The Communists and I

The Communists and I: A confutation of the ultimate revolutionary ideal

Allow me to state unequivocally, I do not believe that any of the known western systems of governance can at anytime help Africa out of its challenges. We cannot be rescued; neither should we expect it from anybody else but ourselves. There is no one from heaven or any other part of this earth that can save us from white supremacy, imperialism and from our own greed. This is a fact that we should become familiar with and from that point on we should begin to ask ourselves, whereto from now?

 “The fundamental character of the social, economic and cultural renewal we urgently need will require a change of both our hearts and our minds. But that change will demand a new kind of politics – a politics with spiritual values.” – Introduction to Jim Wallis, The Soul of Politics ‘A Practical and Prophetic Vision for Change’

Ever since I became politically conscious, I have struggled with some basic concepts of Communism, if not the ‘doctrine’ itself but its supposed efficacy within the African setting.

I have supported many Socialist ideals, agreed with many communist authors and comrades on a number of ideas and platforms, but there is always something that causes me to doubt that this is the right path towards an African re-awakening.

Surely as my communist friends have oft reminded me, many Pan-Africanists and leaders of the independent African countries were either influenced by or were card-carrying communists themselves. But to me that is either here nor there, I know that it was not their being communists which drove them to strive for the liberation of their people against imperialism.

The dichotomy between the nationalists, the communists and the pan-Africanists is well documented and the African National Congress learned very earlier on that the communists were their allies in the fight against Western hegemony and imperialism, but they were still careful not to conform totally to the communist agenda, for reasons that I will expound on later.

Communism merely identified and gave a name to the common enemy, and the fathers of communism being Europeans themselves knew best about the roots of the villainous capitalist system and they in turn attempted to dismantle it as best as they knew how. But I say that this was done for the ultimate good of their own people and not for we.

The fact that people such as Che Guevara, Franz Fanon, Jean Paul Satre and many other brilliant minds were also communists is not enough to convince me that I should also wave the red flag or make Marx, Lenin, and Engels my holy tri-unity, the famous freedom fighter and these former writers and deep thinkers were moved more by the human condition rather than some system that they later embraced.

It was one of my personal favourite former communist authors – the esteemed Milan Kundera, who clarified this contradiction for me, in one of his brilliant satirical works Laughable Loves  and The Book of Laughter and Forgetting* and in one of his interviews:

“The metaphysics of man is the same in the private sphere as in the public one. Take the other theme of the book, forgetting. This is the great private problem of man: death as the loss of the self. But what is the self? It is the sum of everything we remember. Forgetting is a form of death ever present within life.  But forgetting is also the great problem of politics. When a big power wants to deprive a small country of its national consciousness it uses the method of organised forgetting. This is what is currently happening in Bohemia. Contemporary Czech literature, insofar as it has any value at all, has not been printed for 12 years; 200 Czech writers have been proscribed, including the dead Franz kafka; 145 Czech historians have been dismissed from their posts , history has been rewritten, monuments demolished.

A nation which loses awareness of its past gradually loses its self. Politics unmasks the metaphysics of private life; private life unmasks the metaphysics of politics.”- From An Interview with Phillip Roth.

I have tended to agree with my comrades regarding some of the the uses of the communist model, and how socialisms ultimate end is communism, but I still cannot help thinking that Black Africa requires a special type of model to emancipate our self from all deleterious  aspects of Euro-centrism. I think that the use of the communist political templates causes a lot of politicised Africans to be lazy minded and to not strive to look any further or to look within for African models of selfhood.

We must remember ourselves, remembering is our only restorative means towards a revolutionary end, keeping in mind that even revolutions must be sustained states rather than mere events.

We must remember also that ours is not just a competition between the proletariat and the bourgeoisie or between the haves and the have not’s, surely the black mans burden is far more than that surely we have learned from the victories and the pitfalls of leaders such as Julius Nyerere, Kwame Nkrumah and the yet unmatchable Thomas Sankara.

Here is what some objective socialists have had to say on the subject of socialism vs. capitalism:

“But what spokesman of the present generation has anticipated the demise of socialism or the “triumph of capitalism”? Not a single writer in the Marxian tradition! Are there any in the left centrist group? None I can think of, including myself. As for the center itself—the Samuelsons, Solows, Glazers, Lipsets, Bells, and so on—I believe that many have expected capitalism to experience serious and mounting, if not fatal, problems and have anticipated some form of socialism to be the organizing force of the twenty-first century.

... Here is the part hard to swallow.

It has been the Friedmans, Hayeks, von Miseses, e tutti quanti who have maintained that capitalism would flourish and that socialism would develop incurable ailments. Mises called socialism “impossible” because it has no means of establishing a rational pricing system; Hayek added additional reasons of a sociological kind (“the worst rise on top”).

