Sizophum’eLokishini
– Getting Out of the Location
A RE-Introduction to Pan Africanism and
Black Consciousness for Wellbeing
In this document, I aim to point out once
and for all, that there is an urgent need for South African/Azanian people in
particular to understand the urgency and practicality of Black Consciousness
and Pan Africanism. This is the only means by which we all can work together to
address the inequalities and poverty that keeps dividing us even further.
I write this mainly because there are many who
make the mistake of considring the practice of Pan African-ness for being a
purely political thing. In every conversation about the value of Pan
Africanism, someone is most likely to bring in the subject of the failures of political
parties such as the Pan Africanist Congress- PAC, Azanian Peoples Organisation
– AZAPO, the Socialist Party of Azania – SOPA and finally the Black
Consciousness Party. Most rationalists will offer that Pan Africanism has not
worked due to its impracticality, even some Black people will go as far as to
say that it is wholly a racist policy that has no place in our multi-racial
society.
It
is important to see the distinction between individual or everyday Pan
Africanists and the broader aspirations of such political parties, for herein
can one understand that the former may seek a totally different solution
compared to the latter. Here I must say that I am merely stating my opinion,
yet I shall strive to qualify my opinion by offering some enlightening examples
from elsewhere.
What people have to understand is that
even though these organisations were formed to represent the Black Southern
African majority, they failed to capture a large number of people merely due to
the fact that they were operating within an economically, politically and
ideologically unequal field.
We must first understand that all of
these ‘break-away’ political parties were merely seeking to revolutionise the
methods of their former organisations.
The histories of how all of the above
parties emerged from the African National Congress is well documented, yet what
is not clearly defined is the fundamental differences in approach and how it is
that the nationalists were able to survive and capture the peoples minds and
hearts of the striving masses, while the Africanists became weaker and weaker
still.
To really appreciate these differences,
we have to step out of the Africanist / Nationalist points of view and
interrogate how both these liberation movements took to Socialism and Communism
or rather to the teachings and analytical methods of European thinkers such as
Marx, Lenin to name but a few.
Even a superficial perusal of the
speeches and interviews of people such as Robert Sobukwe and Steve Biko reveals
that the African National Congress and the PAC have always had different approaches
to Communism and Socialism, yet in earlier times there was a unity of purpose
as expressed clearly by Biko:
“Clearly,
black people know that their leaders are those people who are now either in Robben
Island or in banishment or in exile – voluntary or otherwise. People like
Mandela, Sobukwe, Kathrada, M.D. Naidoo and many leaders of the people. They
may have been branded communists, saboteurs, or similar names – in fact they
have been convicted of similar offences in law courts but this does not
subtract from the real essence of their worth. We may disagree with some things
they did but know that thy spoke the language of the people.”( From I Write
What I Like )
And on socialism, here’s what some serious followers of Robert Mangaliso Sobukwe
have to say:
“Sobukwe
and the Africanists always saw the struggle for national freedom as an
anti-capitalist and anti-imperialist struggle. They believed that national
liberation is intertwined and inseparable from social emancipation or the
struggle for socialism.”
‘Africanist
therefore have always rejected the two separate stage theory of our revolution
– where there will be a separate national democratic revolution or stage 1, led
by one political entity and later a second socialist or stage 2, led by yet
another political formation.
Finally,
Sobukwe, like all Pan-Africanists, believed that a United Africa must project
an African personality by making a positive contribution to the affairs of
humankind.’ – From IKHWEZI
So briefly, although the ideas of
socialism were shared by both the Pan Africanists and the Nationalists, there
was a difference in their approach to how capitalist imperialism exemplified by
pro-western ideals had to be tackled. One could say it was and still remains a question
of whether blacks negotiated a settlement with their common enemy or they
demanded full emancipation, which is complete independence and autonomy. It is
clear today who the ones who decided for a negotiated an peaceful settlement
and who refused the falsified divorce papers.
There is also the question of democracy.
The Africanists continue to shout that 'Africa is our country’ and the
Nationalists say that we are all working towards a ‘better life for all’.
To put it simply, the Africanists and
the Nationalists differ in their interpretation of what a real and earnest
revolution entails. While both fought and continue to agitate for African
sovereignty and self-determination, the meaning of revolution is like East and
West for these parties, and so it is for the ordinary people, the so called
proletariat and the working classes which make up the majority of African
people.
