Such is the mistake committed by those of us who have the privilege to interact with the visual art object – looking at artworks comparatively and forgetting to acknowledge their most vital feature – autonomy. Joy is lost.

Shall we not, prior to our conclusion of a viewing, let go of what is comfortable in the artist in question oeuvre and delve deeper into the unknown so as to reacquaint ourselves with the artist once more? For to claim that we know the work of an artist is the same as stating that that artist has sold out and are devoid of ideas.

Fall of the Tomb, Pule Diphare’s documentary work in progress is on its own par. This ten year old work is incomparable to any documentary work to have come out of our country tackling issues of space ownership and rights to assert control over the form of state symbols: ¹grounds of contests. These contests in this film centre on our capital city.

Diphare takes us to the heart of ²Pretoria – a contested ground par excellence, an environment which in the last ten years has been marked by a drastic change in the demographics of its sojourners – the proletarians, the hawkers, tsotsis and civil society and of course lately – the drastic influx of foreign nationals. As a nucleus of the film centre point the colossal JG Strijdom head is revisited in its former glory at the heart of Pretoria wherein it is nestled by Sammy Marks Square, The South African State Theatre and Absa Bank.

At the accompaniment of Bobo, a friend of his, Diphare shoves his feet in the role of a co-protagonist and embarks on casting questions to Pretorians as to whether memorabilia such as the head of ³JG Strijdom, now that things have changed, should be left alone as part of our history or should be destroyed to make way for the symbols of the new regime. Thus a backdrop is draped against which issues of accepting change are made bare and interrogated.

Through the interviews the anger of older black generation surfaces through their remarks about the apartheid regime. This reminds us of the bitterness still felt which find a sense of relief in the change of state symbols such as buildings (as in the Transvaal Museum which is flashed briefly on the screen) and the erection of new one’s – as in the new sculpture of ⁴Chief Tshwane at the City Hall; which some of the interviewees both black and white have embraced. Paradoxically some of the young black South Africans interviewed, argue for a new attitude of acceptance and non destruction of symbols such as those of Strijdom to be deposited into museums where future generations will learn not to repeat the deeds of the apartheid regime than to obliterate them and blot out history and its lessons.

Perhaps without giving too much away in terms of our film, for our jots are not a thorough study of Diphare’s present work but a reflection of its most salient features, it is of noteworthy to report that the work’s interviewee are not exclusively black but black and white. Thus the views given by those who share their opinion with Diphare as to the state of affairs of the City and the country in general speak from opposing positions. These positions are reversed now and then whereby we encounter black people who have embraced change and white people who are in opposition to it, as in the issue of the City’s name change to Tshwane.

There is a scene whereby a white interviewee speaks about how, following ‘our subsequent liberation’, black people flooded into the city buying property and as a result the city has seen a drastic increase in terms of black people now living in and around the city. One can’t help but notice the displacement of the interviewee as uncertainty engulfs her.

Such is the tone that runs seamlessly throughout this work. What has democracy come to mean to us as South Africans – black and white? Although Fall of the Tomb does not give the answers to this question its various interviewees makes it clear to us what has happened over the past ten years in the public’s minds – young and old, in terms of change and our grappling with it though not lacking ambivalence as we go about it.

However one fact remains the contest of belonging must continue. To whom does South Africa belong? to whom does Pretoria belong to? Fall of the Tomb reaffirms that it is only through a discursive grounds of  contests that our flawed past can be grappled with mercilessly, looking at things as they were and are right now rather than wishing for a utopian version of our lives to meet us at our doorstep when we rise each morning.

This ten years exposition of our capital city and its symbolic meanings is reminding us of one important lesson, that change and grounds of contests as to who has the right to what are continuous engagements and should always be acknowledged in their true form.

24 November

© Mmutle Arthur Kgokong 2011

Notes

1. By grounds of contest I am referring to those social areas where one has to take a position, either in opposition or in agreement, in order to participate with the matter at hand with the objective of reaching a particular state of affairs or position.

2. I am deliberately using the name Pretoria here to evenly foreground the city as a ground of contest for identity and ownership.

3. The JG Strijdom colossal head collapsed taking part of the underground parking lot with it and was removed not restored

4. Tshwane is the name that has been proposed by the ruling party to replace that of Pretoria which is also a name by which the capital city of South Africa is known. This desire to change the name of the capital city has taken a debate that has seen opposition parties partitioning to the former name’s retention.