All three have regarded capitalism as the “natural” system of free men; all have maintained that left to its own devices capitalism would achieve material growth more successfully than any other system.”  – From Robert Heilbroner.
“The World After Communism.”
Dissent (Fall 1990): 429–430 ( Robert Heilbroner, a socialist for most of his adult life, was the Norman Thomas Professor of Economics (emeritus) at the New School for Social Research and author of the best-seller The Worldly Philosophers. He died in 2005. )

“The history of socialist movements is complex and fascinating, bound up with the histories of organized labor, of economics and left-wingpolitics in general, and, less honorably, with that of revolutionsand totalitarianism. Leftists, of course, tend to be historically-minded, so we're very good at writing our own histories, at remembering ancient incidents and finding precedents in them. Of course, like everyone else, we're also very good at convenient amnesia. Few of us care to remember just how much support the Soviets had, long after it had become clear to anybody with an eye cracked open that they were far, far worse than capitalist democracies, and in a league (after the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact in 1939, literally) with the Fascists.” – Socialism, Market Socialism

It is important to state that I am radically opposed to the capitalist economic theory and that I consider the Republic of South Africa one of the most unfortunate governmental experiments ever. If I had to give examples, it would take us forever to arrive at a chorus of aha!

But the purpose of this paper is not to simply expose the failures of a black nationalist government, whose leadership love calling themselves a Liberation movement in power, they should call themselves a Liberties movement in power, since they are more about taking liberties with state resources rather than true liberty. But then again, many of these leaders are quite well versed in political theories, having been raised on substantial amounts of communist and western capitalist propaganda.

RSA even boasts a quite mind boggling tri-partite alliance between Free Market Capitalists, a Labour Union and A South African Communist Party; yes, all of them sit in one bench and are well fed by the bloodthirsty imperialist powers. Obviously these are the simple pleasures of a democracy, such strange bed-fellows and painful compromises, but to the detriment of whom?

The Public

It has been said that many well meaning governments have begun their leadership stints as self professed socialists only to end up abandoning all those ideals due to the pressure of free market capitalism. I often think that we all tended to give to much credit to our governments, this is more so within the African continent where public servants have tended to play the role of reverend patriarchs.

The sheer arrogance and complacency with which they assume in their roles clearly displays their understanding of the public greatest weakness, which is ignorance. Perhaps this ignorance of basic politics can be attributed to general levels of poor education or plain old laziness.

Even leadership debates have tended to focus mostly on the roles of politicians, corporates and other blindly accepted forms of authority.

We the people don’t seem to understand the amount of power that we have shifted to our so called leaders, while allowing ourselves to be misled into every possible direction. A clear example of this is the RSA’s notorious 1996 Growth Empowerment and Redistribution (GEAR) economic strategy and subsequently all deals regarding Private ownership.

Trevor Manuel made GEAR the ANC’s official economic strategy without negotiating it with the alliance partners, South African Communist Party and COSATU, whose leaders were just merely consulted, but their opinion was not required. The ANC top brass, white capitalists and the World Bank had simply decided for the people and that was that.

Of course this resulted in many confrontations with the civil society movements and many socialists, but this appeared to the ruling party as merely the expected squeak of democracy, a battle between mice and men.

The disastrous consequences of South African leadership were basically the result of a misunderstanding of the Purpose of government, a purpose which many of us failed to effectively remind them of.

Perhaps we tried through the many service delivery protests and Labour unions many marches against privatisation, and disastrous macro-economic policies yet these appear to have fallen on increasingly deafened ears. It is also possible that a significant number of RSA citizens are either not interested in political education or maybe we are still unlearning the mental blockages of the apartheid system; either way our lethargy is costing us dearly and we are slowly realising the horrors of being lead or mislead by an increasingly authoritarian government where even the police have become the most dangerous armed force, routinely terrorising the public.

“World history and recent events show that independence leads to voluntary acceptance of world ideas. If I could trust my own interpretation of the language of Nigerian politics, I should conclude that Nigeria aspires to join the community of nations and to share the ethos of our age. Citizenship involves the theory and practice of politics. Some schools of thought regard the study of politics as part of moral philosophy.

Morality, it has been said ‘is the very sinews of politics, being in truth nothing more than the conscience of a nation striving to express itself in state action.’ This definition of politics needs special emphasis in Nigeria to-day, because too often political discussions concentrate on the mechanics of Governance to the exclusion of the purposes of Government.” – R.K. Gardner, Citizenship In An Emergent Nation: A Lecture Delivered before Members on an Extra-Mural Residential Course at Oshogbo, Nigeria, 1953.

Dear reader, please bear with me if I seem to have drifted further from the topic; I must remind you that my refutation of communism and socialism does not stem from any personal animosity or mistrust of communists, it actually emerged from my observance of local and global politics.

Having always viewed politics from the vantage point of an observer who also was not interested in getting into the partisan feuds that I grew up witnessing I had plenty good reasons to approach any

political theory with scepticism. 
So much has my pessimism grown that I even rejected the notion of democracy as I saw it.
The concept simply did not seem to hold any water for me and the majority of Black people. I had read quite a bit, but still could not recall any place in the world where real people power was realised through this system. Of course I then grew to understand that even democracy evolves and takes many forms according to the vision of the rulers and the will of the public.

