In a few days, black consciousness adherents and some scholars will remind us, as they should, of the terrible and callous killing of Stephen Bantu Biko.
They will find quotes from his popular book, I Write What I Like, to show us how much we have not learnt from Biko’s timeless teachings. They will look at the current crop of politicians and how they lack principles, and then quote Biko: “It is better to die for an idea that will live, than to live for an idea than will die.” They will explain that we are fools for thinking society’s very complex challenges will be resolved by politicians without backbones, politicians without courage to do the right things for posterity because their preoccupation is how close they come to those who issue tenders.
These scholars will remind us of this important quote: “The most potent weapon of the oppressor is the mind of the oppressed.” They will use this to tell us that as long as the majority who are without work are satisfied with receiving R350 stipends for which they do no community service, our society is doomed. This is so because we are so distracted from the main economic issues we should be tackling. They will point out that we talk about the importance of the small business department, yet nobody talks about the pittance this important department is allocated to help small business. They will say the intention to help is communicated, except the help is withheld.
They will say stability in SA will always be a tenuous negotiation with the poor and that the past riots showed the world just how easy it can be to tip over the country from a stable democracy to a jungle of lawlessness. But the poor, for now, remain timid. Their minds remain a tool used by the economic lords of today to further consign them to poverty, giving them R350 to assuage their pain, further promising them jobs, but not resolving many of their struggles. They will remind us of the images we saw of black people looting malls in Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal, carrying sugar, beans or television screens and ask, where was black pride? They will remind us that Biko believed that at its heart, apartheid sought to make black people second class, a people ashamed of being themselves, and this is why he preached black pride. They may also quote him: “You are either alive and proud or you are dead. And when you are dead, you can’t care anyway.” Or perhaps this quote: “Merely by describing yourself as black you have started on a road towards emancipation, you have committed yourself to fight against all forces that seek to use your blackness as a stamp that marks you out as a subservient being.”
They will remind us that Biko believed that at its heart, apartheid sought to make black people second class, a people ashamed of being themselves and this is why he preached black pride.
And so, if there is something to learn from Biko, it will not be the shamelessness of looting and feeling the momentary pleasure of possessing ill-gotten goods. It will be to ask questions and demand accountability from our leaders on what is being done to improve the lot of those who were victims of apartheid rule and colonialism before it. Why should black people be content only with so-called job opportunities and the painfully slow construction of small houses? Why should a mere visit by water and sanitation minister Senzo Mchunu to Giyani bring smiles to the weary faces of people who have been forced to share water with animals for so many years after the dawn of democracy? What have all the other ministers before Mchunu, and Limpopo premier Chupu Mathabatha and his mayors, been doing to ensure the people of Giyani are not poster kids for lack of water? And why must the people of Giyani not think the new promises to resolve this long-running saga are not part of a scheme to again make them voting cattle, especially with municipal elections seven weeks away?
Forget Giyani. If you “commit yourself to fight against all forces that seek to use your blackness as a stamp that marks you out as a subservient being”, surely the reports issued by the auditor-general that show how funds - let me be specific, billions of rand - are wasted or not spent will result in many people standing up to ensure those who raise their hands to lead do just that.
Yet today, leadership is about what the youth call a “soft life”, an escape from poverty not connected to the need to fight against everything that makes black life remain as subservient as it was under apartheid.
The scholars who know Biko better will also quote other post-colonial scholars, pan Africanists and fellow travellers to make the point that if the lives of poor black people are to change, it is black people who must insist on being treated right. Being treated right is not about handouts and welfare programmes for the weak and infirm, even though necessary these may be, it is about setting up and running institutions that serve all with dignity. It is about ensuring the youth of Ditatsu, Seshego, Matatiele, Khayelitsha, Kuruman or Ivory Park are not made to pretend to be members of any political party to have access to life-changing opportunities.
The scholars will remind us that this “fight” against subservience is a fight we must all embrace because the more people we pull out of poverty, the stronger the economy, and a strong economy benefits us all.
All these scholars will be right in what they say about Biko and his great teachings. The sad thing is they will all go into hibernation at the end of September, only to emerge next year to bemoan the same things. That too is lip service to what Biko stood for. Being able to quote Biko is not the best way to remember him. May we remember his killing on September 12, yes, but may we also be him — 365 days in a year.
Would you like to comment on this article?
Sign up (it's quick and free) or sign in now.
Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.