The Rainbow Nation: The Neglected Discourse

Relationships have their nourishment entrenched in communication. Without communication, even with the self itself, from an individual perspective, there exists no growth. We can see that everyday when we wake up to tackle the world we are in constant communication with who we are and the goals we have set out for our selves. However even if we are fueled by self ambitions, but because by default we are social beings, we are compelled to establish relationships outside of our own personal spheres in order to achieve our personal goals; additionally those formed relationship need to be maintained and sustained over particular periods of time as bargaining chips in order that our multifarious selves, fueled by personal ambitions, succeed in getting towards the finishing lines of our individualistic goals.

A Rainbow in Crisis

I

Let us set the scene

In 1994 South Africa declared itself a united nation, a Rainbow nation following the first democratic election that saw all South Africans playing an inclusive role. It remained to be seen whether a nation that had been suppressed by an Ideology of separate development would be able to transcend the barriers entrenchedover half a century. In the same breath one should not lose sight of the master race mentality that the natives have been subjected to over the centuries following colonization. Through Madiba and Tutu South Africa was peacefully ushered into an era based on reconciliation, Ubuntu and One Nation Building as stepping stones to a new identity. In the long run jobs which were not accessible to black people were made accessible, Black people were now allowed to shop in the same environment as the white people. Affirmative action was erected to address inequalities of race representation as well as gender in-equalities in the work environment – the disable communities rights would also be addressed in the long run. A new chapter had truly opened for the black people and for all.

Akin to the collapse of the Berlin Wall at the dawn of the 90’s so had the wall that separated South Africans from the inevitable commingling with each other removed. Black and white people were now viewing each other from a close quarters perspective – as equal. And the nation gave birth to the new constitution which was inclusive of everyone’s rights. Now no matter what tribe or colour you were as long as you were South African, you were now seen as part of a fabric that was woven into what was to be venerated as the Rainbow Nation. The South African Soccer squad was hailed the Rainbow warriors, soon to be replaced by the name Bafanabafana and the Rugby team was named Amabokoboko after the name Springboks. A new era had arrived. Senyaka rejoiced with his hit ‘Apartheid law’ which congratulated Madiba’s triumphant victory at the toppling of Apartheid Ideology and Brenda Fassie’s banned classic ‘Black President’ could now be played without fear of persecution. South Africa had leaped into a new dimension and had leaped well, however most importantly South Africa had avoided an eye for an eye approached in dealing with previous atrocities subjected to those who were not in power in the past.

II

Let us survey…

The recent inhuman treatment to the black staff of the Free State University white students foregrounds the fragility of the Rainbow Nation as a construct. The event clearly shows that while some of us have moved into a new era, there remain pockets and pockets of resistance to the Rainbow Nation Ideal. What is acutely dangerous is that this resistance continues to thrive despite talk of apartheid in the past tense. The case of the white men urinating into cooked meat and feeding it to the cleaning staff of the university is a barbaric act that hits home as far as how some South Africans in this nation are still being brought up with the same hate education that the martyrs that form the very foundation of the Rainbow Nation fell down fighting against. I am talking about the Apartheid Ideology here.

Now when the University Vice Chancellor, a man of the highest education standing, pardons the men who have committed an act sharply tied to the Apartheid Ideology; pardons men who have not even uttered an apology to their victims and our Nation, one get a sense that the Rainbow Nation is a Utopian Ideal to which we are still marching but not realized. The Rainbow Nation is a double sided construct that needs to be evaluated thoroughly in order for all of us to be on the same page, least we go to war in the not so distant future, permit me to add, a war that was avoided post ’94. In order to make my meditation clearer to you I shall summon an illustration in an attempt to sanction your empathy to the victims and why not use you as an example?

…about two years ago you were a first year student in a University in Tshwane, this is your third year. Originally you hail from the Free State and ironically your mother works at the University of the Free State (they never addmitted you to study there). One evening while having your supper, watching the news, a hazy video is shown. The video shows five cleaning staff members at the University of the Free State being ill treated by four white male students; the women and man and are forced to eat meat which has been urinated on. The men claim that they are initiating them. You catch a sight of one of the women, for a while you can swear it is your mother; you inch forward in your seat, baffled. When the amateur camera makes a close up, beyond doubt you realize that it is indeed your mother who is victimized. You reach for your cell phone and call her. She picks up. Is it true, is it really you who those terrible men victimized. She sobs on the other side of the line as she affirms to you that she and the others were powerless. they had no choice but to do as they were told, they were in the grips of fear. She breaks into a cry and you console her that it is now on the news, that the world knows about it, that the government knows about it, that the Human Rights Commission knows about it, that the country has put together a constitution which protects all South Africans. You promise to call her again and you reluctantly hang up. Not quite convinced that something could be done, knowing very well the type of institution your mother works for, that it has resisted change.

