The El Al aircraft veered east around northern Sudan. Instead of flying over the Egyptian airspace, it flew over the Red Sea.
On board was a group of 250 South Africans of Jewish ancestry en route to Tel Aviv, where they would catch a connecting flight to Poland. There, they would commemorate the 60th anniversary of the liberation from the Auschwitz death camp of Jews, Poles, homosexuals and gypsies by the Allied forces.
About 4 000 years after Moses led the Israelites out of Egyptian bondage, and 60 years after the descendants of Moses’s flock suffered at the hands of the Nazis, the pilgrims were not taking a chance with their survival.
They would rather fly over the Red Sea that the Bible says God parted to allow the Egyptian-pursued Israelites to pass through to Canaan — their promised land.
The flight path may well have been chosen for other reasons. Still, the symbolism was startling.
Which brings me to a route closer to home. June 16.
It was a mere 29 years ago that this date became an indelible mark on the national calendar — the day when black students took to the streets to protest against the use of Afrikaans as a mandatory language of instruction at schools nationwide.
But, since 1994, the date has progressively meant less, with a generation of ”born frees” indifferent to its importance.
It is a common complaint that June 16 has been reduced to yet another occasion for kwaito festivals, shopping and doing the laundry.
Political parties repeat struggle-era rhetoric and wonder why young people remain apathetic to the message.
The government is roundly blamed for this sorry state of affairs. But June 16 was about a people -taking matters into their own hands. Much like Jews from all over the world have taken to doing on matters that affect their history.
Civil society, in the form of the students of 1976, led the way.
But 11 years into our democracy black South Africans have tied their own hands. Instead of civil society thriving, it is shackled.
Freedom has become a synonym for dependency. What black people were so ready to do on their own in the 1970s when conditions were extremely unfavourable, they now call on the government to do.
Unlike the Jews on the flight to Poland, who parted with about R20 000 a head to ensure that they too became part of the collective memory of their people, blacks want someone else to do this for them.
But who stops blacks from taking their children to the Hector Pieterson Memorial? Don’t they know that there is no longer a ”law” against ”politicking” — talking about the lot of black people–lest they end up like Nelson Mandela on Robben Island?
The truth is that Hector Pieterson park is within a 10km radius from any point in Soweto. Yet the majority of people who visit the site are foreign tourists.
It is up to the average black family whether they take their children to the park or even to the Apartheid Museum, which is just outside Soweto. It will cost far less than R20 000. Communities outside Johannesburg are also in close proximity to other historic struggle sites.
It can be done.
June 16 was manifestly about black people taking their destiny into their own hands. It was the -ultimate act of self-reliance.
Asking, even demanding, that the government ”do something” is the antithesis of the spirit of that era.
Besides, we should not expect a government, which has been mandated to foster national unity, to zealously promote a concept born of a call for Black Power.
No single political party can claim ownership of June 16, so it should not be left to politicians to determine what the day means to the people.
Black civil society has been -passive for too long. I cannot wait for the day when black people will, with their children in tow, converge on sites of collective memory and declare, as Jews do — never again!