The Unfinished Story of Humanity

Becoming Human Again

“Something cured me of the effect of education, and made me very sceptical of the very notion of standardised learning. For I am a pure autodidact, in spite of acquiring degrees. My father was known in Lebanon as the “Intelligent Student Student Intelligent”, a play on the words as the Arabic phrase for “Intelligent student” (or scholar)” - Nassim Nicholas Taleb

Among the vociferous and increasingly agitated circles of Black Consciousness, the question of what or who can be deemed human is a nagging constant. In fact the only other topic that can rival this one is probably the question of Steve Biko and his statements on liberals, white liberals to be specific. These are fundamentally related questions and they both form the basis of this essay.

 Somehow we as Black Afrikan thinkers have been dealing with this matter since even before the advent of Biko activism and his brilliant conception of Black Consciousness. In the aftermath of William Styron’s book The Confessions of Nat Turner in the 1960’s, which provoked not only the ire of many Black American writers, but also raised difficult questions about history – the matter of who is worthy to tell black peoples stories and fight our struggles remains unresolved.

While Nat Turner is a powerful symbol in the cultural memory of America, as a prophet, rebel, and as the leader of the bloodiest slave insurrection in American history who has fascinated both fiction writers and historians; Biko remains a misquoted and thus most misunderstood leader in Southern Afrika.

Many are those who take pleasure in quoting his words out of context, attempting to lend weight to their own paltry intellectual capacities. There are those who deliberately use his words to further the personal and political positions in the psyche of the gullible public. Politicians and other tricksters are prone to placate us with their moralising speeches peppered with some familiar yet misconstrued Bikoisms.

What is problematic is that aside from the outraged voices of the real lovers of Biko, the ones who a radically pursuing his vision for a truly transformed Azania, a South Afrika devoid of racial prejudice, there are very few people who actually understand the depth of his revelatory statements and the meaning of his work.  The other problem is that some even within the Black Consciousness bloc have been fighting dubious battles over the ‘ownership’ of his intellectual gifts bestowed upon all.

The crucial point is that people who are non-white have been dehumanised and the people called Black more so. This has been a deliberate and calculated mission of the ones who wield economic and contemporary culture, the imperialists who own the means of production. These are the image makers and the masters of industry.

But when there have been so many outstanding scholars, intellectuals, authors and leaders in every field in South Afrika, what makes this particular person so special? Was he not educated in the same schools and read the same books as all of his contemporaries and had he not been reared on the same Christian foundation as the rest of the liberation fighters? Perhaps the answer is a more nuanced yes. Yet there is also a big BUT.

So what is so special about the son of Mr and Mrs Mzimgayi Biko? Perhaps we shall have to leave the autobiographical notes aside and let us concentrate on the fruits of his mind. Let us begin with a basic summary before we zero-in on our subject of the re-humanisation of the wretched people called blacks and indeed all of the non-white people of the world.

What is the meaning or relevance of Biko’s work today and can these loud mouthed 'clever blacks' really put their words into action? This statement made at the BPC – SASO Trial given in May 1976 said it all:

“SASO is a black student organisation working for the liberation of the black man first from psychological oppression by themselves through inferiority complex and secondly from the physical one accruing out of living in a white racist society.”

The work of Biko cannot be disregarded or relegated to the archives wherein many great and useful ideas are manipulated unto oblivion. History is also given to all types of twists and turns as the canonizers and even the praise-singers do their utmost to outdo each other and the legacy of the canonised as they recreate the ‘hero’ in their own image. Academics, especially white liberals have done this to Fanon and others.
In South Afrika, Biko continues to suffer this acrimonious fate as the ruling elites plunder his legacy and deliberately misquote his work for their own purposes.

Yet I have always had this nagging feeling that we need to either transcend worshipping our intelligent brothers and sisters whether dead or alive in order to focus on making their work really real. 
If we really are the ones we have been waiting for, then the time is now to do what Biko asked of Afrikans : 
“to give to the world a more human face.”

Matters of racial pride, addressing and debunking stereotypes and doing away with economic and social slavery require us to think more creatively. To picture many robust and possible futures, anti- fragile futures as Nassim Nicholas Taleb has written about in his book  ANTIFRAGILE : How To Live In A  World We Cannot Understand. 
If we claim to truly understand the world and thus wish to END it, what is the next step after that, hopefully not another heaven or hell on earth.

Menzi Maseko ©

31/03/13

For Chinua Achebe and for Eritrea and Ethiopia

What Good is a United States?

“The disease – the breaking-up of that community – has taken centuries and centuries, thousands of years. Most of our people do not even wish to imagine any such possibility of wholeness. If you talk to them now of unity of all the earth’s black people they stare at you like idiots. Some can understand, but even they are confused. The healers are also confused; not about the aim of our work, but about the medicines we may use and about what may look like medicine but may end up being poison.” – Ayi Kwei Armah, The Healers* (1978)

Armah’s story is as old as I am, but the talk of uniting Afrika in order to work out our problems and effectively defeat known enemies goes back about another 30 odd years. One may quickly retort by saying we achieved much during the decades of independence from 1959 until the South African Rainbow National miracle of 1994. 

But all honest seekers of this dream of unity have their opinions concerning the efficacy of our governments, the powers of neo-colonialism and the consistent presence of imperial powers throughout the developing world. We all have our opinions about the role, power or powerlessness of the Organisation for African Unity, now called the African Union. 

While many are disappointed and even utterly frustrated by the AU’s lack of initiative, political will, financial and military clout; many more are optimistic and can count on its many achievements and even legislative victories. But all these are subjective and do precious little to explain to the ‘born free generation’ what significant gains have been achieved by the heads of states and bureaucrats who gather yearly under names such as NEPAD, MAPP, SADC and African Renaissance and even the BRICS summits. All agree that there is still way too much conflict and underdevelopment in the richest continent in the world.

Last night I spent some time with some brothers from Eritrea and Ethiopia, but they now work and study in South Afrika and are avidly learning local languages. After long conversations that ranged in different topics from God, Religion, Sex and Political Will, we ended up speaking about common languages and the necessity to learn from each other and make conscious efforts to simply ‘Be’ with each other.

Later as Tesfu* and I were headed home in a taxi cab, he began explaining to me why the unity between Eritrea and Ethiopia is just another dream in a Rastaman’s head. He gave me a very accurate history of how these two countries which were once autonomous provinces of the same nation with various ‘nationalities’ and principalities united at the ancient border by the sacred city of Axum came apart.

 He was at pains to explain that Eritrea was never really part of what we now know as Ethiopia before 1855. But the most insidious presence through-out East Afrikan history was the British imperial powers who competed for the Afrikan prise with the Fascist Italians. Hence Eritrea was colonised for many years by the Italians until they were defeated by the British who promised that they would relinquish power to the natives as soon as peace and socio-economic stability was established. 

