Memory and dialogue of freedom for young democracy

DID we find freedom on April 27, 1994? What did this moment mean for the undoing of centuries of colonial and settler domination? And how do we now find meaning in freedom outside the framework of resistance?

Increasingly, we have returned to the histories of South Africa and southern Africa before colonialism to answer these questions.

Undertaking a meta-critique of the “pre-colonial” allows us to take seriously the possibilities that exist for shaping a future that breaks from a society that perpetually reproduces social injustice and a way of understanding what a different type of freedom can look like.

As a starting point, and in looking for what this means, there is a need to deconstruct the concept of “pre-colonial Africa”.

The prefix must be problematised as a Eurocentric way of dealing with the history of Africa as it presupposes that history hinges on European periodisation.

Arguably, we need to find a new and progressive language to speak about this period in Africa’s history and it is with reservation and awareness of these contradictions that I make use of the term “pre-colonial”.

A conversation on the “pre-colonial” in the African context necessitates an interrogation of what constitutes African traditions and identities. Interrogating these concepts enables us to think through some of the contemporary social challenges that are faced by South Africa and to question concepts such as “freedom”.

The time has come to prioritise deeper studies into the past and invest in a critique of narratives on “pre-colonial Africa”. In line with this task, the academic and research community has a duty to disseminate the results of research work on the past that can positively inform popular discourse.

However, this remains a difficult task in a space that is exclusive by design and has failed to reach out to the majority of the country’s population.

In addition, there has to be cognisance that the research work of academics relies on archives that in themselves need to be placed under scrutiny. A project of this nature involves unlearning long established “truths”.

Challenges must be posed to the notion that identities are fixed and that “tribes” existed long before colonialism and were marked by distinct differences characterised by ongoing inter-group conflict.

This would also mean accepting that there is not a singular narrative that can account for “pre-colonial Africa”, but rather competing versions of history need to be made and incorporated into the narrative as a stepping stone to better understanding the sequence of events that have resulted in the present.

In finding true freedom, many in South Africa are engaged in a national conversation around meaningful redress of the past injustices as well as the forms of economics and politics that will provide dignity to millions on the margins.

It is within this space, the nexus of memory and dialogue, in which new liberation imaginings and returns to ideals of history can create new forms of transformation. However, there are also inherent dangers.

For example, since the conversation around land expropriation without compensation and relinquishing of traditional authorities’ custodianship, land has come to dominate popular discourse. It has been hijacked for certain types of politicking that fail to achieve the objectives of social justice.

Rather than taking seriously scholarship that is committed to uncovering the truth about how people conceived of the land in “pre-colonial” times, false narratives are portrayed for political ends. Therefore, just solutions to the land redistribution project and restitution for “First nations” become distorted.

Similarly, when analysing the mining industry and its exploitation of people and natural resources, we see other types of distortion. Since the late nineteenth century, the migrant labour system was based on the needs of the mining industry. This has now changed and has reshaped the ways in which African communities work, but this pattern has continued within the industry.

As tension mounts in the country, we can no longer afford to prevaricate on the question of redress. There is a need to take meaningful action that shifts the perception that attempts to correct past injustices are destined to fail. Du Bois argued in Black Reconstruction in America: “If there was one thing that South Carolina feared more than bad Negro government, it was good Negro government.”

Similarly in the case of South Africa, the greatest nightmare for supporters of old dispensations would be for us to be successful in achieving social justice through putting in place systems of governance that create a good balance of both traditional and modern methods of governing.

Such systems would be progressive to the extent that they address past injustices and set us on a path of true self-determination and genuine freedom.

Nqaba holds a Bachelor of Economics Masters in Politics and International Studies qualification at Rhodes University.