Quite interesting as we move towards our next forth coming democratic election is the fact that the final appeal to us to register to vote was organized in February, the month of which the 11th day of marks Madiba’s release from prison in 1990. The teaching of that historical moment was not exhausted let alone touched on, as the campaign ensues. Someone reading this article may as well roll their eyes inwardly with impatience. However they will be missing the point that we are witnessing a remarkable transition in African history let alone the history of the African people as far as charting our history and our destiny is concerned. We are in the midst of the soap opera of change and it can be dizzying sometimes because the events are not reported in retrospect but in medias res – in real time as they take place. Individuals’ and organizations’ awareness of this fact can put people in an advantageous position to take charge of the situation and ultimately lead them to a fruitful desired state of development or ,on the contrary, ignorance can lead  the nation into  the destruction of a brighter future for Africans . Africa must rise! And it will take Africans to uplift it.

II

I have just been through a weekend which, in my uneventful life, can be sampled as a rare germ in terms of its enlivening effects to my rather lethargic weekends. At the opening of the last week of February I got an invitation to attend a lecture at the Centre for African Renaissance Studies, Unisa here in the capital. Fortunately my mother was coming over to spend time with her grandson. Her coming over gave me the chance to slip away for a few hours to slip away to the Centre whose existence has been hovering at the back of my conscience, ever since I stumbled across it in its accompaniment of Prof. Shadrack B.O. Gutto’s name in several television interviews where he gave comments concerning Africa and its state.

The coordinators and the people attending the event were warm and welcoming. It felt as if I have been attending events at that institution from ever since. Guests were treated to an African lunch meal of Pumpkin, Spinach, Tomato Gravy, Mielie Pap and Juicy Stew. A couple of people I know also pitched for the lectures. So as far as companionship is concerned, at this unfamiliar place which had a sense of familiarity to it, is concerned, I was not wanting. I must congratulate Ebukhosini Solutions and Azani Nuru for the splendid organization of the guest speakers, also for the mounting of Cheikh Anta Diop’s Exhibition illustrating his life’s work. Many thanks are due as well to Brother Baba Buntu for making Afrikan literature available, What an education experience¹.

But what was this event all about? It was about Africa, her present state in reference to Sudan through Dr. Samba Buri Mboup² as far as government of national unity which has been established recently in Sudan is concerned and the referendum (for my thoughts on secession see http://wp.me/syl4Y-secede) that will be signed in 2011 and the implication of it to the rest of Africa; Dr. Mboup cautioned, that Africa’s future with regard to sensitization of African people to their identity in terms of pre-colonization, colonization, and looking ahead, post-colonial Africa, is of paramount import in order to curb out future conflicts internally. This was a plight to espouse awareness about the problems facing Africa. While opening these discussions Mpho Mothoagae³ reminded all present that historical depiction of Africa from a western perspective should be rejected and revamped from an African stance so that it can be endowed with truth not humiliation;  Western  depictions  of African are  rich  with degradations on the part of the African contribution to World history.  In their light, the African gave nothing world history.
The main speaker was Prof. Catherine Odora-Hoppers⁴ whose topic Identity, Culture and Knowledge in addition to offering a different approach for the alleviation of Africa’s challenges, was a historical exposition of our continent’s past. I shall come back to her just now. There were also three poets who shared their poetry with all present , their performances embedding the main presentation. I feel proud to know one of them personally – Percy Mabandu.

III

Unfortunately I did not take notes during Odora-Hoppers presentation. With all due respect the reader will bare with me; however I have tried to pick up the essence of the lecture and I feel that there are key points that stood out for me and it these points that i will presently like to turn to.
Of the key points that stood out, one  was the fact that about 88 African states were colonized by 8 European countries who legitimized their rights to the resources of African States while their inhabitants suffered poverty and degradation and submission. Using slides and verbal enunciation Odora-Hopper also tied the entry of Europe into the continent with the age of imperialism (which was preceeded by missionary work) to expand Europe territorially and commercially. Two slides stood out in that presentation. One, showed Africa in pre-colonial period. What was remarkable here was how the ancient states seem to encompass all the states that were neighboring them without bias of borders in a somewhat osmological formation. The slide in particular demonstrated a fact which is pivotal in understanding our relations to one another as Africans – that pre-colonization there existed no borders dividing Africa into the states that it finds itself divided into today. When you look at how varied and amalgamated they were (the ancients states), one gets a sense that in pre-colonial period there existed no separation amongst Africans. The partition which continues to dictate terms of association and accommodations today in the continent were created by the colonialists; in turn breeding limitation and resentment amongst Africans and ultimately in the long run self hate.