That reminded me of all the modern countries who were invaded by the western powers in the name of democracy and human rights. The new victors always stayed over much longer than what was originally agreed and that further exacerbates the problem. 

White supremacy always seeks to treat black people like children or blind people who require constant guidance and surveillance, lest we ponce upon each other and commit repeated genocide.

Afrikans the world over exist as if we are under a spell forcing us to be unable to think and act independently. This of course is not some mumbo jumbo, supernatural spell, but it is akin to the ‘Culture Bomb’ that Ngugi Wa Thing’o is talking about in his seminal text; Decolonizing The Mind. After trying the many prescriptions that have been used all over the world to make revolutions that more often than not, turn out to be false starts or disappointing and costly failures, it is time for Black Afrika to earnestly work out its own destiny, using our own instruments to navigate the past, present and future.

Just a quick quotation from the back-page of this book The Healers*: “A century ago one of Africa’s great empires, Ashanti, fell. The root cause of that fall, symbolic of Africa’s conquest, was not merely Europe’s destructive strength. It was Africa’s disunity: divisions among kindred societies; divisions within each society between aristocrats, commoners and slaves. Even then, some saw this disunity as our people’s deadliest disease, and they sought the only possible cure: UNITY. These were the Healers. This is their story, a novel centred on th curative, creative vision of African unity. A story of the past, it speaks calmly to the present, and looks clearly to the future.”

This idea of unity, whether new or ancient is a very attractive one and it is so mainly because it seems plausible enough. The question is whether it is achievable or not. Can anyone or any institution successfully unite the various and distinctive ‘nations’ and tribes within nations in all their heaving and largely wretched mass? What of the glaring religious differences and what about the scars of post-colonial conflicts?

I admit that these are not plain black and while issues and that there are expansive and time warped grey areas which complicate and hinder the seekers of unity. We all agree that peace and reasonable dialogues are not only necessary but are the only way that any progress can be made. 

There are thousands of non-governmental organisations, thousands of conflict resolution initiatives and countless workshops and therapy sessions are held in communities from Alexandria to Khayelitsha, all amid the squalor and depressive slavish conditions that largely black Afrikans exist under. One cannot say that none of this work matters. 

There are obvious problems even within these ‘healing’ and often heroic exercises, but there are also problems of human frailty, such as corruption, greed and abuse of power. Perhaps those are just unavoidable troubles that are part of the human condition, but that is where a book such as Armah’s is important or even truly indispensable. 

Yet we all know that our highly educated liberation leaders, our heroes have mostly read the whole African Writers Series, they have even scoured the whole classical Greek, Western literature, East European versions of what constitutes true egalitarian societies, such as the whole communist catalogues from Hegel to Stalin and all the way to Fidel Castro. But what good has come out of such higher learning and affiliation?

The so called ‘clever blacks’ remain slaves to a system that seeks to further destroy anything that we may proudly say is our own. The Thabo Mbeki’s may quote speeches from Leopard Senghor, Jean Paul Sartre, William Shakespear, Soyinka or Wordsworth and Lincoln, yet none of those sweet and prophetical words serve to unite us in one vision. This illusive and precarious vision of Afrikan unity, the world that we know must emerge. But perhaps I am being cynical and must give our fathers their proper respect. After all, without their speaking truth to the powers that be, I wouldn’t be sitting here on the ‘holy mountain’, Howard College at the University of Kwa-Zulu Natal, writing freely and un-harassed.

If I may just allow myself to be uncharacteristically sceptical and ask: How do we know that this beautiful, peaceful and much desired Afrika can actually transpire, how do we know that it is achievable and not just another utopia? One answer would be that we know that the many heroines and heroes of Afrika did not defend our sovereignty in vain. We also know that our scholars, anthropologists, political, community leaders and advocates for justice were not stupid. They were healers and some were fearless warriors whose very blood coursed with the fire of truth, the truth that Afrika was once peaceful and culturally united.

So how does one explain the source of the pre-slavery and pre-colonial disunity if the European and the disease of white supremacy is not the only one to blame? Was there an intrinsic or home-spun virus that conspired with all that is evil in the world in order to decimate us from the head to the foot? Many writers have attempted to answer that question and even Armah does his best to describe the special circumstances that transpired in West and Northern Afrika. Chinua Achebe (who I am hearing through social networks has DIED today 22 March 2013 …may the Black Gods accept his chi, his ba and his ka, may he live forever and his healing work transpire) - did his best to describe how things eventually fell apart in Nigeria. His most famous novel resonated through-out the continent and touched many people all over the world.

 But despite these highest achievements, countless books and tours, films and all manner of creative efforts to assist Afrikans to pick ourselves up and realise the need for unity, we seem to be crumbling at the seams of globalisation. We have largely succumbed to ‘westernisation’ from our cultures, dress-codes, languages, political theories and even the most basic of everyday lifestyle habits.

For what good is a political unity if culturally, economically and ethically we are divided. Afrikans today are some of the most ubiquitous and vociferous advocates of democracy, socialism and communism. All these are great ideas which are really wasting space in Black people’s heads. Afrikans require the ‘Afrikan Solution’ that has been spoken about by everyone from Lembede, to Haile Selassie I, Kwame Nkrumah to Robert Sobukwe, Thomas Isidore Sankara and countless others. Yet some of these heroes were highly influenced by socialism and ideas of democracy and even the teachings of the Bible and the Quran, it is not such a far-fetched idea to say that this reliance on western and Middle Eastern more’s or moral codes was their very weakness.

 Did Sankara need Marx to figure out that his people are in socio-cultural bondage. All he learned from the East Europeans was the type of political theory that allowed him to name and shame his problem. But I doubt that if he had immersed himself in Afrikan history, whether through the Oromo system of the Gadaa or the Kemetic way of Ma’at this enemy wouldn’t be named and even more affectively defeated.

So the natural question is what exactly is keeping us apart? Here to it appears as if we are divided both ideologically and even in praxis. There are those who advocate for a complete disassociation with any western powers, who view complete and determined Black-Power Pan Afrikanism is a logical solution. Then there are the gradualists, the assimilationists and the neo-liberal ones who claim just as the founders of the African National Congress have said all along, ‘we cannot even imagine surviving ourselves, without the help of the white man and the Chinese man’, therefore we must keep applying political pressures, keep on trading and cooperating with our former oppressors, as human beings with mutual needs and benefits. But this is ridiculous and it is the reason what we find ourselves still producing the raw materials with no significant gain as we buy everything back and still continue to pay for loans forced upon us by imperial powers.