Two years later after much deliberation the University pardons the men who forced your mother and her colleagues to eat urinated meat crawling on all fours. The spirit of reconciliation is used as the reason for pardoning these terrible men by the university in the person of JJ the vice chancellor. When JJ is questioned by the nation as to why should the men be pardoned after they have shamed the nation he argues that in the face of all the wrong doings that are committed by high profiled South Africans, and they get away with it, the case of the four men is not that different, why should they deserve a harsh punishment? The nation consoles itself that at least the men will appear at the court of law. JJ goes into silence, hoping that the court of law will not give the men a harsh punishment. The rest is history. To date the men have not received punishment. You wait, the Nation wait.

III

Demystify

The Rainbow Nation as an Ideal is in dire state and this is a simple matter to acknowledge. You can see it all around you. When you walk into a mall, at work, at school, etcetera, etcetera, etc. Some South Africans have not bought into the Rainbow Nation as an ideal or specifically speaking as an Ideology. Henceforth the barbaric atrocities based on racism that have continue to occur unto this day. It takes will power to hurt someone who has not harmed you in any way. It takes cultivated hate to hurt an innocent person. At the foundation of your will power there is also points of references and essential education that you are supposedly have gathered from the community that gave birth to you, starting with your parents and exploding from them into the immediate family and then the community at large (school and churches are located between your family and the community at large). We are talking about enculturation here. For much of your behavior is shaped by your social environment. The Reitz Four are evidence of the existence of a lethal society that exists in South Africa. A very dangerous organization that poses a threat to South Africa’s Ideal – the Rainbow Nation. They do not care about reconciliation, for them Black will never be equal to White! Let us be realistic, as much as we may argue that black people in South Africa are in control of the government, economically speaking they are not. Any Ideology for it to be properly entrenched it needs an economic base which can erect a superstructure to uphold it. Who has reconciled with who and who has the money in South Africa?

In a war against any Ideology one can uphold Ideals related to their Ideology as long as they can sustain them. The Ideals are sustained by economic privileges either acquired through descent or erected through wealth accumulation. We do not have to interrogate the methods of wealth accumulation here. The aim of this assertion is to tie and equate Ideals to economic wellbeing of a society. The resistance to bow to the Ideal of the Rainbow Nation is sharply tied to an Ideology that is nourished by an economic base which is not in the hands of Black South Africans otherwise the Reitz Four racist situation would not occur. The Rainbow Nation apropos the Reitz Four’s barbaric inhuman assault at the University of the Free State is as fragile as a myth. As an Ideology, the Rainbow Nation, post the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) should’ve have been gradually evolved and adapted in making it a continuous defense mechanism to racist’s debris of apartheid. That way, in resolving crimes to humanity, consultation and punishment will be meted out accordingly so that generations to come can come to appreciate and protect the Ideology of the Rainbow Nation itself. Justice for all will exist.

To read the afterword link to:

http://horizon7621.blogspot.com/2009/11/after-words-and-afterthoughts-rainbow.html

04 October,

Spring

© Mmutle Arthur Kgokong 2009

The Chain Reaction E-Mail

One thing that I have accepted as far as the World Wide Web is concerned is that it is efficient in spreading a message across distances, cultures and creed. Actually the whole phenomenon of mass communication is an efficient tool in spreading and assimilating ideas into the minds of the public especially if one wants to achieve a certain effect. We see it everyday with advertising and message coupling in sms communication services.

There have been two terrible e-mails with attachments doing the rounds that I have received which I have found not palatable. In fact I found them despicable. The first e-mail entitled

‘Remember to Vote’

claimed to show images of a hotel and a resort swimming pool in Beira, Mozambique in 1975 as well as another set of the same location showing the facilities in 2007 in dilapidated states. This second set of images, I must admit, blow a hard punch on one due to the harsh state of the facilities. Then there are the words:

‘Welcome to Independent Africa! The idea of democracy!!!!’ – accompanying the e-mail.

