Steve Bantu Biko wrote that the greatest weapon in the hands of the oppressor is the mind of the oppressed.
According to Biko, the weaponry at the disposal of the oppressor was not the determinant of the perpetuation of subjugation or the outcome of the struggle against it. The oppressor only needed to convince the oppressed that God himself had structured life as it was. That resisting and questioning white supremacy was the work of the devil and unbelieving communists.
Once that was internalised in the mind, body and soul of the oppressed, victory for the colonialists was assured. Black people would believe that without the white oppressor they were nothing.
Biko, who was killed in police detention on September 12 1977, understood that black people’s struggle for freedom would never be victorious unless that mental slavery was dealt with. He and his comrades, such as Harry Ranwedzi Nengwekhulu, Barney Pityana, Strini Moodley, Peter Jones and Mama Winnie Kgware, knew that that any victory would be hollow in the hands of the mentally enslaved.
And thus we saw, with the emergence of Black Consciousness (BC) as a liberatory philosophy, a major focus on reversing mental slavery. Slogans such as “Black is Beautiful”, campaigns against attempts to look white through the use of hydroquinone creams such as Ambi, or straightening hair.
There was a campaign to give only black names to black children and stop referring to European names as Christian names, which implied black names were unchristian. Big afro hairdos were the in thing. All these campaigns caught fire and people even dressed in dashikis to denote the positivity of African dress.
At the centre of BC was the concept of self-love and love for your own. And because the June 16 brigade understood that, when they fought the system they did not target stores belonging to the likes of the late Richard Maponya or Gaza Store in Tshiawelo. They targeted symbols of oppression such as beerhalls and administration offices used to police the dompas system.
When the new order took root in 1994, no effort was made by the new power to undo centuries of ingrained inferiority. The result has been the reversal of the earlier reversal. How many black women walk around today proudly wearing hair that makes them look anything but themselves.
The wholesale looting of state resources by mainly ANC leaders and members has eroded the nascent and burgeoning self-confidence in things black and black leadership. Black participation in democratic processes such as the legislative processes has all but vanished.
The loss of faith in the ANC doesn’t, however, stop at that — it cascades into suspicion and rejection of all black leadership
It is the mainly white liberal viewpoint that dominates the analysis of pending legislation. Voting in elections has declined tremendously, with some blacks even moving into what are essentially white parties.
The loss of faith in the ANC doesn’t, however, stop at that — it cascades into suspicion and rejection of all black leadership. How many of us are greeted at filling stations by attendants who call you lekgowa laka (my boss, literally my white man)?
There was a time a few years ago when progressive forces within the continent looked on us as some sort of saviour from the African caricature of being inherently corrupt and prone to autocracy. Not any more. The government of national unity emerged because black people deserted the ANC.
Today they lurch from one budget crisis to another, the prosecution authority is dysfunctional, as are water and sewerage systems.
White-led civil society organs have to take this black government to court to force it to eradicate pit latrines in black schools.
It was a relief this week to see the SAPS pull out all the stops to search for and find the three black police officers who died so tragically in the Hennops River in Tshwane. It was a display of efficiency and dedication that is rare within the public service.
That we celebrate what should be normal is an indication of how low we have sunk in our expectations of government. What the ANC has done to the struggle to free the black mind, and thus the body and our land, is criminal.
Where is the next Biko going to emerge from to save us from ourselves?
• Tsedu is a former editor of Sunday Times and a former chair of Sanef
For opinion and analysis consideration, e-mail Opinions@timeslive.co.za
Would you like to comment on this article?
Sign up (it's quick and free) or sign in now.
Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.