Observing and meditating you will begin to get a sense of  how lethal to the well being of people the xenophobic attacks we experienced last May are in the light of unification of Africans;  you get a sense that hate was bred into us from time immemorial which was somewhat, I come to think of it, what Odora-Hoppers indirectly implied.
The second slide which, for lack of flair and vocab’ that Odora-Hoppers possess, I will make a feeble attempt to describe to you, showed three layers which illustrated how violence against humanity in the face of revenge and survival gets bred. This was illustrated by using three parallel line bars in a vertical formation; In the bottom line, violence is harvested, Let us say those whom you wrong start to feel the pain and are able to identify that they are being wronged (potentiality to violence is born). Second line, in the face of continued violence, the wronged, prance to strike back (potentiality violence is legitimized) and lastly, with regard to the top line, violence as revenge and a savage undertaking is endorsed by the two bottom lines and put into action (effect/revenge). In other words crime against humanity is justified.

This is an important lesson to remember in that we keep thinking that action is the result of a single provocation all the time, we mostly neglect to consider that it is potentially given impetus by continued motivation for it to be committed.
Does Odora-Hoppers offer a solution? Yes indeed she does and it is an African solution. She pointed out that the first thing to acknowledge is the cause. To ask how Africa/Africans got where they are [at the moment] and to try to restore our dignity in unity and skills sharing rather than isolate people (other Africnas) based on ethnicity and mark them as potential hazards to our individual progression and survival. Here caution was sounded for the fact that individualism is a Eurocentric tenant not an African aspect in terms of progressive thought within the African context. Africans are communal in finding solutions and solving problems.
How then will Africa find its way into the future? Odora-Hopper specifies that a vertical and horizontal movement will have to be adopted by us Africans in our attempt to reclaim the rightful place that Africa deserves in terms of civilization. By vertical movement, Odora-Hopper, points out that while looking ahead into the future Africans must acknowledge the past so as to learn from it while simultaneously avoiding past mistakes in our progression towards the future. In the Horizontally movement she maintains that Africans should look around at the status quo of Africa and devise solutions to the problems facing the continent by taking into account that the solutions offered will also affect other African states – thus sensible solutions considerate of other African states should be borne in mind at all times – this can be considered to be a practical approach to African solutions.

What an education stance this is because then it makes it possible that the African sense (Ubuntu As Ndumiso Dladla argued in ‘The Philosophy of Ubuntu‘⁵ of doing things is once more revived to its ancient state as it was prior to colonization. Odora-Hopper here is offering a universal solution to the African way of maneuvering around unnecessary conflicts and social challenges. As much as I have tried to report to you verbatim of what I learnt at that lecture I feel I am somehow failing you, for it would have been better for you to attend the event personally, the learning is vital for all self learning essential. After all is Africa not the ancient home of humankind?

Much to my delight Odora-Hopper in one sense concur with what I have said last May 2008 concerning the terrible xenophobic attacks. The reader may also find the reading of my review of Zakes Mda’s Cion review worthwhile for my comparative reading of that text against the argument for qualifications on being defined as African, link up @ http://wp.me/ptAqt-60

For interest sake the Centre for African Renaissance Studies is situated in 287 Skinner Street, in the City of Tshwane.

Africa, Salutations unto you as you rise up and the Eurocentric attitude bow out to take the back seat.

*
1. Cheikh Anta Diop (29 December, 1923–7 February, 1986) was a Senegalese historian, anthropologist, physicist and politician who studied the human race’s origins and pre-colonial African culture. He has been considered one of the greatest African historians of the 20th century.(see Wikipedia for more information)

2. Dr. Samba Buri Mboup
Dr Mboup is an Associate Professor with CARS with academic merits and involvement within General and Comparative Literature, Swahili/Bantu Language and Civilization, African Renaissance Studies, NEPAD and African Politics.

3. Mpho Mothoagae
Mr Mothoagae is a lecturer with CARS and researcher within African languages, IKS, Indigenous Peoples and African Renaissance. He is involved in Kgautswane Community Development Project, the National House of Traditional Leaders and Tshwane Traditional Healers Forum.

4. Prof. Catherine Odora-Hoppers
Prof. Odora-Hoppers is a policy specialist and senior consultant to multilateral and bilateral agencies on international development, North-South questions, social policy, disarmament, peace, and human security. In 2001, she was appointed by the Minister of Science and Technology to lead the Task Team to Draft the National Policy on Indigenous Knowledge Systems (now under full implementation), and redraft the Legislation on the same. She has served as expert to the OAU, United Nations World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) and UNESCO She is currently the holder of the DST/NRF South African Research Chair in Development Education at UNISA.

5. http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/note.php?note_id=27105757402

Additional Reading

1. Perhaps the reader may find the articles Zakes Mda’s Cion at http://wp.me/ptAqt-60 worth their while to read.

21 December

©  Mmutle Arthur Kgokong 2010

To read the original version of this article, publish on 2 March 2009, for comparative purposes and tracing of ommisions, corrections and editions the reader may link at http://wp.me/puRfy-g

What does the rape incident that took place at Jules High School help us learn about our selves and our system? Here is the plot, as if by now you did not know: A couple of boys apparently doped-spiked a girl’s  drink and when she lost her wits, at least that is what we can imagine took place, they had their way with her, while some of their school mates watched on and others filmed the rape incident on their cell phones to create a clip that was to be retailed to other learners at that very school. And uploaded to the social network.