In closing let us look at the role that socialism has played in the ruling party here in Azania/RSA. I will not engage in describing a concise history of socialism and the relationship between the Societs and the other subsequent communist countries with both the ANC charterists, the unions and even with the Pan-Africanists that will require a much larger paper.

 Allow me to simply let the following quote to put it as it is:

“Many leftist commentators have echoed labor’s allegations of an ANC ‘sell-out,’ arguing that the 1990’s marked a sudden, unexpected turn away from a socialist tradition towards neoliberalism. In some analyses, ANC leaders driven by contingent conveniences were simply lured and duped into accepting the agenda of the IMF and the World Bank ( Bond 2005; Klein 2007: 194 -217). Framed in almost conspiratorial tones, this line is however unconvincing, Entrepreneurial views of black social emancipation have always been much thicker than socialism in the ANC’s ideological tradition.” - ( Franco Barchiesi – Precarious Liberation , p.83-84)

As a person who is always interested in learning, I often ask my communist friends to ‘school’ me about the virtues of communism, but all I ever get are half-baked rants which do nothing to reduce my level of mistrust of such a theory. I also believe that we can have a clear an effective theoretical and practical Black Consciousness without leaning on Communism. The fact that the forefathers and mothers of BC also read Marx, Hegel and many of the European communist theorists does not mean that we must follow suit. Our realities have changed ever so slightly, the public sphere has been opened widely by new technologies and even though we are still grappling with certain trappings of White Supremacy, we are even more capable of developing our own unique social contracts.

Surely so many Black people are able to innovatively usher in a new Earth where nature, commerce and spiritual progress is nurtured without dependence on borrowed concepts, no matter how noble.

What I hope and strive for is a succinct and universally applicable yet Africa-centred theory which addresses the needs of people without depending on tried, tested and failed Eurocentric strategies.

Writers such as Ayi Kwei Armah, Ngugi Wa Thiongo, Eskia Mphahlele, Mazisi Kunene and many more have alluded to the fact that we as a people are capable of so much more than we have been before.

Is that too much to ask, or are we incapable of remembering that We The People are the ones we have been waiting for and that we have done all this before. The future is in our hands, will we shape it or will it be pre-fabricated for us?

TBC

Water From An Ancient Well

Water From An Ancient Well

“The invention of the nation state and of modern government in the closing years of the of the 16^th century was certainly one of the most successful innovations ever. Within 200 years they conquered the globe. But its time for new thinking. The same holds true for economic theories that have dominated the past 60 years or so. Government, not businesses or non-profits- is going to be the most important area of entrepreneurship and innovation over the next 25 years.” – Peter F. Drucker in Managing in the Next Society (1996)

The quoted text is from a paper written in 1996 while the book was published in the year 2002. While there are many questions that the experienced author answers concerning the nature of Capitalism, Business, Entrepreneurship and the general flow of innovations, it is the point that he insist on a change of attitude within the predominantly western leaders that excites me about the book.

This talk of change appears to be one of the reasons why the people of the USA today boast of being lead by an African-American president. While there is a lot that can be said about how this leader utilised both social media and a shrewd management of huge amounts of dollars to ascend to power, the narrative that seems to have captured peoples minds is that he promised a fundamental change in the way things would and should be done in his country. Yet it is besides the scope of this essay to speculate on the success or failure of this man and his government, what is important is that he appeared to epitomise most of what people like Drucker have been saying all along which is ‘Adapt or die.’ In other words, Obama and his team played their cards right, they knew what to say, when to say it and how to achieve their goals, the rest is history.

Now, I would like to turn our attention to the role of African leadership in this adventurous endeavour for change. It is safe to say that despite all the reasons why African governments and their nations are lagging so far behind their contemporaries, there is a recognition that the time of mimicry is long gone, the puppet and the autocratic leader has long run out of time and as the winds of revolution continue to sweep through North Africa and the Middle East there is an understandable nervousness overtaking the rest of the leaders who know that the old fashioned style is obsolete.

The impetus now lies with the so called civil society leaders, the managers of movements and organisations that are said to speak on behalf of the needs of ordinary people.

But to lay all the work in the hands of organisations would be another mistake and a failure to outgrow the old routines and patterns of thought.

What I advise is akin to what has been alluded to by the Jazz and Hip Hop generations, the Freestyle or in Jazz terms; Improvisation.

One of the most influential groups in Hip Hop’s large and impressive Hall of Fame was cleverly called, A Tribe Called Quest, these skilful wordsmiths and sound scientists brought a fresh and unprecedented mixture of adventure, imagination and creative articulation of various ideas of Black Consciousness, 5% Islam and generally positive thinking to the music and business of Hip Hop, while influencing a whole generation of MC’s ( Master of Ceremonies…) after them as they continued to have fun and ignore the faddish propensities of the Gangster Rap generation.

