Beliefs are things that we belive to be true and we apply some of them on our everyday lives because we were taught to do that at a young age. As Africans,there are certain beliefs that make sense to us and not the rest of the world and these beliefs make it easy for Western people to classify us as a certain group of people. These are beliefs that we can't control and some of them are rituals that we have to perform in order to embrace out ethnicity. However, there are some teachings that our elders instill upon us. We grow up with these teaching and seldomly apply them in our grown up lives as we progress forward. Some of them affect the way we behave in society and how we identify our unique delves within a certain society. 

The belief that I think is endogenous to Africans as a whole is that EDUCATION IS THE KEY TO OPEN ANY DOOR. In the past,we were not afforded the right to get an education because of the color of our skin but not,Thanks to Nelson Mandela, we can get an education. Getting an education for Africans is a very important thing because it gives us a sense of belonging and identity in the world. We also get to have a say in education related matters because we are free from colonization and can do whatever we want,whenever we want. Education allows us to use the same space as other people from different ethnicities which was never allowed back then in the days of colonization and apartheid. Where I come from it is believed that when a black person gets an education, they are bound to make money and take care of their families. This is a teaching in our ethnicity that getting an education now means you must help out at home and be a responsible human being. 

Now I belong to the Ndebele ethnic group and I am yet to share with you two beliefs that are associated with the Ndebele ethnic group and how these beliefs have molded and shaped my worldview. 

1. Respect for elders and yourself

Ndebele people are big on respect. This is seen through the way we were taught to greet elders in a respectful manner,never talk to an elder while standing,address every elder as "Ma" ,"Malume" , "Gogo" etc. Treat everyone with respect including yourself. In my home,we were not allowed to wear trousers when the elder men were around so we had to dress as girls and look "respectable" and also carry ourselves with respect and dignity. These teachings seemed like a lit of work back then because I was very young but now I am glad I learnt them because they have shaped my worldview in such a way that I have respect for everyone including my peers. You have to give respect to get respect and I can confidently say i am respected by almost everyone because I give them respect also,something I was taught at a very young age has now become a bug part of my life making it easier and more enjoyable.

2. LEND A HELPING HAND

Whenever there is a ceremony in a nearby house or neighboring villages,Ndebele people will always show up in numbers to help out,even in funerals. Thus creates a sense of unity and love between the people of the Ndebele ethnic group. I was always getting frustrated at why we should go a long distance to help out in a ceremony of people we don't even know, now I'm not getting frustrated instead I get excited because I know that lendin a helping hand is part of who we are as Ndebele people. We help those in need, regardless of who you are, if you're in need of help,we are your people. 

These two teachings have helped shape my worldview in an enormous way and a positive one. I an one with other people because I respect them and I lend a helping hand whenever someone is in need of help. I am very thankful to belong in the Ndebele ethnic group. Without these teachings above,I wouldn't be the person I am today.

Since I have learnt that Kinship is "the primary means through which individuals generate social supports. It requires maintenance of social relationships over extended periods." (Ross,1996:60), I now believe that I also have some kinship and non kinship networks in my life with various people. I live in a household of 12 individuals and there is little income so we are forced to go out and make means to bring income in the household. Frequently, I went to have food in my aunt's house of five individuals and in exchange i had to sit with her family for a little while and also help her daughter with school work. I would go to church with them to earn a good plate of food. This relates to DuToid and Neves(2006:19) in circumstances where stable income and resources are so scarce and fragile, survival often depends on one's ability to attach oneself to a household with access to resources. 

Later on in the years, my brother got sick with diabetes which meant he was going to receive income for his chronic illness meaning there is more income in the household.  With the new income ,everyone was taken care of,including myself. I passed my matric very well but couldn't go to university because I got rejected in all the universities I applied to so I took a gap year. My teachers encouraged me to do something to earn some money and save it for rainy days and university. I then met a young teenage mom who was in need of a nanny for her seven month old baby boy. I took care of that child and he lived with us because his mother was writing exams,in exchange i got paid cash so I saved it. 

I spent a lot of time with my male friends to learn new things from them because they were clever and partly wise. They taught me to read book frequently and apply each and everything I read in the books ans to also gain financial wisdom so I can be able to save money correctly. In exchange I had to attend church with them and go out with them to local informative events. 

I reached a point in my life where I got hit by sudden depression,my brothers sickness was becoming worse and I hated it so I needed someone to talk to and confide in. I started attending Bible study with my cousin. It was very informative and I learnt a lot. I felt better and more ready to take on the world again. I got help in exchange for just my presence in that Bible study I managed to recover from depression. 

With my being curious and wanting to try new things,I formed a friendship with my former classmate who knew how to play basketball and because I didn't know how to play it but I wanted to learn ,I befriended him to teach me basketball in exchange with me helping him apply to universities. 

