On a cold afternoon in
July 2010, a group of us met in Newtown to distribute pamphlets around the
Johannesburg CBD and hotspots of the 2008 "xenophobic" attacks, such
as Diepsloot etc. We were only about twelve, so we had to break into groups of
four.
Three people would
distribute flyers and one person would engage people to explain the cause we
were fighting. Our campaign was called "Singamakwerekwere sonke",
meaning "We are all foreigners". Basically, we were protesting
against the deporting and the violence against our Afrikan brothers and
sisters, whom our system calls "foreigners" and our people call
"amakwerekwere". Our group was called SNI. We were young people who wanted
change and we wanted it NOW!
Three of my colleagues and I were deployed to Noord Taxi Rank, which is now known as MTN Rank, in the Jo'burg CBD. It was myself, Marechera WaNdata, Katlego (surname forgotten) and one of my closest friends at the time, Andile Mngxitama. We began to distribute the pamphlets to commuters and taxi drivers, with myself and Andile speaking to people one by one, telling them why it was wrong to attack and kill Afrikan brothers and sisters. Most of the people listened, but some told us to go to hell. One taxi driver came to me and said: "The reason why you want us to not kill these people is because you are being fucked by Nigerians..."
At this, Andile and
Marechera ran to my defense. Not long after, the three of us were grabbed by
the collars of our t-shirts by armed men. We were dragged up the stairs to some
room near the taxi rank vicinity. Our pamphlets were conviscated and we
underwent interrogation for what felt like decades. They swore at us,
intimidated us and threatened to assault us. Eventually they let us go, but
still kept our pamphlets. I was 18 years old, terrified beyond measure, hungry,
cold and feeling dejected by the refusal of our people to understand the
importance of our cause.
A few days later, we put
into motion the plans to have a national conference where we would converge BC
activists and design a program of action that would annihilate the nervous and
heinous condition of Blackness in a country where Black life is cheap. I left
my home to stay with one comrade Ncesh and for the next two weeks, herself,
myself and Andile wrote discussion documents that would be used at the first
ever September National Imbizo (SNI). It was exhausting. We never slept for
more than four hours at a time. Everyday Ncesh and myself would walk all the
way from Marshalltown to Braamfontein to use Internet facilities and then go to
Andile's offices at the Foundation for Human Rights and have a debriefing. This
went on until the documents were completed. From then on, every waking day of
our lives was dedicated to mobilising and organising young people for this
conference. I was registered with UNISA, trying to juggle academic work with
SNI work, often neglecting the former. I was determined to give my all to the
SNI, because I believed with every part of me that it was a struggle worth
fighting.
A few months later,
after an ideological disagreement with Andile, I was out of the SNI. I was not
even told decently that I had been suspended or given an explanation as to why.
I was simply told by a comrade that there was a Steering Committee meeting
which I, as the Secretary General of SNI at the time, was not even told about.
I was told that "the committee feels uncomfortable with you and feel that
it is best if you stop being part of it". I was told this by my comrade,
my friend, the person I had run around Jozi with late at night and early
mornings. Comrade Ncesh. The SNI did not want me. Me, who had sacrificed my
life for the SNI, me who had stood by Andile when he was being attacked by the
entire BC bloc. Me who had fought his battles with Mazibuko Jara, his sworn
enemy. I was devastated. Sure, I was not innocent. I had contributed to the
conflict in SNI by befriending "enemies of Blacks", which included
Jara himself. But my defense at the time was that these people were not our
enemies, that we could still unite with them. Comrades were being purged from
the SNI. Anyone who disagreed with Andile was out. Genuine comrades like
NtsikaGogwana, Lola Bam, the late Mzimkhulu Nyeka...any and everyone who was not
Andile's "yes boy" was being purged and some of us were fighting
against this.
We were labelled as
'traitors'. Our families were under attack from Andile and his bulldogs. We
were accused of being agents of the ANC. We were no longer the same people who
had been detained and harrassed with him. We were no longer foot soldiers of
the Blackwash Dream. Everyone was taking sides. For those of us who had given
our lives to SNI, the world became extremely lonely. I had no friends outside
the SNI, and no-one in the SNI wanted to associate with me. I was alone,
terrified, perpetually in a state of weeping. Eventually a ray of hope emerged,
an opportunity to get out of Gauteng to continue my activism elsewhere. It came
from the least expected person: Mazibuko Jara. The same person I had fought
with for Andile. The man I had insulted and humiliated. He was saying:
"Malaika, you are still young and you can still make a difference".
I left for Cape Town and
never looked back.
Today, Andile is under
attack and we are being asked to fight for him. Today, when it is convinient to
do so, we are being asked to mobilise us against "liberals" who
allegedly want to destroy Andile. Today, the BC and Afrikanist bloc is asked to
defend Andile when he stands to face criminal and civil charges. Who was being
mobilised when Andile was purging all of us? Who was defending us when his
bulldogs were relentlessly attacking us and our families? No-one. Today Andile
and his remaining followers claim that the BC bloc is under threat from
"liberals". Liberals? Liberals like Aubrey Mokoape and the Unemployed
People's Movement?
And what is the real
threat to the BC bloc? It is not people who have distanced themselves from
Andile's public threats of violence to a journalist. It is not people who are
disgusted by Andile's publication of lies, racist lies, about grassroots BC
activist Ayanda Kota. The real threat to the BC bloc began when, in 2010,
debate was silenced with purgings. It began when comrades Ntsika, Lola, Noxolo
and others were removed for refusing to be narrow nationalists. It began when
the late Mzimkhulu Nyeka was being called a "bitch" by Andile's
bulldogs. A man above 50 being called a "bitch" by little children
because he questioned Andile's absolute authority! That was when the BC bloc
was being destroyed, not today when legitimate questions are being asked about
Andile's authoritarian personality cult.
BC was never about a
personality cult. It was never about the crude anti-whitism in which whites are
called 'pigs' and 'dogs'. It was never about trying to use intimidation and
slander to crush any person or organisation that questioned the absolute
authority of The Leader. Andile Mngxitama is not the new Biko. He is a thug who
is only concerned with building his own power as a media personality.
There are many
organisations and individuals that are seriously trying to build on the legacy
of BC. Some of them are at the coalface of real struggles that aim to build
real confidence and power in black communities.
Never again will I sweat
and fight battles of individuals as if defending them means defending the
revolution. Let the revolution itself decide who its heroes are!