In the height of the capitalist based and generally tabloid style of the Gangsta rappers domination of musical charts, the Questers who also spawned a group called Leaders of The New School released an album with a song called ‘Peoples Instinctive Travels And the Paths of Rhythm’, and although it took a few years before I could even hear or understand what that meant, I instinctively gravitated towards the ‘Path’ and the album covers that I saw in the expensive white owned African American magazines have stayed with me until now.

What I mean to illustrate with this is that even governments and other institutional leadership collectives can have such a great and positive influence on their people’s psychological developments if they could focus on the basics and how to administer them, controlling the flow of information and business influences through sound policies.

So what do people basically want what have they always wanted?

It is acceptable that in South Africa, we wanted freedom, the freedom to do as we please in the land of our foremothers/fathers; and after that had been won (politically) we started wanting jobs but in our constant wanting and struggling, we have not been trained or inspired to insist on particular qualities in our freedoms, our jobs and even our spirituality.

What this has done is perpetuate the same kind of pathological ignorance and lack of environmental consciousness that is required if we are to become social or even technological innovators.

The author and publisher Ayi Kwei Armah wrote in his book Two Thousands Seasons: ‘We are not a people of yesterday…’

In my own interpretation he meant that we as Africans should not be satisfied with the history of our subjugation and enslavement, we should not be just happy with stagnant traditions and tribal borders since we are much older than they say we are, we are capable of more since we have rich experience of being alive and therefore we should know and do better.

In IsiZulu, the sentence could be rendered as ‘Asibona oMafikiolo…singo-Makade ebona.’

But there lies the challenge for us and our governments. There is a wealth of experience that remains ignored or unutilised.

The government can invest is creating the kind of policies and infrastructures that can allow us to drink deeply from the ancient wells of our own achievements while we keep a keen and active eye and hand on the developments of this and future ages.

I am not saying that these are easy things to do, but they are not very complicated and so far fetched. It is again the attitude that needs to change, we have to move away from what others have called the culture of entitlement, the tendency to keep asking for more hand-outs, favours and help when we can help ourselves.

The other more critical challenge is that our governments are almost totally dependent of the stifling and dying capitalist model of doing business; At the expense of local and subsistence economies which can be improved, we continue to follow each and every Western trend.

This was what thwarted the otherwise excellent counsel of former President Thabo Mbeki and the political kingdom of Kwame Nkrumah.

While both these leaders sought to Africanise the way we thought about ourselves, they too, just like Obama succumbed to the idiotic force of the monotonous and failed economic theories that can have only furthered the intellectual and physical poverty of their peoples. In other words, instead of being revolutionaries who could have innovated or even improvised within a neo-socialist format, they opted for the easy way out, the neo-liberal model which backfired rather nastily on them.

Some will say that it is a futile exercise to insist on a new order or at least to work towards the reinstatement of a more Africanised basic education system, but these short-sited individuals seem to ignore the fact that the current educational models have not yielded any fruitful outcomes for the people of Africa. Black people still suffer the same social ills that plagued them ever since the colonial and apartheid era’s, perhaps even worse. We continue to invent nothing yet invest all our savings in useless Western ideals and most of what White people now consider boring and valueless, we continue to buy straight hair and anoint ourselves with petroleum jelly while guzzling their alcohols and dreaming year after year of a White Christmas, a White Wedding and lifestyles which bear no resemblance to our humanity. A people who are acknowledged as the custodians of Ubuntu and the first people are now dehumanised.

Finally, here’s what the Poet and one of the former presidents independent Senegal had to say:

“In Black Africa, ethics is active wisdom. It consists for the living man in recognising the unity of the world and in working for its ordering. It is not a catechism which is recited: it is ontology expressed in and through the society, and first of all in oneself.” – L.S. Senghor*

What this man was saying is no different to what Tribe Called Quest was rapping about when they said ‘Inside the ghetto or in the sunny meadow/ I’m gonna make you move, whether woman or fellow…I got the medals and the moves filled with respect…’”*

And so Once again, there is a time for everything and right now is the time for us to move towards a unified purpose with our leaders, or else why are they our leaders if they cannot lead us out of slavery?

How we intend to influence them all depends on whether they are able to become one with us, whether they are willing to listen and act according to the will of the so called workers.

If they cannot, they should let us determine our own destiny, instinctively and without politics.

And by politics, I mean the methods used by the creators of this fucked up system.

The new African should at least find a way to get the government to live up to the basic expectations, to do according to their words and promises made during the stupendously expensive political rallies.

If they cannot live up to their promises, they are simply not worthy of their high thrones, their degrees and PhDs’. Even here in the most promising country in Africa, a peoples rebellion is not unthinkable, but I insist that that rebellion has to be followed by an earnest revolution and revolutions require leaders that will steers them towards the right direction, and in my opinion, the right direction is a decentralised network of community governments driven by the need to be self sustaining and trading within the country and only exporting as little as possible from the West.

This can only be done if the central government pulls out of the so called free market and capital intensive monetary system which continues to be proven ineffective.

