is about those subjects.

During his spare time – if there ever is such a thing or after work – Akanyang reads from this collection of book, including among others: Mandela’s Long Walk to Freedom, Ramphela’s Laying Ghosts to Rest, Biko’s I write what I like, Mbeki Legacy, The Bible.

When he is not writing his memoirs or posts for this blogs or Facebook Notes, Akanyang follows other bloggers and writers at their respective blogs such as The Observer Online, Politicsweb, Mail & Guardian Online, The Guardian’s Media news, Slate Magazine, Jamaica Observer, British Journalism Review, Media Matters for America, Capitalism Magazine, American Thinker, Thought Leader, Chicago Defender and The Star.

It is with these and many others that informed the creation of Akanyang Africa which Akanyang believes represent what a thoughtful African thinks and imagines, individually or collectively and as controversial as this may seem or be seen, especially in African customs and cultures and of course around the world – socially accepted, acceptable or not with the hope of informing and changing South Africa, Africa and the world for the better with its Africaness.