CULTURALLY TEACHING

BLACK VIEWPOINT

Contents
Introduction
Black Development
The New Day
Kwa-Zulu Development
The New Black

INTRODUCTION
Editor
B.S. Biko (1972)
IT IS SIGNIFICANT that in a country peopled to the extent of 75% by blacks
and whose entire economic structure is supported and maintained, willingly or
unwillingly, mainly by blacks, we find very few publications that are directed at,
manned by and produced by black people.
Black Viewpoint is a happy addition by the Black Community Programmes to all
those publications that are of great relevance to the black people. Our relevance
is meant to be in the sense that we communicate to blacks things said by blacks in
the various situations in which they find themselves in this country of ours. We have
felt and observed in the past, the existence of a great vacuum in our literary and
newspaper world. So many things are said so often us, about us and for us but very
seldom by us.
This has created a dependency mood amongst us which has given rise to the
present tendency to look at ourselves in terms of how we are interpreted by the
white press. In the process, a lot of us have forgotten that the values and attitudes
of newspapers are governed largely by the values and attitudes of both their
readership and of their financial supporters - who in the case of the white press
in South Africa, are whites. Therefore, when we read of a report of any speech or
incident which focuses on blacks, we usually find it accompanied by interpretative
connotations in terms of stress, headlines, quotations and other journalistic
nuances, that are calculated to put the report in a particular setting for either
consumption or re-jection by the reader.
One must quickly add that the moral of the story is not that we must therefore
castigate white society and its newspapers. Any group of people who identify as
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a unit through shared interests and aspirations necessarily need to protect those
interests they share. The white press is therefore regarded by whites as doing a
good service when it sensitises its own community to the 'dangers' of Black Power.
After all no white man is wanted outside the laager when the rest of the white
society is facing the illusionary swaart gevaar that only exists in the minds of the
guilt-stricken whites. Perhaps only very few whites would not want to be in the
laager.
No, the real moral of the story therefore can only be that we blacks must on our own
develop those agencies that we need, and not look up to unsympathetic and often
hostile quarters to offer these to us.
In terms of this thinking, therefore, Black Viewpoint is meant to protect and further
the interests of black people. We do not intend to venture beyond this. We shall not
serve as an exclusive mouth-piece for any particular section of the black community
but merely to pick up topics as they come and as they are dealt with by blacks in
various situations.
In the present issue we focus attention on four addresses delivered by blacks in
different situations. By juxtaposing these articles in this issue we hope to reflect the
broad spectrum now to be found in our society both in terms of the different stresses
we lay in the definition of our problem - the white problem - and in the mooted
solutions that all four speakers touch briefly on.
We hope this will generate a good response amongst those who read it.

BLACK DEVELOPMENT
Njabulo Ndebele
Njabulo Ndebele is a final year B.A. student at the University of Lesotho, Botswana
and Swaziland. He is also the SRC President of UBLS
I. THE PROBLEM
There are three kinds of socially significant groups in South Africa. There is the
ethnic group, the racial group and the broad national group. The national group is
the combination of the racial and the ethnic groups, that is to say, it is the national
group which, for purposes of international identification, can also be known as the
people of South Africa, or simply as South Africans. The racial group, on the other
hand, is a combination of ethnic groups. Thus, the black racial group is made up
of Zulus, Basotho, Pedis etc. and the white racial group is made up of Afrikaners,
English people, Portuguese etc. The national group, we shall note, is fragmented
by the institutionalised racial conflicts, that is to say in fact the national group is
formed when the racial groups begin to interact. This means implicitly that the most
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important agent for social dynamism is the interaction of the racial groups. In other
words, it is not the nation, in South Africa, which matters, it is the racial groups.
Indeed, there is no nation in South Africa; a nation pre-supposes a voluntary and
unified political co-operation of all the social groups within a State.
However, on the level of simple human relations, at any particular moment, any
particular individual in South Africa is faced with three levels of socio-politico-
economic conflicts. There are the conflicts he experiences within his own ethnic
group; those he experiences within his racial group, and those he experiences as
a member of a racially divided state. There is conflict within and between ethnic
groups, and conflict within and between racial groups. In these conflicts, the
conflicts within any particular group tend to be diminished whenever that group
comes into conflict with another similar group. In any conflict, two or more parties
are both and at the same time, fighting against each other for an objective which
neither has. It may be that one party has already reached that objective, so that the
losing party is engaged in a constant effort to remove the victor from the coveted
place. On the other hand, the victor is engaged in an effort to maintain his position.
Thus, in matters of state politics, the victor can be in a position to control his
opponent in a conflict by force, if necessary, in order to maintain his position.
There is a hierarchy of conflict in South Africa. The greatest conflict is that between
the races. The race which is in power is the white race; that which seeks the
power it does not now have is the black race. The white races is able to control
the black race, by force if necessary, in order to maintain its position of power.
The white race precludes the black race from participating creatively in the quest
for industrial development and, consequently, for political power. The white race-
tries to make it difficult for the black race to reach certain academic standards,
thus excluding the black race from the quest for intellectual and ideological power.
The white race seeks to prevent the black race from making any constructive and
creative contribution to the black race's own cultural development, by creating social
conditions unconducive to meaningful cultural expression, thus excluding the blacks
from the quest for cultural power in a distinct cultural identity. The white race tries
to minimise the conflict within and between its ethnic groups in order to maximise
its efforts to dominate; it also tries to maximise the conflict within and between the
ethnic groups of the oppressed black race in order to minimise the latter's resistance
in the racial conflict. Thus by such means, the white race prevents the black race
from attaining political power. The whole socio-political framework in South Africa
is based on the preservation of the superior-inferior relationship between white and
black, a relationship essential for the maintenance of white domination.
The need for freedom is an essential and natural characteristic of humanity. That
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is to say, there is no human being who can willingly accept a status of political
servitude. It is self-evident therefore, that the white race in our country seeks to
perpetuate and unnatural condition. It is important, therefore, to realise that nature
is on the side of the blacks. It is important, furthermore, that the blacks cultivate
and develop a philosophy of nature and of life that will centre around the concept of
human worth and human dignity for only when we value our own selves do we find it
necessary to struggle for the preservation and the assertion of that which is valuable
in us.
A paper for the Symposium on CREATIVITY AND BLACK DEVELOPMENT
organised by the South African Students' Organisation (SA SO).
II. SOCIETY AND POLITICS
Politics is the quest for and the use of power; and society is the interaction of
various power-groups. This view of politics and society is what I may describe as a
functional view in terms of our human circumstances in this country. It is functional
in the sense that it is a necessary view to hold in the creation of a practical attitude
towards the assessment of our condition. We blacks must sit down to examine the
various power-groups in our midst, with a view to finding out which of these groups
can be most effective and relevant towards our necessary, and hence natural,
struggle for a more meaningful participation in the shaping of our country's destiny.
It goes without saying, therefore, that there is a hierarchy of power-groups in a
political structure. But all these groups have one thing in common - the desire
to propagate a point of view which must be acceptable to a great number of
individuals. The highest power-group is that which has been granted the right and,
at the same time, the privilege to rule a people. In seeking the greatest power that
man can ever wield, this group is conventionally referred to as the political group
or party. There are other power-groups which are normally referred to as social
groups, that is to say, smaller groups which by virtue of their existence, natural
necessity and interaction determine the nature of a community of people i.e. cultural
groups, educational groups, religious groups, industrial groups, sports groups
and others. An important characteristic of these social groups is that they may not
necessarily be in conflict with one another, for each seeks to assert itself in its own
field of interest.
III. POWER-GROUP AMONG BLACKS (a) The Peasant and Semi-Peasant
There are social divisions among the blacks, which are of a universal nature. Such
are those which exist between rural and urban blacks. The former, who in the
history of many social and political revolutions have often been regarded as having
the greatest potential as an agent or as an instrument for the mobilisation of human
forces towards social, political and economic reforms, are virtually a dormant group
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in South Africa. This group, whose members are known as peasants, is mostly to
be found in small rural ethnic concentrations either in reserves or in the small towns
bordering the reserves. Where the towns are far from the reserves but not very
far from the big towns, the peasants of a particular rural area may be made up of
several ethnic groups living together and working for the same white farmer. The
existence of these people has more often than not been an embarrassment to the
urban blacks whose relative social advancement has tended to make them wish to
forget their wretched past, constantly being brought to life by the peasant and his
companion, the migrant labourer.
The peasants on the white farms have almost no political consciousness. Their
day is rigidly scheduled according to some form of compulsory routine. They have
accepted, either consciously or sub-consciously, the fact that they are not working
for their own betterment; rather, they are working for a white master who seems
to have a right to benefit from their labours. They have no social security. They do
not own land. They can be driven away from the farms almost at the whim of their
white master. Even their very survival is not as important as the survival of their
master. Theirs is the life of insignificance, of diseases, of ignorance. Their whole
personal orientation is geared towards serving their master. They are grateful that
their master allows them to build their rusted zinc lean-to's half a mile away from the
master's mansion. They are human possessions which the white master does not
value.
Indeed, he does not even value their labour, as such, for he accepts their labour as
much as he accepts the fact of breathing. You only value the process of breathing
when your lungs are in trouble. Before then, your lungs are some aspect of yourself
that you seldom think of in your life. That is the extent to which human beings have
been reduced - mere insignificance.
Yet, in spite of all his apparent degradation, we would be wrong to suppose that
there is no vital part of the peasant's personality which does not secretly abhor the
degrading agent and the inhuman physical conditions to which the agent subjects
him. An intuitive knowledge of natural justice tells the peasant that the life he is
leading is far from ideal; that he is insecure; that he wishes to own property and
work for his livelihood as any person proud of his physical strength, would wish.
However, to wish for something is an indication that you do not have it at the
moment of wishing. Thus, the next step is to try to find ways and means of acquiring
the object of your wishes. What, therefore, can the peasant do? Nothing. It is a
fact that on their own, they cannot do much. They are weakened, as a group, by
ignorance; by lack of political awareness; by immediate ethnic differences which to
them are still the determinants of the basic conflicts in life. This peasant group is,
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indeed, a good example of a power-group that has no actual power. However, their
potential power is immense indeed. It is this potential power that should interest us,
for indeed, real social and political change, if it is to be a goal for all black people,
can only be realised in the mobilisation of all possible human resources.
