Leani grew up in the world of solving problems and the powerful influence of the written word of her parents; Louis, an engineer and Leilani a bookworm. Raised in suburban Pretoria, she discovered the harsh realities of injustice and racism at an early age. During her teenage years, she saw the power of individuals changing the destinies of millions in the turmoil of a young country at the imminent verge of giving birth to what would become known as “The New South Africa.”
Leani’s conviction that one must first live life before attempting to write anything worthwhile lead her to explore diverse world views. After completing her bachelor in Architecture (1998), she was privileged to work with a wide variety of communities in more than 7 countries and islands in and around Southern Africa. Since 1991, she has travelled through 15 countries abroad and is now studying a Masters in Theology and Media Communications in Dallas, Texas.
Through her writing and consequent influence, Leani aims at turning your hearts toward her continent and together get our hands dirty in affecting Christ-driven change across the whole sphere from education, medical, infrastructure, social to business by equipping leaders in appropriate groups strategically located in Africa.
The voice of Vision Africa has been heard in The Glimpse, a quarterly magazine published in the USA with the purpose of creating an awareness of the cultural diversity in that country and abroad.
Interact with her stories at www.zebrasbark.blogspot.com by adding your own thoughts as a comment. Discover more of her published writing and photography at www.glimpseabroad.org. A number of Leani's short stories and poems have also been published on the EIKON website : www.dts.edu/eikon and she regularly contributes articles and photos to the DTS community newspaper called: The Jot and Tittle.
Since December 2005 her first official writers group named The Pages has been born out of a group of fellow writers at DTS. Our purpose is to encourage more people to share their lives with others through the written word.
Leani's launched her most recent initiative in January 2006 in the form of an original screenplay called (working title) A virus called love - about how one individual with a passion can make a difference in a seemingly hopeless world. She hopes to submit at least one novella, collection of vignettes or her memoir by the end of 2006.
Writing takes dedication and time. Nothing comes out perfect the first time and time is money. Screenplays are not published in the same way that books are. For one's screenplay to reach the forum where the industry can consider it for public distribution one enters it into screenwriting competitions and every entry generally costs between US$30 and $75. Like most things in life - the greatest need of any person is the encouragement of somebody who believes in his or her. Thus Leani needs your moral support and prayers more than anything else to persist in this ministry of worshiping God by sharing the stories of His faithfulness and grace to all mankind. Here follows a piece that captures the essence of Africa's success stories...
12 African women
This African story tells about five bloodthirsty harlots, one faithful wife, two sets of twins, one cripple, and one victorious. Hemmed in between them, a stubborn old queen resists her inevitable future while losing her radiance to Syphilis. It’s not once upon a time in a land far, far away, but on our doorstep. Today, in a year, three days old.
2005 begins with promise of peace in Sudan , ending the longest war on this continent. The frightening remnants remain after Tsunamis crashed against the eastern coasts of Ethiopia, where exhausted missionaries and UN food distributors try to tend gaping wounds left by decades of tribal monopolies. East of them, genocide and the West’s greed for blood diamonds and Colton for their cellphones, have raped Rwanda, Uganda and Congo’s future generations. Despite the violent neighbourhood, Kenya’s managed to remain stable with one of her children becoming the first black African women to receive the Nobel Peace Prize in 2004.
Unfold this map some more and draw your finger south. Move toward other peaceful prospects, each bordered by an ocean. Angola next to the Atlantic on the east and Mozambique west of the Indian. Once Portuguese colonies and both enslaved to Communist regimes until recently have finally begun rebuilding their war-torn democracies. Tragically, their peaceful countrysides continue to lethally harvest limbs and income-earning abilities from unsuspecting pedestrians who are forced to cross over active minefields.
More inland, Botswana sports the strongest currency in Africa, namely the Pula. Sadly, also the highest statistic for HIV/Aids infection in the world. Despite this booming epidemic, the country fuels a strong economy simply by their legal diamonds, extensive cattle industry and gorgeous tourism attractions. The beautiful environs extend beyond man-made borders into the once most frequented world of untamed rivers, game parks and lush farmlands, famous for tobacco. Zimbabwe finished singing her swan-song long ago. Today, reversed racism has annihilated her soil’s fertility, murdered any opposition to the present powers-that-be and silenced any public voice pleading for justice. Without any fuel available to transport goods or food anywhere, her people starve as they prey on each other, blinded by a dictator’s promises for more than four decades.
Several factors contribute to Southern African children left behind to fend for themselves. Their main objective is trying to stay alive, let alone enjoying the luxury of literacy or a hope for any change in the future. With harden hearts and suspicion suppressed by empty stomachs, they beg from every white face for sweets and pens. Well-intending tourists respond out of guilt, thinking it a blessing to sustain this humiliating habit while only worsening their dependence on Western charity.
Continuing south, we meet the two lands of milk and honey. The republics of Namibia and South Africa . Both democracies are barely ten years old. Both are fiercely defending their right to independence from European rule in the last two centuries. Both surviving terrible atrocities and sacrifices for the belief in a new integrated future between black and white. Both have defied the international world’s sceptic expectations of civil wars before their re-births. Both have been hurt in the past, abused by self-serving men and her body caries the scars of drastic measures of self-defence against treats, both internal and outside her borders.
Focusing on my homeland, the rainbow nation of the New South Africa: through endurance and forgiveness we have grown into a stunning woman of the globe. Dressed in an indigenous style, making decisions with business savvy and honed survival sense, she has become the popular hostess to many international leaders visiting her estate.
We still have a very far way to go, poverty, HIV/Aids, lack of educational and basic medical services limit the progress of many individuals. Despite our horrific past, the future is shining bright under the final authority of our Lord. While wars rage in other desert countries, this semi-arid world is a testimony to how God’s love still overcomes man’s wickedness by preserving this tip of Africa. Christ’s strange message of loving one’s enemies, leading through servant hood and humility as the chief characteristic of a King has been proven true once again!
“Africa is the place where we will confront our own humanity, our morality, our purposes as individuals and as a country.”– Dr. Jeffrey Sachs, American Economist
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