We can always learn from our thinkers and leaders who have given us the roadmaps to our emancipation; their example is our shining beacon of hope, we do not have to be embarrassed by the speeches of Marcus Garvey, the contributions of Mangaliso Sobukwe, the works of Sol Plaatjie, Aime Cesaire and many others.

In his collected essays, Makhosezwe Magubane reminds us of the critical observations of W.E.B. Du Bois who famously remarked that “the problem of the 20^th century will be the problem of the colour line”, but unfortunately yet not surprisingly there are many of our scholars who now feel that we should no longer deal with addressing this problem, citing that the politicians and general society is abusing the race card in order to further personal ambitions.

While that may be true, it is also important to recognise that this very racism was not invented by us so called Africans and that it is now left to us to unchain ourselves from it as it not only cripples us emotionally and psychologically, it also has a many economic overtones.

This is what Du Bois had to say as far back as 1936.

“The abolition of American slavery started the transportation of capital from white to black countries where slavery prevailed, with the same tremendous and awful consequences upon the labouring classes of the world which we see about us today. When raw material could not be raised a country like the United States, it could be raised in the tropics and semi-tropics under a dictatorship of industry, commerce and manufacture with no free farming class.”

To insist on multiracialism and the efficacy of free market capitalism is an insult to the memories of many African slaves and the labour force which still continue to suffer for our comforts and freedoms today. Many like to praise the Mandela’s and the Ghandi’s of the world without stopping to think about the consequences of these leaders actions.

Their self sacrifice is used as an excuse for maintaining the western inspired idolatry and perpetuation of the same old story, which is the selling of peace and love while sacrificing truth and justice. But we are not to be so easily fooled; we can choose the quality of our freeness without it being prescribed by the doctors of doom and decay. We are not a people of yesterday; we have ancient wisdom which will work well with our children’s Fresh ideas.

The Past Present and Future of Black Consciousness

Black Consciousness Then, Now and In The Near Future:                               Getting the facts right

The main reason for this paper is to offer some much needed clarity concerning the development  of the Idea of Black Consciousness, a way of thinking and acting that can be called a philosophy yet is clearly much more than that. I have chosen to use many quotations from people who I consider to be among the most knowledgeable and experienced in the ‘field’.  Of course there are many more men and women who qualify to be in these pages, but I have selected just a few people who set the record straight without depending on political jargon.

“Constantly, in the difficult days of our struggle against apartheid, I used to say that the Black Consciousness movement was surely of God. You see,the most awful aspect of oppression and justice was not the untold suffering it visited on its victim and survivors, ghastly as that turned out to be, as the testimonies we have been hearing attest. No, it was the fact that apartheid could, through its treatment of Gods children, actually make many of them doubt whether they were indeed God’s children. That I have described as the ultimate blasphemy.” – Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu

1: The true beginnings of BC

“The surge towards Black Consciousness is a phenomenon that has manifested itself through the so called Third World. There is no doubt that discrimination against the black man the world over fetches its origins from the exploitative attitude of the white man. --- It is true that the history of weaker nations is shaped by bigger nations, but nowhere in the world today do we see whites exploiting whites on a scale even remotely similar to what is happening in South Africa. Hence, one is forced to conclude that it is no coincidence that black people are exploited. It was a deliberate plan which has culminated in even so called black independent countries not attaining real independence.

It should therefore be accepted that an analysis of our situation in terms of one’s colour at once takes care of the greatest single determinant for political action – i.e. colour – while also validly describing the blacks as the only real workers in South Africa.

In terms of the Black Consciousness approach we recognise the existence of one major force in South Africa. This is White Racism.” -  Steve Biko (I Write What I Like, 1971)

“Black consciousness did not emerge in SA in the 1970’s – the meetings that gave birth to black consciousness in SA happened initially in 1966. The South African Students Organisation (SASO) was formed, interestingly, in 1968 at Marian hill. It was launched the following year at the University of the North. – In other words, there was no SASM before “black consciousness emerged”: SASM was born out of the very melting pot of black consciousness.” – MandlaSelleoane

The BCM’s first political statement was contained in the SASO Policy Manifesto. That Manifesto did not, however, say much about the society the BCM envisaged. The first elaborate attempt to spell this out was a declaration in King William’s Town in 1975 called Towards a Free Azania – Projection: Future State. In this declaration the BPC committed itself to:

         i.            Establish a democratic state

       ii.            Introduce a just legal system

      iii.            Build a strong, socialist, self reliant economy

     iv.            Ensure security and peace of the nation

       v.            Safeguard social rights

     vi.            Develop culture, education and technology

    vii.            Adequately provide for the health and welfare of all

  viii.            Provide adequate housing

     ix.            Follow a foreign policy hat respects national independence and international friendship.

