Port Nelson Mandela

I was in Port Nelson Mandela recently. I understand it’s still officially called Port Elizabeth, but I’m sure not for long. It turns out that Elizabeth was the wife of some British colonialist. Why on earth he didn’t call it Port Pete or whatever his name was beats me. Maybe that’s a reason why he had such a nice wife. I wouldn’t understand, not being a British colonialist. I’m sure no African in history ever called anything after his wife, that’s for certain. Anyway, Port Nelson Mandela is much better. In fact Port Elizabeth is offensive to me personally. All whites offend me. It so happens that just about everything in Port Elizabeth is called Nelson Mandela. If you ever want to go somewhere interesting , just say Nelson Mandela something, eg “Nelson Mandela museum”, or “Madiba Bay”. I think Nelson Mandela now has at least 2 of everything named after him, and probably about 1000 roads nationally. Anyway, I visited St Georges Park (I assume they haven’t delivered the signs yet). There was this memorial to dead colonialists, complete with statue of terrorist (colonialist soldier) in battle with gun. (how come its so hard to call a colonialist soldier a terrorist? I suppose because they’re always dressed smartly, like soldiers. There’s surely no other difference. Then the official definitions should be: Terrorist – undisciplined, badly dressed fighter. Soldier – disciplined, smartly dressed fighter) For some reason, someone had painted the memorial and it was looking good. Obviously the colonialist remnants were hanging in there at the municipality. I pictured a statue of Nelson Mandela in his suit in its place. Then I pictured a ragged comrade war vet with an AK in its place. Somehow, though, the place won’t be the same. I also discovered, again surprisingly, that the gardens had been beautifully maintained, even the old, tasteful colonialist features had been preserved. How offensive. I sat in the beautiful gardens, listening to happy birds, and was offended. Why? Was it Envy? That it was colonialists who had made this? We have to unmake it, make it African. I pictured mielies instead of flowers, a sand patch surrounding a well, or a wood pole cattle kraal. Would we be losing something by Africanising this place? We’ll surely find out soon enough.