Nox

Utter misfit. Part time food snob: part Vegan part Fruitarian part Pescetarian part Carnivore.

[Ty Ngachira @anto_ty]

When Tyla said she is not Black but Coloured, she was not speaking into the American conversation about race at all. She was speaking in the language of her own country, shaped by its own history. Yet her words detonated in America as though they had been aimed there. This is what happens when a nation has spent a century convincing the world that its definitions are the only ones that matter.

America’s greatest export has never been war. It has never been democracy. It has never been freedom. America’s greatest export is the dream of itself.

It is not that the films are inherently better. It is not that the music contains some mystical note absent elsewhere. What America has, and what it has always had, is money, reach, and a machinery built to make its image the centre of the world.

This was not accidental. It was policy. It was the soft arm of empire. To project yourself outward until your face is the first one people recognise in the mirror.

And so the American way of life became the default. Other cultures were filed into two neat drawers: savage if they challenged the story, exotic if they could be sold back to you.

If you are Black, your first cinematic self was likely African American, the rapper, the sitcom character, the hero of a Spike Lee joint. If you are white in Europe or Australia, it was the white faces of American sitcoms and stadium tours. Whoever you were, your first image of yourself came with an American accent.

Over time, Americans began to believe the story they had written. When you grow up in the country that built itself into the cultural Mecca, it is easy to think you are the best simply because you are on top. You forget, or never know, that the game was fixed long before you played it.

But the monopoly is breaking. Nigeria’s Nollywood now speaks across oceans. South Korean dramas leap borders. India’s Bollywood never needed permission to fill theatres. Spanish thrillers keep strangers awake at night. Slumdog Millionaire, Squid Game, Money Heist, Shōgun — all aimed partly at the American market because that is where the money is, but no longer about America.

And here is the thing. Black Americans, who fought to be seen in their own country, became the global face of Blackness. That is a remarkable achievement. It was also made possible by the same system that excluded everyone else. Now Africans, Caribbeans, and Afro-Latins tell their own stories without making room for American centrality, and the absence is noticed.

We grew up watching you. You did not grow up watching us. And now the internet has levelled the ground just enough for others to speak without hesitation. Tyla’s words land differently because the world no longer accepts America as the only arbiter of meaning.

America’s greatest export was never its art. It was the power to decide which art, and which identities, the world would see. That power is no longer yours alone. There is both justice and loss in that.

[Nox @NoxJan]

@TheLizVariant . You

[Nox @NoxJan]

On this day that the Lord has made, I spent upwards of 7 hours at the airport waiting for a local flight... 😓#ORTamboInternational#FlightDelays##FuelingSystem #TravelWoes#FlySafair

[Nox @NoxJan]

It's the "when are you going on leave" kind of vibe this week

[Nox @NoxJan]

@HealthZA the turning away of critically ill patients at Charlotte Maxeke due to geo location is diabolical.

[Tina @Tina_Hokwana]

Employee employed as an Operating Standards Specialist in 2012 and as at January 2020, he was earning a salary of R 83,500 a month.  

November 2018 he applied for a bursary at work in terms of an Extra Mural Study Assistance Programme to further his studies at UCT. The application was approved and 2019 was his first year of studies.

[Sam Ghali, M.D. @EM_RESUS]

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, when a critical patient suddenly develops an intense and desperate thirst for water, they are about to code until proven otherwise.

[Nox @NoxJan]

@ayakasiya So cute😍

[Tina @Tina_Hokwana]

How did she get scammed?

She received an inheritance from the proceeds of a sale of farmland which she invested in a 6 month fixed account with Capitec Bank.

2 February 2024: she received an SMS from an unknown person, stating:  “Payment notification:  Transaction debited R11 700 on Takealot Ref-T[...].  Not you or report call on 0[...].”

[Creepy.org @creepydotorg]

There are currently hundreds of deceased people in the US, including baseball legend Ted Williams, whose bodies are being frozen in liquid nitrogen in the hope that future technology will be able to revive them.

[Wendy Knowler @wendyknowler]

A note to those who call women they don’t know “Dear”.
You may mean well, but please don’t.

[Nox @NoxJan]

@ayakasiya Well done Mommy, bahle aba bantu😍

[Nox @NoxJan]

So much is happening, it's the #ICJ now #TrevorNoah 👏🏾

[Nox @NoxJan]

Life is unpredictable...

[Nox @NoxJan]

@ayakasiya Horrible and v painful💔

[Nox @NoxJan]

That time I have a 2 hr drive to Tsolo... EC roads😒

[Nox @NoxJan]

@NdzaviDerrick Happy belated birthday to you, hope you had the best time 😊

[Nox @NoxJan]

@K1ngMalachi It's crazy

[Nox @NoxJan]

Funerals in December😩

[Nox @NoxJan]

@ayakasiya Jongaaaa akusebenzeki 😢