Now when the girl reported the matter to the school and subsequently to the police the school carelessly dismissed the girl as having invited the ordeal to her self because of her loose behavior. Now the matter will be thrown out of court for lack of evidence. Let us let logic bow in, if there was no evidence to support the rape allegations, the matter would not have found its way into national consciousness. The rape victim is the evidence, she ought to have been checked. Should she have not have consented to the act of what was done to her the evidence would be signs of forced penetration. Was she checked for such signs?

As it is the case has been cascaded to statutory rape due to the fact the peoples involved are minors. What about their parents? Have the parents distanced themselves from the actions of their children? Shouldn’t they offer pardon to the violated or do they perhaps think their children are entitled to do what they have done or that the girl (and other girls who have been raped at Jules) deserves to be violated sexually? And then there is the head master, what kind of space does he or she find themselves in? After all the events at hand are unfolding in their turf! There is a saying that we all know very well and that is universal to all evolved beings which says – children are a reflection of their guardians or parents. You could blame the girl for getting drunk or high and opening her herself up to sexual abuse or that she knew what she was doing and that she gave consent for her body to participated in the sexual ogre. But the fact still remains that the children belong to households. Given the fact that the school is a private school, we may assume that the children come from well off families. But isn’t well off connoted to the so called high culture in any society? The bourgeois?

For those who earn an honest living their lives gravitates between two polarities, home and work. Actually one’s home is like a sophisticated hostel; we go there to squeeze our spouses lovingly, monitor our children upbringing,  eat and sleep and eat and go back to work. For school learners life gravitates between home and the school from where they are getting their education. How they are nurtured at home determines how they will behave when they get into the school world and later into the world in general. Since the world that they engaged in on a daily basis is that of the school, where they will meet peers, it is of out-most importance how they are brought up at home. Their home is a rock despite the little of time their may have to spent with their parents.

At school depending on whether the educators who are responsible for giving the children education have the love for their very own children the child’s guidance continues on another level, that of professionalism, discipline, respect and integrity and many other positive qualities that the child will need in order to be a well rounded human being.

The rape situation at Jules High School and many other schools throws into stark relief our carelessness from our households to those deemed responsible for our children intellectual coaching, the educators. The failure of the law and other organizations or institutes positioned in our society to deal with issues of human rights violations and good conduct in order to instill morality demonstrates that the rot is highly contagious since we are failing to deal with cases diligently to set out examples of what is not permissible in our society. The worst case scenario will be an incident in the near future where a married woman is raped by her male colleagues in their office blog or conversely, a man gets raped while his other colleagues watch and film the incident to post the entire thing on the social network. And no law prevails over the matter. Then doomsday would’ve arrived.

20 November

© Mmutle Arthur Kgokong 2010

This fear that is supposedly creeping back into our society, one will agree, is a demonstration of a problem that has remain latent and dormant all throughout the World Cup. One should find it interesting that during the matches none of the visitors were threaten in any way. There were a few mishaps here and there, the media has reported, but one should not fail to acknowledge the efforts and delivery of SAFA, the LOC, FIFA as well as countless of man and women who, in the midst of criticism and uncertainty have delivered a superb tournament to us and the rest of the world.

Even I my self have to admit that I never thought that our country would be able to host the cup. Yes that is a tone of self confession right there. But I am happy today to ride (I did not mean write) these words and proclaim – South Africa is a great country. There is goodness in us. There are countless capabilities inherent in us, we are a gifted nation.

The cynic perspective that pervade my pen about a year ago has been solely based on unresolved issues that were there in our country before the commencement of the tournament and that remain to be there to this day. As for whether it was necessary to host the tournament I will like to point out that yes – it was necessary. For infrastructure development that we saw happening in terms of the stadia that we have inherited, the influx of tourism that took place and the projected tourism coming away in the future. Most importantly there is a heightened effect that one picks up today as the dust clear for the hype that took place, that South Africans can be united.

Now in the face of our latent hate for the ‘other’, to be specific for our African brothers and sisters who have come to our country due to numerous reasons, high ranking amongst them war and its biggest allies economic collapse, we bare our fangs for the sucking.

Are we so monstrous? The remaining part of this year ought to prove this to us, but more importantly to the world. If we have been hospitable to the sojourners who were here during the tournament how hard it is to be accommodative to those who have been denied by matters beyond their control a democratic state like ours?

