I often tell my children about the beauty of life and that it is full of choices.
You make your choice, and if you happen to pick the wrong one out of the multiple of choices, tough luck. But if you make a wise decision, life becomes like the eTV gadget that you pay for once and enjoy forever.
In IsiZulu we say Wushuzi umayikhethela inyama yembongolo. In other words, your choice of things in life is like the path you pick at a crossroad.
The road you pick at a crossroad, or the choice you make from the multiple of choices, will either make or break you. And the same goes for your future.
I was reminded of all this when I went to watch the premiere of what I would call the most locally-produced movie, Thina Sobabili, which was filmed in Alexandra with an all-black cast. Thina Sobabili, or The Two of Us in the Queen’s language, is a candid and true reflection of the harsh and painful realities of the social status quo in our township, and townships in general.
Produced by the Monarchy Group and filmed by Times Media Films, the movie depicts the effects of the broken family lives in our townships where a father is an unknown species in the home, and the mother finds new love and simply abandons her children to fend for themselves.
In the process, the elder brother is involved in crime in order to feed and take care of his sister and send her to school so she can become a better person in the future. While at school, the sister falls victim to peer pressure from a sugar daddy-dating friend who entices her into the racket. It so happens that the sugar daddy she dates is actually her mother’s two-timing new love.
The brother then learns of his sister’s relationship with an older man and catches them in the act. The brother beats the living daylights out of this sugar daddy and as they tussle in the fight, a knife drops from the boy.
The sister, not knowing what to do with the knife and whom to stab – her abusive brother or the sugar daddy – when her brother falls victim and gets stabbed. It’s a painful and harsh reality of our townships and a movie that no one should miss.
The moral of the movie is that there are so many options in life but we tend to make the wrong choices, and we pay dearly for them.