The BCM met the following year in Mafikeng and adopted the 16 – Point Programme, also known as the Mafikeng Manifesto. The tenets of the 16-Point Programme do not deviate much from those set above, save that it watered down the socialism component of the King Williamstown Declaration. Instead the BPC now adopted Black Communalism as its economic policy. The economic future as spelt out in the BPC’s commission on Black Communalism was that: 

‘Principally the economic welfare of the country is … the responsibility of the state … It shall be incumbent on the state to be the initiator of industry and to use the factors and means of production, provided individuals may individually or corporately undertake such industry or production as they profitably undertake without initiating* (neglecting?) common welfare …While it will be the duty of the state to ensure opportunity for all its members to engage in productive efforts on their own behalf, it shall also be the duty of the state to see to it that everyone …shall have the necessary training ( so that) their productive abilities are topped …

This means that education and training shall be compulsory and free for the young and (for) adults according to the need for production and for their own development as people…’

The question we have to ask ourselves as citizens is clearly; what will it take for SA as a country to achieve these basic objectives and can they possibly be achieved within this neo-liberal constitutional democratic dispensation? If the answer is negative, then we should all strive for Revolution that should completely alter the status quo and only then can we return to the drawing board – a sort of re-visitation of the CODESA era meetings where the real New South Africa is once again mapped out.

It would be simplistic to even suggest that this is an easy task, nation building has never been easy, yet the most important thing is to prepare the minds of the majority of people to such an extent that they are ready to begin.

2: The Crucial Conflict

In this country Azania or the more palatable South Africa or Mzansi – we can no longer pretend that the Rainbow Nation experiment is something realistic, of course it was merely a hopeful aspiration and those in power have clearly not done enough by way of Economic growth to level the field. The gap between the rich and the poor has been widened, contrary to the leading party’s insistence that this is a country experiencing massive changes. Even the cosmetic transformation that is sold by the perennially embattled broadcasting authorities is showing serious cracks. Clearly no one can pretend that the 18 years of black rule have ushered in any change in the lives of the majority.

But this is by no means a pessimistic viewpoint, neither is it an accident. The leading party has never had a distinctive pro-poor or pro-black stance, their principles have always been Liberal and thus as much as the supporters can hope to see realistic changes in the majority’s living standards, real change is impossible under the current regime. But the irony is that there have always been pro-Black Consciousness cadres within the ANC but they have been systematically purged. This is the crucial conflict that continues to plague us until this very day. Here are some examples of what I am referring to:

“Ben Mokoena recounts that after Steve Biko was killed in detention in 1977, the 1976 generation of activists in the ANC camp in Morogoro, Tanzania, wanted to hold a memorial service for him. The ANC leadership would not allow that, arguing that Biko was not an ANC member. The Youth promptly reminded the ANC leadership that they had come from the BC movement and that for them it was important to honour Biko. A revolt was looming as the ANC leadership would not budge on the matter. The revolt was averted, in the end, by Oliver Tambo sending Thabo Mbeki to Morogoro with the instruction that the commemoration must be allowed.” – Towards A National Dialogue: a Diagnosis byMandlaSeleoane

“But the real problem lies in the fact that – at the end of the day we have to accept that the programmes (The Unity/Truth Movements 10-Point Programme, the 1943 Bill of Rights and the Freedom Charter) simply envisaged different societies. Therefore if South Africa is not approaching certain destinations, ultimately we would have to accept, once we have consensus on those destinations that, perhaps, those destinations were simply not on the agenda of some liberation organisations. But what must be absolutely clear is that we cannot blame others for not going where they never intended to go.” – M.S.

And for a more academic point of view, Franco Barchiesi, in his latest book Precarious Liberation: Workers, the State, and Contested Social Citizenship in Post apartheid South Africa makes a lot of valuable observations and uses much well researched information to highlight the plight of the black masses in this country. He also points out the stark contradictions and outright hypocrisies at play within the tri-partite alliance of the ANC-SACP and COSATU. On page 90 he offers this:

“By the end of the 1990’s, COSATU’s opposition to GEAR had strained its relations with the ANC, as the unions vowed to greet labour market flexibility with ‘blood on the streets’. The ANC’s response, contrary to its usual consensus-seeking aplomb, was equally blunt. At the 1998 congress of the SACP, Thabo Mbeki fulminated against

‘Those who consider themselves to be the very heart of the left that, in pursuit of an all-consuming desire to present themselves as the sole and authentic representative movement, seem so ready to use the hostile message of the right and thus join forces with the defenders of reaction to sustain an offensive against our movement. (Mbeki 1998)’

If left critics were now labelled as extremist and traitorous, unions failing to follow the government’s line became targets of overt threats. The ANC leadership has considerable leverage over COSATU officials as it provides a necessary link to resources and careers in the private sector or in government.”

What one finds here is the usual politicking and verbal gymnastics that the tripartite alliance uses to publically toy with the minds of the masses.  This simply distracts the people from focussing on what they really require and what they have been robbed of from the beginning of colonial domination. The truth of the matter is this is a country which does not determine its own destiny, partly due to the fact that the ANC has long been an anti-black and pro-capitalist movement, disguised as a liberation movement in power. But are they really in power, or are they merely a bunch of incompetent overseers/supervisors employed not by their constituents but by the global imperialist forces in the form of the IMF, the World Bank and the World Trade Organisation?