Closely related to the peasant group, is a group that has become semi-peasant and
semi-urban. This is the group of migrant labourers, most of whom work in the mines.
A good number of these come from neighbouring black countries. These migrant
labourers suddenly find themselves uprooted from a rural life which they find
uninspiring when compared with the stories of a glamorous life in the big cities. They
come to the town and frequently mix with the urban blacks. Again, the tendency of
the urban blacks has been to look down upon these labourers on account of their
untutored ways.
Having been in contact with the life of the towns, they have some measure of
political awareness. It is also important to realise that when they get back to their
homes, they come with an enhanced social status. They become interpreters of the
fast-moving world outside. Some of them become fairly literate. Thus, they realise,
with some articulation, that there is a lot they do not have which the better members
of their country, the white masters, have. They can do more for themselves than
their completely peasant companions. We must realise, therefore, that this group
can be a very important agent for social change in the rural areas.
(b) The Urban Blacks
The urban blacks are the most socio-politically aware among the black groups. This
is because the urban black is more advanced socially, politically, economically,
educationally and in many other ways that make life in the urban areas supposedly
more meaningful. That is one of the unexpressed, main political reasons behind the
policy of the Bantustans. The urban blacks, because they know too much (much
more than the lower classes among the whites) must be divided into ethnic groups
and sent to their homelands. There, they shall become a semi-peasant group,
because basically the homelands are intended to be labour reservoirs of migrant
labourers. In the homelands, they can be very easy to control; easy to convince
that they are inferior, and easy to convince that they have political power when in
actual fact that political power is only the freedom to organise effectively, through a
government machinery, migrant labour, as some black neighbouring countries are
doing. The black governments in the homelands are going to do the white man's
dirty job.
However, in his relative advancement, the urban black still feels backward in
relation to his white counterpart. He works in the same factory as the white worker;
diagnoses the same diseases with the white doctor after having written the same
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examination; worships the same God as the white churchgoer and generally does
many other jobs which the whites do, yet, in a state which, by virtue of his colour,
discriminates against him, he is unable to participate in any decision-making
processes affecting him and his work.
He has repeatedly compared his skills with those of his white counterpart and
has not found his skills wanting. There are two social evils which beset the life of
the urban black. He suffers primarily because of the black colour of his skin; and
secondarily as a member of the exploited class in a capitalist economy.
One of the most shattering characteristics of an advanced capitalist economy is
that it tends to be extremely acquisitive. People want to lay their hands on almost
anything that is brought to their notice by cunning advertisements. The urban blacks
have joined this acquisitive world, and the life of this world is characterised by
extreme alienation from oneself. Each person tends to move away from himself in
a bid to acquire things external to his own person. Thus, the acquisition and the
hoarding of material things is responsible for a proportional rise in social status. That
is to say, people do not matter; it is things that matter. Things make people; people
no longer make things, that is to say, people no longer approach work and matter
with a creative bent, because their handling of matter is no longer a means of self-
expression, it is now a barren conformity to an impersonal acquisitive norm. An
acquisitive society is also characterised by its purposelessness. There is no intrinsic
purpose behind this blind acquisition of material things; indeed, acquisition is an end
in itself. That is why after having acquired out of conformity, one has no value for
that which one has acquired, because it has no intrinsic value for one.
A casual and brief look at the history of racism in South Africa shows that the early
white settlers were sincere in their belief in the inferiority of the black man. They
were driven by deep-seated religious beliefs. Now, it is no longer that way. There
are very few whites now religiously committed. Let us not be deceived, the Afrikaner
is no longer as deeply religious as he was in the nineteenth century. Today, he has
tasted of the material fruits of modern society and is determined to enjoy them for
as long as he can. The effect of religion is only powerful immediately after human
appeals to it have been successful. After that, that influence and power wane with
each passing generation. That is why today, the Afrikaner speaks of ideologies,
because an ideology is a rational product of the mind.
That is why he now speaks of 'youth preparedness', because he cannot now rely
on irrational and mystical religious appeals. The capitalist society has removed
all the mysticism and seeks to be enjoyed on its own terms - rationality and
indoctrination. That is why rational justifications for apartheid only succeed in being
feeble. The true foundations of apartheid are irrational and that irrationality has now
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disappeared. Indeed, the effect of apartheid today lies in the statute books - laws
long written, and laws being written. The latest laws are now written with a view to
the benefit of the economy and not of religion.
This fact leads us to a very important conclusion. We have seen how a fast-moving
capitalist economy advances with a proportional increase in alienation. The white
South African does not know himself; he knows only that he is white, but of the
collective humanity of whites he has a vague knowledge because they have lost it.
The capitalist society has had its toll of self-alienation; and the laws passed to the
capitalist's benefit have helped him along by providing him with the maximum
opportunity for hoarding wealth. The black person has ceased to be just a person
who is black, he has now become a vital tool in the hoarding race; the acquisitive
marathon race. The black person has been reduced to a thing. There is no
difference between the machine and the black person. The money he earns is the
oil that serves to keep him running. The blacks have been relegated to a vague
generality in terms of human dimensions, and to a specific generality in terms of
exploitative and quantitative economic productivity. They have been reduced to a
mere racial concept of labour by all the sections of the white community. Blacks are
known as: labour in the factory; labour in the mines; anonymous labour in the
essential services; labour in the Kitchen. 'Labour' and 'black person' in South Africa
are synonymous. In changing such concepts about them, the blacks can cripple the
evil reality such concepts serve. They must realise that the whites cannot help but
acquire, and in doing so, these whites may be ignorant of the injustices they
perpetrate, having been rendered feeling less by the blind urge to acquire. The
blacks must assert their human dignity and rebel against an institution which
relegates them to the status of things.
By what has just been said, it should not be understood that the implication made is
that there are no racial conflicts. Among the whites, the fanaticism about race has
simply watered down to negative attitudes springing from a self-inflicted ignorance.
That is why apartheid has all in all become 'petty'. Apartheid is no longer a pseudo-
ideology; it has become an economic principle. This is an important development
for the black person. It means that the black man must be careful of concentrating
on the racial struggle, to the detriment of the economic struggle, because the latter
may have become more important than the former. The whites continue to make
declarations about white superiority and Western Civilisation. These declarations
seemingly seek to underline racial conflicts; they are in essence intended to
hoodwink the black man into believing that his only problem is the racial one. This is
clearly brought out by the liberal elements among the whites. The liberal cry against
the oppression of the black man is essentially ethical. They do not want a politically
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free black man, they simply want a happy labour force. They have publicly declared
that the happier the blacks, the more they can produce economically. To the liberal,
the black person is still a thing, only the thing must be given more oil to function with
better efficiency. Let us look closely now, at the urban blacks.
The black person has in the past tended to demonstrate to the whites that he was
also capable of being a professor, an engineer, a businessman, a technician and
other highly professional persons. So his whole personal orientation became geared
towards this personal display. Little did he realise that in trying to prove himself he
was doing so not on his own terms, but on the terms of the whites. He had to prove
himself within standards of life which had in themselves the capacity to oppress
him, not within the standards of his own indigenous civilisation. Thus today he is still
crying for education, sacrificing for it to the extent of starvation because the game of
personal display is still being played. There is a vague notion of what education is,
and what it is for. We have all heard at some stage in our life the distraught old lady
saying: My child, what can we do in this world without education? This question is
still being asked. But it is the wrong question. The correct question should be: When
we have education, what do we do with it?
What is happening now is that the blacks acquire education with only a vague aim
for its utilisation. The real shocking tragedy comes when the black man realises that
even with his education, he is still not really accepted by whites. He is still given
lower wages; he cannot do some jobs because of job reservations.
This struggle for education created social problems within the urban black
population. Those who struggled for this education for personal display tended,
psychologically, to dissociate themselves from their ignorant lot. In this way a
black middle class, the darlings of the white liberals, was formed, that is to say,
class divisions were formed among the blacks. Some of the members of this
class due to their political perspicacity decided to seek the political kingdom on
behalf of their people. This group reigned during the time when the teacher and
the priest were highly respected members of the black community. Because they
brought themselves close to the people, their political influence lay in the fact
that they were the few whom the people could present to the world as symbols
of success. The influence of this group reached both its zenith and its downfall at
Sharpeville. Sharpeville indicated that the intelligentsia had failed. At that time, the
factory worker was just beginning to earn more than the priest and the teacher.
The ordinary, uneducated man could buy a car and even run a business. This new
economic power, insignificant though it was, gave the ordinary man confidence and
an increased self-reliance. But it was a self-reliance that had no political direction. It
was a self-reliance commanded more by a mere instinct for survival. When, under
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oppressive conditions, the group has failed, each person goes at it alone. Thus, any
collective racial feeling against the whites was greatly diminished, because each
person felt he was suffering as an individual.
When the struggle seemed to be that of individuals, the decadent values so typical
of capitalist economies set in. When there is excessive individuality, objective
morality ceases to have any meaning at all. Rapidly, the blacks were absorbed
into the stream of acquisitiveness. The moral effect this had on the social life of the
blacks was phenomenal. The appeal of the mass media became irresistible. Black
people began taking to fashions; buying cars, generally developing a compulsive
urge to seek entertainment. Thus their lives began to revolve around money and
the accumulation of wealth. How else do you explain the actions of a man who buys
a pair of shoes worth about thirty rands, when his family is starving? It is the same
with liquor, where the more expensive brands are preferred.
(i) The Black Middle Class
This class was referred to earlier on as the darlings of the white liberals. It is
made up of doctors, businessmen, lawyers, journalists, and other professional
people. Most of them have become obsessed with capitalist values. They have
the shared characteristic of indulging in the exploitation of their own people. This
is because, although they are politically aware, they have no political commitment.
There is also the added vice of individuality. Because Africans can own no land
in the urban areas, the white liberals were heard to speak on behalf of this black
middle class. It was argued that if they were given land, hence security, they would
work for the maintenance of law and order. This invariably means that they would
assist in the oppression of the blacks. The womenfolk of this class have formed
ineffective social groups such as Women's Leagues where table manners, recipes,
and darning methods are discussed. The journalists are worse. There is no black
press in South Africa. The few black papers are white-owned. It follows, therefore,
that their editorial policies as decided by the whites are geared towards financial
gains, and the black editors seem to agree to be used as direct instruments for the
exploitation of their own people. The strategy of this press is to make feeble attacks
on apartheid as an indication to blacks that it is on their side. An indication that they
are not interested in the political education of the blacks is the space they give to
gory murders, rapes, sports, adultery and other sensational events. They justify their
actions by making false claims that blacks are keenly interested in such things.
