'A new kind of egalitarian politics'

Offering a fresh perspective on the history of our people, writes Soyiso Maliti

THE AUTHORS of the book describe it as an introduction to a new kind of egalitarian politics. Therese Owen, Baldwin Ndaba, Rabbie Serumula, Masego Panyane, Janet Smith and Paballo Thekiso achieved their intention: to revive our heroes in prose, poetry and digital multimedia.

I’ve described it to friends as a collation of history data that is necessary, not only for black writers, but for anyone with an interest in black, as well as South African, history.

A lot of the writers in the book have two things in common: They believe that anti-blackness is white identity, they were black with a goal to liberate the black brethren through their ideas and penmanship.

The seven-chapter book isn’t your typical lunatic fringe, rhetorical left yap. I was on tenterhooks as the book took me through some of the writers, most of whom I’ve read about. There were also quite a number of academics and writers, whose work I started following after I put this book down.

Our written black history is centred around a few individuals, such as Nelson Mandela. Certainly, this has affected our oral history and how we think. A book like Black Consciousness Reader gives pro-black writers and struggle heroes a voice.

Quite often a man like Robert Sobukwe is marginalised into the periphery of history until the political parties such as the ANC and the EFF, and some other Left-leaning formations, host an event and uses his name for Left pomp.

This book brings him back to life in the memory of his avid followers. While the book does cover Biko extensively, oft-regarded as the founder of the Black Consciousness Movement in South Africa, it does not deprecate heroes like the cultlike narrative, on figures like Mandela.

Ndaba’s interview with Professor Harry Ranwedzi Nengwekhulu sets out to dispel one of these falsehoods: Nengwekhulu begins the interview with setting the facts straight about the inaccurate accounts on Biko’s love life.

I was also particularly impressed by how the book dedicated chapters to the role of black theology in the Black Consciousness Movement, #FeesMustFall (FMF) and #BlackLivesMatter (BLM). The book also offers commentary on recent topics, including FMF and BLM.

I was surprised that the writers did not write extensively on the land issue, even though Biko was candid on the topic. Land has been a thorny issue for the past few years in this country, as inequality continues to divide us. The Black Consciousness Reader reminds us that progressives and radicals were always the youth and that a government, led by septuagenarians, has outdated ideas.

The book, unwittingly or otherwise, reminds the black youth consciousness reader to interrogate whether they are following in the footsteps of their heroes and whether we are taking our activism to the streets, or keeping it in the retweets.