By Ngila Michael Muendane
THE STRUGGLE for liberation has taken at least three centuries in South Africa, although some people think that it started in 1976 and others say it was against APARTHEID, which means it could only have started after 1948 when APARTHEID, as the manifestation of an ideology pursued by people such as Malan and Verwoerd, was institutionalized. Some imagine that it started in 1912, with the formation of the South African Native Congress, which later became the ANC. Few people consider the wars of resistance, the latest of which was heroically led by Bambatha in 1906, as essentially part of the struggle for liberation. As we seem to be enjoying the fruits of that prolonged struggle, is it finally over? Have we now finally achieved the objective for which so many people throughout this time have been dying for?
On the face of it, we are now politically liberated. Does sheer political participation signify liberation or are there other considerations? Many people still live in poverty. I find it difficult to accept that liberation without economic freedom and independence is complete. People from other continents, even the Malaysians these days, come to Africa empty-handed but return to their own shores with buckets full of money. Africans remain behind, gesticulating and decrying the second rape of Africa. Chinese traders are invading our economy and scooping substantial amounts of benefits, ironically, with the help of the very people who decry the economic invasion. How else can you explain the fact that no sooner does a Chinese set up shop than Africans gallop through his doors to surrender their hard earned money and shunning African shops?
For this latest invasion and even the traditional version by European and American multinationals, we are solely to blame and because of it, I am struggling to visualise an early arrival at the shores of true liberation envisaged by our struggle heroes and heroines.
Africans work for multinationals and White businesses only to take their earnings back to their shops on weekends. We feel proud, for instance, that we can use chopsticks, and the snobbery around eating Japanese sushi stands a distance away from any pride of taking one’s girl friend out to enjoy African cuisine.
Economic liberation is impossible with mental bondage, which is characterised by a deep-seated inferiority complex, from which there is no salvation unless we acknowledge its existence
This column will continue to focus on how we can achieve mental liberation which is the highest form of liberation, as it controls other forms of liberation. The basis of its approach is that unless one acknowledges any weakness, one can never find the cure. Our low self-esteem is coupled with a misplaced veneration for and deference to Whites and anyone else, such as Asians, who resembles them physically. This explains why we shun African shops in favour of shops owned by these other people. The above portrayal also explains why there is even such a great deal of mediocrity manifest in our performance at work. We are prepared to accept inferior results without question, as it is impossible for a person with a low self-esteem to expect excellence in his life’s experience; one cannot exceed what one believes about oneself.
Admittedly, quite a handful of us are able to appreciate excellence intellectually and they periodically achieve excellence in other areas of life as well.
Africans have more than their fair share of inefficiency and mediocrity in all kinds of organisations. This is partly due to the fact that at a personal level, most of us are inefficient and clumsy. Organisations are of course a reflection of personal attributes of the people who work in them. In some government departments, budgeted funds are returned to the fiscus or to donors at the end of the year while delivery to the masses leaves much to be desired.
Economic mismanagement, and the resultant widespread poverty and underdevelopment in Africa, are due to the bondage that shackles our minds since colonial times. Our economies operate within organisational formations, hence Africa’s economic weakness. Africans are the poorest in their own continent. Japan has no raw materials to talk of, yet they are able to transform raw materials, such as iron from Africa into streams of vehicles and machinery that Africa is obliged to buy at exorbitant prices. In South Africa, the situation is particularly pathetic. When one thinks of engaging a lawyer, doctor, plumber, or any service, the dominant tendency is to engage a non-African. The excuse for engaging White or Indian professionals or artisans is that the performance of Africans is not up to scratch. Sadly, this is also largely true. Mediocrity abounds among African professionals and artisans in this age. The reason is the same as in the civil service. There is a need to engage African professionals and artisans, but not many of them, as a rule, are high performers, a veritable catch-22 situation.
The same inferiority complex makes us perceive ourselves as job-seekers. This is a reflection of the mindset that many Africans have that “the remedy of an African’s problems is the White person” (Lekgoa ke setlhare sa motho or Umlungu umdala). Our attitude is therefore such that we become dependant upon job givers, who are mainly White. This makes us treat Whites and Asians with deference, a situation that leads us to giving them our rightful space and further rendering ourselves open to victimisation.
Yielding to Whites and Asians is so common and has so much power that although most of us are aware of what we are doing and actually talk about it in self-righteous self-criticism, we still continue yielding anyway. We are in danger of bequeathing to the next generation the spirit of cowardly surrender. Were the sacrifices during the liberation struggle worth it, if we throw the gains thereof to the wolves?
