In 1994 black people had to allay the fears of white people. In 1994 Black people had to give assurances to protect the aspirations, futures and assets of white people.
Only then did they get permission to design a democracy that would allow them to be regarded as full citizens of South Africa. Extensively assured white people was the currency that paid for our Constitution that humanised black people’s existence in South Africa.
Black people have never had a moment to address the fears, futures and assets of black people. Even the much-vaunted Broad-based Black Economic Empowerment scheme required the permission of white people to allow black people into the rooms that white people occupied for centuries. When black people entered those rooms, they were deemed to have passed the white acceptance test. They were the ones who were palatable to white people.
We have had enough of this. It is now time for black people to rise up. It is now time for black people to tear up the white permission slip by which they are authorised to live, speak and participate. It is now time for black people in power everywhere to visibly address the fears, futures, aspirations and assets of black people.
Over the past 30 years, hundreds of black people who have dared to raise their heads above the parapet, have faced the guillotine of white contempt.
As much as white South Africa may wish Jacob Zuma away, he is not going away. You may froth at the mouth about Dali Mpofu, John Hlophe, Julius Malema and others and the wrongs that many of them had done but understand that their crimes and errors do not nullify the need to attend to the fears and aspirations of black people. Black people are still pariahs when it comes to their presence in South Africa.
Stand in any office building and see the culture and the fears. Look at the black people in that space. Often the black people most liked or referred to in conversations are the “funny ones”. The ones who are “easy to get on with”. The ones who don’t correct white “mistakes”. The “I have many black friends” syndrome and the “we have a black person on our board” mindset have not liberated black people.
Much of the wealth black people have amassed over the past 30 years has trapped them in the same narratives of sycophantic power and gross corruption that it has trapped white people in.
There has not been a liberation of the kind that sets black people free from fear and that sets them up for their futures. All that there has been are “tap ceremonies” and handing over key ceremonies to RDP houses.
Black corruption has been the defining feature of black people over the past 30 years. Black liberation has been sunk to the level of owning three Porches and drinking at fancy bars.
There has not been an astute, honest, profound and deep freedom proclaimed over black people, by black people. It is time for black people to arise, congregate, deliberate and organise themselves into a covenant of black dignity, respect, justice and freedom.
We must stop embracing the narratives about us that were produced by the system that originally placed us in bondage and servitude.
We must free ourselves from the idea that the Caucasian narrative is our natural narrative. It is not.
Do I want to a peaceful and prosperous future with all South Africans? Yes. But that does not mean I have to speak white or buy into a system where whiteness is the standard.
We have to ensure that a new dignified, honourable and profound blackness arises from this pea soup.
And while Jacob Zuma may be the focal point of that calling right now, he is not its future. The future will give us a much more intelligent and moral leadership that can engage the systemic oppressions and see to the undoing of the narratives of whiteness as benchmarks.
We must engage in that dialogue. That dialogue is now. You need to understand that every time you step into a shop, church, business office or institution, the overriding narratives of power and performance in that space are the same narratives that 30 years ago dehumanised you as an unacceptable person.
That is where the conversation must begin if we wish to map out the liberation of black people.
* Lorenzo A. Davids.
** The views expressed here are not necessarily those of Independent Media.
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