The black middle class is also characterised by a general lack of creative
imagination. There seems to be endless imitation and very little innovation.
Scientists will complain about a lack of research facilities - what is there to prevent
them from building a small back-yard laboratory? Similarly teachers will complain
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about a lack of teaching aids - what is there to prevent them from making some?
Accomplished musicians will continue playing classicial music and American Jazz
without researching or experimenting with a wealth of musical forms and rhythms
around them. There is a general frustration from self-pity which does not seem to
struggle to find outlets. This is a group that should be in the forefront of a black
renaissance in South Africa. This class must wake up and review its position in the
black community. It should come nearer to the ordinary workers for it is the latter
who can give them a genuine support towards the realisation of healthy dreams,
and not the white liberals.
(ii) The Workers
The workers are by far the greatest number of urban dwellers. Like the peasants,
the urban workers have a great potential for effecting social change; but they have
had no effective leadership. But unlike their rural companions, the workers are
to some extent conscious of their political position, even if their dissatisfaction is
only feebly and vaguely expressed. The workers are very active in their urban
social setting. They have shown great initiative and creativity. From them we get
mbaqanga musicians, actors, beauty queens, soccerites, soul musicians, gangsters.
The middle class seldom, if ever, takes the challenge that the creativity of the
workers present. The middle class never develops on the crude initiative of the
workers precisely because it despises the workers' efforts. They forget that the
mainsprings of a true cultural identity come from below.
It has been mentioned that the workers lack effective leadership. Like most workers
throughout the world, the black urban workers are caught up in the webs of a socio-
political environment they cannot fully comprehend. It is the educated middle class
who can explain to the workers the workings of the system they live in, in order to
channel this vast wealth of initiative towards the destruction of the system. There
is a group in black urban society which can be regarded as a sub-group of the
workers.
(iii) The Black Religious Sects
There are more than three thousand religious groups in South Africa. A number
of theories have been advanced to account for this occurrence. The generally
accepted theory is that because black people could not hope to participate
legitimately in the exercise of national political expression, they sought this
expression in religion. Most of these groups broke away from the main white-
dominated denominations.
(iv) The Basis for a Black Socio-Political Change
We have seen what I consider the most important groups in the black community
and we have noticed that under over-bearing oppressive socio-political conditions,
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the more aware, by virtue of their education, tend towards a frustrated and apathetic
acceptance of the situation, whereas the less aware show a great zest for life.
Society cannot change significantly unless the crude initiative and creativity of the
less aware are crystallized into comprehensive gems of thought by the educated.
If this does not happen, society as a whole lives by intuitions, and intuitions have
never been clear agents for purposeful collective and effective action.
(a) The Blacks and the Philosophy of Life
Life is there to be lived, and lived fully. To live life fully means putting into practice
as far as possible the life of the rational imagination. An essential characteristic
of the imagination is that it varies in direct proportion to the availability of physical
circumstances conducive to emotional self-expression. The emotional and spiritual
states of our being enlist the assistance and co-operation of the mind towards
their expression. It is the mind that examines physical possibilities of emotional
expression. If the mind cannot manipulate physical reality, imaginative reality soars
to great heights. If the latter does not find physical expression frustration sets in.
Frustration can be passive and it can be active. The former is that which seeks
no outlet; it simply forces the victim into a world of dreams only. Active frustration
searches for outlets for relief. It enlists another faculty of the human being - the will.
Active frustration, however, puts great reliability on the rational faculty. The mind is
forced and pressurised into seeking practical solutions.
We can see, therefore, that the essential duality of mind and matter is an ever-
present reality. The mind seeks to manipulate matter to the benefit of a third human
dimension - man's spiritual being which is the seat of morality. While nature tends
to be arranged in a dialectical pattern, it is also true that in the dialectical opposition
between good and evil, man tends to wish for the perpetuation of the good.
If man tends towards this desire, then it is only because nature wills it so. The
spiritual being in man determines the good to be pursued. Thus, when man handles
matter, he does so with the aim of doing something good with it. Having considered
these factors very briefly we can see that without man, matter is valueless; and
without matter, man has nothing with which to express himself. The purpose of man
is self-expression, in the manipulation of matter. When man has transformed matter
into an object of inner expression, he is magnified and made valuable because
he has created something of value. The aim of society therefore is to create an
order in which individuals can create, and politics is nothing but the quest for the
power to create maximum opportunity for man to create. Thus politics, properly
conceived, is also a creative occupation. The creation of society, for the purposes
mentioned, is a collective activity, that is to say society is for man. Any society will
tend to develop a culture peculiar to it. Thus, culture, in its broadest meaning, is a
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shared characteristic among members of a particular society of tending to seek self-
expression in a defined pattern of activities. But there is such a thing as universal
culture, such as the world objective knowledge, science, mathematics, technology
etc. These are not the monopoly of any one society; it is simply that some societies
acquired them before others.
The black man must begin to see life, his life in particular, in terms of the above
thesis. There are certain basic moral tenets which are essential prerequisites in the
quest for a creative society. The black man must believe that it is both good and
right for him, so long deprived of human worth, to seek the freedom to give ex-
pression to his humanity; he must believe that it is both good and right for him, so
long degraded, to reassert his human dignity, he must believe that it is good and
right for all citizens of South Africa to share equally in the creation of the means of
self-expression; he must believe that it is both good and right to believe that he
holds the right view because it is not in conflict with universal objective morality; he
must believe that a system that relegates humans to the status of feelingless things
is both wrong and evil not only because it degrades man, but also because it
desecrates those values and beliefs which man holds most dear. (We cannot talk
about man without in the same breath talking about the purpose of his life as is
indicated by his values). The black man must believe that it is both good and right
that if he lets such a system continue to degrade him, he is contributing to the
desecration of his own beliefs; he must believe that it is both good and right that
human beings are more than just labour entities; that the black man's mind and
being, if given free expression, can create great works of art; great music; great
philosophical thought; great scientific contributions all of which can make South
Africa a great country. If the black man can see himself as such, he has already
begun the journey towards freedom; he has begun to turn the heaven of his
thoughts and beliefs into a physical reality on earth, and in South Africa.
(b) The Blacks and Indigenous Culture
Culture includes customs, traditions and beliefs. But customs and traditions are
man-made, therefore they can be changed according to whether man continues
to find value in them. No sooner has man created something than he either wants
to improve on what he has made or create something else. Culture therefore is
essentially dynamic. That is why the blacks must set about destroying the old and
static customs and traditions that have over the past decades made Africa the
world's human zoo and museum of human evolution. When customs no longer
cater for the proper develop-ment of adequate human expression, they should be
removed. Almost all the so-called tribal customs must be destroyed, because they
cannot even do so little as to help the black man get food for the day.
 CULTURALLY TEACHING
(c) The Blacks and Art
Today, the black man plays music with new musical instruments; he uses paints and
the chisel, and he writes. The black man must use new instruments without shame,
for science and technology are the rightful inheritance of all men on earth. But the
use to which the blacks put these things is their peculiarity. The blacks can develop
their own universal standards of artistic excellence. They must ignore the white critic
who, in reviewing a black art exhibition, says the black artist has not progressed
beyond the township themes. Such critics do not appreciate the paradox in the fact
that there is universality in parochiality. Black music must become more reflective.
The present state of music is chaotic.
Mbaqanga cannot make one think seriously about life: the same applies to soul
music as it is played by South African blacks. Black musicians must study the
kind of music we have and improve on it. Drama, that great art form of human
expression, is still very poor. It portrays the trivial aspirations of frustrated people
without making the people want to outlive such trivialities. The blacks must ignore
the white critic who says that drama is not a black art form. Drama is a universal art
form, and the black playwright must develop on the dramatic events peculiar to his
environment. The blacks must ignore the frustrated black journalist who says that
South African blacks must win the political kingdom first before they begin to create
artistic works of any meaning and merit. Indeed, it is the great art works that inspire
a bondaged people towards seeking freedom. An imaginative exploration of the
miserable human conditions in which people live, touches the fibre of revolt in them;
the fibre that seeks to reassert human dignity. Indeed, an intellectual awakening is a
vital prerequisite to any significant social change.
(d) The Blacks and Religion
Religion is a very important and highly effective form of social control. A wrong
religion can influence people towards wrong and irrelevant values and aspirations.
We have seen how religion has seemingly been used as a substitute for political
expression. In being thus, religion in the black community has become barren,
because it has no intellectual content to it. Thus, the many sects we see are a
perpetuation of bondage. The blacks must obliterate all these sects. On the other
hand, the blacks must turn their backs on all the Western Churches; they have been
shorn of all emotional content. A genuine religion will spring out of the blacks' own
circumstances, just as a genuine philosophy of life should. It should be a religion
that will find God through man; and not man through God. Man must understand
himself first before he can relate himself to God. A religion of today must be like a
true work of art: it must rationally centre in man and yet be rooted in an inexplicable
mystery, the appeal of which is emotional. Religion is man-made, and because it is
 CULTURALLY TEACHING
man-made it is also subject to the forces of change. A strong religion is one which,
over the ages, has continued to be an accepted determinant of social morality. If
and when it fails something else must be devised to keep society's confidence in
accepted moral codes.
We have looked at the various aspects of the socio-political situation of the black
community in South Africa. It is now for the black man to begin to work. It is work
that involves a whole human re-orientation. The blacks must awaken intellectually,
spiritually, socially, morally, culturally and in many other ways that make life worth
living. If the whites do not want to change their attitudes, let the blacks advance
and leave them behind; and when they have been left behind, let them be waited
for on the day they realise the value of change. The important thing to realise is
that what the blacks are striving for is more valuable than racial hatred. The blacks
must know what they want when they cry for freedom. They should not be put in
the situation whereby when they get this freedom they do not know what to do with
it. The struggle is more than a racial one; it is also a human one; a human struggle
involves development in all human activities that are the marks of true civilisation.

