Making song and dance of ‘Kill the Boer’ makes bandits martyrs
Many Struggle songs call for killing of oppressors
AfriForum cannot have it both ways. It cannot demand protection of historical memory (represented by the old flag) when it suits it and demand obliteration of the same memory (represented by Struggle songs).
Let us recap. AfriForum went to the Equality Court to ask that the Struggle song or chant, Kill the Boer, be declared hate speech.
The court ruled that there was no evidence showing that the song with the chant was directed at the farming community and posed a danger to those in that sector.
AfriForum has since decided to take the matter to a higher court. I hope the application fails.
Perhaps we need to remind AfriForum that apartheid was a crime against humanity. It would be nice if it took a moment to reflect on what this means. It is not unheard of that the oppressed wish the worst possible fate for their oppressors. Including death.
Another thing – and this might come as a surprise to AfriForum – there are dozens of Struggle songs that encourage the killing of the oppressors. If AfriForum were to succeed in this particular case, it might turn out to be pyrrhic because the Struggle “discography” has a lot more in its store.
It is simply impossible to ban every song that celebrated or encouraged the shooting and killing of those oppressors. It would be like hoping people of faith would one day stop saying unkind words about the devil.
Contrary to what it and some sections of the media have suggested, Dubul’ibhunu does not belong to Julius Malema or his party.
The tendency to appropriate Struggle songs to an individual, such as giving former president Jacob Zuma “mshini wam”, betrays a tragic failure to understand the very struggle that groupings like AfriForum want to police.
This is the historic context. The contemporary context where farmers are killed is not and should not be bound to our historical memory.
Interestingly, AfriForum relies on “context” for wanting the courts to uphold individuals’ rights to fly the apartheid flag which the group itself acknowledges is representative of a system “that invaded everyone’s dignity to different degrees”.
One assumes it means treating black people’s dignity as a doormat and whites’ as an entity worthy of respect. All of this does not and should not downplay the horrendous crime that is farm killings. Anyone who is at ease with murder, regardless of who is a victim, is barbaric.
Anyone happy with crime as long as it is against those they despise, is an accomplice to that crime and should not be welcome in any society.
Even if the criminals say that’s their motivation, we must never dress criminals in political dresses.
If in doubt, just look at the police crime statistics and see where you are most likely to be murdered in SA. The vast majority of crime victims are black and working class.
AfriForum is entitled to register its unhappiness on the state’s incapability to detect and arrest criminals. It must not give thugs a false sense that they are motivated by anything other than
their greed. By making this political, AfriForum gives undeserved honour to scoundrels. It makes martyrs of bandits.
This is the time to use the term terrorists unlike in the past where the word was used to downplay a noble effort to overthrow a system founded on dehumanisation and oppression of a people purely because of their skin colour.
Malema and the EFF have not made the case for historical memory easier by pretending they were calling for the kissing of the farmer. It might provide a legal loophole but does not deal with the context in which the sentiment arose.