By Bra Peter
I want to speak plainly today, especially to Black South Africans. No poetry, no performance. Just truth. We are in trouble. Deep trouble. And it’s not because of politics, load-shedding or the rand. Those are symptoms. The real issue is that we have lost our minds.
Let me explain.
We are acting like birds now. Not mammals. Birds hatch from eggs and, in some species, the stronger ones push the weaker ones out of the nest just to survive. No emotion, no hesitation. Just survival. Mammals, on the other hand, nurture their young. They feed them, protect them, raise them as part of a group. A collective.
That’s the difference between survival and Botho.
Botho is what we have lost. We say we still have it because we greet each other politely or help out at funerals. But deep down, we’ve become cold. Suspicious. Isolated. Competitive with the people closest to us. Look at your own family. Look at the township. Look at social media. It’s every man for himself. People are pushing each other out of the nest.
This is not who we are supposed to be.
Why is this happening? Because when people are oppressed for long enough, they lose their ability to care. They move into survival mode. The trauma of apartheid wasn’t just political. It changed how we parent, how we relate to each other, and how we see ourselves. It gave us PTSD. And now we’re passing down complex PTSD to our children.
We are wounded. And when you don’t heal a wound, you infect others.
We are addicted to distraction. Our screen time data now shows we lead the world. Instead of the Bible or ancestral teachings, we consume social media clips like microdoses of dopamine. Always looking for the next laugh, the next scandal, the next fight. All to forget that we are lost. Landless. Disconnected.
We replaced spirituality with entertainment.
We used to know what our purpose on Earth was. Now, we follow this new “South African Dream”:
- Go to school
- Get a job
- Enjoy the weekend
- Repeat
All while hating your Zimbabwean neighbour, while worshipping a god who arrived with the same people who stole your land.
This is madness.
We are not birds. We are not foreigners to this land. We are the land itself. But we’ve forgotten. We’ve traded Botho for hustle. We’ve confused coping with living. That’s why nothing feels real anymore. Not our prayers. Not our dreams. Not our lives.
This is not to shame you. I am speaking as one of you. I have been lost too. But we must wake up.
It is time to stop pretending this system works. It is time to stop thinking that a better job or a nicer car will heal us. Only reconnection can do that. Reconnection to self, to each other, to land, to silence, and to purpose.
We are not birds.
We are not robots.
We are not slaves.
We are human beings. And we need to start acting like it.
—
Bra Peter
Grow your mind. Grow your food. Grow your rest. Walk in the light.