Protesting ourselves into destruction . . .

I remember the days of the struggle with pride and fondly for that matter. It is quite satisfying that feeling of "come get me here I stand" that "detention or death - victory is certain" chant as we pounded our chest and stomped our feet. The most effective of the protests were always the ones that were dignified, calm and resolute. These are the marches that were led by strict and caring leadership. Remember the mass democratic movement march to the Strand to reclaim the whites only beaches? Desmond Tutu, among other leaders was there in his purple dress, on the beach - go figure. Protest on that day was constituted by people spreading towels on the beach, lying down to catch a tan, playing beach volleyball, walking or otherwise getting up to all sorts of things normal folk gets up to on the beach. There was no confrontation with the white folk who were there on the beach, there was an air of peace and merriment - until the police arrived that is. Even then, the protest ended peacefully as peaceful can be those good old days.

These days we protest to destroy, not as in the old days to register our grievances or demands. Please do not get me wrong, the good old days had their fair share of destructive protest. Take the "brave" actions of the people of Khutsong, a township on the outskirts of Carletonville, some 50 kilometres west of Johannesburg. Their protest is constituted by destruction of fellow residents property and of the commonly owned property such as roads and other amenities. Whether protest is the appropriate response given their situation is a question I would love to get an answer to - it is akin to a strike by teachers as a response to their remuneration and conditions of service issues (more about the teachers claiming to be workers, in the Marxian sense, in the future).

The latest I heard from one of the leaders of the people of Khutsong was that their lawyers were preparing papers for an application to court with the view of stopping their incorporation into the North-West province. According to the residents of Khutsong, being part of the North-West province would mean poor service delivery, continued poverty, unemployment and generally a worse life for all, in Khutsong that is. I have not come accross any information that would allow a comparison of service delivery by the Gauteng province to the people Khutsong and, service delivery by the North-West to the people of any nearby North-West town. There are however some report cards and all manner of statistics that indicates performances or lack thereof among various provincial government departments and local governments. The kindest conclusion one can reach regarding local government is that the performance of all of them could get better. There are all manner of problems regarding township governance, service delivery and development generally. At a certain level most of these cannot be helped due to capacity issues and the legacy townships as an urban planning strategy come with.

By now you realise and would concede that we have problems and that we need solutions and we need solutions fast - but burning the mayors house? The mayor of Khutsong has a proud history of the struggle and protest himself, he surely has had cause to reflect on that history lately. Even in my youth and so-called struggle days, when my comrades accused me and many others of being spies for the "system" - I could never understand how the burning the local library (the only one) and the local clinic (the only one) was ever going to make the authorities sit up and listen. I am swimming against historic tide here because somehow the authorities seem to have come to their senses somehow. We have committed some attrocities against our own to get here; or some attrocities were perpetrated by us against our own on the way here. Some people may believe that it is this violence, these attrocities committed against ourselves and our own that got us here, rather than the disciplined marches and peaceful protests. Yes, we have history, we have problems but for heaven's sake we now have children and we need to leave them something!

We have the right to protest, we have the right to freedom of expression and to the promotion of our views. We have the right to engage in social and political debate about matter that affects our lives, the right to refuse to be incorporated into the North-West. Most importantly, we have a duty to allow those who wish not to be part of the protest to bloody well go on about their business without the risk of loss of life or limb. The government have a job of running this country, the courts are there to watch that it is done right. The people of Khutsong say they have made application to court seeking relief, asking for help; in the meantime they will destroy Khutsong and most importantly, the lives of its residents, all in the name of protest. They are not the only ones on this bandwagon, and as with that real real life drama - "the band plays on", people die, lives are destroyed, legacies decimated - all in the name of protest. Protest that may be coming to your neighbourhood too - unless we find another way that is.

Welcome to Afro-I-Can

There is enough media around that speaks to the failures of Africa and Africans. This seeks to be a little corner that speaks to and about the triumphs. In the world that I hope for, it would not be necessary to start with some conceptual framework and glossary of terms. In that world, people would read with honesty and open minds - no agendas, hidden or otherwise. While we wait for that world let us agree on some terms and the meaning we would like to attribute to them in this space (this is not compulsory though), this will primarily be the meaning I have in mind when I use these terms.