 The so called allies such as the SACP, COSATU and various other institutions simply tow the party line and people such as Vavi only pay lip service to workers and social struggles. A friend of mine with whom we have argued endlessly about the efficacy of an ANC led liberation often states that Vavi is getting paid to call for a march each and every year without fail. He says that he is simply following the basic protocol of the so called New World Order; he must make it seem as if the people are standing up against their incompetent and inefficient leaders.

 The main question is, what are these marches really achieving, is there any one victory over the all powerful ANC that VAVI and his COSATU ever won? The answer is an unequivocal NO. Yes, we find the younger Mbeki’s and other so called communism critics making a noise about the ANC and its anti-black policies, yet come election time, these very same hypocrites become the loudest evangelists preaching the false gospel of the ANC, and at all times using the race card. Many people fall for this ruse as they are afraid of losing the country to the DA, meaning back to White power. But what people fail to see is that white privileges are still protected under the neo-liberal mis-rule of the ANC and black poverty is still ensured. The elite among the white citizens of this country are the apple of the ANC’s eye, they may send the Malema’s and other stray dogs to attack them publically yet their very policies are clearly anti-black.

During public or even family debates about the state of the nation (or country since we can’t really be called a nation yet), I have become used to hearing ANC sympathisers saying that 19 years is too little time for people like myself to expect real changes to the black condition, that we must give our leaders a chance - I am also no longer surprised to hear even young people saying that there is no need for any talk of radical change or Revolution since the ANC has provided us with adequate and democratic platforms where we can all air our views and frustrations. What irks me is that this is even said by people who are languishing in poverty and tolerating all the lack of proper services. This apathy and turning of the other cheek would totally drive me insane if I did not appreciate the fact that we are a people who have been through many years of mental slavery, yet I think that conditions are so bad in our country that it is high time we throw all the caution to the winds of change and earnestly take back power as a people.

The smugness and nonchalance of the leading party’s ministers as they sometimes admit to the embarrassing backlogs in delivery and acknowledge some failures is what really frustrates me. During this years State of the Nation address, the ever so disarmingly charming JG Zuma simply admitted that the willing buyer, willing seller policy had failed, but did not elaborate on what would replace it. The point here is that Black people are being psychologically insulted by our so called leaders who clearly don’t see themselves as public servants, but as somehow superior beings who are actually doing their best. Here’s what AggreyMahanjana, Group Managing Director as NERPO has to say:

“A policy of transferring hectares from whites to blacks …cannot be done by willing buyer, willing seller. We must not destabilise the industry. We don’t want to go to zero production and then it takes 10 – 20 years for black people to get going in farming. They identify people to receive farms who are not farmers: someone who has no knowledge, no resources … The government will buy tractors, they will not buy diesel … They will set you up this year, and then not come around until next year … To intervene successfully, you need a holistic approach.” – (Page 25, The Africa Report, Issue 39, April 2012 ) –

 Its stated that a total amount of land restituted is = 5% of the 24,9m ha target.

It is really shocking to know that the majority of Black people still wear ANC t-shirts and vow to die for their leaders while the statistics against them are so blatantly showing their failure. Patience, comrade, you’ll soon get yours! Is what the cadres tell one another?

Moeletsi Mbeki, Deputy Chairman of the SAIIA Think Tank adds his own well know criticism to the debacle:

“The ideology of the African National Congress is that blacks were excluded from consumption, and now it is their turn …If you are directing resources towards consumption, it means that you cannot create jobs. We see huge salaries for senior public sector managers and more social welfare. Government spending was 20% of GDP in 1994; now it’s 32%. Private consumption is 70% of GDP; in China its 35%. China is a job creating economy.”

As if reacting directly to President Zuma’s state of the nation triumphant statement about infrastructure investment, Mbeki adds “You can build infrastructure, If there is no production, what is it carrying? There is so much borrowing. There are no new industries to fund all the infrastructure. We are pretending for the ratings agencies that we agree with the Washington Consensus. The real game is BLACK CONSUMPTION.”

Need I say more? The former presidents own brother and author of the Architects of Povertyhas put it in economic terms, clearly.