Should we fail to transcend this latent hate of ours and explode to what we saw in 2008 we would prove one thing to the world, that we are backward and barbaric, that we are not peace loving people. Most importantly we will prove our very nature to our selves. That we are unsure of what we represent.

‘Look at them, such a shame, a people with a beautiful country and capability to host international events but a people who have made pact with evil itself’

will be the world mantra when it comes to South Africa. Let us stop it. Let us preempt hate thought. It is possible. A unified thought wave is easily achievable. Remember 11 June? Remember the blowing of the whistle when the Rainbow Warriors battled it out with Mexico? A nation was united, a continent was in harmony and a world applauded us following the grant opening. Remember when the boys fell in Tshwane, the mixed feelings? But then remember the rising of the Black Stars and how we united and rallied as a continent behind them? Why is it difficult to acknowledge this love for our selves, for Africans? We did it for the world it is time that we do it for our selves, for Africa – let us have one consciousness and dispel self hate. You may point out economic competition between us and foreign nationals, I would say to you that you have not even began to formulate an African solution if this is your thought pattern.

14 July

© Mmutle Arthur Kgokong 2010

We witnessed Bafana Bafana putting out a marvelous performance at the opening match with the Mexicans, though equaled by the end of the 90 minutes but exiting that game with our faith in them restored. South Africans yes our cynicism (confirmed) mingled with unfathomable hope (crushed) were thumped into oblivion when Uruguayans ripped the Mzanzians’ boys apart. But the exiting  game with France was played with a helluva gusto to affirm the possibilities of Africa’s future in sportsmanship as far as Soccer is concerned more than the Rainbow Warriors’ staying on in the battle field.

However out of these ashes of our Warriors the Black Stars rose and our nation, Africans’ hope were continentally revived and we were reminded that Africa still had its presence in the tournament. We have seen Ghana, the Black Star rise from the knockouts to be Africa’s hope. Nkruma’s Ghana makes history in the African century by reaching the quarter final on home soil on Madiba’s New South Africa. Ghana you have rose to this pinnacle to revive the spirits for South Africa, Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire and Nigeria; for holla Africans, those at home and abroad.

It does not matter whether the Ba-Ghana wins over Uruguay, they, as the embodiment of Africa’s hope, have proceeded into the quarter finals. Neigh we won’t complain if they slay the Uruguayans anyway for soccer is a battle ground for wits, tact and physical prowess as well as emotions. It is a kind of warfare if you will. Some of us who have always thought it crazy for men to chase a ball for ninety minutes or so have also come to suppose that it is a game of chance, a calculated chance. So now Africans let us rally behind the black star tonight, let us keep our positive radar on our brethren, let our attentiveness hold the African force over Soccer City – the next battle ground. Africa Unite, One Consciousness.

Winter

2 July © Mmutle Arthur Kgokong 2010

Today South Africa is part of the global village in terms of its participation in Trade, Sport and Arts and Culture. It posses a proper infrastructure in terms of access to world knowledge and it is a contributor as well. On other levels of media it is importing as well as exporting its own content to the rest of the world. It is wired. It is a player in Mass media domain. However, like the so called developed world, it faces challenges of economic development. It also posses a surplus of educated young people both black and white but unfortunately unemployment is a major challenge.

What was entrenched at the demise of separate development (Apartness) – the Rainbow Nation, sought to unite the country into a homogeneous entity. Unfortunately today the Ideology of the Rainbow Nation finds it self wrapped by the disparities that continue to exist between black and white South Africans. It is a Now against which we have witnessed an emerging black-geoisie (neo-bourgeoisie) marred by a selfish attitude towards the ruled or lower class. There has not emerged a culture of plowing back into the society from those who have conquered poverty. There is a lack of intra- and inter- communications as far as social commitment to the country is concerned.

In its true original sense, the Rainbow Nation, when it was engineered and entrenched post-apartheid it was an attempt to rally towards a united South Africa, when the world’s gaze dreaded a reversal of  racial separateness – which could’ve been a social catastrophe. It was put in place as a unifying modal, and it worked in purging dis-harmonic tendencies as far as race is concerned but for a short period as the various demagogues preempted further evolution of it as an ideology.

Today its euphoria seems short-lived when one take a closer look at our society. Why has there been a decline in the zest of the Rainbow Nation Ideology witnessed a decade or so ago? In order to begin to construct an answer as to what went wrong as far as the social unrest that we see today taking place in our country are concerned we will have to dissect the idea of the Rainbow Nation within the paradigm of Ideology itself.

Let us acknowledge firstly that the Rainbow Nation is an Ideology. Our short democratic rule proves that it is a viable Ideology. Unfortunately like any other Ideology in the face of lack of ideals it has suffered an anomaly of a shortage of discourse. As our country evolved into a democratic country  post ’94 the Idea of a Rainbow Nation was not continuously molded in order for it to continue to define and express the Identity of our changing society.