THE NEW DAY

C.M.C. Ndamse
C.M.C. Ndamse is a distinguished educationist and former lecturer at the University
of Fort Hare.
PRINCE BISMARCK once said that one-third of German university students broke
down from overwork, another third broke down from dissipation, while the other third
ruled Germany, I do not know which third of the student body is here tonight, but I
am confident that I am talking to the future rulers of this country, and also of the free
countries who may have come to this centre of freedom.
It is my belief that this institution is not only interested in turning out mere
corporation lawyers, skilled accountans or entomologists. What it is interested in,
and this I hope is true of every university, is in turning out citizens of the world, men
who comprehend the difficult, sensitive tasks that lie before them as free men and
women, men who are willing to commit their energies to the advancement of a free
society. That is why you are here.
Dr Brookes is still alive. My remarks on and references to him must naturally be
limited. Here we have a statesman who eloquently proved the difference between a
statesman and a politician. A statesman thinks and prepares for the next generation.
The politician thinks and prepares for the next general election. Here we have a
politician who has eschewed mud-slinging, and always fought with clean hands.
 CULTURALLY TEACHING
Here we have an educationist whose name has been a password from generation
to generation. He is one of the most distinguished scholars in South Africa, who
does not believe that knowledge is merely for study, but that it is also for the market
place. We are talking about Brookes the Christian whose deeds and activities are a
testimony to the soldiers of the Cross. But above all we are talking about Brookes
the man. I shall not be so naive as to suggest a fitting epitaph for him when he
reports for higher service, but I do suggest that when he gets to the pearly gates of
heaven and Gabriel and Michael demand an account of his activities, the answer
should be straight and simple I am Brookes'. Believe me, the gates will open on
their own accord.
That is why, Mr. President, your invitation was accepted with trepidation. And yet
to stand before you I count as a priceless privilege. To stand before you as a Dr
E.H. Brookes lecturer means to link arms with those men who have previously
demarcated, at your request, the irreducible line of academic freedom. This is a
momentous task, to be assumed with all humility, and demands from each of us a
statement as to where he stands and who he is. It is my heartfelt delight to remind
this august gathering that my fore-bears stalked these hills in days of yore. My
great-grandfather fought side-by-side with Shaka, and when Disraeli said: 'What!
these Zulus, they beat our soldiers and convert our bishops', he was referring to the
prowess and valour of the Zulus which has never been surpassed. This is the day
gone by. I am looking for the new day. This city is named after two Voortrekkers
leaders, reminding us of the carnage and bloodletting that took place in these parts.
These vales and valleys were filled with bellowing of beast and moaning of dying
men. Human wreckage lay scattered, and the birds of the air fed with glee to their
satisfaction. The bullet penetrated man's skull, and the assegais kissed man's heart.
Man fought with alacrity to grab and usurp. Man fought with valour and honour
to hold. God's children were at one another's throat. Hell was let loose. That day
passed and gave way to another day. Black hands joined to build the city. Time
marched on.
We are all immersed in the stream of time. As day succeeds day and history bears
us onward over its cataracts of change, we cannot be certain where we are or
where we are tending. I am sure that Charlemagne's followers never thought of
themselves as 'coming out of the dark ages'. The men of the Middle Ages didn't
know their period was giving way to the Renaissance. In fact, as far as they were
concerned, their age was not in the middle but right in front, like every real degree
of doubt about any attempt to appreciate changing circumstances and to define
historical epochs. One may believe that a momentous period in human history has
come to an end. I may say that I fully agree with Paul Sauer, when after SharpeVille
 CULTURALLY TEACHING
he said: The old book has closed and a new one has begun'. So profound are
the changes and upheavals. But I fully realise that there is nothing more difficult
to share and perhaps easier to refute, than a particular angle of vision on human
affairs. Historical change and changes in the circumstances in and of man have a
way of deluding the observers.
It may be that the complexity of our times comes from the fact that many processes
are going on simultaneously. There is a definite setback in the political control
exercised by the peoples of Western Europe for centuries. The people of Western
Europe committed the fatal mistake of associating political control with the 'white
colour'. The black world has been asserting its rights with ever-increasing
determination. The Declaration of Human Rights means more to the blacks than
many people realise or care to know. The blacks are now aware of their numerical
superiority. They have watched with glee the struggle between the United States
and Russia - the Colossus of Europe, in Smuts's words. They have evolved the
doctrine of non-alliance. They have used the United Nations Organisation to good
advantage. There is above all the dramatic phenomenon, the new discovery by
the black peoples: Black Consciousness. May I in passing sound this warning that
wise men ignore this new development at their own peril. Another process was a
world-wide expansion of the technological and egalitarian revolution which Western
Europe set in motion - the West Europeans have changed everything because
as their dominion grew, they invented and carried through the decisive modern
revolutions based on the drives of equality, science, technology and fair play. The
white man's transformation affected everybody else. They began, perhaps not
without cause, to think well of themselves. They forgot the cardinal lesson. They are
no exception. They foamed dry about their civilising mission. Had they not rescued
peoples from barbarism, converted the heathen, whatever that meant, and made
three blades of grass grow where none grew before? They even claimed some
special endowment and privilege for the colour of their skin. Western civilisation
and Christianity were synonymous. The converted were, however, not allowed to
discuss the ills of this world. Golden seats awaited them in the world to come.
This did not go on without being noticed. Cetwayo, the Zulu King, expressed himself
succinctly. Referring to the activities of the white people, he said, 'First come
missionary, then come rum, then come traders, then come army'. But Cecil Rhodes
expressed himself more clearly, 'I would rather have more land than niggers'.
Conquest and power do not confer intrinsic value. That lies in Man's being alone,
the humanity he shares with all God's creatures. The fact that the two world wars
were conducted by men of white skin tells only that during that period, they had the
edge in strength, weaponry and new techniques. Indeed, if at time, to be in terms of
 CULTURALLY TEACHING
superiority, we would all be living in a well-ordered Utopia. Our world is still largely
what they made it to be. The confusion and violence in which our planet is now
immersed suggests that the Europeans are not supermen. They are men, and so
are all the in-habitants of this globe. Mankind, I believe, will have a special chapter
for the period in history when a leading nation in the west dropped the hydrogen
bomb on Hiroshima.
The new day we crave for replaces the old day. We choose to forgive and forget the
past. Let us close the old books. Let us search ourselves. Let us find out who the
real lovers of our land are. Let us be clear as to who the enemies of our land are.
Where do you place those who even in spite of themselves, are prepared to spend
and to be spent to improve race relations? Where do you place those who boast?
May I crave for indulgence in my plea for the consideration of the black worker!!
The black people are forced to labour under circumstances which are calculated not
to inspire them with love and respect for labour. This constitutes a part of the reason
why it is necessary to emphasise the matter of industrial education as a means of
giving the black man the foundation of a civilisation upon which he will grow and
prosper. Mere training of the hand without the culture of brain and heart would mean
little. The effort must be to make the millions of blacks self-supporting, intelligent,
economical and valuable citizens as well as to bring about the proper relations
between them and the white citizens among whom they will continue to live.
With proper preparation and with sufficient foundation, the black man possesses
the elements out of which men of the highest character and usefulness can be
developed.
Lessons shall be applied honestly, bravely, in laying the foundation upon which
the black man can stand in the future and make himself a useful, honourable
and desirable citizen, whether he has his residence in the urban areas or in the
homelands. I am black. I know the black man pretty well - him and his needs, his
failures and his success, his desires and the likelihood of their fulfillment - I have
studied the relations with our white neighbours, and striven to find how these
relations may be more conducive to the general peace and welfare of both the black
man and of the country at large.
I am not minimising the attempts that are being made. But the truth must be given in
no uncertain terms that these attempts are too little, too slow, too niggardly and too
grudgingly given.
The creation of nationalities and separate states within the ambit of South Africa has
reached the point of no return. We leave this to time and the safe lap of history. Let
me say, however, that the three million whites are bound to the twenty million blacks
by ties which neither can tear asunder even if they would. The most intelligent in
 CULTURALLY TEACHING
the University of Natal campus community has his intelligence darkened by the
ignorance of a fellow citizen in the backveld of KwaZulu. The most wealthy in Park
town would be more wealthy but for the poverty of a fellow being in the shackles of
a Free State small dorp. The most moral and religious men (in human terms) in a
theological seminary have their religion and morality modified by the degradation
of the man living in squalor. Therefore, when the black man is ignorant, the white
man is ignorant, when the black man is poor, the white man is poor, when the black
man is in rags, the white man is in rags or at best, his soul is in rags. When the
black man is the victim of countless diseases, because of the squalor and abject
conditions under which he lives, the white man is in danger for epidemics and germs
defy divisions of colour and creed. When the black man's crime-wave increases,
the whole nation commits crime. For the white citizens of South Africa there is no
escape. They must help raise the character of the civilisation of the black man or
theirs is lowered.
No member of the white community in any part of South Africa can harm the
weakest or meanest member of the black race without the proudest and the bluest
blood of the nation being degraded.
It seems to me that there never was a time in the history of our country when those
interested in education in this audience should the more earnestly consider to what
extent the mere acquisition of the degree, the mere acquisition of a knowledge of
literature and science makes men producers, lovers of labour, independent, honest,
unselfish and, above all, good.
Call education by whatever name you please, if it fails to bring about these results
among the people, it falls short of the highest end. The science, the art, the literature
that fails to reach down and bring the humblest up to the enjoyment of the fullest
blessings of our land, is weak, no matter how costly the building or apparatus
used, or how modern the methods of instruction employed. The study of applied
mathematics and statistics on poverty and disease and illiteracy that does not result
in making men conscientious in alleviating the lot and plight of their fellow-men is
faulty. The study of art and social sciences that does not result in making the strong
less willing to oppress the weak means little.
How I wish that from the corridors and campus of such a university to the humblest
mud-hut primary school among the kraals of the Transkei wild coast, we could
burn, as it were, into the hearts and heads of all, that usefulness, that service to our
brother, is the supreme end of education.
We have had quack ideas repeated ad nauseum that the black man is an innocent
child of nature who needs the perpetual protection of the white man. It has been
asserted that education helps the black man, and that education hurts him, that he
 CULTURALLY TEACHING
is fast leaving the rural areas and taking up work and residence in white areas, and
that this justifies strict influx control measures. It has been asserted that education
unfits the black man for work and that education makes him more valuable as a
labourer, that he is the greatest criminal or thief and that he is our most law-abiding
citizen.
