by Thabiso Tshowa
Black Boy Fly is a story or maybe it’s a game about the human race about how we can be loving and hurtful at the same time but if you play your cards right you can actually act a poes and still get the girl of your dreams. But it goes deeper than that. It’s about using hurtful words to express our deepest thoughts about how we feel about our loved ones without actually being negative to the point where we hurt their feelings or say something out of spite.
II
Black boy fly came about the experiences I had growing up in Geluksdal, a Coloured neighbourhood where people can be loving and hurtful at the same time or maybe they expressed their love in an unusual manner. Geluksdal was a place where you’d find some of the most unstable minds and the most beautiful mixed people you could ever possibly find on earth. I stayed in extension2 with my mom and baby sister, Zet (though she’s 7 years older than me), later known as “sister boza” because she was so gangsta, taking after her mom of cos. Violence has never been an issue. Everybody in my family was exposed to violence from an early age – from parents to their offspring, cycling back to grandparents. I’ve witnessed some of the most gruesome assaults in my family but mostly against other families and neighbours; it was like gang wars growing up in the streets of extension2. I was no angel either. I have hurt many people throughout my youth but luckily my mind wasn’t right either so whenever I committed an unspeakable act I would afterwards fall into a deep sleep and wake up with no recollection of the ordeal ever having taken place and I think that’s what set me apart from the rest of my fellow sick-minded people; so I never remembered the bad things I done and woke up the next morning a happy camper. They (my loved ones) would allow me to stay in that state of bliss and ignorance because whenever I acted out in an aggressive manner it was mainly the product of me being pushed into a corner. Even now as a 24 year old man trying to find his way in the world, I still relapse and act out aggressively but not to the point of seriously hurting people I manage to bring myself back to a calm state of mind. I guess the remnants of Geluksdal are still within me.
III
Black Boy Fly was born when I first heard Lucky’s older brother, Bobo call his girlfriend, Sharice a fat ass and then expressing how he likes her in that manner. His exact words were “Jy het ‘n dik esel but I like you like that”. She never got mad at him for saying that, she was actually excited by the phrase because every time he knocked her down he would follow up with “But I like you like that” so my friend(Lucky) and I figured we would use it on the local girls from Tsakani at “Faranani multi-purpose centre” a neighbourhood swimming hole. We figured It would work wonders there because we were at an advantage from any competition from the mean older Tsakani boys because kids from Tsakani were not too familiar with English and/or Afrikaans. They spoke mostly Zulu and/or Sotho.
IV
Lucky would sometimes go visit his coloured relatives on his mother’s side in the deep dark section of Geluksdal and I would be left to play with Rokney, my best friend, so we ended up using black boy fly on the beautiful neighbourhood mix breeds and I specifically used it on Shanice, the younger girl from my neighbour’s house but I guess it was too dumb or too intricate for her liking because she got offended and almost gave me a hot clap but she didn’t, because she liked me just as much as I liked her. Black Boy Fly successfully worked on her mom though I guess she was mature enough to grasp the full scope of the game and I think she fell for me because she figured I was too grown up or too wise for girls my age. Talk about a beautiful sick twisted fate. But it was cool.