The work of the healer according to Armah is not easy yet it is not as impossible as many perceive.  He writes:

 “’Only our confusion comes from merely from impatience. The disease has run unchecked through centuries. Yet sometimes we dream of ending it in our little lifetimes, and despair seizes us if we do not see the end in sight. A healer needs to see beyond the present and tomorrow. He needs to see years and decades ahead. Because healers work for results so firm they may not be wholly visible till centuries have flowed into millennia.’” – (p.84 )

With these words in mind, would it be apt to assume that despite their mistakes and even questionable actions and ideas, people such as Kwame Nkrumah, Haile Selassie I, Amilcar Cabral, Thomas Sankara, Julius Nyerere and countless other luminaries in Afrikas rich past of leaders, are actually the Healers. If their work such as that of the Jewish Messiah called Jesus speaks to millions years after their demise, must be seen as the healing work?

But who does it benefit if the suffering masses endure the most dehumanising atrocities today? Who is going to take care of today?

Unity of Afrikan states is one thing but how can we hope to unite the billions of blacks and Afrikans when we are struggling to find unity within the ‘nations’. The Sudan has recently been split into South and North, there is sporadic conflict in Mali, DRC and Lybia is still trying to recover from the fall of the beloved tyrant Muamar Gadhafi (the country is still divided along ethnic and class lines).

The Egyptian so called Revolution which toppled Hosni Mubarak is also undergoing serious threats of regression and the people on the ground are disillusioned and conflicted over the role that their new leader should be playing. There are seriously worrying fractures between leaders and factions within South Afrika’s ruling ANC.

Although they may seek to play it down as a necessary and democratic process where anyone is free to contest and express opinion and redress, it is clear that our ruling elites are immune to criticism and they use every form of psychological and systemic intimidation to maintain an air of infallibility. But the situation especially among poorer communities remains terrible and it is still a matter of “white man’s heaven, black man’s hell.” The masses of landless, poorly paid and under-serviced blacks are growing more and more resentful. 

I have just learned that some mine and farm workers have decided to abandon all government related unions and have started their own party called Workers Socialist Party or WASP. I wonder whether their sting is going to be more lethal than the plethora of already existing socialist organs.

Another example of how it is difficult to maintain unity intra-nationally is that of Zimbabwe. After losing a relatively free and fair election in 2008, Robert Mugabe and his Zimbabwe African National Union – Patriotic Front agreed to share power with the election winner Morgan Tsvangirai.

It was an unpopular and highly contested decision, but here is what the notoriously loathed and equally loved Tsvangirai, the leader of the Movement for Democratc Change had to say in 2009:

“Don’t think of Mugabe as a madman and Zimbabwe as a country in flames. And don’t seek rebellion or assassination – that’s precisely what has hobbled Africa for 50 years. Instead, try showing your enemies respect and turning them into colleagues.

Leave the old arguments and conflicts where they belong: in the past. Try peace. Try the future. This is not a revolution. This is an evolution. The trouble with evolution is that sometimes it can be slow and frustrating.” (Time magazine, interview by Alex Perry, August 3, 2009)

Wow, such benevolent speech, such forgiveness, such a great patience and perspective coming from a man who has been persecuted and crucified by many Afrikans within and outside of Zimbabwe. A man who has been called a puppet of the imperialists of the world and of the United Kingdom in particular. Is Tsvangirai; applying for the Nobel Peace Prize, is he reciting these words on the famous Idols competition? Or is he being genuine and displaying the true characteristics of the true leader, a selfless man. In a continent where greed, patriarchy and corruption threaten to tear the whole countries to pieces, it seems that we need to hear such words of hope and gradual state evolution.

But many Afrikans are also calling for urgent systemic overhaul. As many might still support Mugabe despite his questionable human rights violations record, many more wish that he and many other long-serving former liberation patriots should now just step aside and let the younger generation forge ahead towards the great work of healing the half dead soul of Afrika. We are calling for nothing short of Revolution. But due to the many different ideas of what this revolution should entail or look like, we continue to be divided and we move further away from the Nkrumahs dream of a United States of Afrika.

Scholars have rejected the idea as ridiculous, just as they had rejected Marcus Garvey’s ideas of international Black capitalism based on shared interest, our blackness and our irreversible situation in the western state of being. But these uniters of Blacks are still evoked in every conference, they are quoted far more than Mandela or Desmond Tutu are. Nkrumah’s idea of a Political and Economic Kingdom is still as attractive to this generation as it was to our parents then. So when will we find the time, daring and sheer audacity to do things on our own without capitulating to the United Nations, World Bank and other western forces?

Is there such thing as patience when it comes to making a revolution. Where would Cuba be today if Fidel Castro, Che Guevara and the others were patient with imperialism? What would be the legacy of Cabral if he and his comrades were patiently negotiating with the racist Portuguese powers?

I guess we must try to strike a balance between the vision and work that has to be done in the meantime. So the healers work is to also find the right words, works and instruments to keep the people interested in the ultimate result – unity – while still offering solutions for the pressing challenges of What Now.

Menzi Maseko ©

Talking Back Talking Black By Any Means

Between Ethiopianism, Rastafari and Black Consciousness

 “Will the real black people please stand.

Those fearless of the unconventional,

Moved towards their  own blackness;

Prone to influence and set trends,

Schooled in their times and folkways,

Dedicated to worthwhile endeavours,

Attentive to meaningful expression.”  

- (Desiree A. Barnwell’s 1970’s poem, Will The Real Black People Please Stand; quoted from Imraan Moosa’s essay, The Future Is Still Open )

While still on the remarkably clear and brilliantly conceived essay of advocate and Black Consciousness activist Imraan Moosa, I find it necessary to use yet another one of his notes, this time from his own pen; he declares:

“My identification as an Azanian defies apartheids preconceived categorizations, and my identification as a Black person allows for no indulgence in tribal and ethnic deviations and preoccupations. I identify myself with Azania, with Afrika and with the Black tradition of the wretched of the earth. The challenge is to create Azania. There is much work to be done. Let us do it.” (Page 6: The Future Is Still Open)

In his impeccably well researched and deeply personal essays, Moosa has a way to make Black Consciousness so clear and understandable even to a passive reader. Because, let’s face it, the South African public is mired in racial tension and faces racial stereotypes at every turn, yet many choose to ignore all this and carry on with their lives without contemplating or acting on ways to challenge inequalities that arise from racism. Thus even the mere words Black Consciousness have been miss-understood at best and ignored at worst.

Moosa’s research and use of Black and Indian diaspora sources to elaborate the universality of BC appears to have been initially aimed at ‘proving’ to the so called Indians, Coloureds and other non-white peoples of occupied Azania that BC is as relevant for them as it is for the people traditionally or historically and politically regarded as Blacks.

In a manner of speaking, Moosa and many other adherents and even earlier professors of Black Consciousness are saying that Azania of the real New South Afrika as envisaged by pan-Afrikanists will not simply appear out of the clouds.

