''BE IN IT TO WIN IT'' WHO IS THE REAL RHODENT?

WIDE OPEN VOICE‘

BE IN IT, TO WIN IT’, WHO IS THE REAL RHODENT?

Well, well, well it’s one such a thing that rocks students’ lives at Rhodes. Myths are still lying even in the heads of the lecturers, students and Grahamstown itself about who a real Rodent is? Some say that for you to win it you should be in it. Should status and identity be achieved by being part and parcel of Rhodes academic sphere? Can one acquire the title of being a real Rhodent by being a student at Rhodes?By the virtue of acquiring a place at Rhodes and giving my last smile to my family members who were at the Zimbabwean airport watching me ascending into the boeing 777 that could leave me in South Africa made me to have a strong feeling of pride sweeping into my nerves and going deep into the deeper parts of my blood, that at last I’m the real Rhodent.
For you to win this title where are you supposed to be and what is the determinant qualification? One of such a week which was termed Tri-varsity made me to pop into the purple dressed people walking up and down the Rhodes Street. To them, satisfaction was within them that being part and parcel of the Trivarsity competitors meant that they are the real Rhodents going to represent the name and colour code of the widely recognised University. Is it a matter of taking part into the activities that are done for you to be recognised as a Rhodent? Every person was talking about Tri-varsity and some of the innocent first year student would just hang about with the other grown up students who knew much about Tri-varsity spirit. Would you feel that you are not areal Rhodent if you do not take part in these activities?
If we trace back to the memories of our parents left back at our own homes and countries, they would tell you that, ‘listen daughter, you need that white paper with the degree and you can claim to be a real Rhodent.’ How can I know that you are a real Rhodent if you do not have that certificate which act as evidence enough for you to be a real Rhodent. So, should we say that those who haven’t yet acquired this paper cannot stand up in the lecture theatres, tut rooms and seminars declaring that they are Rhodents? Even I, myself I would cry and say to myself I’m a real Rhodent because the first guy I met during the orientation week who is in third year told me that you can become a real Rhodent after writing June exam. So I qualify because I wrote the June exams which awakened me and instructed me to leave high school habits behind.
It was such a refreshing moment when I was taken by my friends into Port Elizabeth just for weekend refreshment after a busy week. We were in one of the prominent pubs where we were joined by these other guys who introduced themselves as Fort hare Taliban’s. They just observed me for about half an hour and one of them said’ why are you not taking alcohol? I looked into his eye and simply said,’ I don’t drink.’ If you don’t drink you should be smoking and if you don’t smoke you should be a person who likes sex too much. To me it was such a surprise and he simply calmed down the stresses and wrinkles that had formulated onto my forehead by saying that, you cannot say that you are a Rhodes student if you are not partaking in one of the things that I mentioned. This was one such an incident that left me speechless when it comes to this issue of being a Rhodent. If you are not in it, should we say that you are not winning it?
Shakespear once said that, ‘to be or not be that is a question’ but as for me, it does not matter to be or not to be but what matters most is what you want to be