The black man has been told to acquaint himself with the modern scientific methods
in farming; in the same breath he has been told to perpetuate and cherish his
custom and traditions. The black man has been told about diet and about the
vitamins. He is told about the traditional food and to plant and eat mealies to
maintain identity. The black man is told to love his mother tongue which he learnt
from his mother's lap and that mother tongue instruction or medium in schools is the
best educational communication known and yet he is told that to get a decent job he
must prove proficiency in English or Afrikaans or both.
In the midst of these conflicting opinions, it is hard to hit upon the truth. But also
in the midst of this confusion, there are a few things of which I am certain - things
which furnish a basis for thought and action. I know that whether the blacks are
inferior or not inferior, whether they are growing better or worse, whether they are
valuable or valueless, a few years ago there were few Coloureds, fewer Indians
and not so many Africans and now these number millions. I know that whether
oppressed or free, the black people have always been loyal to the South African
flag, that no school house has been opened for them that has not been filled, that
the statements and pronouncements issued by black leaders are as potent for
weal or woe as those from the wisest and most influential men in the Republic.
I know that wherever the black man's life touches the life of the nation, it helps
or hinders, that wherever the life of the white race touches the black, it makes it
stronger or weaker. I know that only a few centuries ago, soldiers and missionaries
alike felt themselves crusaders to save the pagans, that the blacks came out
better Christians. The blacks went to school with a foreign language as medium of
instruction, they came out speaking the proud Anglo-Saxon tongue. Today many
blacks speak more idiomatic English than many Afrikaners.
They speak better Afrikaans than many English-speaking South Africans. Indeed
many blacks are thoroughly proficient in English, Afrikaans and vernacular. A few
years ago, the Coloured especially in the Western Cape was left to the fate of the
slow paralysis of the tot system. That today they are a potential force admits of no
debate. A few years ago, the Indians came to South Africa on invitation. Under the
blazing sun their sweat soaked the soil along the Natal coast.
They would, it was thought, multiply with untold prolificacy, fill the gutters and if it
must needs be, they would be repatriated. At the time South Africa did not know that
 CULTURALLY TEACHING
these people had an 'eastern secret'. They have the ability to bear and endure. With
their indomitable spirit, they have moved from strength to strength, defying 'ghetto
laws' and paralysing restrictions. I am inviting the 'doubting Thomas' to accompany
me to Grey Street. Indeed let him open his radio set on Saturday or Sunday morning
and listen to the wonderful music with an eastern setting. Much credit goes to the
present government for its wisdom to see the need for change of attitude.
The African tribesmen from all the corners of Southern Africa, moved in ant-
like formations to the mines. From the bowels of the earth, where many of them
have died unwept and unsung they brought gold and diamonds, which precious
stones have made South Africa the white man's 'haven' and the envy of many. For
these humble and innocent children of nature the habitat was the vermin-infested
compound or sack hovel. But I know, who does not, that their descendants are the
commercial tycoons in Soweto. From the backyards of garages and hovels the black
muscles carry South Africa unflinchingly. Yes, the hand and muscle of men and
women happy in distress and rich in poverty. The world has been twice faced with
devastating wars, and twice the black man has answered the clarion call to fight for
king and country. The wreckage at the bottom of the sea near France includes the
pieces of the Mendi. The story is told that as the ship was slowly and surely sinking,
a faint voice was heard saying, 'Abantwana bam, Abantwana bam'. 'Oh, my children
- my children'! We have reason to believe that this cry was a testimony of hope that
the men had fought a good fight for a good cause and better things awaited their
children. In the second world war the black hands waved knob-kieries and rusted
assegais at Marshall Goering's mechanised units. And day and night, the British
Broadcasting' Corporation, echoing the declaration of the Atlantic Charter, beamed
in constant refrains 'we fight for freedom'.
On the frontline the black man did all to save a white brother. At home the wheels
of progress rolled on and there is not a single attempt to sabotage the war effort
reported on the part of a black man.
I submit it to the candid and sober judgment of all men, are not a people capable
of such a taste, such transformation, such endurance, such long-suffering not
worth recognising? We crave for recognition and not tolerance. We call upon South
Africa to help us to help them. One of the clarion calls we are called upon to make
is that our nation with might and main should open the floodgates of educational
opportunities.
For this we need honest men who will face the stark realities of the situation. There
are those among both black and white who assert with a good deal of earnestness,
that there is no difference between the white man and the black man. This sounds
very pleasant and tickles the fancy. But when the test of hard, cold logic is applied
 CULTURALLY TEACHING
to it, it must be acknowledged that there is a difference - not an in-herent one, not a
racial one, but a difference growing out of unequal opportunities in the past and at
present.
Of course these days it is common knowledge that there is no inherent inferiority on
the part of the black man. Some years ago the black man foamed dry trying to prove
that he had as much brain and intelligence as the white man. If I were provoked, I
would be inclined to say that under given circumstances, the black child has better
brains than the white child.
Consider the prenatal care that is given to an average white child, how the mother
is fed, cared for, and nursed. Consider the care taken in a nursing home or hospital.
Consider the nursing the baby is given. A balanced diet awaits the baby. Hygienic
conditions surround both mother and baby.
On the other hand the black child is born of an ill-fed mother. Often the black child
is born in a thatched rondavel kitchen filled with smoke. At times the rondavel is
infested with vermin. Almost all the facilities and amenities taken for granted for
the white child are conspicuous by their absence. As he grows he hardly has toys.
There is no children's literature.
There is no radio. The black child and the white child go to school. It has happened
that these have found themselves on the campus of Natal University. At some stage
the two write the same examination and obtain the same grade. The question may
be asked, if the conditions were the same from the beginning, what would be the
position? The highest test of civilisation of any nation is its willingness to extend
a helping hand to the less fortunate. A nation, like an individual, lifts itself up by
lifting others up. Surely no people ever had a greater chance to exhibit the fortitude
and magnanimity than is now presented to the people of South Africa. It requires
little wisdom or statesmanship to repress, to crush out, to retard the hopes and
aspirations of a people.
But the highest and most profound statesmanship is shown in guiding and
stimulating a people so that every fibre in the body and soul shall be made to
contribute in the highest degree to the usefulness and ability of the nation. It is along
this line that I pray God the thoughts and activities of this audience may be guided.
We must all recognise the world-wide fact that the black man must be led to see and
feel that he must make every effort possible in every way possible, to secure the
friendship, the confidence, the co-operation of his white neighbour in South Africa.
However, I am aware that the white man has no respect for a black man who does
not act from principle. In some way the white man must be led to see that it is to his
interest to turn his attention more and more to the making of laws that will, in the
truest sense, elevate the black man. One of the greatest questions which our youth
 CULTURALLY TEACHING
must face in South Africa is the proper adjustment of the new relations of the races.
It is a question which must be faced calmly, quietly, dispassionately and the new
day has dawned to rise above party, above race, above colour, above sectionalism,
into the region of duty of man to man, of South African to South African, of Christian
to Christian.
The black people will fight for the maintenance of their identity. Yet we should surely
admit that we are one in this country. The question of the highest citizenship and
the complete education of all, concerns all people in South Africa. When one race is
strong the other is strong. When one is weak, the other is weak.
There is no power that can separate our destiny. Indignities and petty practices
which exist in many places injure the white man and inconvenience the black
man. No race can wrong another race, simply because it has the power to do so,
without being permanently injured in its own morals. The black man can, as he has
often done, endure the temporary inconvenience, but the injury to the white man is
permanent. It is for the white man to save himself from this degradation that I plead.
If a white man insults a black man, ill-treats him, despises him, it is the white man
who is permanently injured. Vexation of spirit comes to the black man discriminated
against or hurt, but death of morals - death of the soul - comes to those responsible
for discrimination.
In the economy of God there is but one standard by which an individual can
succeed. There is but one for a race. This country, which we all love and for which
we shall pay any price, for its own sake, expects that every race shall respect the
dignity of man.
During the next decade, the black man must continue passing through the severe
South African crucible. He is to be tested in his patience, for his forbearance, his
perseverance, his power to endure -to withstand temptations, to economise, to
acquire and use skill - his ability to compete, to succeed in commerce, to disregard
the superficial for the real, the appearance for the substance, to be great and yet
small, learned and yet simple, high and yet the servant of all. This is the passport
to all that is best in the life of our South Africa and the black man must possess it
or be barred out. It is this discovery that has given birth to Black Consciousness.
Moreover it is with a people as it is with an individual. It must respect itself if it
would win the respect of others. There must be a certain amount of pride about a
race. There must be a great deal of faith on the part of a race in itself. An individual
cannot succeed unless he has about him a certain amount of pride - enough pride
to make him aspire to the highest and best things in life. Wherever you find an
individual who is ashamed of his race trying to get away from his race, apologising
for being a member of his race, then you find a weak individual. And such a race is
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weak and vacillating. The apostles of Black Consciousness adhere to this and are
prepared to pay any price to go it alone. I am not going to call upon liberals to shed
tears, if they have any.
Some of us are convinced that the sponsors of Black Consciousness hate nobody
and bear malice to none. They have discovered, and just in time, that they
are 'children of the universe no less than the trees and the stars; they have a right
to be here'. And we are all convinced that in working out his own destiny, while the
main burden of activity must be with the black man, he will need, as he has done in
the past, the help, encouragement and guidance the strong can give the weak. Thus
helped, those of all races in South Africa will soon throw off the shackles of racial
and sectional prejudice and rise above the clouds of ignorance, narrowness and
selfishness into that atmosphere, that pure sunshine, where it will be the highest
ambition to serve man, our brother, regardless of race or previous condition. We
should hear less nonsense about Dutchmen, Rooineks, and Coolies and Kaffirs. We
should realise that every man, woman and child, no matter what colour or creed,
is a vital component of a tremendous nation-in-being, a momentous experiment in
history, of which we are a part. As South Africans we are committed to the arduous
task of building a great society, - not just a strong one, not just a rich one, but a
great society. This is a pact we make with ourselves. We should remember that the
bastion for South Africa is not a particular section of the population, indeed neither
is it an increased defence budget or more information offices, as necessary as these
may be. The bastion for this country is the great society of great men and women
dedicated to their mother-land not by ties of master and servant, but by mutual
respect. Let us remember what Thomas Jefferson said, borrowing a vivid phrase
from an English Revolutionary, ... 'the mass of mankind has not been born with
saddles on their backs, nor a favoured few booted and spurred, ready to ride them
legitimately by the grace of God'.