Black Consciousness is not a Messianic tradition.

Black people united have a real reason and choice of turning the theory into reality and the groundwork has already been laid. Aside from the Biko’s, Tiro’s, the Fanon’s, the Poets and  many other unsung revolutionaries within the continent and through-out the diaspora , even during the early times of colonialism and missionary zeal, Black queens such as Nzinga, Muhumusa, Yaa-Ashantewa and many kings and noble Blacks have defended the dignity of this land. Ordinary Black men and kings have defended their homes and fought tirelessly against whiteness. I will make mention of the great Zulu warrior Bhambatha ka Mancinza and many more.

So the notion of Black Consciousness is not something that can be limited to specific names and peoples, we are the conscious creation of many generations of resisters.

The crucial question arises then; what will we do and when? Although nowadays, many black radicals often question the efficacy of unprincipled and what they call unity for its own sake, there is clearly no hope of Black Afrikan people’s power without a United or concerted effort.

Yes, unity is a must but it is easier pronounced than done, the time for wishful thinking and uniting without proper conviction is long over. I believe that an International Black Consciousness community exists, but it exists in many fragmented groups that could work better united.

But then again, people wish to have their own groups where they can be seen to shine brighter that the others. There is the Ethiopian World Federation, a great and mightily international movement that was initiated by Black people from the Afrikan disspora during the Italian invasion of Ethiopia. The fact that it exists till this day is a heroic feat, but one wonders what its true impact is on the lives of the wretched Black folks the world over.

There are many more such courageous and well-meaning Black organisations, businesses, associations, even universities that focus on Pan-Afrikan development, yet again their effect on the lives of our people is difficult to detect. Perhaps it’s due to the fact that we all exists in the middle of a White Supremacist world where visibility is over-determined by whiteness or ones proximity to it.

In my personal life, I have grappled with these issues of personal and social transformation. Having spent much of my 20’s and now early 30’s as a Rastafarian, the heart-breaking and sacrificial work of striving to unite Black people towards noble causes is beyond the word difficult. Being a revolutionary is a thankless preoccupation. As much as Rastafarians profess to be vehemently anti-politics and purportedly anti-racist; it becomes clear that in this world, one cannot avoid or try to skirt around political and racial realities.

As I grew deeper in my understanding of the world, I simply could not keep chanting songs about the ultra-romanticised Theocracy Reign of a deposed Ethiopian Emperor, neither could I remain comfortable singing songs about a mystical Afrikan Zion “a place of saints and angels”, when in reality all saints are dead and angels are nothing more than imaginary friends.

In reality, Afrika requires us to be brutally honest in our analysis and plans of action, how to achieve Pan Afrikanist Black Power sooner than later for the sake of our children and grandchildren.

The faithful quoting from the Kebra Nagast (The Glory of Kings), The Holy Bible, The Book of Henok or from the Important Utterances of HIM Haile Selassie the First have not helped Afrikans to unite, stop slaughtering each other, competing for crumbs at the table of white supremacy and black deception – these tomes can make us feel optimistic and that we are a part of a living history but our today and our future demands a radically different and pragmatic attitude. This is not a pessimistic but a realistic view.

And so when I made my decision to cut my dreadlocks for the last-time, it was a painful yet liberating experience that set me on a journey of self and societal transformation. Dreads are a simple outward form of identifying oneself with a culture or the beliefs of the Rastafari, but they are by no means a sign that one has adopted that rigorous way of life which includes specific habits, diet, appearance and a whole new perspective on life.

Yet many Rastafarians are revolutionary thinkers, while a lot more are simply engaged in the external cultural expressions, nothing more or less.

The revolutionary thinkers exist in a paradoxical or ambivalent space between believing or ‘knowing’ the divine right of monarchs (Haile Selassie I as the King of all kings and the ruler of all lords, both biblically and traditionally) while also being knowledgeable about the works of Marcus Garvey, Walter Rodney, Kwame Nkrumah, Afrikan historians, political movements and of course Steve Biko.

Being aware of the works/words and meaning of Biko, Garvey, Fanon and others would normally set one on a collision course with religious expressions that support or condone the existence of states such as Israel or even the USA. These are States that thrive on injustice and profit from the exploitation of others without impunity.

But here lies the paradox and complexity of Rastafari – as a pseudo-religious movement, Rastafari is supposed to be a way of life and not a religion at all, at least not in the typical sense. This is a contradiction since in the rituals; the Holy Bible takes centre stage. It is after all called a Church. The Church that the Emperor built, although he might have meant it to be a place where Jesus Christ is praised instead of His Deputy (Seyuma Igziabeher).

Alternatively other hand, there has been a revolution taking place within the specific sectors of the universal Rasta movement.

Some devotees of the God Emperor Haile Selassie I have totally denounced all associations with Christianity, refuting the well-known Ethiopian Orthodox and Biblical connection to the movement. These new Rasta’s have adopted a strictly Pan Afrikanist and traditionalist expression. The most prominent among them is called BaKehase (The People of the Light or The Light Bearers). The leader or Grandmaster of this new movement is a charismatic, very well spoken and intelligent young man who goes by the name of Thau-Thau Haramanuba, although he does have many other names. After many Facebook conversations and arguments (Reasoning) I finally met Thau-Thau and we had some truly interesting conversations especially surrounding what he proposes should be the daily practice of a Rasta who has disassociated him or herself from the Bible and what is the role of ancestors.

Although this is not a new phenomenon, in Jamaica it is accepted that although Rasta’s are identifiable by their use of marijuana, wearing dreadlocks , their natural lifestyle and cultivation of a pro-African or Afrocentric culture or rhetoric, they vary significantly in their views concerning the God-King! While some maintain a strictly biblical and Messianic and Millennial view e.g. the Boboshanti or EABIC, the Nyahbinghi Theocratic Order and the 12 Tribes of Israel there are those who have a more secular and even traditional Afrocentric outlook, viewing Selassie I as just one of the great kings and modernisers of Afrika. The latter are usually scholars of Egyptology and Kemetic school of thought. They link Ancient Kush, Kemet to modern day Black people as an unbroken lineage of spirituality and cultural unity.

This sense of unity in diversity has not saved Rasta’s from regular persecution by lawmakers, the use of the illegal substance called ganja does not make things any easier neither. While it is not all Rasta’s who use or smoke marijuana/ganja, many defend its legalisation while others favour the option of decriminalisation. But this is a subject requiring its proper essay and research, time and space. Suffice to say it bears a lot of information about the economic potential for people of colour all over the world. While all races use it, it is regarded as traditionally Indian and African yet the essay would investigate the trend of who benefits from its cultivation, legalisation and distribution.

