The Nature of the beast - concerning leadership

This was a response to an essay question I was given. Please do not be dismayed by the frequent references to "Van Wyk", he really does not saying anything we did not already know, but I needed him as a reference in the essay :D

"We are aware that the white man is sitting at our table. We know that he has no right to be there; we want to remove him from our table, strip the table of all the trappings put on it by him, decorate it in true African terms, settle down and then ask him to join us on our terms if he wishes." Steve Biko

We need to consider that "the architecture of post-colonial Africa is still unfolding" (Van Wyk 2007: 4), and there is a desperate need in this regard, for a new narrative to be spread. A narrative that says, that a government as understood and practised by Africans, is supposed to be more dependent on the people than the people are dependent on it.

Late last year, on my campus (Rhodes University) we had SRC elections, and we only had enough voters to reach quorum. Our quorum is 33 per cent of the student population. Amongst the people I talked to, many told me they do not vote because they do not see the relevance of the SRC.

There is an element of truth to this statement even at a country level. Our leadership needs to become relevant to the people. Democracy has been failing us because it has only allowed us to choose our own dictators. The system is neither structured by us nor for us, it is an illusion of fair governance rooted in a colonial strategy of ‘giving local leadership reign in so far as they comply to the stipulations of some Western power’.

It also brings in a whole economic aspect because the primary reason for the current structure of government; is because of the dictatorship of some world capitalism structures. I will explain this by using an example of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the IMF mandated Structural Adjustment Programmes (SAP) of the 1980’s. This included privatisation, removal of import controls and food subsidies, enforced cost-recovery in health and education, and ruthless downsizing of the public sector (Davis 2004: 18). According to Davis "In addition to the direct SAP-enforced reduction in public spending and ownership" there was an emphasis on the reduction of state control (Davis 2004: 19). So in a fragile political environment, the leadership of about 30 African countries (Davis 2004: 18) implement these SAP’s. This affected the efficiency and/or efficacy of these governments to provide for the needs of the people. Never mind the fact that very idea of ‘decentralisation’ is foreign to the idea of "national representative government" (Davis 2004: 19).

This was capitalism’s foot hold in Africa, and with it came many socio-economic issues and inequalities.

Capitalism in its nature, never provides permanent solutions for those who need them, it only recreates itself. This amongst many other reasons is why we find ourselves gyrating round the same socio-political/economic issues time and time again without a permanent solution to them. In order for African leadership to be effective in dealing with the needs of the people, the current economic systems of our continent (which are predominantly capitalist) need to be looked into.

In the post-colonialism redevelopment strategies implemented in South Africa, there have been many attempts to make the system work for us. However we should maybe begin to consider another system. A system that learns from the methods that worked, both in Ancient Africa (egalitarian) and in other parts of history (the Paris commune for example) instead of the (current) methods that continually abuse the very people that empower them. Van Wyk puts this more clearly when he says: "Africans had little time to prepare for independence and at independence the incoming elite inherited alien structures," (Van Wyk 1999: 7) structures that are perhaps not best for the African context.

Leaders should be put in place insofar as there is a need for leadership, not just for the sake of having people above others. Amongst many other reasons why leadership in South Africa has been irrelevant to many people, is because it has become about one council filling the position of the previous one, perpetuating the same system. Considering the drop in the number of votes for the incumbent government, the masses are not happy with this system. This started from the days of independence, when Western rule was replaced by local rule. However sadly, all that changed was the face of governance (from the colonisers, to the local people) not the structure.

Works Cited:
Biko, S. (1978), I Write What I Like. Pan Macmillan. Davis, M. (2004), "Planet of Slums"
. New Left Review, No. 26. Pp. 5-34. Van Wyk, Jo-Ansie. (2007), "Political Leaders in Africa: Presidents, Patrons or Profiteers?"
Occasional Paper Series. The African Centre for the Constructive Resolution of Disputes (ACCORD) 2(1). Pp. 1-38.

the education of the african child

Nearing the end of last year I got the opportunity to speak at a TEDx event at Rhodes University. Look, and laugh, and agree, and disagree, and comment :)

In the black of my mind

The 'western mind-set' is deeply rooted in how we are raised and what we are taught, and influences our ideas, thoughts and lifestyles. It is destructive in the least, and ungodly at most, contrary to the the original intent of god. It emphasises the importance of knowing above that of doing. In the words of Brian Knowles "it is often more important to believe and espouse 'the right thing' than to live the right way". It has become about JUST knowing what is right. "in many christian circles, what one believes or espouses is treated as more important than how one lives" (Knowles, p. 1).

