Thursday, April 14, 2011

HANS KUZANGA, DIFFERENT EYES


Short, syncopated jabs, successive lighting punches, and hard-as-concrete kicks, some of the most vivid memories I have of Hans Kuzanga are in a college gym in Florida where he exhibited the martial art skill-sets of a Zambian Bruce Lee. Hans had every move scientifically broken down, had analyzed the consequences of their wrong execution, and had qualified his role as teacher by sheer philosophical eloquence. When I would run track on east field in the evenings, I often found Hans in monastic concentration on the green, choreographing battle sequences or sparring with a much larger opponent, Han's smacks and blows landing on sweaty skin and clearly heard from metres away. Hans Kuzanga’s ability to break a move down to the most basic level branded him a fighter, a title thrust upon him time and time again.


The week I met Hans at dinner in late 1994, he came to my dormitory room early on a Sunday morning to tell me that his father had been killed the previous evening by a drunk driver. When Hans returned from the funeral overseas, he displayed a battle-hardened ardor that developed into a mature mindset on many fronts over many years, streamlining aggression into productivity. I remember the day Hans lost his finger in a mowing accident. I went to visit him at the emergency room, following his blood spoor on the sidewalk to the door of the campus clinic. They were able to save Hans' finger, because he had walked himself and his severed finger over.


That is not the first time Hans has had to fend for himself. He has been kidnapped, tortured, and unlawfully imprisoned overseas. Homeless, he has slept on the floor of a church for months, and starved for days at a time. For a period of time he lived in a room full of rotten flour and had to teach himself to cook and to eat rotten food. He has literally had to physically fight off police and thugs alike. Worse yet, he has been the casualty of an international visa fiasco so that a three-day visit to South Africa has turned into a ten-year stay. He has not seen his family for ten years.


In true Kuzanga fashion, Hans grew himself in ways of which he was unfamiliar. Professionally, he ended up working in film, releasing his "Hindrance" in 2010 and currently working on the next one, "King of Sorrow."



The apex of Hans' influence in Capetown, however, is his development of the Christian Patriotic Front, a political organization in the grass roots stage that challenges the religio-political groups of Capetown, South Africa who cater to a predominantly religious consensus. Many of these parties are eloquent when it comes to describing the plights of men, but wholly defunct when it comes to alleviating the actual problems of men. They might champion Christian principles, but only of the platitude sort. The Christian Patriotic Front focuses primarily upon the development and implementation of policy ranging from the protection of women to the protection of the minority.


Having experienced the bottom of the societal totem pole, Hans is creating a platform from which he can create forums to address the misuse and abuses of the foreigner, the racial discrimination and infighting amongst minority groups, and most importantly, the creation of a baseline of social compassion. Hans' desire for societal reform is driven by a self-conscious Christian perspective of charity. Nothing less, he believes, has a chance to successfully mitigate the lawfully-backed racial sanctions that perpetuate deep-set rage on the African continent.


If you would like to contact Hans, find him on Facebook ("Hans Kuzanga"), email him at hanskmedia@gmail.com, or call him at +27724652746.

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