So what has all this to do with Black Consciousness and the cultural and socio-political life of we as a people? Well, I dare say, essentially everything!

The universal Rastafari ‘gospel’ has been adopted by people of many racial and cultural backgrounds. Ever-since the rise of Reggae music, especially the stellar yet ironically misunderstood legend of one Robert Nesta Marley, Reggae and the identity of Rastafari has become an even bigger. The King of Reggae has been instrumental in rising even raising the status of Ethiopia more than that of his homeland (the Island) of Jamaica. Like Guevara, Marley could be called a true Internationalist or Outer-nationalist as Rasta’s often say.

Both these troubadours were revolutionaries in their respective fields, rising above difficult transitions and violent political climates to become symbols of Liberation and the birth of a New Man. Both are inspirational liberation fighters, one through the ideology of Socialism and guerrilla warfare, the other through the philosophy of Ethiopianism and artistic excellence.

Just like Socialism, Rastafari has been breaks through many national and cultural boundaries, yet the latter maintains what is called ‘Black Supremacy’ as its core. Black emperor; Black empress, black repatriation and reparations is the constant call of the Rastaman since he is concerned with the restoration of Black Afrikan dignity and sovereignty. By escaping or defeating (burning down) Babylon, the Rasta seeks to become a member of a New Race that is beyond petty prejudice.

This concept of becoming New or Transformed human beings is far from novel. Whether one looks at the early writings of Marcus Garvey or even the speeches of Haile Selassie I where he says we must become something we have never been…children of a New Race, overcoming petty prejudice…

It is clear that Afrikans and non-white people the world over had not just been contented with fighting against the scourge of white supremacy, but were dealing decisively with the psychological and social effects of imperialism.

Menzi Maseko ©

The Revolution is in our greens

Seeds of Slavery

Genetically Modified Organisms and the Role of the Black Revolutionary In the Struggle for Food Security

Introduction:

The notion democracy in Afrika and indeed throughout the so called Third World is clearly a mixed bag of optimism, gullibility and dubious policy decisions. The questions I will to raise here are; who really controls the conversation, the flow of information, public relations, political will and whether there is any form of participatory democracy here in Africa and in Southern Afrika in particular? Further, I will ask whether the ordinary Black Southern Afrikan is knowledgeable enough to understand the impact of GMO’s and globalization in his own life and that of his family and land. What kind of politics if any is required of us in order to achieve self-determination and satisfactory use of our resources e.g. Water, soil and renewable sources of energy?

Matters of global chaos (so called Global Warming); land ownership nationalization, redistribution and progressive politics of Black Consciousness will be touched upon with a conscious effort to examine the role of radical political activism in the fight against White Supremacist ideas and actions. We will begin by determining the role of the ‘State’, civil society and the Afrikan individual in general.

Part 1: A Stateless mind-state

“We find ourselves at an intersection that presses us to consider, once again, the character of the state that we have created. The task for the immediate future is no longer the reconstruction of the fundamental principles, tools and institutions of democracy and a free market economy. All that has already been accomplished. I do not believe that our future goal should be merely the creation of an efficient capitalist democracy. We need something more: we need to begin a serious discussion about the character of the democracy that we wish to cultivate – its roots, spirit, and direction. With equal seriousness, we should also consider what needs to be done at the different levels of the reconstructed market economy so that its fruit may be enjoyed by the general public. We need quite simply, a new vision. One that is mindful of the future role of citizens, local government, and state.” – Vaclav Havel and Vaclav Klaus in Rival Visions, in Journal of Democracy ( Vol.7, number 1 – January 1996: Civil Society After Communism)

Let us get one thing clear and out of the way as soon as possible. Afrikan governments and Afrikan leadership has generally failed in its mandate to liberate us and wrest Black people from the mire of the neo-colonialism. There is very little to prove that the Afrikan continent consists of truly independent states or nations. There is still an appalling dependence on Europe, Amerikkka and the rest of the industrialised world for the most basic goods. The infrastructure of many if not all Afrikan countries is made in China, India, Scandinavia, USA and in some places the residue of Portuguese, German and British colonialism. In a word, we are still slaves who are socially, politically, economically and somehow – culturally dead. We are not yet men and women; we are still sophisticated and egotistical beggars.

But what are we begging for? This is the central theme of this paper. Precisely, what makes a wealthy person beg from a poor person? Or to put it in Peter Tosh’s melodic lamentation: “Africa is the richest place yet it still has the poorest race” – These are questions that are raised daily, in drinking spots all over the continent and indeed worldwide. The question is raised in thousands upon thousands of academic journals, books, theses, seminars and convention centres. The Black person who is even the least bit conscious of her and his condition, is pursued by this nagging question daily.

But is there an answer? If so where can it be found; perhaps in a ‘political solution’, a supernatural dimension – in church, mosque or at the ancestral shrine? Whatever the case may be, it is abundantly clear that the answer must come sooner than later, since our problems are piling up, our governments are messing up and the gods and ancestors also seem clueless. I say this about the gods and ancestors not because I mean to be disrespectful, for many are the active traditionalists, spiritual leaders, and ministers of the gospel who have offered humanity some formulae and suggested that we either return to the principles which prevailed in pre-colonial, pre-slavery Afrika or that we should heed the prophets who preach personal righteousness which would then translate to national favour with the divine. It is clear that we have generally heeded neither the messiah nor the messengers of the great ancestors. Our situation seems far from any resolution, therefore the only option is a complete revolution – the form of which must begin in our minds, hearts and most specifically in the manner in which we produce, distribute and regulate what and how we eat. Yes, the Afrikan revolution is primarily in the soil, the water and the type of seeds we choose to sow today. It is that simple. So the role of Afrikan politics and business is a nothing more than a series of costly compromises, hypocrisy and downright delusion.

Our leaders have successfully put many of us under a spell and the Black Afrikan exists in a state of wretched duality. Once a modern worker-slave yet also a proud but land-less, visionless shadow of the white person.

Now let us look at the role that GMO’s and their multinational propagators have on the present and future prospects of Black Afrika and indeed the entire planet.

To be Continued...

Writing at the edge of realization

Midnights Kindred

Writing at the edge of the real

18–19/ 03/ 2013

Writers are the right kind of mad. Many artists are mad too, but writers, especially the variety that thinks really deeply, feels really strongly about the most complex and sometimes the most seemingly miniscule of matters. Those are mad people, people who think that whatever they may imagine, express on paper or project onto screens or through the airwaves can actually change the world. What audacity, attempting to alter the natural entropy or chaotic order of this cold, cruel, crazy, beautiful world.

They are daring to re-invent the world in their own images. Some are daring to invent a completely new one. One permeated by truth, justice, spontaneous joy and natural progression and unhinged from stifling traditions and the moral mores prevalent in the one we live in today.