There is need for people to unlearn this way of thinking and to relearn to adhere to both "external compliance with the law [of god] and inner devotion" because in the moment of subjugating one to the other, religion is born.

 

I have had a rebellious streak, and have been anti-westernisation ever since I could make sense of it (which is not so long ago). I have always had the sense that there is something unnatural about it. Human beings, no matter how atheist they may claim to be, have been created with an innate ability to experience God. The western mind attempts to organise everything into systematic structures, therefore "the Godhead must be tightly defined and structured" (Knowles, p. 4). The external world (earth) is a manifestation of thought, a manifestation of what is within. There are so many beautifully complex things in creation that we cannot begin to explain, yet we want to have a power point understanding of the Creator. 

 

One the basic thoughts that this western mind is based on, is the idea of the 'spiritual' or the 'supernatural' being external to human beings. That we can engage in it as we please, and walk away from it as we please. Man was created in the image of God, in the realm of God. The fall brought about a spiritual separation between God and man but did not change his form, no where in the bible does it say, "because they sinned, they will no longer be as God had created them". The Hellenisation of the world did wonders in restructuring how man understands the relation between God and himself. From this came an understanding of God being (in the sky) far away from man.

 

People can understand themselves by looking at what defines them. Our history defines us, and we do not know our history. We have been separated from our truth, our knowledge, our light, and therefore subjected to being content with false KNOWLEDGE because we do not know how to DO.

 

I choose not to partake in the fruit of western ideals.

The truth has a tendency to come out.

The past few weeks, have brought with them knowledge that has challenged 'truths' I have held on to my whole life. Matter of fact the foundation of truth that my life is based on, has been shaken so vigorously, it woke me up and opened my eyes in the process. I am not exaggerating at all. I met some of the most interesting minds in my life. The kind of minds I wish I could one day inhabit, and live amongst the most profound thought I have ever encountered.

If you know the story of Daniel (in the bible) you will know that he was amongst the most intelligent men in all of Babylon. Well even that should say a lot about these brothers :) when a man is so knowledgeable and intelligent and dripping with so much wisdom, that the only people who are worthy to be compared to him are ancient prophets. I think that being the children of the God who created the mind, we should all be that way. But laziness has become such a norm amongst us, we no longer seek wisdom and pursue it. Which is quite dangerous because when we are but consumers, it is easy for those who feed us information to lie to us. John Mayer says (in his song 'waiting on the world to change') "cause when they own the information, they can bend it all they want".

The bible has been taught as a text that is so far from us as black people, and has made it easy for us to distance ourselves from it. Thus distancing ourselves from the knowledge of God. The way in which holiness and holy people are depicted (as white and civilised as opposed to us, the native inhabitants of the dark continent) was to make that level of closeness to God as unattainable to black people as possible. And it has worked. When God gave the Israelites the laws read to them by Moses, he was not giving them a religion. He knew that after years of slavery they needed to be rehabilitated (in the words of Ahk Shmael), back into a people he once shared a divine relationship with. Starting with them, and spreading the knowledge of God throughout the rest of the world. Now this law, became the CULTURE of the people. In all of the cultures of the world found throughout history, there has never been any other people, but the black people, who practise a culture so similar to that of the biblical Hebrews. Considering that the introduction of the bible did not come to Africa till recently, where had we inherited this culture from? What does that make us if not the descendants of the chosen nation of Ysrael? Well my people, think upon these things :) I will keep on blogging about my experiences of this truth, but for now I will leave you with a poem I wrote from all the thoughts I have gathered as I take my first steps in this "back to God movement" :

"And they can’t hold us down any longer. Our minds are beginning to wonder. The imaginations of our children are too strong for their chains. The chains of a massive deception. Of such an immaculate conception. For it has been written; Ysrael shall be restored. And if black people knew that they are the glory of God then they would be more inclined to respect themselves. So many layers to be uncovered, of narratives that were never ours, being sold to us as truth. That we traded even the last light we had, to buy it. Because we needed security, and none of our people knew who we were. So we had to trust the stranger, when he said he knew us. And our truth being the key to all our riches, we exchanged it for shackles. And with it he robbed us of all our value. We were left to bear the burden of a people destined for slavery.

