EXCUSEtheFRENCHmoustache
Countless
times I have tweeted nonsense off the top of my head. Nonsense that has never
gotten me a retweet, nor a mention, let alone gotten me to trend on Twitter,
not as if I tweet for those reasons anyway; but one tweet, however, got me
something better that all those things combined…
This
nonsense tweet read: “I want to start a literary revolution. Who’s in?” It was
just a random thought I had but it was something I felt really strongly about
and I believed it had to be said. And a certain somebody who goes by the handle
@boitellem, happened to read that and replied to me with a Direct Message – for
those not familiar with Twitter terms, a Direct Message is the equivalent of an
inbox on Facebook, if you don’t know what an inbox is on Facebook, then I can’t
help you *shrugs* - and the DM said these exact words: “Give me your email
address. I have something you are going to love.”
The email
he sent had a single attachment; a video of an ad for a pop poetry book
entitled LOL by Prince Menzi Mthethwa.
I realized
when I got that email and watched the video that this was somebody who had
already started his literary revolution; actually he had started his
revolution, PERIOD, and I wanted to pick his brain. I wanted to know what makes
him tick, I needed to know what’s his winning formula because he was
accomplishing great things and seemingly with not much effort on his part. When
I say accomplishing great things, I’m speaking of the various projects that he
has undertaken:
·
The
5cent Project – A project that encourages citizens, young and old, to collect
5cent coins and assist in donating them to underprivileged schools and has
already benefited four schools in Gauteng.
·
The
Ayashisa Amateki Street Elections – A campaign that aims at providing a
platform for the streets to VOTE for their favourite brands and for brands to
know where they stand in the streets’ hierarchy.
·
I
Am Plus 27 – A round house for South African clothing brands and government.
And that
doesn’t include his poetry books, LOL
and his most recent work, EXCUSEthyFRENCH.
I’m sure
now you have a bit of an idea as to why I felt so adamant about meeting this
man. So on Friday, the 20th of September, I found myself making my
way to his place with Hlax (@boitellem mentioned earlier), and I was nervous as
fudge! For me, meeting somebody of Menzi’s nature was quite a huge deal and I
honestly didn’t know what to expect. The last thing I wanted was for me to say
the wrong thing, or come off as dumb and ignorant. For one, I think I was
expecting a bit of an air of pomposity from him, I mean if I were in his shoes;
a man in my prime, achieving so much and reaching for greater heights and I
just got a text about a random girl who wants to “delve into my mind”, I think
I’d probably be feeling quite smug about it.
But that
self-satisfied image I had in my head was far from the man I met on Friday
afternoon. Rocking a Petrol or Milk sweater
and a French moustache, (yes, you read right, he was ROCKING a French
moustache!), he greeted me warmly and invited me to take a walk with him to the
Pretoria Art Museum.
Walking
along the street, we conversed both in English and siSwati, to my pleasure,
since it’s a bit of a rarity to have a decent siSwati conversation in Pretoria.
It was a very light-hearted conversation we were having actually and
three-quarters of the way to the museum he said: “You know the interview has
started already.” And cue the puzzled
look.
Firstly, my
initial thought when he mentioned us taking a walk to the museum was that he
had something he had to go get there and then we were going to go to a
restaurant and talk over a light meal or coffee. So that statement kind of
threw me a bit off because I was actually formulating questions that I was
going to ask him in my head and not really paying attention to what I was
saying to him because I figured it was off the record, the interview hadn’t
started yet. That was when he kind of read my mind because he said we aren’t
going to do the typical restaurant interview, we are going to do it in the
museum. He went on to explain how that whole pre-meditated interview setting is
superficial, it’s not real. And I could get what he meant, it kind of gave the
impression that our meet was being staged, but before he could go further with
it, an old high school friend of mine that I hadn’t seen in ages pulled up to
the traffic light we were standing at and we had a mini reunion right on the
side of the road and I almost forgot I was still talking to Menzi. Quickly
saying my goodbyes to my friend, I got back to Menzi, apologising profusely,
and he simply smiled and said it was real, it happens. Not the reaction I had expected.
As we walked into the museum, I found myself
kind of struggling with appreciating the art and listening to what he was
saying and then coming up with relevant questions, up until he said something
that really stuck in my mind. I was asking him about what his winning formula
is and he said there isn’t one. I went on to ask whether it was a trial and
error kind of thing then and he modestly replied: “If it’s organic, if it’s
real, then just go with it.” He told me he wasn’t going to say he got to
achieve all he has through lots of hard work and sleepless nights; he put in
the necessary effort and just went with it. That statement = my mind, BLOWN!
I needed to
stop overthinking and just let this conversation flow. I needed to stop trying
to be and just be. Menzi totally flipped the coin on me. It was as if instead
of being the interviewer, I had now become the interviewee. HE was now picking
MY brain. It was weird. It was different. It was REAL.
We walked
around the museum discussing practically everything under the sun; him and his
work, what society defines as the norm, living organically, me and my work, his
future endeavours, even the lady in his life. Time just flew and the
conversation just kept flowing, before we knew it, it was closing time at the
museum and we had to leave.
For that
hour or so that we had spent in the museum it had felt like we had been in a
different dimension altogether. We had slowed down from the busy inner city
bustle to get cultured and appreciate the little joys that life has to offer in
the form of art. Most importantly, I felt like I had just crammed a 30-year-old
life lesson into a single afternoon and there was so much I had gained and so
much more I still wanted to gain because he really challenged me to think
beyond the boundaries that I have set for myself and to think further, question
more. I won’t lie, I walked out of there wondering whether what I have been
living is real.
But one
thing I can say I know for certain is that Menzi Mthethwa is a man of powerful
words and even more powerful deeds yet he remains modest and humble because he
knows he is but a piece in the giant jigsaw puzzle that is our universe. He
does what he does, not for reverence and praise, but because he knows he has a
role to play, just like everybody else, that’s what it is. Because of that
reason, I will for certain be getting myself a copy of EXCUSEthyFRENCH first
thing in October and I’ll definitely be at the book signing too!
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