With the same zeal and bold imagination that characterises the freest and most ‘open’ minded children; many writers invite and launch us into their headspace and cause us to see the world in new ways. This should not be seen as anything new, surprising or which came only through the process of writing. Writers have merely tapped into the inexorable storehouses of stories, dreams, legends and mythic universes. It is just that the business of telling stories has become so nuanced and fraught with all kinds of parasitic forces. From the voracious and bottom line motivated international publishing industry to the fickle yet indispensable reading audience, writing is a maddening yet equally captivating phenomenon.

What I witnessed and part-took of last-night reassures me that writers are some of the most dangerous and craziest people to ever walk the earth. And I absolutely love them for it. It was after the opening night of Time of the Writer festival held at the University of Kwa-Zulu Natal’s Elizabeth Sneddon Theatre. A couple of writers and me went out to get a bite and have some drinks on Florida Road’s famous Spiga Doro Italian Restaurant. As expected, the conversation flowed as easily as the wine and laughter. It was a brief yet enriching moment where ‘thinkers’ and fantastical and eloquent people from all over the globe shared a hearty conversation, although of course there were really as many as three to four different groups talking all at once. In our joined tables, I think there was about twelve of us.

Topics ranged from the literature found in pornographic magazine’s such as Playboy, the challenges faced by young black Afrikan entrepreneurs, developing a reading audience in Afrika’s urban areas, creating socially responsible yet highly lucrative businesses to similarities between the struggles of Palestinian, Nigerian, Ugandan, and Southern Afrikan writers, activists and people in general. We also spoke about lighter things such as art, design, food, sex and writing as a pleasure.

But what dominated the conversations was the uses and abuses of words such as Culture, Tradition and Democracy. At my end of the table we were earnestly discussing the role of pan-Afrikanism, Black Consciousness and its role in the anti-capitalism or anti-imperialist narratives. I was sitting next to one of the visiting writers from the USA who has dual citizenship in Nigeria. Nnedi is one of the rare or odd ones out in the world of Black literature or literature written by black Afrikans.

She is a professor of creative writing at Chicago University and most of her books are targeted at young adults. I call her rare because she writes science fiction/fantasy. The Time of the Writer booklet calls her a ‘speculative novelist’.  I found that term quite interesting since I thought that most if not all writers of fiction have to speculate a lot, even if they do base their stories on realistic premises. Don’t they all have to creatively construct a world where there wasn’t already one? Or don’t some of them strive to impress upon our imagination a vast array of possible pasts, presences and futures?

I personally consider the tendency of writers to deny that they are fence-sitters, un-prescriptive or objective artists quite unfounded. Is there no opinion or perspective in any of their fiction or even non-fiction work, and if not then where is the difference between the imagination and the conjuring of words and worlds where there was none such?

The writers on that midnight meal had all been quite different. On my left side there was Jackee Budesta Batanda, a Ugandan journalist who lives in Johannesburg and works as a writer and research fellow at the African Centre for Migration and Society at the University of the Witswatersrand. She has written widely on foreign policy issues and has published in many anthologies, journals, newspapers and websites. Some of her work has appeared on such anthologies as The Thing That Ate Your Brain, Out of The Shadows and Africa-Asian Anthology, which are available on Kindle. I liked the energy and hardworking ethic of this Ugandan sister. During our conversation, Jackee sounded like the kind of socially responsible entrepreneur that I have always wanted to be. As writer who also has dreams and plans of becoming super-rich through business in order to contribute financially to the uplift of Afrikan communities, her every word reflected everything I strive to be.

There is such inspiration when one shares thoughts with people who are such big dreamers, it makes one question ones pace and whole outlook in life. I found myself asking, how many hours do I waste doing what will not fulfil my dreams, how musch education and determination will it take for me to achieve even half of what these women, as young as they are achieving?

And then there was Susan Abulhawa, a beautiful award-winning Palestinian/American novelist. She is said to be a notable science writer in medical journals and who has contributed papers on cardiovascular disease, diabetes, haemophilia, schizophrenia, women’s health and oncology.

 But her passion for literature and life in general has seen her books being translated into 24 languages worldwide.  Her first novel, Mornings in Jenin (previously published in different form as The Scar Of David) was hailed by The Times as “the first English-language novel to express fully the human dimension of the Palestinian tragedy.”

How can one possibly be un-inspired in the presence of such notables? Yet all of us were just talking as people. We spoke as people who are mostly concerned with the transformation of all our worlds, a transformation of the collective consciousness of all of humanity. We are all after-all is said and done, just ordinary people making and trying to make a living. If our ways of seeing the world have been tempered with the intuitive and natural propensity of writers to search for meaning or a deeper truth; that is just the way it is. Writers must write just as mathematicians must calculate, it seems to be something in our genetic or perhaps psychic design.

One writer last night, I think it was Jo-Anne Richards, the author of the imagined child, said that when she does not write she feels odd. Yet it is this very oddity or the audacity to write, to hope and to shape characters and create imaginary worlds that seems somehow odd. It has been said that God is an artist; this can be accepted by both Creationists and Darwinists and has been thrown about by the whole debate on Intelligent Design that was all the rage a few years ago. But what does that mean exactly?

For the creationists, an Artistic God is an entity of a Supernatural being that is or was able to use thought and words etc., in order to create something where there was none. This would fit perfectly with the Biblical and Quranic narrative of an entity that is removed from the world as we know it and can shape both matter and the destinies of the living.

Of course writers are as varied as are languages and human beings and they all come from vastly different cultures. While others fully accept this view and often go as far as taking on the role of ‘prophets’ or messengers themselves; many more writers in both the non-fiction and fiction worlds have no such bold inclinations and it does not matter whether what they write might incidentally transpire into reality or appear to be prescient. They are just writers.

I think that every writer is an activist, whether they accept that or not. Writing is thoughtful work. Whether it be as a reporter, a journalist in whatever sense that may imply, or whether you speculate about odd and widely intersecting and infinite possibilities or whether you are a script writer and a song writer who also happens to be a poet and a spoken word artist. You are being introspective, retrospective and above all else, you are thinking and active in the documenting of moments, imagined or actual. You may be concerned with the world of poor people who work under slavery conditions in today’s cosmopolitan settings or in the mines and farms.

 

You may write about the contradictions of freedom and democratization or you may write to express your own inner being, what you see, feel or hear in your own head. Whatever it may be, it still remains possible that most writers are quite a loony bunch of individuals who can’t even help it.

 The only way to satisfy a writer is to let them do what they do in freedom or relative liberty. They have to be mad, most of them seek to change the world simply by auto-suggesting ways of seeing, hearing and being.