These are the networks I have formed in my life which have turned out to turn it around time be what it is today.

L.P Nkambule, 48442968

Learning activity 2

Waking up is a struggle for me especially if I had been studying the previous night and only slept in the early hours of morning. I usually wake up tired,my mind telling me to go back to sleep but my brain telling me to wake up and prepare for the day ahead of me. 6am is the time I wake up and prepare for my day. The hot water from the shower awaken me completely as they hit my skin softly making all the drowsiness and sleepiness to go away. As soon as I'm done fixing myself probably around quarter to seven,I rush around the unit making myself a quick snack for the road because I can't stomach a heavy meal in the morning. I usually go for cereal and as soon as I'm done eating I head out to the bus.

In the bus I find my fellow students chatting and conversing about their morning and what their plans are for the day and I sit in front. I don't talk much in the bus because I don't have friends so I just absorb the peace and serenity I find in being silent and focusing on the events happening outside the window while pondering on how I'm going to make it today because everyday is a struggle. As soon as I arrive on campus I get ready to put on a smile and greet the members at the gate because they're always friendly and it's only fair to return the favor. When that's all done I head straight to class, making sure to greet people on my way there because that's how I was raised. I was taught not to pass a person without greeting him or her. That's my daily routine. I always greet whenever I pass.

I attend my classes for the day ,I usually have two to three classes a day and most probably I will leave the campus not knowing anything I've learnt from my classes because I'm not a auditory nor visual learner but I learn best when reading and writing so I prefer just noting down important headings in class then going over them on my own and making my own notes. I take the bus back to res when I'm done.

When I get to my room, I start by tidying it up because I don't have time to do it in the morning. I tidy it to be neat and clean then sit down for an hour or two studying one of the modules I was attending. When those hours are over,I put on some music on my phone and head to the kitchen to make real food. I cook my meal and chat with some of the girls I usually see around res. After cooking I head back to my room and eat then was my dishes. My body usually feels tired after doing all those things so I throw myself in bed and scroll on social media until I doze off to sleep. One hour or two I wake up feeling much refreshed than before. I feel ready to tackle any problem that comes my way so I sit back down on my study table and study other modules. When I have spent enough time studying I take a shower and prepare myself for bed because it's usually late at night when I finish with the other modules. After bathing I go back and log into Facebook and write one chapter in my novel. Writing heals me. I write novels on Facebook ,it's what I love and it helps me interact with different people who actually read my novels and tell me what they think of them. From them I learn and I grow as a writer. After posting the chapter I wrote I go back to reading,this time I don't make notes ,I just read through the material for a specific module which we're going to be tasked on or which I don't understand. Only at one or two in the morning ,I pack my things nicely and pray then I climb the bed and sleep feeling great about myself.

In my opinion,stereotypes are a set of beliefs or thoughts about a certain group of people which are usually subjective and untrue. This blog serves to reflect on some of the stereotypes I lived by.  I am drawing ideas and summaries from Wainaina (2005) How to write about Africa,  Miner (1956) Body and Ritual Among the Nacirema, TEDTalks presented by Ngozi-The Danger of a Single Story and Bart Williams-Change your Channel. 

A single story is basically the one story that you believe about specific people.According to Ngozi, "creating a single story is about showing people as one thing , as only one thing over and over again and that is exactly what they become ". I believed that white people were rich.  That was my single story of white people and I couldn't associate white people with poverty and suffering hence I thought that as a black person I should strive to be like white people and have the same luxury of life they have. According to Ngozi, the single story results in stereotypes which are not only untrue but also incomplete.  I happened to have learnt that some white people suffer the same fate as black people and that we are all equal whether black or white.

I also learnt that I shouldn't associate Africa with poverty because we have a lot of valuable resources that make us rich. According to Williams, we are the richest continent in the whole world.  "6 out of 10 of the fastest growing economies are from Africa ". "Africa is the only continent you can love " (Wainaina, 2005).

My belief that our parents love us all has been contradicted by the statements from Nacirema.  "The Narirema believes parents bewitch their own children " (Miner,1956:506). How can a parent bewitch a child he /she loves? This creates differences in how different children perceive their parents.  Not all parents are loving and caring, some of them hurt their children.  Not all children have the same loving experience with parents as others so this creates stereotypes on whether parents are loving or not and as usual,people will have those kind of stereotypes depending on the experience they had with their parents but that doesn't mean all parents are unloving or loving.

In conclusion, I have leant that I should not focus on the single story because it blurs the other side of things.  The grass is not always greener on the other side. Not focusing on the single story helps us explore things from a different perspective and I learnt that before judging or stereotyping other groups I should look at things from their perspective and immerse myself within them so I can get a balance of beliefs and not only have one sided beliefs about a certain group of people.