ImageNations

No matter how whole and ripe and beautiful an orange may look, if there be a tiny hole on its rind it is rendered unwholesome; all religious books are like oranges, no matter how much goodness they profess in whatever florid and flattery terms they may be said, if there be one word, one line, one sentence, one paragraph, that exhibits the slightest nonsense and which can be argued ratiocinatively in whatever form to be in opposition to the core values of life, then the whole text is rendered unreadable and unwholesome for how do we accept a supreme being that contradicts itself one percent of time, or a supreme being that exhibits human frailties of fallibility reducing his all-knowingness and all-powerfulness? The God I know is not confined within any book or text or philosophies; he is what remains after we have distilled all our weaknesses and our inadequacies and our inherent limitability.

To street children and children born on the streets She squeezes herself Between two speeding cars: An articulator truck and a new model of Mercedes Of course she does not know the make of car it is Neither does she care what that means But she does care enough to chase it Waltzing among speeding trucks To sell to the owner A loaf of bread Or even a screwdriver She turns away onto the other lane Her thoughts concentrated on the day’s commission Could this feed her and her crippled mother Presently sleeping in a makeshift hut Built within a storm drain? But the truck driver’s thought Is not on her For all he sees is an empty street So he speeds And speeds even faster Before that Trotro switches into his lane; Soon she finds herself beneath his tyres Silent Not speaking Not seeing Just plain silent This has been her only language Blood dribbles from every available orifice Her legs splayed Her head mangled Her torso embraces the road in oneness Not as ...

Title: Praying Mantis Author: Andre Brink Genre: Novel (Fiction and Non-Fiction) Publishers: Vintage Pages: 275 Year of First Publication: 2005 (this edition, 2006) Country: South Africa Praying Mantis is a novel about faith and identity and the need to be in tuned with one's origins. It tells the story of Cupido Cockroach and his strife to convert his heathen-folks to Christianity and to God. However, this novel is not about religion. In the beginning Cupido was a womanizer and a good hunter. He was also a good follower and friend of Heitsi-Eibib, his god. But he got converted to Christianity, got baptised and later became an acolyte and a preacher of the Christian god. So strong was his faith in the new god that he physically beats up everybody who refuses to convert Christianity and remains hard-hearted. At the peak of his faith, he literally chewed and swallowed. a whole bible. However, the more his faith in the Christian god grew, the poorer he becam...