The effect of discrimination on the human mind has an affinity with the mental
condition we call arrested development; an historian whose task it is to record
the deeds of the perpetrators of discrimination towards the blacks, finds himself
embarrassed by what he knows will be the contemptuous astonishment of posterity.
He feels he is being invited to chronicle the mischief and snivelling of schoolboys
who should be birched and sent to bed in eternal oblivion. But they have a place in
history. It is a humiliation of the Muse of History.
The new day has come for every lover of South Africa to set the might of angered
and resolute manhood against the shame and peril of discrimination. These
perpetrators of discrimination whose glee taunts their victim as he is bundled
out through the front door of a restaurant, or is thrown headlong into the police
 CULTURALLY TEACHING
van for failure to produce a pass, do not represent the best among the whites in
South Africa. And I plead for the masterful sway of a righteous and exalted public
sentiment that shall condemn discrimination to high heaven. Let us remember that
there is no escape through law of man or God from the inevitable:
The laws of changeless justice bind oppressor with oppressed. And, close as sin
and suffering joined, we march to fate'.
Mr President, let me say that millions of black hands will aid you in pulling the load
upward, or they will pull against you the load downwards. The blacks will constitute
a fraction and more of the ignorance and crime in South Africa or a fraction of
its intelligence and progress. They shall contribute to the business and industrial
prosperity of South Africa, or they shall prove a veritable body of death, stagnating,
depressing, retarding every effort to advance the body politic. The United States and
Russia choose to make amends in space. We choose to make amends on mother
earth.
My friends, this is our task. It is not an easy one. At present great gaps in culture,
understanding, education and income hold the races apart. It is not simply a
question of white and black. It is all round the world. The 'new day' may be too
imperceptible for our eyes. The atmosphere may be more congenial than we
imagine. Let me remind the youth in this hall that the temptation, is naturally to want
no change. Idealism ends with the attainment of a degree. It is very comfortable
to be at the top of a heap, to live in a clean home with all the amenities, not filthy
backyards; to see your children grow up well fed, with adequate provision for
education, to have no experience of hunger; to be literate and skilled, to know
nothing of human contempt.
Somebody has said that this lulls the conscience, dulls the mind and narrows the
heart. As Robert Kennedy once said: 'For the fortunate among us the danger is
comfort; the temptation to follow the easy and familiar paths of personal ambition
and financial success so grandly spread before those who have the privilege of
education. But that is not the road that history has marked out for us. There is a
Chinese curse which says: 'May he live in interesting times'. Like it or not we live in
interesting times. They are times of danger and uncertainty, but they are also more
open to the creative energy of men than any other time in history. And everyone
here will ultimately be judged - will ultimately judge himself - on the effort he has
contributed to building a new world society and the extent to which his ideals and
goals have shaped that effort'.
We are called to duty in good weather and in bad. Let us take heart from the
certainty that we are united by hope and purpose. For we know now that freedom is
more than the rejection of discrimination, that prosperity is more than escape from
 CULTURALLY TEACHING
want, that good race relations is more than the sharing of power. These are, above
all, the human adventures. They must have meaning, conviction and purpose and
because they do, the new day calls us to a great new mission. The mission is to
create a new social order, founded on liberty, justice and fair play, in which all men
and women can share a better life for themselves and their children.
So we are idealists. We are all visionaries. Let it not be said of you and of me
that we left ideals and visions to the past, nor purpose and determination to our
adversaries.
And we shall ever remember what Goethe once said:
The highest wisdom, the best that mankind ever knew, was the realisation that he
only earns his freedom and existence who daily conquers them anew'.
Delivered at Edgar Brookes Academic and Human Freedom Lecture for 1972 at
University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg, on Friday May 5th, 1972.

KWA-ZULU DEVELOPMENT
Chief M.G. Buthelezi
Chief M.G. Buthelezi is the Chief Executive Councillor of the KwaZulu Legislative
Assembly.
In South Africa, this is one of those rare occasions where people meet across the
colour line not as masters and servants but as fellow compatriot to communicate.
This is not deny the fact that I came here as a representative of the underdogs of
this land who are the servants-class of South Africa, and whether we like this or not
you represent the master-class of this land on whom my people depend for a living.
It was suggested that I should in my short talk deal with ‘The Current Economic
Situation and it Affects the Zulu Homeland’. I must say that with all due respect for
this suggestion, I am no economist. I will, however, do my best to present in as few
words as possible the picture as I see it from the point of view of a black man in the
street.
As a historian I will be excused of reading a bit of well-known history of our land,
because I believe that no one can never see things in their proper perspective,
save against the wider canvas of the history of the land. This is regardless of
whatever one wants to look at, be it political issues, cultural or social problems. This
applies equally to our economic ills. As a layman I cannot make presentations that
I can offer a diagnosis or even a hazard guess at any cures for our economic ill in
KwaZulu.
However, being a representative of the patient, I can at least describe the pains
particularly the very sharp ones around the tummy which are so excruciatingly
 CULTURALLY TEACHING
painfully! Even the doctor needs this is to arrive at an accurate diagnosis.
As early as 1880 The Natal Witness disputed the suggestion that Africans had any
right to consider Natal as their country: They are here as immigrants on sufferance,
and not as citizens'. This was after the Zulu War, when even Zulu territory north of
the Thukela was fragmented deliberately in order 'to break the Zulu power once
and for all', in the words of Sir Bartle Frere and Zulu Territory was opened up by
the conquerors for white occupation. This was not peculiar to Natal, but happened
throughout this southern-most point of Africa.
My people were at first self-sufficient because there was enough to eat and no
problems of population explosion. This too was soon brought to an end by the new
conquerors who called upon Chiefs to supply young men to work on what was then
known as Isibhalo. They were in other words forced to sign contracts to come to
places like Johannesburg and Kimberley and other industrial areas to build the white
industrial empires that we see in full bloom in all the metropolitan areas of South
Africa. Taxation was one of the methods used to force Africans to move into urban
areas to work.
The tragedy deepened when even in the urban areas my people found themselves
regarded as temporary sojourners who were there on sufferance, only to minister
to the reasonable wants of whites. According to the 1852-1853 Commission Report
it was recommended that 'All kaffirs should be ordered to go decently clothed. This
measure would at once tend to increase the number of labourers because, as they
would be obliged to work to procure the means of buying clothing, it would also add
to the general revenue of the Colony through Customs Duties'.
Coming to the question of the so-called Homelands, as early as 1849 Earl Grey
agreed that it would be 'difficult or impossible' to assign to Africans reserves of such
a size that they could continue to be economically self-sufficient. He added that it
was desirable that Africans should 'be placed in circumstances in which they should
find regular industry necessary for their subsistence' 1 .
Not all Africans could be accommodated on the reserves, and the remainder
continued to occupy crown lands and colonist owned farms. Africans ultimately
spilled over into the white farms as squatters. The reserves were made up of the
worst farming lands in the Colony. According to G.R. Peppercorne, most of the
land in the Impofana reserve is 'as worthless as the sands of Arabia' (2). Only thirty
percent of KwaZulu is arable land.
According to Brookes and Hurwitz there was no increase in land provision
for Africans between 1864 and 1913(3). The promises made by the Hertzog
Government under the Native Trust and Land Act of 1936 for an additional quota
of land to my people and other ethnic groups was a recognition of this fact. Little
 CULTURALLY TEACHING
wonder that whereas other people improve with times, my people have sunk lower
and lower into poverty over the years because they are caught between two devils.
When the Zulu Territorial Authority was inaugurated in 1970 I made it clear that
without consolidation of land, the present Government's policy would not make any
sense. There has been very little done or said about this aspect of government
policy until last year when the Prime Minister promised to consolidate the Zulu
Homeland only to the extent of the 1936 land quota. I pointed out to him then that
consolidating in terms of that quota could hardly be adequate in terms of setting us
up as a separate independent State in terms of his government's policy.
What happened last week has been merely confirmation of what the Prime Minister
said last year and also a few weeks ago in Parliament. I refer here to the so-called
draft map for the consolidation of KwaZulu. This is a question which is crucial to
the whole exercise of setting up KwaZulu as a country and on it hangs the issue of
whether we can ever be economically viable or not. I wish also to submit that the
whole question of our economic potential depends on it.
Earlier this year I opened a conference at the University of Natal's Institute for
Social Research on Towards Comprehensive Development in Zululand'. This
Conference was interesting in so far as we did not try to find cures for KwaZulu's
economic ills, but managed to assess the complexity of KwaZulu's economic ills.
We found that there are two issues closely interlinked, the problems relevant to the
development of the Zulu homeland territories, on the one hand, and those relevant
to the development of the Zulu people on the other. Although the two issues are
closely interlinked, the problems facing the development of the Zulu people, the
AmaZulu, relate not only to the Zulu Homeland Areas, but more directly to the entire
economic, social and political structure of South Africa. The development of the
AmaZulu (or that of other blacks for that matter) is much more closely interlinked
with change and progress in the common economy and common area of South
Africa, than is the development of KwaZulu (4).
To me the most important area which concerns all of us is that of the development
of my people. At present we have hardly any employment opportunities for the
KwaZulu citizens, no wonder we have only about a third of citizens in KwaZulu at
any time. More than sixty percent of our able-bodied males are away most of the
time.
We have at present no industrial growth points except Sithebe which has few Zulus
at present, who are paid very low wages. The specious argument used by the Bantu
Investment Corporation is that although Sithebe has low wage levels and ample
supply of labour on the credit side, the relatively low level of training is ranking high
on the debit side and it is, therefore, not strange to find that an unskilled worker is
 CULTURALLY TEACHING
being paid a weekly wage of R 5 to R7. The Bantu Investment Corporation further
state that they would prefer wage levels comparable with those in the metropolitan
areas but realise that it is far better at this stage of development in KwaZulu to
have say 100 Zulus employed at R7 a week than to be able to create say only
10 employment opportunities at R12 per week. It must also be remembered that
the cost of living in metro-politan areas is very much higher than in the vicinity of
Sithebe (5).
