Mzolo Veja Veli
I grew up under Apartheid South Africa, the White Supremacy System that kept Afrikans subjugated in every area of their lives. Under Apartheid everyone in South Africa was categorized under a particular race and every movement of their lives was monitored accordingly. Whites were at the top, followed by Indians, then Coloreds(mixed race), and Afrikans at the bottom. Everyone was separated in terms of living, work, travel, entertainment, education, worship; kwk. The entire country was a police state and militarily occupied. As the struggle against apartheid intensified, so did the occupation. I can remember having soldiers standing outside our classrooms in high school, being chased, teargassed, and a friend losing his eye after being shot with a rubber bullet.
When “negotiations” between the ANC and the ruling white National Party took place in 1994, South Africa was supposedly the last African country to gain its “independence.” South Africa was a Black country now–or rather a country ruled by Blacks. This was in spite of the fact that the law of the country is Roman/Anglo/Dutch law. The Constitution of the country is basically a European Constitution, the politics are European parliamentary system with European political parties, the land is still owned by the same people (Whites) who owned it during Apartheid, a neocolonial capitalist economic system, and the judiciary that is still controlled by the White Supremacists judges. The ANC further sweetened the deal by agreeing to pay off Apartheid debts.
What the Afrikans got out of the 1994 “negotiations” was a so called “Truth And Reconciliation” theatrics where Africans came forward before television cameras to relate personal brutalities that they, family members, or friends suffered from the terror of the Apartheid system. Individual whites were named as culprits and there were no real consequences for what they did. Blacks also got the ANC in parliament ruling together with the National Party. A new flag was hoisted, roads and buildings were renamed, new statues erected, all South African languages where declared official languages even though English and Dutch are the main languages used for business, education and other official interactions. Africans can now live wherever they want, or travel anywhere, even go to school where they please. Of course all of this is in theory because for the majority of Africans, very few can afford to. In essence, South Africa like the rest of the African countries became symbolically free. In reality the whole continent is still under Euro/American/China/Arab domination and control.
Twenty-six years later, the country seems to be on the verge of disintegrating. After the ravages of the HIV pandemic, the influx of Africans from other African countries, unemployment consistently in double digits for years, spike in crime some of which is brutal, self-dealings and corruption by government officials, and now the pressures of Covid 19; the masses are beginning to question the legitimacy of the ANC government. The resentment, the frustration, the anger and disillusionment has been festering for years now. It has expressed itself in what has been referred to as xenophobia, or boycotts, strikes, and riots that were a staple menu of the Apartheid era. This is as good as any time for the masses in South Africa to be re-engaged to the struggle not only in South Africa but struggles of Africans against White Supremacy/Racism on the continent and all over the globe. All African people should intensify the coordination and networking of all our people. White Supremacy is a global system. We cannot keep acting like our struggle is localized and has little or nothing to do with all other Africans. The very fact that White Supremacy has managed to coordinate and localize symbolic independence of African people one country at a time all over the world is enough to realize that African people ought to reevaluate how we have not met the challenge. Pan Europeanism can only be met and confronted by Pan Africanism. Although we do have to respect some local urgencies, we should never fail to find a connection to other Africans all over the globe.