There needs to be a common understanding
amongst We Black people of what it means to be truly free and what it is that
We have striven to be free from.
There is a tendency to forget that Pan
Africanism is not about politics at all, but a wilful attitude change that an
African undertakes in order to put Africa and all things essentially African
first in their life.
We also must understand that the enemy
of all our progress is a common one and that all true revolutions must take us
from a position of lack into a place where we can have the power to determine
our destiny.
Yet how can one determine ones future
when the leaders of expected progress continue to waste our resources and
fail to bequeath the masses with a unique ideological framework – a progressive
and practical roadmap for our total emancipation?
When we act as if we do not
believe in our own ability to even produce the most basic goods and we are made
to depend on far away nations who are still free to purchase and own private
property in the land that in which we rightfully belong?
What I mean is that the current
governments neo-liberal policies are both impractical and unsustainable merely
due to the fact that the no matter how much industrialization occurs on our
soil, the native will always rise up and revolt in demand of his natural
inheritance.
On this matter of sustainability which
speaks to the manner in which the Republic of South Africa treats matters of nationalization and land acquisition let’s hear what Karl Marx himself had to
say:
“From
the standpoint of a higher socio-economic formation, the private property of
particular individuals in the earth will appear just as absurd as the private
property of one man in other men. Even an entire society, a nation or a simultaneously existing societies taken together, are not owners of the earth,
they are simply its possessors, its beneficiaries, and have to bequeath it in
an improved state to succeeding generations as good heads of households.”- (Capital
Volume 3)
As much as I am loathe to quote from the
European giants while trying to explain African challenges, it is clear that we
have been dealing with problematic systems that we have inherited from them;
hence they also know better how we and them have been mired in such a dilemma.
So here we can see how Marx eloquently
maintains that there is a deeply flawed understanding of what society’s purpose
is on planet Earth.
He makes it abundantly clear that we are
not owners of the earth. Everything we found when we were born we shall also
leave here, this includes most of our inventions. So all this competition over
the ownership of lands and resources that have been naturally bestowed upon
native beneficiaries is a complete waste of both resources and valuable time,
time that would be best utilised in creating a less competitive and more
sustainable human condition.
I dare say that the essential work of all Pan Africanist
is to help realise this very ecological land and economically sustainable world. This
is what is meant above when we say that Sobukwe and others were eager to see
Africans contributing positively to the affairs of humankind. And this is also
expressed clearly by Biko when he writes:
“Freedom
is the ability to define oneself with one’s possibilities held back not by the
power of other people over one but only by one’s relationship to God and to
natural surroundings. On his own therefore, the black man wishes to explore his
surroundings and test his possibilities – in other words to make his freedom
real by whatever means he deems fit.” ( Biko – I Write What I Like )
Pan Africanism and Black Consciousness
then simply seek to enable black people to determine their own fate, to move
away from such dependency on Western civilization. The more we depend on others
for our own freedom the more enslaved we shall become, the more impoverished
shall be our cultures and we shall end up not having anything to give to the
world beside songs, sporting excellence and our embittered lamentations.
Black Consciousness and Pan Africanism
takes a fearless look at the causes of our poverty and prescribes
a cure that will once and for all root out the problems. Pan Africanism is not
merely a demand for jobs, benefits and better salaries, just like Black
Consciousness; it is a total revolutionising of the mind and a way of life.
Here, an explanation is required:
“Poverty
is defined as being more than a lack of income. Poverty exists when as
individual or a household’s access to income, jobs and or infrastructure is
inadequate or sufficiently unequal to prohibit full access to opportunity in
society.The condition of poverty is caused by a combination of social,
economic, spatial, environmental and political factors.
During
apartheid, African people were made poor through urban management, and revoking
racially exclusionary policies did not level the playing fields. Instead, a
superficial sense of equality was created. The effect has been the inability of
most of the population to claim their socio-economic rights. (Parnell
&Boulle – 2006) further argue that the entrenched patterns of inequality
arising out of human settlement management have resulted in the rich being able
to reproduce the conditions of their privilege in an environment that is
superficially equal.”
This lengthy introduction has simply
explained the reasons why I took up the task of writing this.
