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Profile on Lutho Magasana

Ashleigh Christians

Grahamstown, Eastern Cape, RSA

A Xhosa man sits in front of me with his feet up on the chair opposite him, constantly fidgeting and checking what I write down on my notepad. He speaks quietly of freedom and how he both possesses it, yet lack the lingering taste of it.

Lutho Magasana’s ears ached with demands from each parent. He wishes to make his own decisions without their words stinging his hearing organs. In order to gain independence, his dream was to be as far away from his family as he possibly could be. However, his emotional strings kept him bound. Studying at the University of Western Cape, away from his hometown (King William’s Town) left him doubting his decision pretty soon.

Coming from a rural background, Mr Magasana would sit behind a computer screen for at least one hour before having completed only one full page. Weightless air weighs down on his shoulders as he struggles to cope with the pressure of being in university. He says his people have less opportunities in rural areas, especially in his high school due to the fact that universities would not visit their school to inform them of their campuses and how to apply. He feels that the freedom of this particular knowledge was not granted to him.

Despite his people having less opportunities than most, there are those who have been granted the opportunity to rise up in economic and political rank. Alas, Mr Magasana feels disappointed by his own [people]. He shrugs when Black Economic Empowerment is mentioned. He feels betrayed by those politicians who use capital allocated for government funded projects, such as RDP housing, to purchase the latest Mercedes Benz. He therefore comes to the conclusion that money could change “the situation”. This is his motivation to earn money - to sort himself and his family out first, then branch out to the community in order to change “the situation”.

Mr Magasana clicks his tongue when he reads “name/naam” on his identity document. He slams down the newspaper as he reads of students who did well in Mathematics and Science examinations, answering either in English or in Afrikaans. He feels at a disadvantage when attending tertiary education classes and tests, which are predominantly English and Afrikaans because his mother tongue has always been isiXhosa. “It is difficult,” he says. The chains of language barriers keep him mentally enslaved to believe that he is not as good as the Englishman or the Afrikaner.

Regardless of these feelings of being restricted politically, economically and socially, he feels environmentally free. He is friends with anyone from any race and feel no raw negative emotions. He enjoys their company, and in that sense he believes he is free from all his obligations. Mr Magasana is proud of where he is today because he can finally say he can do what a scholar can do on a computer. The weight on his shoulders feel about only two kilograms now compared to the one ton he has felt before. Despite the language barrier, Mr Magasana feels content with the progress he has made. He is satisfied with the education that he now has because it is all he ever wanted in a world so detained.

Lutho means fortune in isiXhosa, which leads him to believe that he is his family’s fortune - figuratively speaking. Beauty is found in the irony that this fortune is detained. He does not allow room for mental slavery and aims to emancipate himself of the situation despite the different barriers he faces. I suppose that freedom is just a concept that cannot truly be achieved no matter how hard one tries.