In her recent letter, the leader of the Democratic Alliance, Helen Zille, implies that many whites and blacks are imprisoned in victimhood stemming from our South African history. She opens with a quote from Steve Biko's interview with the Boston Globe in 1977, shortly before his tragic death. "...As a prelude, whites must be made to realise that they are only human, not superior. Same with blacks. They must be made to realise that they are also human, not inferior."
This powerful statement captures Biko's premise that the starting point for the Black Consciousness Movement (BCM) is that black people should stop defining their identity through whiteness (not as a sign of culture or statement of biology or genetics, but a power relationship, a statement of authority, of social construct that is perpetuated by systems of privilege, and the consolidation of property and status). But the statement does not fully define Black Consciousness.
Madame Zille says; "Before then, political analysis had focused on race, or class - or both. Steve Biko suggested it was about something else: At the heart of South Africa's social and political trauma, he suggested, was the issue of self-esteem. Only when South Africans had ‘freed their minds' would it be possible to build a truly non-racial society."
Immediately the problem with Madame Zille's approach surfaces: the scope of Black Consciousnessis not "self-esteem." She wishes to fit BC into her narrow interpretation, because then the movement can be moulded to suit the liberal's limited notion of transformation and so ensure little change to the status quo, other than a few less blacks with chips on their shoulders.
She went on a roll as usual; "No more, no less. Only when they had ‘freed their minds' would they be able to change their own circumstances and the world and give others the space to do so too. Human beings are not merely passive victims of structural or social forces. They can choose to become agents of development and progress in their environment."
This struck me as a topsy-turvy echo of Marx's celebrated declaration that even though people make their own history, it is not in the circumstances of their own choosing. Madame Zille inadvertently speaks of the need to move out of mental state of victimhood into a revolutionary mind-set, but will not allow them to be revolutionary.
Of course Marx, the real revolutionary, necessitates that we change our circumstances first for meaningful empowerment that breaks the constraining (material) chains. Madame Zille's DA, talk frequently of an "open society" of opportunities, but rarely explain how a deregulated societal structure will actually bring any of those opportunities to those who need them the most.
If we dip into Biko a bit more, for example in the interview titled ‘Our Strategy for Liberation' Biko said; "Yes, I think there is no running away from the fact that now in South Africa there is such an ill distribution of wealth that any form of political freedom which does not touch on the proper distribution of wealth is meaningless..." Meaningless!
So, whatever positive mental attitude you may have as a Black Conscious person, if it cannot call upon proper material resources, it is all in vain. In fact, being Black Conscious in such circumstances is dangerous because your awareness fosters anger and resentment against stubborn circumstances adverse to your progress.
It is a historical fact that black people have inherited major-socio economic problems, like high levels of crime, unemployment and poor education, abject poverty, structural and environmental inequalities, unfair distribution of income, properties and (good) opportunities. It is difficult to understand how these could be overcome by merely having a positive mindset.
Anyone who truly understands the systemic nature of the apartheid inheritance would not only acknowledge this, but would be prepared to put in place the means to rectify it, and rectify it with more than some misguided faith in the so-called invisible hand of social justice.
After all the flack Zille received for the "professional black" insult, she now talks of "professional whites." I share her contempt towards them. White indignation in the South African context is either an ignorant bravado of those who have no sense of historical social responsibility, or plain arrogance; or worse, racism disguised as meritorious entitlement.
Either way, it is a deep lack of commitment to the restoration of social justice by those who are implicated and contaminated by the benefits of systemic exploitation. That is why black people get angry and resentful. Some of us are lucky in that we have a modicum of education to channel and get beyond this anger, otherwise there would easily been more orating Malemas, that sentimental nihilism fostered by social and economic exclusion.
Madame Zille says government's "...primary role is to ensure that every person has real opportunities and that resources are directed towards equalising opportunities, as rapidly as possible. This is the only sustainable form of affirmative action, because it enables people to use their opportunities, and requires them to contribute to development and progress, in order to live a life they value."
This psychobabble, propped up by selective analysis focused on shifting blame away from structural racial oppression whilst simultaneously demonising affirmative action, is as close as the DA ever gets to Biko's fundamental need for a redistribution of resources. And is why the DA will never attract the 21st century's Black Conscious generation.
Authentic Black Conscious people won't be DA freelance race spokespersons, with their employment status (in the DA or corporate world) dependent upon the blessing of controlling whites. This would merely be another way by which, their identity is defined by whiteness.
They want to be part of meaningful political dialogue that represents the needs of their people; and to be a moral voice for their communities. They won't be disjointed from their people, made into tokens pandering only to elite white needs and fears. They also do not care for those who manipulate black cultural symbols and history without critical content, like selectively quoting Biko, or even those who want to perpetually shackle black people to nostalgia for past political struggle.
Black Consciousness is a colour blind quest for critical self-consciousness and propulsion towards a greater good for all (black and white). Hence I doubt if the DA will ever be able to sell itself as a hospitable home for BCM proponents despite its window dressing attempts.
It would require too fundamental a shift in mind-set of many white DA supporters, particularly those former National Party members for it to be able to attract BC proponents. The irony is that the DA is used as weapon to detract supporters from the idea of an alternative party in black areas. And this is what prevents the authentic emergence of an alternative mass based democratic movement.
The National mass based alternative movement would need to come from the unemployed, the homeless, the workers and middle-class professionals. And it would have to be grounded in a proper social program of Economic Democracy: what Juju and the youth marchers popularised as ‘Economic Freedom in our lifetime'.
This call resonates in black communities and has sparked a renaissance in social activism and brought about an urgent need to redefine the ‘social contract' between the people and the state, spearheaded by proper solutions for job creation, decent housing and health care.
As long as the DA does not prioritise these mass democratic demands it will remain a white and white aspirant's option, and eventually an irrelevant dwindling dull haze in South African politics when the proper alternative emerges.
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