Poet, playwright and song-writer Mbongeni Ngema said on Tuesday he stood by the issues raised in his controversial song ”AmaNdiya”, about the oppression of blacks by Indians, reiterating that the intention behind it was to break the silence rather than air racial hatred.
”It is not hate speech … it is an artist expressing the feelings of his own people,” he said, adding that the song expressed the views of African people at taxi ranks, soccer matches, shebeens and many other places.
This was borne out by the demand for the CD in Durban, the city with the highest number of Indian residents outside of India, he said. ”The song is in demand — in one Musica shop in Durban on one day, 100 people asked for it.”
But last week, ”AmaNdiya” provoked an outpouring of protest from political parties and other organisations which described it as racist. The Democratic Alliance and former president Nelson Mandela have also called for Ngema to apologise to Indians.
But Ngema will not do this and he said that Minority Front leader Amichand Rajbansi, whom he met last week after the furore broke, had agreed with him that Indians oppressed blacks but objected that Ngema was making it public.
”What we see happening in KwaZulu-Natal is not in line with God’s vision of equality among people… human rights are ignored there. This song speaks to the masses of Africans who fought and died for this country –and to this day they have not obtained their freedom,” said Ngema.
With 70% of Durban Unicity jobs occupied by Indians, Africans in the province were expressing their sense of exclusion by asking themselves ‘why did we vote?’. Ngema also spoke of black children working in factories in the province without unions to represent and protect workers rights.
The prelude to the song says that it is meant to raise awareness of the problem, open it up for debate and lead to a true reconciliation between Indians and Africans.
The SA Human Rights Commission has however launched a complaint with the Broadcasting Complaints Commission saying it ”may argue that it constitutes hate speech”.
Commissioner Jody Kollapen said the song consisted of sweeping generalisations and negative stereotyping of Indians and had the potential to polarise rather than bring people together in dialogue.
On Tuesday Ngema also dispelled the perception that the CD was not available in music stores because it has been banned. It was in fact not available because distributors had taken it off shelves but it was still being played on radio stations nationally.
Ngema says that he will meet the Institute for a Democratic Alternative for SA next week to discuss how the particular racial problem aired in the song can be resolved.
”The Truth and Reconciliation Commission dealt with issues between black and white South Africans. There are many stones that have been left unturned. I hope society will honestly look at this social problem.”
”The statement in the song is not coming out of Ngema — it is coming out of history.” – Sapa