What do we say to the skeptics who say the time of Pan-Africanism has come and went when we say the time of Pan-Africanism has never been more dire and desperate than now? What do we say to them especially when the masses of poor folk in the ghettoes on the fringes of society and a failed state service delivery attack their own African brethren who they see as a threat when trying to get the top of the bucket where the order of the day is "every crab for himself, a better life for us all?" Is the average Azanian indifferent to Pan-Africanism?, and if so then why with service delivery so bad in some rural areas that they could be easily passed off as famine stricken? It was that great early Islamic leader Omar ben al-Khattab who lifted the punishment for a thief in the time of famine who showed what a benevolent government is. The same Omar who walked the streets of Medina, his capital, in disguise asking ordinary people what they thought of his government in an attempt to get a real feel for how he was living up to his title as leader of his people. The lesson is as relevant for today, it is not democracy or whatever other system of rule alone that will save our people but the ship of good institutions. Why else have so many monarchs (read: dictatorships today) survived till the last century when to date not a single democratic nation has abolished poverty fully? Chances are it was because of good institutions in that sultanate or kingdom. The ANC has failed to establish and maintain post-independence institutions that the most deserving of our people can have confidence in. This presents us with an opportunity to go back to the grassroots and establish these social and economic institutions. And here we have been found lacking too.
But why should we be discouraged and jump ship like the many of little faith for time immemorial have when the numbers our not in our favor? Since when is an idea noble and worthy to live, and if need be, die for only if the majority stand behind it? I say the struggle of Pan-Africanism must pick up its fallen pillar of spirituality. We must remind the masses that we are calling for a compassionate government. Not one that leaves out ordinary people from partaking in the food that is so abundant for all in this rich land like the ANC did recently in Kliptown at their Human Rights Day (whatever that is) celebration. Not only did they once again try to hijack the legacy of the PAC and the people of Sharpeville but they further desecrated on their own Freedom Charter, that dubious document of white liberalism, by shutting out the same people they set out to liberate in 1955. But that's another story for another day altogether as we have dealt with it sufficiently elsewhere and will continue to for as long as the bully of Luthuli House will not change his ways.
Remember the goal of the selfless Sobukwe was never to be president of Azania or the Republic of South Africa. No, it was firstly the overthrowal of the white minority government and then the exchange, in fact rather return, of land ownership for the benefit of all Africans i.e. anyone whose allegiance was to Africa first. We are not inspired by love of leadership. We need to remind ourselves of that first before we can take the noble message of one Africa united resisting invasion and a second colonial era as we see in countries in east Africa and on our own shores in the Western Cape where huge chunks of the land are sold to foreign nationals and companies from Israel, China and others. Bartering the land is not in our customs, as the BaSotho King Moshoeshoe once pointed out to the British settlers in his time. And indeed not in the customs of any of the people of southern Africa, whom i can speak confidently for being one of their sons myself. This is not some socialist idea we borrowed from China or Russia, no.
We inherited the same judiciary that enacted oppressive laws that made the system of Apartheid possible, the effect of which we all still feel on a social, economic and political level. But today when you ask that those same institutions enact laws that will reverse for good the aftershocks of the previous system, you are labeled a radical. It is not enough that we simply did away with the Land Act of such and such year and the Pass Laws of such and such year, we need the courts in this country to help us proactively reverse the damage of these previous unjust laws. In the words of Malcolm X, you don't attack a man for not being satisfied when you've stabbed him with a dagger in the back and you pull out a few inches and he demands that you pull all of it out. If this proposition has racial implications, or any other that will accelerate the true liberation of our nation, it is only because the socio-economic issues of this country and continent, nay the whole world have for the past few centuries been tied to race. We are not only here trying to pry our way out of the claws of the legacy of the Land Act but we are up against a system whose tentacles stem as far back as the Berlin Conference and have been allowed to grow stronger and stronger albeit in more subtle ways today. We are not against white people, we are against white supremacy. And for the simple fact that we have to still explain ourselves on that thus wasting precious time on this noble march to economic freedom is the precise reason Sobukwe believed there was no such thing as white liberalism and preferred not to entertain that group. No, there cannot be special guarantees for any section of the population if we are all united under the cry of Africa for Africans. Africans being anyone who owes their allegiance to Africa first. What is so radical about that? I personally as a Muslim hate to bring up race as much as those who hate to hear it being brought up hate hearing it. But to look at everyone who brings up the issue of race as an enemy is disingenuous for as long as economic privilege is so tightly tied to race. Utopian concepts like "willing buyer, willing seller" must be challenged with reason. Only a government staffed (or stuffed) with officials who have been cut a slice of white superiority can so stubbornly remain unwilling to change the status quo. We the sons and daughters of Azania cannot continue to be held ransom by foreign investor interest. Everytime you ask for serious change, Standard & Poor downgrades your credit rating, and patronizing pronouncements like, "South Africa risks losing its place as one of the few success stories in African democracy and fiscal discipline" are made. Quote, unquote "success story!" Our allegiance is with the people, black and white, not with multinational corporations in the West or the emerging East for that matter.
Lastly, personally I would join the chorus of those calling for nationalization if i had any faith that our current government would be an honest owner and distributor of the wealth of mines. But we are not in the business of quick-fix populist solutions meant to bolster personal cults thinly veiled as roadmaps to economic freedom in our lifetime and a better life for all and other slippery slick slogans.
We have been on the defensive for too long. It's time get back on the offensive and retake our rightful place as the pacesetters of true economic freedom in our lifetime.
What's the use of harping on about how we have the best constitution in the world? Best constitution, most badly implemented. Who calls us bitter has bitten us. Ask ubab' Amiri Baraka.
Malik Mahlangu
