By Any Means…?
Before delving into the comparison of a mass global movement called Occupy with the September National Imbizo, let’s look at a few quotations:
“Class separation and perpetuation and the growing wealth divide is not a by product. It is inevitable. In the Free Market, one is actually ‘free’ to take away the liberty of others through the mere economic pressures generated from the game. You are only as free as the size of your wallet. The term ‘institution Racism’ was coined by civil rights activist Stokely Carmichael in the 1960s referring to how often unnoticed underlying policies and structures within the social system undermined African-American prosperity and equality. What we have today is a mere variation: “Institutional Classism”.
“The Zeitgeist Movement is a global sustainability activist group working to bring the world together for the common goal of species sustainability before it is too late. It is a social movement, not a political one, with over 1100 chapters across nearly all countries. Divisive notions such as nations, governments, races, political parties, religions, creeds or class are non-operational distinctions in the view of The Movement. Rather, we recognize the world as one system and the human species as a singular unit, sharing a common habitat. Our overarching intent could be summarised as “the application of the scientific method of social concern.”” – (Press Release by TZM – The Zeitgeist Movement to “Occupy Wall Street” – www.occupywallst.org, sent to Tsidi* who forwarded it to me.)
On the 31 May 2011, a certain Dumisane Ndubane wrote a report on the September National Imbizo’s blog ( http://imbizosni.blogspot.com/) titled ‘My Take on the JHB-SNI June 16 Work-Shop – From Alex to Sandton’. In his own words he called it his ‘impression of the proceedings at the SNI Workshop for the Planned June 16 March with the following theme: “From Alex to Sandton – From Hell to Heaven”. Here’s a glimpse of his observations, and I mention the following in order to put into contrast any differences and similarities between the international social movement called Zeitgeist… and the September National Imbizo and to see whether any collaboration is anyway at all necessary.
“The discussion(s) were informal and structured in a conversational manner, the type you would expect from a family or long time friends. I must say it took a paradigm shift from the way I expect workshops and political meetings to go. Then Zwelenkani (Chairperson of the Wits chapter of Black Wash) introduced the Black Wash and SNI…me and my big mouth…I then asked I the SNI and Black Wash are political formations and if one of the end results were a formation of a political party?
Andile answered the question by saying that it is too early to say atm, they are not political parties and do not have immediate intentions of forming one…yet if the question manifests itself later then it will be engaged. They enter into politics to end politics. And quoting Malcolm X “By any means necessary”…if establishing a political party becomes a means to an end then it will be considered.
I was partially satisfied with the deferring of this issue as I firmly believe that any social organisation aiming for some social change will have to engage politics and its dirty game at one point or another. But I guess SNI will be forgiven for deferring this question, after all, every questions need critical mass… I am a technical person, it is my job to hear ideas, translate them into plans, cost them and make them a reality. The answers came as adhoc as they were, but they came. The Peoples Manifesto was introduced and discussed. It is an impressive document and I will be posting it at the BCF for general discussion and adoption. June 16 is meant to highlight the Education aspect of the Manifesto. ---All in all I am happy about the planning and progress and will be organising 1000 – 2000 copies of the manifesto in preparation of the planned pamphleteering at Alexandra on the 10th -11th June. ITS ON!!! Hell comes to Heaven…Alexandrians go to Sandton to reclaim Mandela Square Back to Alexandra, where it belongs!! Reminded me of the following pledge I took last December:
“I pledge my allegiance to the BLACK cause.
I commit to this struggle to re-awaken the BLACK man in me.
I refuse to make my existence
A consequence of the sounds of my hungry stomach”
SANDTON Convention Centre, June 16… don’t miss the action. – By D.S.N “
– (Dumisane Ndubane*)
Basically what I have just tried to illustrate is that here on the Southern tip of the most bountiful, beautiful yet most beleaguered continent in the world, there are meaningful moves to radically end politics as we have known it.
The reason why I aim to contrast the SNI to the Occupy Movement is simply because although both these social movements pride themselves in being on the radical and revolutionary path, there still remains a great divine between them, this is what I hope to come to terms with and I hope that by writing this I can inspire the conversation to continue.
I have decided to begin by quoting a relative stranger in the person of the above mentioned D.S.N and avoid simply writing about SNI from my own perspective which may prove biased as I am an active member.
It is no secret that the SNI is hugely inspired by the ideas of Black Consciousness and indeed acts to end White Supremacy by all means necessary. We aim to transform and end the prevailing Black Condition of wretchedness, dehumanisation and systematic violence, while recognising that the challenges which beset Black people everywhere are a direct consequence of a generally wicked capitalist system. Thus we have taken our ideology from a variety of schools of thought which have organised, planned and raged against the global behemoth of a racist, classist capitalist regime.
But it is clear that we are more concerned with beginning at home,that is dealing with the re-education, awakening, and mobilisation and organising of the most immediate Black communities.
