I am many things. Mother, lover, journalist, communication specialist, intellectual, student of life, sister, friend, and many others, but I've always and repeatedly said, above anything else "I am my father's daughter". Human. All too human. Quite simply that's who I am and want people to know me from this basis first before anything else.
My worth
It was never clear from the get go why I've always felt so strongly about being known simply as my father's daughter...but I knew it had everything to do with my self-worth. It's been a journey which I've since come to realise brings new moments that redefine and addify to the statement "I am my father's daughter".
Yes, I spent most of my years growing up with a man - my father. He woke up everyday at 4am to go to work in the sugar cane fields of Big Bend's Ubombo Ranches Company, come back home at 8h00 for breakfast and return at midday for lunch.
A lunch which he had to cook for me along with my other siblings....21 of us in total. After cooking lunch he'd proceed to take his nap and then it was back to life - work, then picking me and my sister up from our different schools before heading home via Riverside Butchery for biltong or any other snack and then finally home two minutes later.
Simple Pleasures
As you can (or cannot) imagine a household of 21 children....
Growing up like that, I realised later in life, taught me the basics of....well everything - Politics101, Negotiating, Bargaining, choosing your battles, the art of war...you name it. Oh, and that TV and Radio aren't everything.
My father deliberately did not purchase a TV set for years and encourgaed us to find ways to entertain each other as siblings. I fondly remember how my late brother Mdumaza (known as Charles 'Mnumzane' Masango to many) would return from university to enjoy playing one of my father's records to which we'd made strict military-type rules about marching to within the perimeters of the lounge. I know. But believe me it was fun.
All this learning the basics of everything was done on normal (yes, we had those too) day to day lives; Saturday morning grocery shopping trips to Matata, fishing expeditions on weekends, compulsory soccer watching at Mayaluka stadium, visits to Mhlosinga nature reserve, picnics, christmas holidays, school holidays spent visiting my fathers family in rural Hhohho, cotton-picking on the farm where my mother lived, milking the cows etc.
And through all this was the most dreaded 'chore' of all - homework and school in general. I recall wanting to quit it all when I was 14 years old in standard seven. I even wrote my father a letter notifying him of my intentions to "be left alone" .
Of course I never gave him that letter. Duh! Because this man wasn't just about "go to school, go to school". He often shared with us the value and wisdom of not only academic schooling but all of education.
"I was 16 when I started primary schooling and all thanks to my elder (step) brother who no longer wanted to go to school. My father had said he didn't have any more money to SPARE on school fees so I 'took over' the money reserved for my brother's schooling", he'd say.
"And that lasted me only until standard 6 and even then I had to supplement that with money I made by doing gardening for people. But what I knew for sure was that I'd do my best to make sure my children go to school...the best schools" he said.
And that he did, even helping to found which is now one of the best schools in Swaziland - U-Tech Colllege in Big Bend (east of Swaziland). That's in addition to paying school fees for some of our relatives' and neighbor's children and happily allowing them to share our home.
Thanks to him imparting the wisdom that comes with academic schooling, I now hold a Masters degree from one of the most prestigious universities in Africa (University of the Witwatersrand) but my most valuable achievement is the wisdom he shared, of knowing that a degree is just a certified piece of paper and it is how the process of acquiring that certificate has shaped by thinking and world view as well as life lessons that I should value most when I speak about being educated.
My father, through the way he lived his life, wanted us to know that the best education is listening and talking with ANYone simply because they are human, that ultimately a car, any car is just transport.....
So yeah, I am my father's daughter. I suppose now you know why I've always wanted people to first KNOW the human being behind that face on TV, behind that voice in the radio news bulletin, behind that girl dancing 'like it's her last' on the dance floor at the party.
Being my father's daughter has shaped all the other things I say I am today....journalist, mother, lover etc. I hope as you read my blog, as I share serious and lighthearted thoughts, you will always remember WHO Philile Masango is.
My worth
It was never clear from the get go why I've always felt so strongly about being known simply as my father's daughter...but I knew it had everything to do with my self-worth. It's been a journey which I've since come to realise brings new moments that redefine and addify to the statement "I am my father's daughter".
Yes, I spent most of my years growing up with a man - my father. He woke up everyday at 4am to go to work in the sugar cane fields of Big Bend's Ubombo Ranches Company, come back home at 8h00 for breakfast and return at midday for lunch.
A lunch which he had to cook for me along with my other siblings....21 of us in total. After cooking lunch he'd proceed to take his nap and then it was back to life - work, then picking me and my sister up from our different schools before heading home via Riverside Butchery for biltong or any other snack and then finally home two minutes later.
Simple Pleasures
As you can (or cannot) imagine a household of 21 children....
Growing up like that, I realised later in life, taught me the basics of....well everything - Politics101, Negotiating, Bargaining, choosing your battles, the art of war...you name it. Oh, and that TV and Radio aren't everything.
My father deliberately did not purchase a TV set for years and encourgaed us to find ways to entertain each other as siblings. I fondly remember how my late brother Mdumaza (known as Charles 'Mnumzane' Masango to many) would return from university to enjoy playing one of my father's records to which we'd made strict military-type rules about marching to within the perimeters of the lounge. I know. But believe me it was fun.
All this learning the basics of everything was done on normal (yes, we had those too) day to day lives; Saturday morning grocery shopping trips to Matata, fishing expeditions on weekends, compulsory soccer watching at Mayaluka stadium, visits to Mhlosinga nature reserve, picnics, christmas holidays, school holidays spent visiting my fathers family in rural Hhohho, cotton-picking on the farm where my mother lived, milking the cows etc.
And through all this was the most dreaded 'chore' of all - homework and school in general. I recall wanting to quit it all when I was 14 years old in standard seven. I even wrote my father a letter notifying him of my intentions to "be left alone" .
Of course I never gave him that letter. Duh! Because this man wasn't just about "go to school, go to school". He often shared with us the value and wisdom of not only academic schooling but all of education.
"I was 16 when I started primary schooling and all thanks to my elder (step) brother who no longer wanted to go to school. My father had said he didn't have any more money to SPARE on school fees so I 'took over' the money reserved for my brother's schooling", he'd say.
"And that lasted me only until standard 6 and even then I had to supplement that with money I made by doing gardening for people. But what I knew for sure was that I'd do my best to make sure my children go to school...the best schools" he said.
And that he did, even helping to found which is now one of the best schools in Swaziland - U-Tech Colllege in Big Bend (east of Swaziland). That's in addition to paying school fees for some of our relatives' and neighbor's children and happily allowing them to share our home.
Thanks to him imparting the wisdom that comes with academic schooling, I now hold a Masters degree from one of the most prestigious universities in Africa (University of the Witwatersrand) but my most valuable achievement is the wisdom he shared, of knowing that a degree is just a certified piece of paper and it is how the process of acquiring that certificate has shaped by thinking and world view as well as life lessons that I should value most when I speak about being educated.
My father, through the way he lived his life, wanted us to know that the best education is listening and talking with ANYone simply because they are human, that ultimately a car, any car is just transport.....
So yeah, I am my father's daughter. I suppose now you know why I've always wanted people to first KNOW the human being behind that face on TV, behind that voice in the radio news bulletin, behind that girl dancing 'like it's her last' on the dance floor at the party.
Being my father's daughter has shaped all the other things I say I am today....journalist, mother, lover etc. I hope as you read my blog, as I share serious and lighthearted thoughts, you will always remember WHO Philile Masango is.
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