3: The All Important Matter of Land

“In fact we have all but departed from the liberation programmes insofar as land rights are concerned, and embraced instead the willing-seller-willing-buyer approach, which many have warned might land us in a situation not dissimilar from the land-grab approach that has come to characterise Zimbabwe in latter years. What is remarkable in this area of our political life is the extent to which we have resisted the lessons of history. On the 19^th of May 1906 Lenin wrote a pamphlet titled The Land Question and the Fight for Freedom, where he argues, inter alia:

‘…[No] matter how this compensation is arranged, no matter how “fair” a price may be fixed for the land, compensation will be an easier matter for the well-to-do peasants and will fall as a heavy burden upon the poor peasantry. No matter what regulations may be drawn up on paper providing for the purchase by the village community, etc., the land will in practice remain inevitably in the hands of those who are able to pay for it…’

One does not have to embrace Leninism in order to appreciate the point argued here, and to see that by and large the argument has been vindicated by history in various parts of Africa. Our own handling of land claims has moved at a snails pace that has discredited the entire notion. Part of our failure in this regard is evidenced by the appearance of the landless people’s movement.” – MandlaSeleoane, Towards a National Dialogue: a Diagnosis, 20 June 2009

In the Manifesto of the Azanian People:  ‘The National Forum, which was a coalition of various political, religious, educational and youth organisations – adopted the Manifesto of the Azanian Peoplein 1983, and demanded :

-          The land and all that belongs to it shall be wholly owned and controlled by the Azanian people.

-          The usage of the land and all that accrues to it shall be aimed at ending all forms and means of exploitation.

-          Reintegration of the ‘bantustan’ human dumping grounds into a unitary Azania.

Whilst making these demands ( and more), the Manifesto of the Azanian People points out poignantly that “Our struggle for national liberation is directed against the historically evolved system of racism and capitalism which holds the people of Azania in bondage for the benefit of the small minority of the population, i.e. the capitalists and their allies, the white workers and the reactionary sections of the middle classes. The struggle against apartheid, therefore, is no more than the point of departure for our liberatory efforts.” –Towards a National Dialogue.

3: Yesterdays Voices Today

I am a part of an online discussion group, wherein we write to each other about various topics which mostly revolve around the African/Black indentity, International news, the state of the nation and various other political oriented issues. One of the conversations involved our analysis of a speech delivered by Dr MamphelaRamphele at UNISA* ( Ican’t recall which campus ), Mothepa posted these fragments and so we went on to discuss them:

“We have a fundamental psychological problem as South Africans in that we haven’t yet taken ownership of our citizenship. My conclusion is that South Africans – black and white – still behave as subjects. Instead of looking at government leaders as servants, which they are public servants – we treat them like kings, queens and viceroys. We forget that we employ them, not the other way around. Our collectivemindset hasn’t changed since apartheid. There’s a functional problem behind our tolerance of incompetence at many levels and I believe the psychology of oppression is at the very heart of the underperformance of our society…”

She goes on to say “Don’t look around for great leadership. You’re the leader you’ve been waiting for. The Lord created you with enormous potential for greatness…There are three things I want you to do: firstly promise me that from today you won’t allow anybody to treat you as a subject. Secondly, when you see somebody being treated as a subject, stand up and say ‘no’. Thirdly, each time our public servants step out of line, hold them accountable. If each one of us does this every day, this country will be able to reach its destiny. And that destiny is greatness.”

As lovely as the above words were and as inspiring as they may sound, I found myself pondering what it really meant to be a subject, to be a people who find themselves subjected to neo-colonialism despite them-selves. It is simplistic to find oneself reacting emotionally to such speeches, while they may go some way into inducing a sense of responsibility to young students, they simply sound like a mothers good advice to her child in the ears of an adult citizen of a country which languishes under covert racial injustice.

This is what one of the groups most insightful and intuitive members had to say (I quote Fuzi ):

“On the Dr Rampele speech: I think one of the greatest dangers in this life is to speak with knowledge on something that one feels one is knowledgeable about when that knowledge is not based on TRUTH. I have a fundamental issue with what the good doctor says below. Hayikabi – I feel like she feels like she knows what she’s talking about, and I believe that her intentions are good, but I think it’s misleading to dissuade people from understanding that they are subjects when they call themselves South Africans.  The fact that there is even such a thing as a South Africa is BECAUSE the people of that nation were and are still subjected to those manmade “boundaries” that assist in the creation of a South Africa. And preserving South Africa is preserving the basis on which South Africa was “founded”.

Which is a subjective way of life. South Africa is not a choice of the people living there – it is a consequence thereof…

So yes – for a s long as we are to accept a South Africa, then we are to accept the subjectivity of the occupation, and the people of that South Africa are its subjects. Unless we want to do like the so-called African-Americans who like to say that they have taken the power out of the word nigger by saying nigga..”

Here is what one of our most recent participants had to say on this topic ( I quote Kingdom Williams):

“There is one thing I do understand though; that the answers and truth we seek are all before us. Africans and I mean all Africans should be self critical and ask themselves thought-provoking questions that will bring about effectiveness and efficiency in the social practice of life. It all starts with realising that greatness is in ordinary people. The socially elite do not represent the truth and they way for any populace as everything do must fit into a socially acceptable construct from a higher order not visible for ordinary eyes. All the media in the world is owned by two companies…he first thing for Africa to realise is that when someone gives you freedom they can also take it away. So I guess we will pay the price for using other peoples intellectual property ranging from roads to cars, borders etc. Glitz and glamour are hypnotic tools…All Africans are told what nation they are and have never stopped to ask the relevance and implication for generational progress.”

Nuff Said For Now!