It was written:

“All rebellious movements are movements against invisibility. Perhaps the clearest example is that of the feminist movement … to make visible that which was invisible: to make visible the exploitation and oppression of women, but more than that, to make visible the presence of women in the world, to rewrite history from which their presence had been largely eliminated. The first step in struggling against invisibility is to turn the world upside down, to think from the perspective of struggle, to take sides. The issue of sensitivity is well posed by the Ethiopian proverb…: ‘When the great lord passes the wise peasant bows down deeply and silently farts.’ – The Material Reality of Anti-Power - from Change The World Without Taking Power: The Meaning of Revolution Today by John Holloway, Pluto Press, 2005)

For some strange reason I seem to be drawn to theistic interpretations of everything. Perhaps it is because my world has been saturated with religion since I was born. But it could also be due to the fact that I am really interested in telling my stories and writing in order to understand and over-stand the pervasiveness of faith, belief and spirituality in the world. I seek to understand they who, why and since when of religious conflict, religious based prejudice, patriarchy and even my own world of somewhat chaotic, or eclectic religiosity. I have after-all convinced myself and others that I am a Rastaman, although I have cut my dreadlocks more times that anyone can count. But I am a strange Rasta. Perhaps a hypocritical one, since I defend almost all its tenets while at the same time, I refute many of its positions on women, the Christ, Gays and Lesbians etc

All I know is, the world is far more complex and even much simpler than how religious people portray it. What with the incorporeal characters such as Satan/the devil and God/the un-married Father and wifeless father and the Holy Spirit all thrown into the cosmic soup?

As a Rastafarian, I am generally uninterested in theology as propounded by preachers, imams and books such as the Bible or the Quran. I have read these texts ad more thoroughly and without bias. But what I have found instead of faith and firm belief, is merely confusion and human error. This human error is often blamed on the devil and sometimes even God Himself who may allow a person to transgress in order to show how great His salvation or redeeming power is. The whole notion of free-will, freedom and scientific inquiry is anathema to religion.

Yet billions of human beings are fascinated and even live and die in defence of these ideas from ancient times.

I am also interested in history and even some forms of spiritual and ritualistic devotion. I like the Gadaa system of the Oromo people of Ethiopia for its simple and nature based ‘doctrine’ or Indigenous Knowledge System.

I also am captivated by the ancient Egyptian mytho-poetic and even historical foundations of civilization. Fascinated by the Nile River and its ascendance; its cosmic relevance to Afrikans and even socio-political significance. And that is a tale worth re-telling ad infinitum. This is also the reason why I happen to be interested in the Ethiopic Book of Enoch.

This is an important text in Afrikan literary history even though its Afrikanness is a perpetually contested issue. But that is also a subject that requires its own elaborate analysis. But the Ethiopian anthropologist and author Ayele Bekerie has done justice to it in his book The Book of Henok/Enoch insinuates that among the fallen angels who ‘chose to abandon their holy estate in order to cohabit with human women.” There was among these ‘spiritual entities’ a most inventive and volatile of them one called Penuel who is said to have invented the pen or instruments of writing.

It is said that among the secrets that these rebellious angels revealed to mankind via the agency of women, was the art of creating stories and inscribing them for generations to discover. They also revealed the secrets of numbers, divinations and the uses and abuses of metals, make up among other things.

Of course this is a fabulous account from a mythical and mystical North-Afrikan or Afro-Asiatic text and as wonderful as it is, it bears many contradictions. But at the core of the Enochian texts, is the age-old battle of Good over Evil with the righteous being blessed and the wicked being judged.

The Book of Enoch has been interpreted in many nuanced and often magical or ritualistic ways, yet few have explored its significance as a work of literature; but this is the problem faced by many texts which are considered sacred. Yet its origins and its authorship is still a contentious matter.

At the Time of The Writer I was asked to be an interpreter for an author who writes in IsiZulu. He has consciously chosen to use his mother-tongue to introduce and express himself. I met him over lunch among the rest of the authors at a famous Afrocentric restaurant in South Beach, Durban. Mr Khawula, is an ordinary and unremarkable family man at first. But behind those glinting; proudly Zulu eyes there is a gentle soul who is not only a post-traditionalist but also an avid reader and listener. The trouble is there is something rather stiff about his political outlook. Listening to him one gets the feeling that this man is stuck in theory or stuck in the pre-94 liberation ANC-ism.

So instead of judging him by how he says things and even what he might say, I am really looking forward to reading his book Yihlathi Leli.

But what really impressed me most about many of the writers in their vast varieties and styles is this sheer devotion to free expression. Expressing oneself may seem like the most natural act yet in a world which is under the control of many oppositional agenda’s, this freedom to be oneself and even dare to imagine a different world is challenged. Writers want to leave beautiful impressions in the hearts and minds of readers and listeners. Writing, just like thinking freely is an offensive act in many societies. Writers, Thinkers, Activists and many other similar impressionists, expressionists have been beaten, killed, jailed and banned before.

This still happens in many countries that are considered undemocratic or in violation of basic human rights. This is because honest, introspective and even opportunistic writers are not afraid to express human wrongs through their words. But to an ordinary person, it is just way too risky to speak your mind, whether it is done creatively, satirically or put in plain language. Ngugi Wa Thiong’o has put it characteristically well:

“Unfortunately writers who should have been mapping paths out of that linguistic encirclement of their continent also came to be defined and to define themselves in the languages of imperialist impositions. Even at their most radical and pro-African position in their sentiments and articulation of problems they still took it as axiomatic that the renaissance of African cultures lay in the languages of Europe. I should know.”  - (The Language of African Literature* )

Menzi Maseko ©

 

 

Optional Revolutionary

Revolutionary Options: From We and Them to I and I

This essay seeks to address the question of individual and group or community contributions to making a ‘difference’. How does social transformation evolve from the minds, the needs and strivings of a few people in order to engulf entire communities and capture the imagination of others far away?

Essentially, I am striving to find out exactly how I contribute effectively towards making social and psycho-spiritual revolution? How do I write, speak and act or work wisely and with enough creativity and ‘common sense’ in order to create irresistible change?

Surely the writing of books, articles and telling stories is just one idea that works to a certain extent. But libraries, bookstores and even rubbish bins of the world are filled with some of the greatest books. Bible’s, Quran’s, Bhagavad Gita’s and many other tomes of religious and spiritual salvation have existed and have been expounded ad infinitum. There are millions if not billions of souls who value and benefit from these.

Globalization has also allowed for the largest production and proliferation of self-help and Do It Yourself literature, recordings and audio-visual material to show us how far we have come and what our ultimate potential is. From the attractive titles of these books e.g. The Purpose Driven Life; Rich Dad, Poor Dad; The Power of Your Sub-Conscious Mind; The Road Less Travelled; The Richest Man In Babylon and many more, including one that I personally edited, titled Oh Yes You Can, written by a dear friend – we are left with no doubt that humanity is striving for perfection and that we are at a cross-roads to sheer godliness, excellence and success.