The point of opportunity is inherent in the political domain in that in any society political affinity, like culture itself, shapes the prism through which we perceive the world and interact with the other members of the society concerned. If the present leaders in toto will like to retain the decorum of the country that transcended separation – they themselves should see it compelling to act in a unifying manner towards the present Center of Power and other oppositional parties. One can understand that they all have different policies and agendas as far as the direction the country should be taking is concerned.

But what is it that is unifying South Africans today and what is dividing them? Unemployment with its twin Illiteracy strikes an arrow of disunity in our country. Unfortunately on the level of unity nothing substantial is visible. In 2010 the FIFA Soccer World Cup will be a short unifying element, like Rugby did previously, and then comes the aftermath, however pre its staging the high pricing of tickets have demonstrated the location of South Africans as far as economy is concerned, inequality continues to exist. Although it was later resolved but not entirely. An anomaly in our structures was also  reflected by the imbalances of schedule of artists to perform at the opening concert of the tournament has demonstrate that the various Ideological State Apparatuses involved in the Arts and Sports did not properly consult with all relevent stake holders as the basis on the planning of the concert. It took protest from CWUSA (Creative Workers Union of South Africa) to rethink the eve of FIFA 2010 Soccer World Cup concert. Protest is the lingo franca of dialogue in our country.

A unified South Africa is possible when the fundamentalist attitudes of those in the power struggle start acknowledging that their actions inevitably fetter down to the ruled. That there should be a viable two-way communication between the ruled and the rulers. In any social sphere the vehicle of communication is change for the better not for the worse.  

24 May

© Mmutle Arthur Kgokong 2010

The point of contact between our selves and those that surrounds us; between our selves and those who holds the keys to our successes, towards the successes that we are hungry for lies in communication which has as its substratum dialogue not with monologue as it is with the intra-communication inherent in the self before it ventures outside itself to engage with other beings in the social-sphere. It is dialogue that is a lack between the Center of Power and the Far Left in a country that is divided politically. Everybody has an idea of the course of direction that is suppose to be taken in defining progress however selfishly they withhold their ideas from other key players in the journey. This can be the Center not being compliant or the Far Right not yielding to the Center of Power malicious wishing for it to fail or vis-à-vis the Center seeking to eradicate oppositional power as an attempt to foster blind rule which is unimaginable in the face of a lack of opposition. How else will it be able to have a four dimensional rule if no one opposes what it stands for or its procedures of governance? A hero needs a villain to be a hero.

By suggesting that there should be an engagement of dialogue the present meditation inserts us within the paradigm of discourse. Only through an extended ongoing discussion can the state of affairs of a country be adequately defined. This can have positive results in the development of that country in that an earlier objective defined as positive to the development of that country can be retained and pursued or a new objective identified and pursued diligently. In the context of the Republic of South Africa this is the ideal of the Rainbow Nation.

Behind the backdrop of social unrests Soothsayers have proclaimed doom for Freedom Day 2010. Like the ageless sun it did come but not with doom attached to it as a form of racial purification that all have feared for. It was a quite day except for toned-down celebration of the day itself across the Republic. It was a cloudy rainy day in Gauteng and elsewhere.

By some terrible turn of events if one’s skull had been knocked in by a fatal blow and by some ounce of luck one managed to be revived they would have experienced that day (15 years of freedom) as though it was another day. Something was amiss.

But in any case surreally one would’ve gotten a very bad gut feeling that something was wrong with the unfolding narrative anyway despite prevalent calm. For the hype that we saw fifteen years ago was missing. It had trickled off. Contradictorily you will pick up via the telly-news or print-news the disgruntled Center of Power’s attempts to resuscitate and reassert the importance of 27 April 1994 at the Uni-B and while on the other side of the Galaxy the Oppositional Trio-Forces (OTF) merged at Con-Hill to highlight the Center of Power’s undermining of the very freedom Freedom Day is about. Is this dialogue in situ? No.

It is sad that the OTF should unite in order to discredit the Center of Power’s failings. This undoubtedly throws into stark relief the fact that the far right, like the ultra right that sought revenge after  E Terry B’s death, is not ready to work jointly in the status quo to improve our Nation – The Rainbow. In fact one can go a step beyond and proclaim that the OTF seeks the chair that the present Center of Power occupies for its own selfish motives. One then wonders whether a coalition which has as its basis malice and anger and a few cards on the table can survive the honeymoon should victory be attained. The Shikota realm should sound a warning bell towards that direction. The only ideology which marries oppositional forces in our country is that of pointing the wrong things.