The argument on the cost of living being lower in rural areas is a partial truth,
because people can only live in accordance with their means of livelihood. And
in any case this is also on account of poverty and since we have no cash crops
except sugar cane in some parts of KwaZulu, we have a cash economy and it
is a remittance economy, as families depend entirely on cash from their bread-
winners, who must earn wages elsewhere. The measuring rod as far as wages are
concerned is the poverty datum line. Food is cheaper in town than in the rural areas
where people are charged extra for transport costs.
The greatest shock so far in this whole question of whether Kwa-Zulu can ever
be economically viable now or in the dim misty future has been the decision by
the all-powerful South African government in deciding that Richards Bay should
be developed as a white port, and in doing so depriving KwaZulu of the only
opportunity of having an outlet to the sea. No one disputes the fact that Richards
Bay is providing jobs for Zulus, and that this will increasingly be the case as the
Richards Bay complex develops. Job opportunities are welcome as is the concern of
governments throughout the world. But the question that arises after that is whether
we can really be independent as easily as it is so often glibly said these days, if at
most KwaZulu's development means that it is merely going to continue to be a vast
labour farm for white South Africa, as all Black Homelands are at present?
What is not so encouraging is that even in the metropolitan areas of South Africa
very few of our people are paid above the poverty datum line. Many surveys have
been carried out including one by an employee of the Johannesburg Municipal Non-
European Affairs Department. I feel certain you are all familiar with these. On the
average it is now well-known that the ratio of black to white wages is 1:14. Other
industries give what are called fringe benefits and many of them boast that they
look after their employees and provide them with a balanced diet. What Dr Francis
Wilson had to say last week on this point is quite illuminating concerning the recent
rise in the wages in the Gold Industry (6). It is also true to say that any wise person
who uses any beast of burden, would look after it, feed it well and shelter it so that it
can be in good condition to bear its burdens.
One must also thank and encourage all the other industries that are trying to
 CULTURALLY TEACHING
narrow the wage-gap. But we blacks wonder what underlies white thinking in this
respect because when one looks around there are no subsidised shops that sell
necessaries of life at sub-economic rates. At the same time the majority of white
South Africans have for years rejected the idea of accepting black urban workers
as anything but temporary sojourners. These people are supposed to send money
to their families in the Homelands and to help us develop in the Homelands. The
question is, in view of the above, how does one do it? So far there seems to be
no serious consideration of consolidating these Homelands, as a result KwaZulu
cannot at present take even displaced Africans from white farms as it is congested.
We are developing a new class of rural Africans who cannot even have token arable
allotments, and cannot keep any stock, who are settled in what are called closer
settlements. Owing to the stringent application of Influx Control regulations these
people cannot freely go to look for jobs in urban areas.
An additional burden is caused by lack of a free and compulsory education for
blacks, which is available for the white group. So that some of the meagre earnings
that are sent for necessities have also to be used to pay for the children's education,
in fees, books, in some cases for the privately paid teachers and also to put up
school buildings. At this juncture I wish to congratulate those white people who are
assisting in providing funds towards the Rand Bursary Fund, ASSECA and other
similar projects. These are palliatives that are very necessary and which we highly
appreciate.
The Homelands are all being given 'self-government'. In other words we are
supposed to provide facilities for our people from our taxation and from allocations
from the Consolidated Revenue Fund made to us by the Republican government.
At present it is not yet apparent that these Homeland governments can provide
separate but equal facilities on the basis of this. In fact the KwaZulu budget of 32
million rand for the current financial year is, despite inflation, hardly a drop in the
ocean, in terms of providing facilities for four and a quarter million Zulus. Even
for our Civil Service it is going to be difficult to get the best men in view of this
differentiation in salaries on the basis of race.
There is an apparent reluctance on the part of white South Africa to consolidate the
Homelands realistically, to make them independent countries in a meaningful way.
There is also an equal reluctance to accept our people who are in the urban areas
as permanent residents in these areas. It might also be pointed out that all of us
including myself, may be indulging in self-hypnosis by even trying to believe we can
successfully create several ethnically oriented economies in South Africa instead of
one.
Several questions at once arise such as, does white South Africa hope to have her
 CULTURALLY TEACHING
cake and eat it? At some point we have got to decide one way or the other. Or does
white South Africa hope we can all live in a make-believe world ad infinitum through
sheer force of arms? This seems to be the time for decision whether we are going
to be set up as viable Homelands or not. This is the dilemma of white South Africa,
in which South Africa alone has placed herself. It is black South Africa's dilemma
too, with the difference that since black South Africa does not wield the power
of the bullet and the ballot, it is a dilemma in which black South Africa has been
placed by white South Africa. So that in a sense we are not equally cul-pable as far
as the apportioning of blame in this dilemma I am talking about is concerned. But
we all have equal reason to 'Cry the Beloved Country', since our destinies are so
inextricably intertwined.
How long are urban Africans going to remain temporary so-journers in the
metropolitan areas of South Africa? If we blacks are as human as whites can
anyone tell me what are these virile able-bodied men in hostels and compounds
supposed to do in order to enjoy feminine company? Of the married temporary
sojourners from the Homelands who are forbidden to bring their wives with them
into metropolitan areas, the question can be asked: Can our male white compatriots
countenance the idea of living in separation a mensa et thoro from their wives, and
only make love to their wives during the Easter weekend and during a few days at
Christmas time?
Many of you will, I am sure, want to ask me, why then be in-volved in the
Homelands policy? I believe that it is a moral duty to be involved in alleviating
human suffering, even if that is the most one can do. For this reason I believe that
despite the many snags I have pointed out there is still some scope to help my
people to develop even within the limitations of the policy. That is why I have great
admiration for what American firms like Polaroid, I.B.M., and Pepsi Cola, and banks
like Barclays Bank and Standard Bank are doing in giving equal pay for equal work
regardless of race. These firms should by now have put our own South African firms
to shame, if at all we still have a conscience such as I believe South Africans have.
Do South Africans feel happy that foreign firms should take this lead, and that South
African firms should drag their feet instead of following in their footsteps?
I believe that apart from the development of people themselves there is still a
little scope for developing these Homelands whether one believes in separate
development or not. The Homelands to me are a challenge whether one regards the
Homelands policy as a political fact or a fantasy.
I believe that their development even on the basis of establishing micro-economic
activities is something in which all of you can assist us. Community development
schemes are a necessity in areas such as KwaZulu where people are as a result
 CULTURALLY TEACHING
of poverty still victims of diseases of want such as malnutrition, kwashiorkor and
tuberculosis.
I believe that where there is economic infrastructure, industry and commerce in
South Africa should not hesitate to help us to establish industries, not necessarily as
cures for our economic ills but even as palliatives. To me while South Africa battles
in trying to make up her mind about the future, we should not forget that human
lives are at stake here. What is more our whole future, yours and ours, and that of
our children depends on this. I believe the manner in which the future will unfold,
that is whether it will be peacefully or violently, depends to a large measure on
these factors. We cannot hope that the nerves of our black population will stand this
insecurity indefinitely both in the urban and rural areas.
We do not ask to be given doles or what we do not deserve. We would like to be
self-reliant and having contributed so much towards the production of South Africa's
wealth, we are at least entitled to a little of it, to set up on our own feet, be it in the
urban or rural areas.
The Ovambo strike has given us a foretaste of what may one day overtake us, and
I do not believe that we need to wait for the trauma of a confrontation of that kind to
ensure our peaceful co-existence on this southernmost point of Africa.
At this particular time in the history of South Africa it might be as well to ponder
over the words of Mr H.D. Winter who was Minister for Native Affairs in the
Natal Government when the Bambatha Rebellion, which arose as a result of the
imposition of the Poll Tax, took place. After the Rebellion a Commission was
appointed to hold an inquiry into the causes of the Zulu Rebellion. Mr H.D. Winter's
evidence is interesting to read the more so as he was by no means sympathetic to
the cause of the black people in Natal and this is what he had to say among other
things:-
The heavy burdens which - had been pressing on the people for many years past;
for he added, the master may continue to hit and strike his dog until the time comes
when the dog seizes hold of the hand of the master. This was what had occurred' (7)
.
FOOTNOTES
1 David Welsh: The Roots of Segregation (Oxford University Press. 1971) p. 117.
2 David Welsh: Ibid.
3 Edgar H. Brookes and N. Hurwitz: The Native Reserves of Natal (Natal Regional
Survey Vol. 7 (Cape Town) p. 57).
4 Statement summarising Major Points emerging during the proceedings of the
Conference: Towards a Comprehensive Development in Zululand' prepared by the
Organising Secretary, L. Schlemmer, Dr. Francis Wilson and S. Kahn, p. 1.
 CULTURALLY TEACHING
5 Dr. M.J. Olivier: Interview with Tim Muil The Natal Mercury dated 8th June, 1972,
p. 8.
6 Financial Mail: 2nd June, 1972.
7 David Welsh: The Roots of Segregation (Oxford University Press, 1971), p. 312.
(Quotation from evidence 1906-1907 Commission Report, p. 9).

THE NEW BLACK

Bennie A. Khoapa
Bennie A. khoapa is an experienced social worker and currently the Director of the
Black Community Programmes
WHEN YOUR SRC President invited me to come here and talk to you, I replied that
I did not feel it a great priority of mine to do so, for I belong to a group of people who
are seeing increasingly the futility of devoting a major portion of their time to talking
and intellectualising about things that prove unhelpful to both sides because we see
things differently.
Your President did not agree with me and he argued that there is some value in
getting white students at least to be aware of some of the things that make people
(black and white) in this country see things differently and he assured me that white
students at this University would benefit something from what I have to say.
I finally agreed to come here today and talk to you with the full understanding that
I do not believe that what I say here is necessarily going to be useful for the group
I am most concerned about, that is, black people. But if you benefit anything from
what I am about to say to you well and good, if you don't I will not hold it against you
because it will prove what I said earlier, that it is not possible for me and you to see
things the same way until we have re-defined a few things. Feel free therefore to
walk out just as soon as you think you can't take it any longer.
