The mythologies we have constructed around us are imploding. There is no point in running away from this. The edifices we have of Truth and Reconciliation, post-apartheid healing, rainbow nations and multi-party post-dictatorship democracies are coming down all around us.
Africa's problems are boiling onto the surface everywhere you turn this year. It grieves my spirit. What happened to hope for Africa and all that other positivity?
Still, we have to concede it was presumptuous of nations to attempt to 'move ahead' while leaving behind a majority of their people. What could we all have been smoking? How far did we imagine we could take this? Now the question is: are we learning our lesson, or do we remain criminally clueless?
I certainly hope time will have a redeeming story to tell.
When time tells.
(And to be clear, I'm not excusing xenophobia and its deadly consequences in South Africa. It is what it is.)
It's my window, but I don't own the view.