Shooting From The Hip Carlos kambaekwa I’m not an expert on cultural activities in the mould of my childhood mentor Alex Jarii Kaputu, and I’m also not the kind of oke who would lose any sleep over cultural rituals as practised by thousands of ethnic groups all over our beloved continent – South Africa and Namibia in particular. However, yours truly is somehow getting gatvol with all the racially laden brouhaha incited by former ANC Chief Whip fraudster Tony Yengeni’s slaughtering of a bull to appease his ancestors following his release from his somewhat abbreviated stint in the notorious Pollsmoor tjoekie near Cape Town. The slaughtering of animals has been a generally accepted practice amongst darkies until the intervention of a minority group under the guise of Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals better known as (SPCA). There are indeed two groups spearheading the campaign to protect animals with one entirely opposed to the slaughtering of animals while the other one does not approve some methods of killing, notably when darkies resort to the traditional beat of sharpening their old okapis to set the ritual in motion. According to our beliefs, the animal must first bellow in pain which is a good omen as it shows a sign of communication with the ancestors and that they are giving the ritual the thumbss up, but the SPCA would have none of this and strongly believes this generally upheld view is loads of beef. The SPCA says this practice contravenes the Animal Protection Act of 1962, which prohibits causing suffering to an animal. For those who criticize the practice, pain is pain whatever method is used to kill an animal and it will always suffer from pain, because the daily pain subjected to thousands of animals slaughtered in abattoirs by capitalists who are out to make some decent moola also causes grave pain to these animals. It’s about jibbos for some laanies and those few darkies who perceive themselves to be slightly funkier than their brothers in the Kasi (the victims of society) to start respecting African culture. People are always quick to advocate the issue of constitutional rights, freedom of witties, and all that kind of jazz, but why do the very same souls always want to impose themselves on other tribes’ way of life ?. For years, darkies have been told how to behave, wittie, to have offspring at their own peril as if this was a sinful exercise and of course, eating habits – for some of us who have been globe-trotting over a significant number of years, it was not strange to be subjected to all kind of cultures almost very minute of your stay in unfamiliar territory. If one happens to peel a banana with your bare hands while on European soil, you would be deemed to lack table manners and will be classified as an uncivilized village dude who is in dire need of some kind of refinement It appears to me the SPCA’s selective policy on Animal Cruelty is purely targeting darkies, simply because we’ve never heard them raising a finger when those from European descendants are circling like vultures over our beautiful country for their past-time exhibition, the so- called Trophy Hunting. When Africans go hunting it is all about keeping hunger at bay, nothing more and nothing less. And what about the Spanish silly leisure under the guise of sport “Bull Fighting” – is that not cruelty to animals? When a pale-skinned farmer cold-bloodedly shot dead an innocent darkie after mistakenly thinking the poor chap was a baboon, nobody made a noise as to why the Dutch boy should take aim at an innocent and trouble-free baboon minding its own business. I would love to see the SPCA concentrating on more relevant issues by starting to round up all the stray dogs and cats in the townships and to stop undermining the culture of darkies, because slaughtering of animals is a way of connecting with our ancestors and how we do it – is the business of nobody!! finish and klaar.