But what he did not consider, is that, something else we bear, is the mark of God. And God will always know us. Though through time there have been ideas that erect themselves above the truth of our creator. He will never leave us, he never has. And through the reawakening of a knowledge of him, a new Adam, will live in the days of the new heaven. And we shall be like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither. And everything we do shall prosper. Custodians of the new earth we need the mind of God, to sustain what the mind of God had started. And when this understanding sets us free, any of the chains they cast upon us shall not hold. Now our history, is not just a matter for the memory, it is ingrained in the lifeblood of all creation."

Cadbury PS ad. beautiful thing right here :)

what are you teaching your son?

Its easy to have 'conscious' ideas about why black girls should stop gravitating towards Western ideas or 'standards of beauty'. to throw black consciousness philosophies around, and bash people with the bible of black thought for their fake hair. However , I think that the issue that is not being dealt with is what little black boys are taking in, on what beauty is, and what a woman is.

I went to my friends room yesterday, and on his wall was a picture of a naked white girl. I said" that girl is really skinny". and my friend responded by saying "well, skinny is sexy", and a whole lot of other painfully ignorant things about how getting a white girlfriend is the ultimate achievement for black guys. I realised early in the conversation that there is a pathology there that should be given attention real soon. Where does he get the idea that white women, in contrast to black women are the epitome of beauty. Not to say that white women are ugly, but if young black guys in South Africa cannot recognise and appreciate the beauty, importance and divinity of their black sisters, then there is something painfully wrong.

In a conversation with a friend of mine, he said (quoting Louis Vincent) that people continue to do what they do, because they are being continually told the same narrative. In the minds of many black kids, race has been constructed in binaries, and no one is explaining anything to them. What I mean by binaries is the thought that there is white and black, good and bad, rich and poor. and in this polarised system, placing whitness at the side of the good and every 'other' thing on the side thats not so good. There is beauty in everyone, especially in the things that make us different from each other. The narrative needs to change, and parents should teach their children (especially in black families) that the love of self means the love of others and vise versa.   

In the last couple of months there has been an increase in rapes by younger and younger boys. If these young boys had been taught that every young girl is a princess and a sister, that every elderly woman is their mother, would this tragic reality still had been the case?

The African ‘gentleman’

I am not the ‘lady-type’, I grew up around guys who would at any moment hold you in a wrestling position for no reason, or would run to get to the house first so they can lock you out for fun, on our way back from wherever. It was ‘adapt or die’ in that house. Well, it was all for laughs, which I should emphasise, before I start making it sound like I was being abused.

However the way I relate to guys was shaped by my interaction with my brothers. This explains the culture-shock I got when I met the door-holding, jersey-sacrificing, ‘ladies-first’ guys that I call my friends. It had never occurred to me before that; men should be treated differently from women, or the other way around.

What I say (jokingly) every time any one of my guy friends offers me anything, whether it’s a jersey or the last piece of cake, is “there is no such thing as ‘gentle-man’ in black culture”. I do not know how true this is but my argument is always that, in black culture, we dish up for the man first, hold seats for him and bend a knee when we greet him. 

So the other day I was walking out of class with my friend, and I repeat this unfounded, unresearched statement that I love so much. He strongly disagreed, and it got me thinking about things such as ‘the patriarchal system amongst Africans’; ‘whether black culture condoned the subjugation of women’ and ‘the irony of black women adopting a Eurocentric feminism’.

In the discussions that I have had with people about this, I know now that Africans were very ‘heteronormative’ we believed that men and women have different but equally important roles. They both deserve respect for their contribution to the society, the home. One good friend of mine [Ras Mbaza] mentioned that in ancient South African culture a woman would be attracted to the proficiency of a particular ‘hunter’, and immediately know that he is a man that would be able to provide. And at the same time the man would be attracted to her capability and wisdom in ‘gathering’, and know that this is a woman that would be able to sustain them. African men respected African women. I mean, consider what a married woman is called in the Xhosa language: Inkosikazi, as opposed to ‘misses’ in the English language. The direct translation of Inkosikazi is (what I call kingcess) Queen. Who knows whatever the hell ‘misses’ means (lol). Women are carriers of the divine, mothers of all life, those that walk with God. Both men and women had adopted the nurturing nature of God, but lived out the love for their children and their communities in different ways. Men would work, women would teach, but they were both providers.

Not to say that African culture was picture perfect and immune to human rights abuses. African men had their flaws, but so did African women.

Patriarchy is a system imposed on us by colonialism, and it has emasculated our men. If any black woman is to adopt any form of ‘womanism’, they should do it within the context of African ideals. Reason being, we do not want self-empowerment as just women, we want empowerment for our men, and our families as well.