I said last week that a lie told often enough ends up being believed, even by the inventor.

I said last week that a lie told often enough ends up being believed, even by the inventor.

The tragedy is when lies are passed down through the generations: I believe what my grandpa believed and then I pass this on to the generations after me for them to pass it on.

You have heard this conversation: "So you are Mogale .. Mogale from where?"

"Evaton."

"No, I mean where do you really come from?"

The expectation is an answer like ". from Gamabeleapodi", or some obscure village in the bundu.

A big lie has obviously been passed from generation to generation that blacks did not originate from what we now call the urban areas. We have lapped it up and are passing it on. The implication, obviously, is that we of a darker hue only came to places like Gauteng to seek work.

There are more lies: Whoever said the innards of animals - tripe, intestines, lungs, the head and trotters - are "African traditional" fare? By extension, this means the prime cuts of the animal - T-bone, sirloin, chuck - are unAfrican.

The lie is that the cheaper cuts of the animal, normally thrown away or fed to dogs, are what we clamour for. That is arrant nonsense. The fact is, sirloin is as much an African dish as it is English. The only difference is that Africans tend to explore further and indulge in what others overlook. Their loss, I say.

Lie number three is probably the most damaging: witchcraft, sorcery, voodoo and "black magic" are African culture. It is sad that this misconception is perpetuated by several late night national radio shows in which the presenters allow dangerous, utter rubbish to be expressed by callers without challenging it.

It would be interesting to establish how many black children don't do their work throughout the year, and, on the eve of their exams their parents take them to a motho. The motho makes cuts on their bodies, burns some sticks and tells them something like: "When you get to the exam room the answers will appear on the board. They will be invisible to everybody except you. Just chew on this little stick. The other children will doze off while you write ."

I knew a fellow who deliberately drove right into a heavy police roadblock, carrying bags of dagga in his boot. His motho had told him to chew on some stick when he approached the cops and they would all fall asleep.

The cops didn't fall asleep and duly waved him down. For his unquestioning faith he got 13 years in the cooler, poor sod.

Chewing sticks for good luck is not to be confused with Manto Tshabalala-Msimang's famous obsession with beetroot and the African potato. These are African food-cum-remedies alright, but there is a distinct difference between irrational belief in magic and the consumption of herbs that will have a definite effect on one's body - be it positive or negative.

Let's summarise. Blacks are as indigenous to Johannesburg as the mountains here (hence Mogale's mountain, corrupted to Magaliesberg). Sirloin steak is an African dish. Stupid, irrational belief in mumbo-jumbo is not African culture.

Now shoot. Tell me I have lost my soul .