As much as we have gained much support from the affected society and even some people in high places, this very simple premise has created many enemies for this young movement, yet this was expected and surely anticipated. We have been warned about liberal tendencies and even the prevalence of enemies within, those among us who would like to maintain the pretentious and anti-Black system or at least enjoy its bitter-sweet fruits.
For what its worth let us remind ourselves what SNI is, according to its 2011 - :
“September National Imbizo: We as the citizens of this country, are concerned that after 16/17/18 years of democracy there is no end to the suffering of the majority. We now hereby call for a national dialogue to discuss our situation and collectively find answers. This call is for a September National Imbizo!”
Now this call has been heeded by a small fraction of Azanian/South African citizens supported by a few individuals from the African diaspora who have been with the movement from its inception in Soweto in 2010.
While the SNI has not gained the publicity and the focus that characterises the Occupy Movement, it is clear that it is also gaining a gradual momentum, which is quite a feat for a movement that prides itself as being leaderless, or believes that each and every member is a potential leader.
“We are inspired by the great vision of change our liberation fighters were committed to. We wish to rekindle the betrayed dreams of Oliver Tambo, Robert Sobukwe and Steve Biko”, went the SNI’s title statement, to the above names one can also add such exemplary revolutionaries as Malcolm X, Thomas Sankara and even Che Guevara, but as already stated, the SNI is cognisant and in solidarity with the internationalist upsurge of Revolution, yet has chosen to remain a localised peoples movement for the time being.
As Andile Mngxitama has stated above, when the time comes to become a political force, that could also be considered, but for now, the SNI aims to ‘end politics as we know it.’
Herein does the legitimacy of the Pan-Black socio-political struggle rest, in the fact that unlike the Occupy Movement, we as Black people cannot yet be talking about class when the majority of Black people have not even become ‘classified’ or valued as complete human beings. The current political forces have not begun to look at Black people as fully human, not in a way that can spur them to meaningful action towards addressing the real social problems. The present Non-White government only pays lip service to Blackness, even their vociferous Youth Leagues are simply barking up the wrong tree, claiming to fight for the economically marginalised Blacks and championing nationalisation in the name of ‘the people’, but they know very well that theirs is an elitist struggle which will benefit the few. The ANC Youth League is only fighting to become the next generation to ride the gravy train of White privileged within an un-free market democracy.
There is nothing even remotely pro-Black in their policies and neither do they aim to do away with the father party’s anti-Black constitution which so many liberal and multi-racialists defend so dumbly. Even I was almost totally won over by the lure of Black Economic Empowerment, until I worked for a young company that dealt in it discovered from first hand experience that BBBEE is just another pro-capitalist scheme co-created with White power using Non-White leading capitalist men who just happened to be previously disadvantaged blacks. All voices of true Blackness are either systematically silenced or ridiculed. Here is one:
“One of the greatest liberation heritages of our country, is the Black Consciousness (BC) philosophy. In a context where our grid of criteria for contribution to liberation is he political party and the famous prison-decorated-individual-cum-military-commander, we may miss just how phenomenal Black Consciousness has been for this country. In a context where we are looking for blood-soaked mass events of the ‘skop-skiet-en-donder’ type, as the only milestones in the road to liberation, the more enduring intellectual, psychological and political role of BC can be missed. We all know that the man deserves more recognition than has been given since the advent of democracy, but by BC I mean more than Steve Biko. Nor am I speaking of AZAPO or the Black Consciousness Movement – mere political parties which tried to capture (that horrible word again) the spirit of Black Consciousness. I am talking about an intellectual tradition that made the pursuit of knowledge a hallmark of the struggle for liberation. It helped us reconnect to the Pan-Africanism of Marcus Garvey, Edward Blyden, WEB Du Bois, Kwame Nkrumah and Robert Sobukwe. BC helped us rescale the heights of the intellectual traditions of the Drum magazine generation of black writers and the works of Frantz Fanon in the early 60’s. BC taught us that liberation is something to be attained on the inside as much as it must be taken on the outside. In this regard, BC was perhaps the deepest, most creative, and most revolutionary response to the Freedom Charter dictum “South Africa belongs to all who live in it.” – It was a total philosophy rooted in the belief that the oppressed need to help themselves if they and the oppressor are ever to be free. It is and has always been about economic freedom – broadly and comprehensively defined. But this was not economic freedom based on tenderpreneurship.
It was economic freedom based on the enlivening and tapping of local knowledge in dynamic dialogue with knowledge from elsewhere. The idea was never about making the “leaders” the richest and loudest men and women in their lifetime – a warped and wicked inversion of the noble phrase “leading by example””. – ( Posted by Tinyiko Sam Maluleke, on the Mail & Guardian,Thought Leader online – www.thoughtleader.co.za/2011/09/19. )
As one might expect, the responses/comments to this post were both positive and also probingly intense, for while it is a norm for many intellectuals, politicians and even politicians to sermonise about Steve Biko and the beauty of Black Consciousness, there are very few who are willing to put their money where their mouth is, to literally use BC to make a revolution. The sad fact is that a lot of sweet intentioned black writers know it in their hearts that BC has all the ingredients to carry us over the White Supremacist capitalist mire, but very few are willing to lose their office jobs and Sandton, Umhlanga Rocks and Cape Townian lifestyles for it.
