What would Biko do? Now, that is the question
Self-enrichment is not what black consciousness leader fought and died for
Among other things, Apartheid Christian Education, otherwise known as Bantu Education, taught my generation that, when faced with a moral dilemma, the question to pose and attempt is: What would Jesus do or say?
However, Jesus never lived in the landscaped mission station that sits atop the hill, looking down on the wretched villages of the heathens on the other side of the river. He never had to choose between school, initiation school, farm labour or starvation.
We did.
Therefore, the what-would-jesus-do question was seldom applicable and not always practical. A more appropriate undertaking for our times would be to ask what Steve Biko might have said and done about the socio-political gemors we find ourselves in at this time.
Unlike some of our current crop of leaders, Biko defined the goal of the struggle not as the acquisition of power for power’s sake and definitely not as a means towards self-enrichment.
For him, the struggle was “a quest for true humanity” at the end of which we should be able “to bestow upon South Africa the greatest gift possible – a more human face”.
A better vision for South Africa is hard to find, especially today. Biko would probably not consider present-day South Africa as a bearer of the “more human face” he envisioned.
Yes, we have generated a mountain of slogans, projects, initiatives, programmes and campaigns.
Most of these are smokescreens underneath which massive graft occurs behind the backs of the masses.
In fact, many of our contemporary slogans are contextual oxymorons, meaning; they are contradicted by lived reality everyday and at every turn.
In a racist, unequal and misogynistic country, the slogan “one nation one future” is either a pipe dream or a barefaced lie. The slogans “new dawn” and “African rennaisance” can be shouted loud and often, but everywhere we go, it is the absent infrastructure, rotting roads, looted amenities and fraying morals that confront us.
Ordinary people know in their heart of hearts that they are not included in the “economic freedom in our life time” equation. The poor may not always laugh out loud, but they know that the slogan, “a better life for all”, is a cruel joke. No wonder that as a people, we slip into violent self-hating behaviour at the slightest provocation.
Beyond the sloganeering, we have not been able to imagine ourselves outside the frame of colonialism and apartheid, and this suits the elites fine.
Apart from the well-rehearsed economic clichés, our leaders appear to have neither clue nor will to solve our self-made problems of inequality, corruption, unemployment, poverty, an inefficient education system and service delivery bottlenecks.
Add to all these the absence of a compelling national vision akin to Biko’s black consciousness ness, around which to mobilise ourselves and our resources as a nation.
The Biko quest for “true humanity” had as its strategic end the creation of a South Africa with a “more human face”.
It was based on an understanding that it’s not merely about economics or politics, but our very humanity is at stake.
Looking at South Africa today, it is unclear what would constitute the “true humanity” of the ideal South African. Archbishop Desmond Tutu’s rainbow people metaphor came with little detail as to what the desired member of the rainbow nation was supposed to look, feel and be like.
In the end, we built a rainbow but forgot to populate it. With our mighty constitution we built a democratic state, but we forgot to build democratic citizens. We built an electoral system for political parties but we forgot about implications for voters and citizens.
We have fogotten to enable South Africans to become those people who only they can be in the world – precisely what Biko and his generation outlined in a crystal-clear manner.
As of now, we have no clear or purposeful national agenda. So we lunge from rainbowism to African renaissance to radical economic transformation and to thuma mina and back, depending on the weather, depending on who the incumbent is. Take a look at us, we are now counted among world leaders in femicide, poverty, unemployment, inequality, corruption and cultural lostness. Could Biko’s vision be betrayed more contemptuously?