Yet the inverse is true. The levels of violence, crimes, violations of natural laws and the whole instability or chaos that characterizes the ‘real world’ is a complete contradiction and a cruel cosmic joke. This leaves one with a simple conclusion, and that is we are nowhere near the Self-realization and the New Man that the great sages have taught us about. It means the blood of the Lamb of God has still got much work to do and that the mystics need to take their mediation and mantras to a deeper or higher level.

Nowadays there is always talk of Revolution, transformation and being the change that we seek. These terms and aspirations have become almost redundant and are forcing many activists and ‘conscious people’ to ask: “What are we struggling for, is it really going to bring the desired results in our lives and communities?”

I too have begun to question, once again:

-       Do ordinary people really need salvation from the ‘system’, from the greed and manipulation of the powers that are assumed to be?

-       Don’t people just desire safe jobs, decent employment, good social security and the comforts of houses, Spurs, McDonalds and Steers burgers?

-       How does one convince blacks and willing whites that buying Coca Cola and fast-foods every week, consuming meat, using credit card swiping has such long lasting and destructive effects on the entire earth?

-       Can I convince my sisters and brothers that supporting local and international Live music and independent artists is good for all?

-       Can I be the one that holds up the mirror that clearly shows black people that there is life and prosperity after or without the African National Congress; Democratic Alliance, Inkatha Freedom Party, Pan Africanist Congress et al.

Steady Does It: One Revolutionary Option?

“The call for the Steady State Revolution bears no resemblance to Marx’s (socialism), in the sense that its aim is not communism or any other replacement of a prudently managed capitalist democracy. And there is no call here for a forcible overthrow of anything. Americans black and white have proven a great deal about the affectivess of non-violent revolution. So have others all over the world. As Brown (1995:119) pointed out in Models in Political Economy. ‘Most revolutionary social changes have involved little violence.’ On the other hand, the call for a steady state economy is far more urgent than Marx’s. Unlike his revolutionary perspective of communism, there is no reason to believe that a steady state economy is pre-ordained. And this is worrisome, because as Brown (1995:119) also noted: ‘It is the social breakdown that follows a failure to change that engenders violence.’”

I find this analysis quite apt, pertaining to the state we find ourselves in South Africa and in other countries wherein election promises amount to hot air, excessive yet ineffective spending. Many people have begun to see through the ruling party’s and elites sloganeering. An empty promise is nothing short of a betrayal. Although there are plenty Afrikans who still buy the lie writ large on politicians and business leader’s faces and bellies – there is certainly a clear social upheaval. The most concerning trouble for I is that the anger and frustration is not channeled and tempered by revolutionary ideas, thus it ends up manifesting itself in self inflicted impoverishment and violence.

It is unfortunate that even in 2012-2013, Black Africans still mete out violence and looting against each other when they are really angry at their employers, councilors, and political mis-leaders. What they are really raging against is a failing state and a fundamentally flawed economic regime. This is an economy that ensures growth and fruitful promises for everyone else but the worker or the ordinary person. Here I am reluctant to use the term citizen to describe the slave-like condition of the black majority in any given Afrikan ‘third-world’ country. Thus I think that a special type of revolutionary education and training has to be created and freely propagated, by all means necessary among the so called working class. 

This is really the slaving class. This revolutionary re-education has to be also done among the youth of the burgeoning middle class and even upper-class. I include the latter because if they are unprepared and unresponsive or apathetic to the needs and anguish of others, the rising tension and fury of the oppressed and poor ones will scorch them too.

I am an incorrigible optimist, with a few reservations that Afrika’s young people in their diverse backgrounds can yet produce a revolutionary ethos and idealism that is doxastic – a theory to rival that of Marx, Lenin, Mao or even the prominent pan-Afrikanists of yore. This societal theory should be both imaginative and pragmatic enough to replace the ubiquitous neo-liberal laissez faire that we have all become so used to. This zeal can only be produced by a people who are dedicated to Meaningful, Willful Change in their present and future living conditions.

With all this, one is also mindful of the ‘hidden hand’ and the malevolent effects of die-hard capitalists, neo-liberal elements and even the blissfully ignorant some of whom are hell-bent on maintaining white supremacy and its ailing behemoth/leviathan economy.

This is why any Afrikan revolution must also be shrewd and internationalist (outer-nationalist) in scope. I also suspect that the seeds of this revolution are already among us, thus to safeguard it against reactionary elements, there needs to be a some levels of secrecy or invincible invisibility.

With a keen insight and interest in the ecological consequences of their actions, their habits and mentality, the young and ‘upwardly mobile’ Afrikan must be transformative or no less than a ceaseless revolutionary. S/he must reject all the trappings and illusioary behavior of neo-liberal, boursois-elitism. The credit cards, pseudo-euro centricity and Americanism and culture of entitlement has to be abandoned if we are to save ourselves from the culture-bomb. We must only be able to live as we have earned and also make social responsibility part of our natural disposition instead of just a policy or legislation. Individualism has already crept into our systems but it is not a part of our DNA. We are neither traditionally nor psycho-spiritually selfish people, so much of what can be found in our communities today is nothing more than a social construct that exists as part of the capitalist slave conditioning. Whatever we have picked up along the way are bad-habits during our encounter with missionaries, colonialism – we can still very much unlearn as long as long as we are willing to do so. It is necessary for our survival and for our re-emergence as a fully humane people.

Young Afrikans worldwide must and can cease from being imitators or trying to compete with gloating superstars who resemble puppets (overdressed and underdressed and usually intoxicated) on the strings of their white masters, the industry owners. As Brian Czech has put it: “While the super-rich are spending embarrassing amounts, anybody with the means seems to be following suit. In fact all the way down the line Americans seem to have a problem. We do it on credit, if necessary.”  (p.112: Stopping The Train – The Steady State Revolution)

This is similar to what former ANC youth leagues brash leader, the suspended and ‘broke’ Julius Malema said at a news conference pending his trial for fraud: “ You see that Mercedes of mine that you like, the bank owns it. Anyone earning my kind of salary and has some business interest on the side, can afford my lifestyle – but I remain poor, yet I am credit worthy.”

Although many young black people in the Republic of South Africa have been under the rhetorical spell of this so called youth leader, it is clear that being credit worthy does not make one a worthy leader nor a revolutionary example. 

But the media being what it is has created many types of celebrities and as it follows their way up the ladder of influence, so does it follow them as they descend it. But a true revolutionary is not concerned about being showy or being seen to shine because there are many other options, many other ways through-which one can change the world without assuming power. It all begins with Fining Ones Self and defining yourself according to what is truly empowering and liberating.

TBC

Menzi Maseko ©