I have tried to write the words verbatim to emphasize the textual effect of this e-mail. My first reaction was that perhaps this e-mail, which was forwarded to me by a colleague, was part of a chain reaction e-mail that was doing the rounds to get an idea across. Most of us are well aware of forwarded emails; they range from humor to obscenity!
There has been such e-mails that I have received from colleagues in the past and I must say most of them were positive. For instance there have been e-mails about lost children with attachments of the photos of the children which is helpful in speeding the process of finding the little ones and reuniting them with their respective families. i have also received e-mails encouraging positive thinking to the recipients .

Now comes this terrible e-mail i have hiherto referred to and while I was digesting it there came another one and this time the architects of this sinister plot had outdone themselves; they had methodically bundle an array of photos together; these photos were showing buildings in Johannesburg which were in neglegence. This second e-mail was entitled:

‘The Death of Johannesburg’ in the new South Africa.

And it had the message

‘Do not forget Pretoria!!!!’

‘Very very Sad’

For emphasis the latter words had a sad round face inserted after the word ‘sad’. Due to space and the respect that I hold for my country, country men and women I shall not include the photos here, otherwise I shall be playing into whoever it is’s hand.
The point I am trying to make here is that there is a sinister force at work to discourage the new positive thinking in our country, yes go on you may call it New South Africa. And what it means exactly it means a break away from a segregated state where people could not mix into an inclusive state as far as race and culture are concerned. What it means it means an undivided country, furthermore what it means it means solidarity to our country despite the fact of who is pulling the reins. Finally what it means it means countrymen and countrywomen ready to work together to make South Africa a better country – not to work against it. The two e-mails, I hope more are not forth coming still, they are exhausting to look at. They are despicable!

When one start to really think deeper about these images one start to have an idea that they are part of a negative plot to discourage people from believing in the current government; actually I was not blunt enough – the images are part of a plan to argue that Africans cannot govern themselves! That democracy in the hands of Africans is not democracy; rather it is a misused tool to destroy the country through recklessness and plunder. I strongly believe that to be South African or an African in our time has nothing to do with colour, we have passed that stage, it has everything to do with accepting Africa’s past; engaging assertively with the present and looking forward into the future with an attitude to make Africa a better place to live in.

Let us look at the situation in Johannesburg in terms of deterioration. Why is the place deteriorated? Why will Pretoria deteriorate? (Remember this was the fore-grounded fear in the e-mails).  Ralf Zimmerman’s film Jerusalem (2008) has answered this question; The owners of most of the suburban areas move out once black people move in; when they move some of them lease their property; will the tenant look after the place with the care and dignity of the owner?  My dear reader by implication i do not mean black people are careless, carelessness know no culture nor colour. It depends on one’s upbringing. The desertion of certain areas/suburbs by the the bourgeoisie in our country due to the influxs of other cultural groups is a clear indication of separation that still exists and we must not think that it is white people only who behave this way – the emergent black bourgeoisie also behave likewise in their zeal for exclusiveness!

If people care about a place they need to remain in that area regardless of the demographic changes that take place as some people move out and relocate because of job offers elsewhere and new people move in.

If the love and a feeling of camaraderie persist as new people come in they are bound to pick it up that those who have been settling in that area before them are proud of their community/district. Yes if people can just be communal and work together as well as live together we will all arrive into the New South Africa; not all of us are there yet henceforth the despicable e-mails.

In the light of this, then the terrible e-mails that I am preoccupied with these days illustrate a neglect not on the part of the government alone but also a neglect of those people who say they care about the City of Johannesburg.  What are they themselves doing to bring change? This is a symptom of what we have been witnessing with people threatening to move elsewhere and also really do moving out of the country to Australia and other parts of the world simply because they are not happy with who is in charge here. I think a real South African will stay on and will try and contribute to the betterment of this country in the smallest way possible. They will put up with the situation and work out a plan to change it.

Having said this, whoever it is who is circulating the terrible e-mails should try and think constructively and positively about the image of this country because ‘we make it what it is, not the political parties ‘ – we are the ones who fuel the life of the political parties in the first place anyway by believing in them and embracing their ideologies. I challenge who ever it is who think negatively about our country to stop and do their bit to uplift it regardless of political loyalty. You can start by offering solutions counter to the bad things that you see; even just thinking of ways to improve the situation will do.  This is the challenge i pose to you; are you game?

16 April

2009 © mmutle arthur kgokong