So...

I am having breakfast- atchieke, a piece of fish, sliced chilli, tomatoes and onion, with a sprinkiling of maggi seasoning if you are keen. So I am chowing this in a very make shift shack of a restaurant that has three walls, two tables, four long benches, a potholed floor that is already covered in the fish bones that people spit out as they eat. I am here when the radio plays Brenda Fassie's Vulindela and two people, self included, start singing along.

The song reminded me of my first of many nights at Vieradrome Kafe (a night club). My buddy Kristal plays pool there. They know her, they like her, she even brings hair from Ghana for one of the two pretty hosts in the dimly lit pool room that has red walls and a giant mirror on one side; so you check yourself working your game. And do they ever check themselves out! Ivorian men are obsessed with how they look.

Anyway, I get introduced to the manager/DJ and upon hearing I am South African, heads to the DJ booth to annouce "Vulindlela will be coming up soon." And everyone gets ready to jam. A few eager beavers head to the front lines of the dance floor. Daar is wal to wall mirrors so you can check youself getting down. And so we ever!

One time in Bobo, Burkina Faso, the DJ played a Thomas Chauke in my honour. I arrived at the club around 8pm and stayed glued to my seat until the DJ started with the reagge set three hours later. Reggae turned to DRC, Cote d Ivoire, Afro beat and Burkina music and more reggae and more African jams.

There was no getting me off the dance floor. Someone said where are you from? I said Mzansi Africa, they said wait I see if the DJ does not have your music.

He had the king of Tsonga music. We gyrated, shook it, got down and almost broke legs in what remains, one of the best party nights of my life.

The ending at 4am was just as lovely...
Light rain, back of a scooter, riding away from the centre into the hood, hanging with the gang.


Happy holidays
(to repeat the words of a gaint sign adorning the wall of someone's home, Xmas lights around teh wall and the sign. Nope they do not do understated around here)