Why Zola Skweyiya is right about lack of truth between whites and blacks and among Africans themselves

Not too long ago, while the world celebrated Barack Obama’s post-racial victory, I found myself applauding uncomfortable truths expressed by one of the ANC veteran thinkers and social development minister, Dr Zola Skweyiya.

Long before Skweyiya gave a rare interview to show that the most sensible leaders are not abandoning the ship to join Shikota, I had begun to feel that capturing and expressing strong pan-African views has been banned in public discourse and debate.

If you think about it, public expression of sentiments like “Africa is a black man’s country,” that “the land was stolen by whites” and that, increasingly, there are class differences among blacks are widely considered tabboo.

In fact, there are virtually no genuine Pan-Africanist voices in the mainstream media, including the blog. Instead, Africans are always expected to uphold the over celebrated Nelson Mandela legacy of reconciliation. Largely, they are not allowed space, time and freedom to speak about self-determination and the right to be who they want to be.

In fact, Africans must always agree with what whites and others say not to upset the peace and reconciliation apple cart. This pretence and political correctness does not help anyone as it sweeps simmering racial problems under the table.

Africans must be given space and time to express themselves in the way they want to about integration, land dispossession, monopoly of the wealth, class differences and any other issue under the sun. Whites and others, on the other hand, control the media and dominate the bloggosphere and are always eager to bludgeon into silence any African who expresses what they perceive to be an oppositional viewpoint.

The whites and their cohorts seem on the witch hunt for any African who does not conform to reconciliation expectations. They are concerned about Africans who still want to talk about black and white or raise the colour issues when everybody should be living happily ever after in the “rainbow nation”. If there is any African who challenges this happy scenario and reminds them of injustice and inequality, he must be condemned as a racist.

The whites are always happier when token blacks – who are appendages in their society – quickly come forward to condemn these alleged black racists. But this formula is not going to work and never will. Not even the rise of Obama’s post-racial theory is going to fool everybody about the dawn of a peaceful co-existence between blacks, whites and others.

I cannot say that Zola Skweyiya was thinking about Barack Obama when he expressed his own political wisdom but it is worth listening to what he had to say. “I feel strongly that we have not solved the national question – not just between whites and blacks but among ourselves as Africans. I know this is not a popular view but it’s a fact.” So, there you have it.

I can say with confidence that Zola Skweyiya is not just talking about inherent tensions between whites, coloureds and Indians but about the contradictions that exist in African society, including political disorganisation and class. I believe that Zola Skweyiya is saying there will not be peace in this country until the racial question and the issue of economic power or wealth, if you like, has been adequately addressed.

I can think of no issues that divides South Africans than Race and Economic power or wealth. Well, some intellectuals like Zola Skweyiya will always choose to assume the radical face and voice of so-called black racists to bring legitimate African concerns into the mainstream. Of course, they run the risk of being accused of promoting reverse racism or anti-white sentiments.

But the widespread dissemination of the “Rainbow Nation” theory and reconciliation at the expense of legitimate African concerns is not going to give us a lasting solution.
Many people, especially Africans, are ambivalent about non-racialism.

Of course, this belief is not entirely correct but there is a perception all whites are rich or enjoyed the fruits of apartheid economic injustice and are part of the oppressor class (sic.) Thus the issue of equality, justice and common citizenship as espoused by the constitution is still a piece of paper.

There is no self-evidence of people of all races coming together as compatriots. Of course, this does not deny that a lot of progress has been made over the last 14 years but much more needs to be done, especially by whites and others.

This is a very important point that has been raised by Zola Skweyiya with far reaching implications for the future of non-racialism in this society. What does it mean to say a black who is trying to mainstream African thinking is a racist? The ANC has recently espoused non-racialism and only admitted non-Africans into its leadership ranks in 1985.
And yet with all the whites, Indians and coloureds who have risen in its ranks, there is still a powerful racial component in how all the different groups operate.

Zola Skweyiya’s penetrating remarks should force all of us to examine the influence and impact of apartheid in how we live and experience each other today. Apartheid continues to have a devastating impact in how we define nationhood.

One of the solutions lies in allowing “authentic African voices”, if there is such a thing, space and time in the media to present their cases. After all, any pretence that there is no Pan-Africanism or Black Consciousness in the hearts and souls of indigenous Africans is merely a speculative, make-believe world.

Zola Skweyiya has expressed uncomfortable truths that still needed to be confronted before we can move forward. This provides an excellent opportunity for an interesting debate without the knee-jerk reaction of condemning African sentiments as “racist”.

What does it mean to say: “we have not solved the National Question?”