I am an (ashamed) African...

With all the sad things going on in this beautiful country of ours I posted the following on Facebook yesterday and decided to repost it on the PEDP blog today.  I know its not Port Elizabeth being featured specifically, but it has all the relevance in the world to all of us.

There has been many memorable speeches in history. Martin Luther King's "I have a dream", Winston Churchill's "We shall fight on the beaches", Emmeline Pankhurst's "Freedom or Death" and Nelson Mandela's "I am Prepared to Die". My favorite speech is "I am an African" by Thabo Mbeki in 1996 on the occasion of the passing of the new Constitution of South Africa. Perhaps all the xenophobic, poo flinging, statue bashing, racism spewing, fellow man hating, aggressive people, both black and white, in South Africa should just go, sit down and listen to this speech carefully. I, Jonker Fourie, am an African. I may be white and of European descent, but I am an African. I usually am proud to be an African, but right now I am ashamed. Ashamed and sad about what is going on in this beautiful and proud country of ours. I am an African.