Simphiwe Dana and Gregory Maqoma ‘custodians of the soul’, says writer

By Sandile Memela

I look at you two … er, three and I see creative intellectuals who are able to illuminate, give shining light at this darkest stormy night of our historical experience.

When the people give you a much deserved standing ovation, including the drunks, it is because of the serenity that you bring to our troubled minds.

You heal our wounded souls.

You are light and Soirit that shows us where we have been and where we can be, what we ought to be.

You represent and are custodians of the nations soul. There are very few of you left, here and now.

One hopes and prays that you will have the strength and spirit to not be coopted by government or corporate.

But how do you achieve that when you, like everybody else, wish to live a life that is torn from the pages of a glossy magazine.

The economic system prescribes what is success? And very few challenge that.

I am not suggesting that is who you are or want but artists are a strange lot if they do not know why they are on earth. Money and fame corrodes their souls only to end up dead, alone and miserable.

This is to ask the Ancestral Spirits to help you to help us to understand who we are and why we are here.

I have always maintained that the next “Leaders of Society” after the moral collapse of the ANC and all our political leaders will be The True Artist.

May the spirits continue to guide you. Love yourself. Be strong. Keep the faith. Be focused.

God and the ancestors have given you everything that you need to be a global and unviversal leaders.

Woza moya, woza!