The mess in which the majority of
African peoples are in can only be described as wretched, yet this is not a
call for self pity, it is also not a reason to become any more agitated than we
all already are.
There is a need for African peoples to
recognise that the world can still be a better and brighter place for them and
that they are the perfect agents for that change, that revolution. My aim is to
show Our people that the revolution is in their hands and that it will not come
from politicians or from prophets who promise them a heaven on earth.
The poverty We are in should not
diminish our longing to be self-sufficient, we are able to be better than We
currently are.
But it requires an honest re-examination
of how we ended up so far down the turning wheel of civilization and that has
to be a totally fearless look at ones history and abilities.
Chinua Achebe’s statement in his paper,
‘The Novelist as a Teacher’, is instructive:
“If I were God I would regard as the very
worst our acceptance – for whatever reason – of racial inferiority. It is too
late in the day to get worked up about it or to blame others, much as they may
deserve such blame ad condemnation. What we need to do is to look back and try
and try and find out where we went wrong, where the rain began to beat us. Here
then is an adequate revolution for me to espouse – to help my society regain
belief in itself and put away the complexes of the years of denigration and
self-abasement.” –P.44, Morning yet On Creation Day
It is clear from the above statement
that Achebe is calling for the same revolution that the likes of Steve Biko
were calling for when they recommended Black Consciousness for the masses of Africans
worldwide.
While I have already dealt with the
reasons why Black Consciousness is even more relevant today in my other
writings, it must be made more clear that there are many forces, both national
and global that are threatened by any serious rise of such a consciousness.
It has been written by many activists
that the ruling party would rather keep the masses of the Black majority ignorant
rather than provide a proper education system that is relatively free or
affordable since the more people are in the dark the less likely are they able
to see that they are being stolen from and lied to by their own political
representatives.
A revolution is something too far
fetched and even seen as unnecessary to a people who do not read, who are
un-educated and therefore unaware of the causes of their misery. Hence we still
find too many cases of Black on Black violence, a problem which is more
economically based rather than xenophobic.
Therefore we are at a stage when people
have to be Conscientised, Re-educated and made to realise that business as
usual is unsustainable as much as it is undesirable.
So a revolution is not only necessary
but it is at hand, but let’s see whether we are all on the same page regarding
what this very word means.
In democratising
the struggle: revolution by “structural reform” and popular empowerment,
John Saul writes:
“One
final term we need to interrogate is the word “revolution” itself. It is a
tempting word since we know just how big and aggressive is the capitalist enemy
that must be overcome. But perhaps, despite this, it’s just a bit too tempting
– and somewhat too romantic – a notion. For what we have seen so far suggests
that the “socialist revolution’ will not spring easily from some sudden social
upheaval nor be consolidated quickly or well, even under the leadership of some
unusually wise vanguard. – A structural
reform must not come from on high: instead it must root itself in popular
initiatives in such a way as to foster further empowerment.
It must lead to growing self consciousness and
organisational capacity for the vast mass of the population who thus strengthen
themselves for further struggles, further victories.” – John Saul in Marxism & renewal in the 21st Century
– new challenges, new thinking.
With all that said, I would like to once
again (still reluctantly) use the example of the politically ubiquitous Marx,
albeit through the pen of another analyst:
“Marx’s
vision of ‘communism’ was that of sustainable human development, where human
beings lived as part of nature, not separate and above it. His ‘communism’,
clearly, was not the state-dominated authoritarian experiment in ‘actually
existing socialism’, where ‘democracy’ was emptied of its content.” – (
Devan Pillay – associate professor in Department of Sociology at Wits
University)
And in conclusion I shall re-quote what this
same writer has quoted from Bolivia’s ex-president Evo Morales whose green
socialist development strategy is worth emulating for We Africans.
“For
us, what has failed is the model of ‘living better’ (than others), of unlimited
development, industrialisation without frontiers, of modernity that deprecates
history, of increasing accumulation of goods at the expense of others and
nature. For that reason we promote the idea of Living Well, in harmony with
other human beings and with our Mother Earth.” (Quoted in Foster, 2009:35)
Pan Africanism taken beyond the
anti-racial paradigm and towards its natural conclusion seeks a similar human
condition, where White Supremacy has been defeated and wanton industrialization
has been put in check. “We know we shall win for we are confident of the
victory of good over evil.”-HSI
TBC
Menzi Maseko
