Call for freedom in our lifetime more necessary than ever

“WHOM the gods love die young”.

This old adage expresses well the loss the country experienced, especially the ANC and ANC Youth League, when Anton Lembede died tragically in 1947.

This month marks the 69th anniversary of his death. As we celebrate his life in the democratic South Africa, post-apartheid, I believe his call for “freedom in our lifetime” is more indispensable than ever in our country as we now call for economic freedom in our lifetime.

His call is necessary, especially in this time where the majority of young people are unemployed and do not participate in the economy of the country.

What is freedom without economic freedom?

Lembede’s ideas and ideals stressed the need for black South Africans to free themselves from psychological bondage and become self-reliant in order to fundamentally change South Africa.

As he once said: the African people have been told time and again that they are babies, that they are an inferior race, that they cannot achieve anything worthwhile by themselves or without a white man as their “trustee” or “leader”.

This insidious suggestion has poisoned their minds and resulted in a pathological state of mind.

Consequently the African has lost or is losing the sterling quality of self-respect.

This negative self-image was manifested in Africans’ “loss of selfconfidence, inferiority complex, a feeling of frustration, the worship and idolisation of whiteness, foreign leaders and ideologies”.

Lembede believed that in order for blacks to combat white domination, black people should rid themselves of a debilitating inferiority complex.

Lembede’s decisive therapy for these misfortunes was political freedom, but he recommended a few characterised steps which Africans could take to reassert an independent identity.

One was reversing the distorted image of their own past. This meant constructing a history that accentuated the positive achievements of African civilisations, praising the heroic efforts of African leaders who resisted European expansion and resurrecting the glories of the African past.

Influenced by Isaka Pixley ka Seme, the founding father of the ANC, Lembede’s historical vision drew a linear connection between present and past African civilisations, going back to ancient Egypt.

Today as black South Africans, we are not doing well in that discipline of empowerment because our leaders and the empowered are showing a selfish desire for wealth or power without showing any desire to empower their respective communities or their constituencies.

They still contemplate that having a BMW, and a big holiday house gives them prominence in society. The majority of our people are still in poverty because the greed of the empowered few holds us back from empowering others for the betterment of our communities who live in squalor.

And, as a result, those who are empowered become more rich and powerful.

No wonder in South Africa those blacks who are filthy rich and empowered are usually those of the political class or close to the political elite.

For the sake of our development as blacks we need not to allow our selfishness to hinder us from working together on any project so that we can make real change in the community.

Lembede’s solution to the economic challenges was an education that taught people an appreciation for manual labour and applied modern agricultural techniques.

It’s disheartening that 20 years post-apartheid we are still crying foul of white domination, even when we have the opportunity and political power to change the tables and start doing our own things.

Let’s take a leaf out of Lembede’s book and turn the tide against our challenges.

“Majority still poor because of the greed of the empowered few