In A Question of Power South African writer Bessie Head writes, “Life is such a gentle, treasured thing. I learn about it every minute. I think about it so deeply.”
I wonder what motivated her to think so deeply, to ponder about the world around her with such dulcet tones?
On Goodreads one of my quotes reads, “It takes one person to start a movement.” With the first national elections held in South Africa that is exactly what played out the day we went to the polls. The citizens of South Africa started a movement.
Change, whether we want to admit or not, comes oftentimes through divine timing and through the school of thought and philosophies of our writers. South Africa is at the cusp of such a change again in its tumultuous history.
Life can be toxic when people are still waiting to be liberated, emancipated, given their personal freedoms and released from subterfuge. After all, it has been 30 years.
After 30 years of democracy colonialism is only now touted as intellectual and indigenous genocide. In my book cognisance must be taken of that fact.
What is meant by indigenous genocide, colonial genocide, cultural genocide, or settler genocide?
It is the genocide of Indigenous peoples. Colonial genocide, or settler genocide is the intentional elimination of Indigenous peoples as a part of the process of colonialism. This is what the Khoi and San are fighting for today. For their land, for their rights, for their absolute humanity. Isn’t that what we all want to achieve at the end of the day? Our land, our rights and our absolute humanity?
We must look at history to restore, heal and mend the past. The land question is still a hot topic. Will that be our predetermined path to glory? Nothing has changed, the naysayers say. I say everything has changed.
The youth of our country are not just facing unemployment but are in the throes of mass clinical depression and burnout as well. Stress has become a buzzword.
The root cause of insanity in today’s society is mental instability and sadness. It all comes down to mental instability and sadness at the end of the day. When you have no control over your situation or yourself, the individual.
Do you think oral history and storytelling is going to save us as a nation, as a community? I have always used writing as an instrument for change and a form of therapy. We must just put pen to paper. Today is another day when we must realise our destiny as a country, a family and as a community South Africa.
We need to look for heartfelt solutions to our problems and continually re-evaluate them. We live very much in a patriarchal world, but our values have changed to become a more inclusive society in which lesbian and gay rights have been embraced. An ideal which was part of Mandela’s legacy.
The youth have a nostalgic view of the liberation struggle. They are far removed from it now. The fact that Mandela spent 27 years in prison is not a hot topic of conversation anymore. Some people, youth included, and others actively dislike Mandela and what he has done for this country. In some circles Mandela is called a “sell-out”. The fact that he prevented a civil war is swept under the rug.
But it still feels like to me that we are still after negotiating an end to white-minority rule, as I am sure it does to many others.
Good news though! Those with disabilities have a voice and their welfare is seen to. Although who can afford a family, rent and groceries on a paltry child or disability grant, at least it offers some access and monthly peace of mind to financial and emotional security every month.
It has been thirty years since icon and iconaclast Nelson Mandela was elected president of South Africa. What do we remember about the man of honour, his indomitable spirit, his shining yet excellent breakthroughs that spoke louder than words? What about Mandela, the enigma, the prize?
A historic 86% of eligible South Africans came out to vote in that first election since apartheid. And they elected Nelson Mandela, a Black man who had spent nearly three decades in prison for his role battling the country’s segregationist structures.
The ANC has dominated South African politics for the past thirty years but in this year’s elections the people have spoken. Dissatisfied and unhappy with the leadership within the country it is the first time that the ANC have not won the key majority of the votes in this country.
Race remains a key driver of economic inequality with 10% of the population owning more than 80% of the wealth, according to a 2022 report by the World Bank. .
Give it back! Give it back! What’s yours is mine and has always been mine? You cannot take what doesn’t belong to you. These are the words that have galvanized race relations for the longest time in South Africa.
But this rhetoric and argument has got us nowhere fast and at the slow interminable pace of the last 30 years. So, either we forgive and forget as so many stalwarts, cadres and comrades did and move onwards and upwards in life or what?
What do we do at the end of the day? World peace comes at a terrific cost. So, we turn to our poets, our wordsmiths, our artists, our writers and soothe ourselves with cosmic fairytales, African proverbs and lullabies for the pen is indeed mightier than the sword.
We never asked for corruption. We never asked for the misappropriation of funds. As far as I am concerned it is a form of insanity to live in the past. “Don’t get angry over shadows,” Credo Mutwa said. It starts with us. It starts with an act of undeserving kindness, raising a child with values and lofty principles. Something which we have forgotten. What South Africa’s gender based violence statistics speak of.
We have forgotten the family. It is time for us to respect and honour the bravery of our stalwarts, our forgotten heroes, to respect and honour the historical input and impact of our heritage and the worldview and image of both.
It was Oliver Tambo that said, “Racial discrimination, South Africa’s economic power, its oppression and exploitation of all the black peoples, are part and parcel of the same thing.” “The fight for freedom must go on until it is won; until our country is free and happy and peaceful as part of the community of man, we cannot rest.”
We must never forget that Mandela taught us that our answers are and speak to the world’s hope. For hope is all that we have ever had and it is the future generation, our children, that carry this hope.
Abigail George, northern areas