You see, we are at the revolutionary crossroads as the country’s president Jacob G. Zuma put it during the recent NUMSA trade union speech, where he said that the revolution could either turn ugly and undesirable or we could all steer it towards an expected direction. The curious thing is the president omitted to specify exactly which direction he envisions the South African revolution to take. But such omissions are not surprising, since an actual revolution would entail his relinquishing of the reins of his juicy gravy train, now which of the world leaders would shoot themselves on the foot like that?
For the past 18 years, the ANC government has bent over backwards in order to protect white interests and white people from the “swart gevarr”, what the good Dr N.H. Mandela meant when he famously sang to the glory of liberals and whites everywhere “I have fought against white domination and I have fought against black domination…”. Herein lies the discrepancy with the Freedom Charter’s ‘South Africa belongs to all who live in it’, but we’ll leave that for another day.
But of course the world never stopped to question this sage words of the sainted world leader, very few dare to ask Mandela where and when did he ever witness or experience his so called ‘Black Domination’. Such are the reasons why we believe that for whatever it is worth, the Occupy Movement is not here to free Black people from white domination of any kind and we believe that only through massive mobilisation, political and reality education by the likes of September National Imbizo/ Black Wash will we begin to see real change.
Allow me to close with one of the comments/responses to Malulekes Thought Leader post where a disgruntled yet ever so well meaning white person, going by the cute name of Lockstock#:
“Alrighty then. I give up. What is Black Consciousness? What is it’s cornerstone as a philosophy? How is it defined? We’ve read how it allegedly affects people, movements, thoughts, but we still do not have a solid description, not by you or anyone else for that matter. --- The Renaissance (the proper one) can be described in one sentence. The Age of Reason is a simple concept that can be explained in but a minute. So pray tell, what is this elusive, inexplicable, indescribable BC?
We’re forever being lectured how we whites just don’t understand black people. And how things should be done the ‘African way’. And that Black Consciousness is this hugely, magnificent theory on life itself and should be embraced by one and all.
So with all this being said, why is it that I get the distinct feeling that there seems to be so much noise to this empty vessel? And why do I have this sneaky suspicion that this is all one big lie, to pander to white liberals in lieu of an ACTUAL, practical movement that the world could benefit from as well as TRULY respect?
With all of Africa’s bloodthirsty infighting, extreme poverty, disaster piled upon disaster (routinely bailed out by those former colonialists) and depressingly repetitive political upheavals, forgive me for being somewhat sceptical of this BC.” – ( Posted on September 20, 2011 at 3.55 am).
I hope you notice the time in which this ignorant rant was written and help me understand why such a one is able to spew such racist ignorance in a platform which purports to be a Thought Leader and as far as I can see, escape unchallenged?
This person has obviously never read a word of Biko, let alone any other Black intellectual and he also still thinks that foreign aid is a sufficient saving grace for an unworthy Black masses. Let me not engage with such foolishness now, suffice to say that he speaks for a lot of angry white folks who would still like to live in Ah-free-car without bearing the nuisance of Black truth.
These are the conditions that SNI and many other intelligent Black centric social movements have to deal with in addition to a majority of non-white people who still do not see the immediacy of BC and the imperative of affirming their race as the beginning of their emancipatory struggles.
Typically, the aforementioned Lockstock did not bother to read the comment by one Shaman sans Frontiers# :
“This is where BC is – a whole worldview, not dogmatic or doctrinaire, but performative, inviting, engaging, calling for ways of being and becoming, which must ultimately be as numerous as there are people.” – (posted September 19, 2011 at 9:53)The aforementioned Stokely Carmichael/Kwame Toure in a speech entitled Black Power, delivered before students in 1966 in Berkely, California is loud and clear:
“ We must begin to think politically and see if we can have the power to impose and keep the moral values that we hold high. We must question the values of this society (White-Capitalist America), and I maintain that Black People are the best people to do that because we have been excluded from that society. And the question is, we ought to think whether or not we want to become part of that society. I do not want to be part of the American pie. The American pie means raping South Africa, beating Vietnam, beating South America, raping the Philippines, raping every country you’ve been in. I don’t want any of your blood money. I don’t want it – don’t want to be part of that system.”
Now many of the young Blacks in Azania and indeed all over the world still nurture the wish of becoming part of the American dream, tasting at least a bit of that American pie, becoming acceptable to white society, speaking the Queens English and having that ‘Good Hair’, little do they know that none of what they imbibe in school is designed to free them, they are being trained to be slaves in a system that will use them, abuse them and discard them.
It is only through radical and creative Black Consciousness that they can truly be emancipated from mental slavery, but only if they are WILLING TO BE, the solid foundations have been laid.
Hotep!!!
Menzi Maseko
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