One may ask why the OTF chose 27 April to clasp hands in solidarity against the present demagogue. Cristal clear it is that such an act is committed to discredit the very Center of Power itself, to discredit 1994 as our bar of the highest form of liberation thus pushing and thumbing further asunder liberation in the Republic into the far flung distance. Outright Liberation did take place sixteen years ago. Like the rest of the world we are now battling with economic liberation which is very intimately tied with job security, nuanced it very much linked with the education system.

As already said elsewhere, direct influence, correcting and alleviation of our variant social tangible infrastructures by the opposition will crack open wide the door of possible choices come the next poll. Otherwise the opposition continues to draw a blank card to the Mzanzians. We have surely looked at the card for so long that we know what was there before it faded into insignificance. We are squinting for an eye freshener. Amongst the OTF who has a third eye to see this?

But let us go back above. It is through dialogue that the political arena can erect a realm that can begin to chart a new course towards hope not anarchy. At the basis of dialogue is communication: A simple environment where A says (i) to B who in turn says (ii) to A and a discussion ensues as A in turn responds saying eye eye eye or eye vee to B. In such a state an equilibrium calibrated system of engagement where solutions officiate occupies space. When this is in place dialogue then emerges.

At the elevated level of dialogue, above it that is, as it ensues, we reach discourse/s: A deliberation on issues of importance and mundane in order to throw light on what must happen to forecast and generate progress. Now as parties (A, B, C, K, etc…etc…) involved in the communication process, disagree/agreeing and setting ways in place of moving forward and operate; depending on what is it that is at stake a condition sets in at this level of communication and we begin to see a fabrication of an entity that manipulates social spheres known as Ideology. A somewhat prismatic layer through which the world can be experience and known.

Now I shall conclude.

It is through communication that results in dialogue which in turn ushers us at the doorstep of discourse wherein we shall have an engagement with the resultant Ideologies that can be specific to the condition of the state in question. Ours already exists – it is the Rainbow Nation Ideology which was hard earned through the discourse of the New South Africa pre 1994 and set in place on 27 April 1994. Today more than ever this Ideology needs revitalization.

19 May 2010

© Mmutle Arthur Kgokong 2010

Dialogue, undoubtedly, it is the key towards molding our entity as a society, as a nation into a working homogenous unit that can continue to lead the way for nations struggling with plurality in the continent and abroad. Surely if our Nation has been able to move beyond Freedom Day 1994 without disintegrating into blood shed and anarchy; then ours is a nation that can hold ground in the present circumstances: where it seems as if culture and skin colour are the deciding principles as far as who governs is concerned. Today we either acknowledge that it does not work or like a flock of sheep face the guillotine of a bleak destiny in a last bluh. The colours of the rainbow can coexist within the same space. In selling their ideals, the rainbow politician needs to be more creative as time goes by.

We cannot ignore the begging question that beckons us to address the locale of possibilities of making our nation work. I am of a stance that the moment we realize that the health of our politics is situated beyond the tribe concept. It rests inside dialogue itself between all constituencies where the needs of the society are addressed without dirty games being played out between those in power and those aspiring to acquire power. Otherwise all according to hue must acquire a piece of land within the republic and rule themselves as they see it fit; this, by all accounts, will render for us a giant backward steps by several dark centuries. In the present coexistence is the realm for all who want South Africa to work.

27 April

© Mmutle Arthur Kgokong 2010

‘Hardly’ said I optimistically despite the haggard look he flashed at me. I pressed on and said that in the face of the present situation it all rests on how we South Africans, both black and white, respond to the racial crises that is being played out before us. It is through a collective work-harmony why we have gotten so far in our democratic rule. Why then should the democratic mindset entrenched a decade and a half ago be bowed out and brushed aside while the serpent of tyranny assume rule through political polarization? Surely the Centre of power is not composed of misers moping around while so much security in our Republic is at stake. The haggard look contorting my friend’s face was accentuated by threats which are presently being thrown around through Malema’s Facebook account towards the Afrikaner society in our country and they in turn responding vehemently at the threats with similar racial gumption. As I tried to quelled the worries of my friend a similar event that occurred in cyberspace last year cropped up in my mind.

About a year ago, towards our national election date, when Motlanthe was caretakering our nation and JZ had been resuscitated from a political wilderness there were several disheartening e-mails that did the rounds amongst the working class, who spent their days at work hooked to a computer. They were perpetual e-mails that did the rounds almost everyday. Worse when the country inched closer towards the general elction: This e-mail warned the recipients that should they vote for the same political party again things were bound not to improve but continue to disintegrate into decadence and mayhem. The negative rhetoric of this chain reaction e-mail (http://wp.me/puRfy-u) was reinforced by photos of African countries that, having gained their independence, had declined into failed states in terms of economy and physical infrastructure.

