On Heidi Holland and the racist onslaught (a post by Moremogolo)

The article by Heidi Holland in the opinion and analysis pages of the Star (8 December 2008) is an interesting read. Interesting in the sense that it is a cleverly written lot of nonsense with lots of factual inaccuracies. I think it also betrays a lot of, yes, deep seated racism that is prevalent in the majority of whites in this country. You will notice that I say majority and it is not an error. In her eyes Black people are not meant to be ruled by intellectuals and intellectuals in this country aspire to be embraced by the west and suffer from identity crisis as a result of being intellectuals. Africa deserves to be ruled by “fools” like Zuma whose only ambition is to be a ruler one day.

This is both an insult to Mbeki and Zuma personally and serves generally to indicate how whites like Holland perceive the African people and their leadership in general. The intellectualism of Thabo Mbeki does not sit well with people like her and the rest of the West because he has challenged their perceptions about Africa and has pushed vehemently for Africans to find solutions to their own problems. The grip that the west has on Africa is slowly loosening thanks to Mbeki’s efforts. Mbeki is being ridiculed and misrepresented on the Aids issue because he dared challenge the pharmaceuticals and their western governments on their approach to tackling this crisis in Africa. Mbeki is also being called aloof because whites in this country and elsewhere feel that he escaped from their pockets once the ANC came into power.

Zuma is liked because he will help perpetuate the myth that Blacks are eternally stupid. His ambivalence on issues of policy and his constant stupid remarks is liked because it makes great writing on a typical of an African leader. The masses liking Zuma is typical of the African majority who stupidly follow leaders without questioning. Indeed if you read articles posted by readers on news 24 you will be constantly reminded how stupid Africans are by responses from white readers.

This patronising attitude by whites is very prevalent in the judge Nicholson judgement where he made pronouncements on issues he was not asked to make pronouncements on because he knows what is best for Africans. Africans are wont to fight against each other and he needed to put a stop to this and guide them on how they should conduct themselves.

Of course people like Malema and Mantashe have led credence to these notions that blacks are eternally stupid by pronouncing judge Nicholson “a sober judge” and the judges of the constitutional court, the majority of who are Black “counter revolutionaries” who “make their decisions at shebeens”.

But then again there are a lot of Mantashes and Malemas in our country who uncritically accepts the vile diatribe that is spewed by the Hollands of this world. And the nonsense that they write is hailed as good journalism. Nonsense riddled with historical and factual inaccuracies that have come to pass as fact and truth.

The Zimbabwean situation has become of the issues that is being advanced by people of Holland’s ilk and swallowed by the majority of this country uncritically. It is after all Claire Short, Britain’s Secretary of State for International Development at that time, with the support of her government, who could break a binding agreement between the Zimbabwean and British governments casually by saying that “I should make it clear that we do not accept that Britain has a special responsibility to meet the costs of land purchase in Zimbabwe. We are a new government from diverse backgrounds without links to former colonial interests. My own origins are Irish and, as you know, we were colonised, not colonisers." (5 November 1997)
And of course the much revered Tsvangirai has learnt well from the colonial masters in casually breaking binding agreements. I am yet to hear the views of these self righteous people like Holland and the west on Mbeki’s response to the MDC’s letter.

In agreement with Andile Mngxitama’s article in the City Press (7 December 2008), there is an urgent need for a new kind of consciousness to counter these patronising perceptions that are being spewed by Holland and her masters.