I feel that it is important however to state very clearly where some of us stand at
this time in our history. Very often the viewpoint of the so called 'militant black' has
been so badly misunderstood that it becomes necessary to explain it for the benefit
of those who are interested in understanding it sincerely. I will attempt to do this
now, and in doing so I will start first of all by looking at two concepts which have
bedevilled this country for many years. These concepts I refer to are integration and
separation.
Very often, it is assumed that if a person is not an 'integrationist' in South Africa, he
is therefore a 'separatist', and that because an increasing number of black people
are rejecting 'integration' as a national goal, they are therefore 'separatist', i.e. they
make the permanent separation of races a national goal. This is nonsense. The
 CULTURALLY TEACHING
black people who have been accused of being separatist are in fact not separatist
but liberationists.
Central to both integration and separation is the white man. Blacks must either
move towards or away from him. But his presence is not nearly so crucial for those
who pursue a course of 'liberation'. Ideally they do whatever they conceive they
must do as if whites did not exist at all. At the very least the minds of the 'new black'
are liberated from the patterns programmed there by a society built on the alleged
aesthetic, moral and intellectual superiority of the white man.
Liberationists contend that integration is 'irrelevant' to a people who are powerless.
For them the equitable distribution of decision-making power is far more important
than physical proximity to white people.
This means complete emancipation of blacks from white oppression by whatever
means blacks deem necessary, including, when expedient, integration or
separation.
What the new black man is talking about is liberation by any means necessary
and this does not depend on the question of whether blacks should integrate or
separate.
The fundamental issue is not separation or integration but liberation. The either/or
question does not therefore talk to the point that the New Black is making.
We will use the word 'regroupment' to refer to that necessary process of
development every oppressed group must travel en route to emancipation.
What people usually call separation in the black community is not separation but
regroupment. It is not separation for blacks to come together on matters of common
policy. It is not separation for blacks to go on Sunday to a church which has never
been closed to anyone. It is not separation for blacks to go into a room, shut the
door and hammer out a common policy.
I would now like to explain why the liberationist gets irritated by the constant
accusation that he should either be for separation or for integration or otherwise be
a fraud. This kind of either/or thing is irrelevant and a waste of time and energy and I
will say why.
First, the either/ or thing is irrelevant and immaterial:
because it confuses means and ends, strategy and tactics. it makes a fetish out of
mere words and offers a pre-determined response for every place and time. What
is to be done? - that depends - Depends on what? - on what advances the cause of
black liberation.
The question of the presence or absence of white people is a tactical matter which
can only be answered in a concrete situation by reference to the long-term and
short-term interests of blacks.
 CULTURALLY TEACHING
The tactics will depend on the situation and will flow naturally from that situation if
people will only remember that the aim is not to separate or integrate but to triumph.
The second reason why I say that this 'either/or' proposition is irrelevant is because
it is based on false premises. It assumes that blacks are free to choose and that
their only options are the horns of a dilemma. This assumption does not do full
justice to the complexity and the tragedy of the black man's situation. It ignores
the infinite gradations between integration and separation and the fact that there
is a third choice -pluralism,and beyond that the fourth -transformation. Even more
serious is the hidden assumption that blacks are free to choose ex nihilo. But
the essence of our situation at this moment is that we can neither integrate nor
separate. We are caught just now in an impossible historical situation, and that fact,
which terrifies some, and leads others to despair, gives our struggle a grandeur, a
nobility, and a certain tragedy which makes it of moment to the world.
It is impossible to draw a straight line in a curved space. Both 'integrationists'
and 'separatists' are trying to create right angles in a situation which only permits
curves. The only option is 'transformation' of a situation which does not permit a
clear-cut choice in either direction.
The philosophy of liberation recognises this fact and suggests that we use history
as a tool of appraisal and analysis. It points out that all movements for liberation in
the black community, whether integration or separation, have failed, and asks why?
What were the movements' strong points and weak points? What mistakes were
made and what can we learn from the mistakes? Another evasion of the situation
is to assume that blacks can integrate unilaterally, and from this assumption it is
but one step to the pernicious idea that blacks are polarising the country. This is
the same old policy of giving a white disease a black name (the Native Problem)
and blaming the oppressed for the oppressor's aggression. It is not 'separatism' of
blacks but the 'separatism' of whites which threatens this country. The decision is
in the hands of whites. If they want transformation, let them give up their separate
neighbourhoods and institutions and organisations and come out in the open. Until
then, blacks must organise and use their group strength to wrest control of every
organisation and institution within reach.
The either/or proposition is false also because it is based on a mis-understanding
of the modern world which is grounded on power, group organisation and group
conflict. This is a world of groups. A man's power depends ultimately on the power
of his group. This means that oppressed individuals must recognise their common
interests and create a group. Groupness is a simple exigency of the situation.
The oppressor creates a situation from which the oppressed can only extricate
themselves by a regroupment.
 CULTURALLY TEACHING
From this sketch, it is clear that the oppressor and the oppressed must clash. Some
men try to avoid the exigencies of the situation by preaching universal brotherhood.
But it is a mystification to preach universal brotherhood in a situation of oppression.
Paradoxically, a prerequisite for human solidarity is a feeling of non-solidarity with
men who stand in the way of solidarity. Paradoxically, the oppressed can only bring
about a future of universal brotherhood in proportion as they feel and exhibit group
solidarity among themselves and cease to feel solidarity with the enemies of human
solidarity.
Indeed we shall earn the right to love all men by struggling against some, we shall
earn the right to hold hands with all men by refusing to hold hands with all men who
stand in the way of all men holding hands with all men.
Here, as elsewhere, the devil must be driven out first. It is too soon to love
everybody.
This brings us to the paradox of integration, to the fact that blacks must sing black
and black together before they can sing black and white together, to the fact that
black integration must precede black and white integration, to the fact that blacks
must unite before they can separate and must separate before they can unite.
There is nothing ominous or subversive about this principle. It is simply an exigency
of the situation. History has charged us with the cruel responsibility of going to the
very gate of racism in order to destroy racism - to the gate not further.
The either/or proposition does not explicate the dialectics of development in which a
negation is necessary for a synthesis.
Sweet are the uses of 'integration'. The stress on Black nationalism and Black
separatism in white media is ideological; its function is to keep blacks unorganised
and powerless.
Whites have organised racially oriented
businesses, unions, churches, newspapers, resorts, country clubs, youth camps,
welfare agencies, ethnic studies departments, colleges, universities, unmarried
mothers agencies, child welfare agencies, vacation associations, war veteran
groups, professional associations, employment services, theatres, encyclopedias,
funeral homes, homes for the aged, agricultural societies, boards, tourist agencies.
But, whites are always telling blacks that organisation on a national basis is a no-no.
It is especially naughty for blacks to form organisations without white members and
white officers.
Finally, the either/or dilemma is irrelevant and immaterial because it is a reaction
to an action. Both integration and separation are responses and largely emotional
responses at that to white oppression.
Neither integration nor separatism deals with the question, for both remain on
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the level defined by whites. Both integrationists and separatists are excessively
preoccupied with the question of sitting down beside the white man; the 'separatist'
is excessively pre-occupied with the question of 'not' sitting down beside the white
man. The liberationist says the presence or absence of the white man is irrelevant.
What obsesses him is the liberation of black people, and the white man is free to
aid that liberation by contributing information, sweat, money and blood, but he is
not free to join that struggle or to lead it. Preoccupation with the white man leads
to blunders, confusion in the ranks and demoralisation; it obscures the issues. It is
possible for example to be free, creative and happy without being in the presence of
white people. It is also possible to be free, creative and happy in groups which are
not all black. Neither separation nor integration confronts the system in its totality
for both share the same root postulates. In one way or another both deplore the
fact that white people do not love black people. But love is irrelevant. History is a
struggle, not an orgy. Men decide matters of fundamental interest not on the basis
of goodwill but on the basis of social necessity - on the basis of what they conceive
to be in their interests. Men do not and cannot love each other if their material
interests conflict. As long as institutions, particularly economic institutions, make
it necessary for one group to hate another in order to maximise its position, then
integration is impossible.
It is not necessary to argue the either/or question of whether racism is basically
economic or basically ideological. What is certain is that racial problems can only
be solved in a climate of economic equality. The 'either integration or separation'
dilemma ignores the implications of this fact. One side ignores it by calling
for 'integration' of the blackman into the economic status quo. But the prerequisite
for integration, i.e. transformation, is the integration of the economic order.
Most proponents of the either/or dilemma find such discussions tedious. Basically
they are idealists, they believe that the words in the books mean something.
The philosophy of liberation calls for a transcendence of the either/or dilemma which
has had such disastrous impact on white/black policy. The liberationist concedes the
power of the integrationist's dream but points out that black power is necessary to
accomplish it.
A philosophy of liberation requires a frank appraisal of the in-stitutions and policies
of the white communities. A philosophy of liberation also requires an advanced
programme of economic democracy. Racial integration requires economic
integration, and this in turn, requires a recognition that the race problem cannot be
solved without profound structural modifications in the country; without real changes
in the tax structure and the relations between the private and public sectors, without
a redefinition of all values and a redistribution of income and power.
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A philosophy of liberation requires a re-appraisal of the policies and institutions of
the Black Community. We must re-evaluate everything we are doing and saying. We
must rise now to the level of conceiving the black interest as a universal interest.
Too many people think blackness means withdrawing and tightening the circle. On
the contrary, blackness means expanding and widening the circle, absorbing and
integrating instead of being absorbed and integrated and from that perspective,
it is easy to see that a philosophy of liberation requires black people to cast their
light not over one thing but over everything. We must rise now to the level of black
hegemony, the idea that blacks must establish moral and cultural authority over the
whole. A philosophy of liberation requires transformation. It says that everything
must be made anew, but we recognise that blackness, as so many people have said
is necessary but not sufficient. Being black is not enough. One must be black and
ready together.
A philosophy of liberation requires unity. Black unity in turn requires black
organisation. We need more, not fewer, black organisations, we need black-oriented
or black-based youth camps, centres, colleges, welfare organisations etc.
For the New Black, this is a preparatory stage. The means are not now available for
entering the final road. Our task therefore is to prepare for 10, 15 and 40 years. The
only question now is whether black people are made of such stuff as histories are
made of, and black people must answer that question in the presence of the world
and in the presence of the black living, the black dead and the black unborn.
An address to students of the University of Cape Town, June 1972.