An assessment of this e-mail, which acted decisively like a spam; reinforced by images of particular sites of several African states before democratic rule, which were beautiful and images of similar sites after democracy showing the same sites in dilapidated states following majority self-rule alluded with perfect clarity of an existing section in South African society which was cold to the ensuing democratic rule and had made it their home work to discredit it via cyberspace. In the wake of the election week there was now an additional email that showed parts of the City of Johannesburg which have turned into squalor ‘due to neglect and service delivery’ the e-mail claimed. One will never be sure what the recipients of these negative communication made of those e-mails. The conspirators never won their war. Perhaps they may have instilled some hint of doubt in some of us. But the overall plan did not work. Come Election Day people, many of them young, turned in large numbers at the polling stations to vote and the Center went through restoration.

Fast forward to almost a year later…here we are Facebookers, Twitterers and Youtubers we are encountering hate speech especially with reference to JM’s Facebook account, promising assault, rape and murder to the Afrikaner community glossed by the banned lyrics of the black liberation struggle song. Is it a hoax?

Assaults, maltreatment, rape and murders in South African farms either those of workers or farmers themselves is as real as daylight in daylight. These are atrocities of a silent war that has ensued way after the birth of the Rainbow Nirvana and had been in existence way before. Go through the work of Henry Nxumalo and you will trace just how far it goes.

Are the farms the last battleground metaphorically encapsulating the land question which in essence represent the actualization of capital control? What of or culture of brutality through child labour and low wage remuneration of the farm labourer?  Should we undertake the race summit as some commentators have suggested we ought to ride shod horse into this factor otherwise we are doing harm by imposing a delay into the true nature of the silent hate that is prevalent in us while we ought to talk Das Kapital

Anyone who is a true Republican, a South African, anyone who accepts the history of our nation; a true patriot who accepts racial injustices that black South Africans, and to a certain extend white South Africans have suffered through the Ideological State Apparatus of Apartheid. Anyone who fully acknowledges that we have not arrived yet at our destination but that we are still matching on steadily towards our goal of unity, will brush away the cobwebs of genocide as they dispel the schizophrenic tendencies fuelled by cyberspace and stop thinking that war is imminent when they realize that we have put hard work in our interrelations within our country to loose it all up. As I said at the opening of the present meditation it all depends on how we respond to internal and external stimuli that threatens harmony within our Republic. We do know that there are those who are opposed to democracy, pockets and pockets of resistance fueled by race hate; And more also at a higher level we know that the majority of South Africans are peace loving people henceforth the progress made thus far in our countries democracy. The fact of the matter is, we all have to contribute positively in our little way as much as possible.

Lastly any seasoned person who appreciates the effects of politics and is conscious of the political canvas in our country knows that they, our politics, are shaped by race. That very someone can also see that until race tensions are quelled through class parity, an answer to the negation of polarization in any society, every time we go to the polls we can never move beyond race when we make our mark because we are yet to be convinced that there is an alternative ruling realm. May the conspirators to our present situation be more constructive and creative for as our democracy matures so are its custodians – South Africans.

Autumn

12 April

© Mmutle Arthur Kgokong 2010

You can refer back to the Reitz Four (http://wp.me/puRfy-2S ) incident and the ensuing Farm Killings and shake your confused head as you try to ascertain whether this country, in the new dispensation of democracy, will ever work out or not. And then as you come to the darkness of the end of your thought trail, you will also see Steve Hofmeyr and AfriForum, in an effort to raise a concern about the volatile nature of the ‘Kill The Boer, Kill The Farmer’ anti apartness song being hauled-turned away from Luthuli House as if their concern was misplaced. Then it ought to grab your conscience, if there is any left, that this can not be the pinnacle of democracy.

The death of Terre’Blanche is playing out against an unpleasant political landscape under the ruling Center, which my last paragraph attempted to capture. Will the Center hold it all together when we begin to see retaliation from the far right? Any sane person should not underestimate the potentiality of revenge when a central figure to a movement is eliminated. Can the blood of TB, which is bound to revitalize AWB’s cause, be reconciled as just another tragic case in our vilolent society? Unfortunately this could proof difficult at a time whereby there has been a revival of a struggle song that, in the context of the New South Africa, promotes racial division and hatred.

Let us face a fact here. Should Terre’Blanch have died under a different setting, say a natural death, despite the dissatisfaction of AWB with the new dispensation, we wouldn’t be worried about innocent people’ lives which might be sacrificed should there be a retaliation from AWB’s arms constituency. The Center ought to think carefully in terms of its next move, definitely, now the world is really looking at South Africa – what is the next move? One thing for sure is that part of our society has been incensed by the death of Eugene Terre’Blanch despite his past deeds.

early autumn

4 April

© Mmutle Arthur Kgokong 2010