An African is a reference to a person who lives in Africa and accepts the political rule by the majority, it is not meant to be anything but denotative. This meaning of the term African is borrowed from the writings and teachings of one Robert Mangaliso Sobukwe (more about him later).

This space does not set out to counter or oppose other media (of any kind) or contributions that may be made on this space, that speaks to and of African failure. This space hopes to be a forum for open debate on matters ranging from xenophobia to the question of the united states of Africa (hopefully primarily by African including the diaspora). In moving this contribution forward I ask that we look back to the 20 years between the 60's and 80's. I ask that we specifically look towards the southern most country of the continent during this 20 year period.

This is the time in history and a place on the continent where had we been alive and old enough we would have come accross Robert Mangaliso Sobukwe. I wish to start with this giant of a man for a variety of reasons chief of which being his gradual fading from the South African contemporary history. There are various publications that one could get in order to read about Prof, as he was reportedly fondly referred to by his friends. The most current of the publications that I would recomend is titled "How can man die better - the life of Robert Sobukwe" a book by Benjamin Pogrund. When Sobukwe passed on I was only 10 years old so I do not pretend to speak with any authority of his life and work.

I invite contributions from those who knew the man or of the man in order to preserve this legacy. It is the legacy similar to that of Patrice Lumumba (more about him in the future).

In brief: Robert Mangaliso Sobukwe was the founder member and President of the Pan Africanist Congress (PAC), one of many liberation organisations during the struggle of South Africans against apartheid and all that it stood for. A lot can be said about the break away from the African National Congress by what became the PAC and I hope this debate will be taken forward on this space. I would however wish to share my thoughts, for what they are worth, on one of the life altering dates of Sobukwe's life and indeed of South Africans - 21 March 1960. On this day members of the PAC and members of the community of Sharpeville (various actions in other townships also took place) and surrounding areas went to the Sharpeville police station to hand themselves over to be arrested. A little bit of context may be useful at this point I believe. Sharpeville is a township (equivalent of a ghetto) on the outskirts of Vereeniging, a town along the banks of the Vaal river some 40 minutes (give or take) south of Johannesburg. 1960 was around the time when the apartheid government heightened repression and was more brutal than before in dealing with protests, which protests were also on the increase. It was also a time in the history of South Africa that black people (men more than women, cause women were not even allowed in the urban areas except in small numbers), were forced to carry what was then referred to as a pass or reference book. This was a crude identity document which among others would be endorsed to allow the bearer to be in a particular magesterial district of South Africa; it also contained details of the bearer's employer since being employed in an urban area was the only legally recognised reason for a black South African to be in an urban area. Black people were not to venture anywhere without this pass and failure to produce it when demanded by the police would result in immediate imprisonment. The so-called dompas (dumb pass) shackled black people, reducing them to prisoners in their own country. It was as a result of this and other oppressive measures of the then government that as a form of protest the passes would be burned and people would hand themselves over to be arrested for failure to have a pass on their person as was required by law. There are various versions of what happened on the day, however by the end of that day some 69 people were killed and almost 200 were injured, all shot by the police. Shortly thereafter scores of people were arrested including Sobukwe, it was a turning point in the struggle against apartheid and the beginning of lengthy prison sentences for scores of the leaders of the broader anti-apartheid movement. It was the beginning of immerssion of the South African society into a cesspit of violance culminating in the state of emergency, wanton murder and destruction. This day came to be known as Sharpeville Day and to me, so it shall remain.

Today March 21st is referred to and it is listed among official public holidays as Human Rights Day. Any other day could have been named human rights day; the day on which the congress of the people adopted the Freedom Charter could have in my view more appropriately been named as such. The events of 21 March 1960 should never be re-written even for the most reconciliatory of objectives. These events are the beacons which we hope will guide future powers that-be away from similar atrocities. In this space, every 21 March we will remember Sharpeville Day, for our children.