by Mandisi Majavu, SACSIS
Although recent newspaper reports that the
Azanian People’s Organisation (Azapo) and the Socialist Party of Azania (Sopa)
are to merge ought to be welcomed by those of Black Consciousness (BC)
tradition, the fact of the matter is that the BC tradition in South Africa is
intellectually stuck in the 20th century. According to the Unemployed People’s
Movement (UPM), proponents of the BC tradition have not been able to rethink BC
politics for a new situation. The new situation being the 21st century, which
requires this tradition to articulate a coherent alternative political and
economic vision for a better South Africa, a challenge that the BC tradition is
yet to take up.
It is not enough to keep highlighting the legacy
of racism without proposing alternative socio-economic institutions that aim to
overcome racism in all its expression. Instead of political slogans, political
and economic programmes that speak to the post-apartheid cultural and material
conditions have to be developed.
The post-apartheid South African government has,
among other things, “democratised materialism”; and that has cultivated
affluent aspirations in many black South Africans rather than deepen black
consciousness. The concept of “black diamonds” has more social meaning to the
post-apartheid black generation than black consciousness. Academics point out
that the black youth in post-apartheid South Africa generally share the
consumerism of South Africa’s wealthy classes. Generally, the post-apartheid
material culture compels many South Africans to live beyond their means.
Research shows that South Africans are currently over-indebted by R106bn.
For many black South Africans the consumer
culture promises a post-colonial society in which blacks can counter white
privilege through personal enrichment. Historically, blackness has been
associated with poverty and limited life chances, while, on the other hand,
whiteness means wealth and high social status in the imagination of the
mainstream society. Hence, as American economic justice blogger, Imara Jones
notes, we are surprised by the economic success of blacks “and more unassuming
about the wealth of whites.” It is in this context, with all its colonial baggage,
that many blacks see personal enrichment as a subversive act. Additionally,
materialism in this context, not black consciousness, becomes a revolutionary
concept due to its potential to mediate racist assumptions and due to its
underlying promises to bring about a unifying mass consumer culture in a
postcolonial society that has no clear racial status ranking, to echo Paul
Mullins, American academic that teaches material culture.
While black consciousness has largely remained
an abstract philosophy many black South Africans place material consumption at
the centre of their vision of postcolonial citizenship. This is partly because
mass consumer culture provides some black South Africans with a concrete
strategy to counter the legacies of the apartheid system. To use Mullins’
insight, many black South Africans utilize material consumer culture to imagine
new social possibilities, to mediate racist assumptions, and to pose new
societal relationships that communicate their desire to escape the historical
construction of blackness.
Instead of engaging with these post-apartheid
political realities, political commissars, who view their primary task as one
of upholding BC’s “doctrinal truths”, have yet to talk in a convincing manner
to these issues. According to the UPM, BC political commissars are not in touch
with the realities of the people partly because they are alienated from
people’s struggles. The UPM further points out that the political record of BC
organisations in post-apartheid South Africa is one of on-going political
failure. “They have not succeeded in elections and they have not succeeded in
linking to popular struggles,” argues the UPM. In short, BC organisations have
failed to develop and articulate a new polity.
The UPM is of the view that a new BC polity
would have to take into consideration the global crisis of capitalism, as well
as the new struggles that are emerging around the world.
My argument is that in addition to struggling
against negative social realities, 21st century BC ought to work towards
developing a set of proposals for post-apartheid societal institutions. Merely
criticising rampant material consumption in post-apartheid South Africa without
conceptualising and implementing liberatory political programmes that actually
make a positive difference in people’s lives is not a good political strategy.
Similarly, if the BC tradition is going to grow
intellectually, then it has to value criticism rather than sectarianism.
According to the UPM, in post-apartheid South Africa, BC organisations have
often been characterised by authoritarianism and a tendency to use slander and
intimidation to shut down debate. “Critics have been called agent provocateurs,
traitors, lumpens etc,” points out the UPM. The departure point for 21st
century BC ought to be the acknowledgement that even the best social theories
have flaws. Accordingly, this has to be our mental attitude towards BC. Equally
important is the realisation that treating political ideas as part of our
personal identities tends to lead to sectarianism.
My view is that we should regard political
theories as intellectual tools to assist us understand social reality, and we
ought to value the usefulness of intellectual ideas based on whether or not
they help us achieve our social and political goals. I personally would like to
see 21st century BC take these simple truths seriously.
