May 9 to 15 2008

Racism and prejudice

Andile Mngxitama sets out to express his horror at the ruling on the Forum of Black Journalists by the Human Rights Commission, which ‘has to be the most eloquent and devastating testimony that our Constitution does hold fundamental anti-black sentiments”. How does he come to such a conclusion? He asserts that the ruling ‘in essence forbids blacks from taking collective initiatives against white racism” and ‘forces blacks (the victims of racism) into a coalition with whites (the benefactors)”.

Mngxitama is like a trapeze artist hurtling from one swinging bar to another. ‘Whiteness will always defend white interests by appropriating mechanisms of black redress” through this ruling he says.

He divides South Africa into blackness and whiteness without telling us what constitutes either of these categories. In a recent meeting of the Harold Wolpe Memorial Trust as one of three panellists he used these self-same categories. The topic was Discrimination by any other name? a dialogue to be informed by the use of the ‘K-word”, and the situation surrounding the Forum of Black Journalists.

Mngxitama made an extraordinary claim that night. ‘White journalists who claim to have been excluded from the FBJ claim they are victims of racism. So they have appropriated black suffering.”

Using Steve Biko as his mentor he said that night that ‘… the problem with the power of whiteness is that whenever we talk about the problems of blackness, it shifts blackness from the centre and we end up talking about white interests. You see, people talk a lot about the Holocaust. Jewish people and Irish people for a long time weren’t seen as white people. But over time they became white people and were protected entirely because of the colour of their skin.”

The Holocaust is ‘a momentary position where white skin is minimised”. How does one compare the Irish with the Jews? When were either group not seen as white or not white? What is the evidence? Six million Jews were exterminated during the Holocaust in the name of a gross form of racism, in what Hannah Arendt termed ‘the banality of evil”.

It is so easy to make populist general statements without substantiating them in any way. And worse still they receive popular support. We have seen too many examples of the harm that can be inflicted through such blind acceptance of racial statements. The Holocaust is a case in point.

There seems to be a widely held belief in our country that racism is practised only by whites against blacks. I came across a similar notion, but with a strange twist, not long after I returned to South Africa. At work following a workshop on racism in 1992, I asked in all sincerity a colleague who had been one of a group responsible for conducting the workshop how she defined racism.

Her response was: ‘Racism exists among all whites and is directed against all blacks.” In my innocence I asked her how she would define anti-Semitism in Germany and during the Holocaust. Her response was surprising. The Holocaust was not racism ‘because it was whites against other whites. It was prejudice.” When I expressed my amazement that prejudice could be responsible for the mass murder of men, women and children, she became very angry and accused me of interrogating her during her lunch break. That ended our conversation.

The possibility that black Africans could be racist is also denied vehemently by Mngxitama and no doubt is strongly held by many black people judging from the response by the audience. In answer to a question put to him by a member of the audience he said that any act of aggression by blacks on blacks was simply a result of tribalism. So, presumably, because you belong to a specific tribe it would seem legitimate that you could react with extreme violence because the significant other is of a different tribe. How does he explain the tragedy of Zimbabwe and the massacres in Matabeleland?

In a dramatic twist at the end of the M&G article Mngxitama says that this is the end: ‘… blacks can no longer respond to continued racism and white supremacy under democracy”. What is he advocating to take its place? What form of response would he have called for, one wonders?

There is a very real danger in this type of argument. It can play on insecurities among the unemployed, people with grudges, those who have become accustomed to accept the notion of entitlement because of the history of the country and become frustrated when their desires are not met. It is too easy to blame everything on apartheid or white racism. It can so easily become a rabble-rousing event where emotions run high and reason disappears.

Tony Judt in a recent article said ‘… if history is to do its proper job, preserving forever the evidence of past crimes and everything else, it is best left alone. When we ransack the past for political profit — selecting the bits that can serve our purposes and recruiting history to teach opportunistic moral lessons — we get bad morality and bad history.” The question of racism in our country requires in-depth analyses and acceptance of its existence among all sectors of our population. — Dr Ann Marie Wolpe, sociologist

What is the AU doing?
It is obvious the World Bank and International Monetary Fund have no answer to the food crisis. But it is the deafening silence from the AU that is worrying.

Unfortunately Africa cannot afford the luxury of waiting and seeing. It is of paramount importance that we change our way of thinking to come up with lasting solutions. First we need to ask, how did we get here? It doesn’t make sense that in the age of plenty we have rice and wheat revolts. For Africa, drought, poor governance and poverty are some of the precipitating factors. People just don’t have money to buy food. African farmers are struggling to produce enough, as they can’t compete with their European counterparts. Situations like the Zimbabwean crisis are not helping. Here is a country that destroyed its booming agricultural industry.

Zanu-PF used hunger as a political tool to punish dissenters. Strangely enough, it has money for weapons, instead of food. Africans must learn from these mistakes and come up with an African solution.
We need to consider GM foods as a short- to medium-term option. Governments must also increase investment in agricultural research and financial support for the ­struggling African farmers. With looming climate change, food security cannot be left in the hands of governments alone. It needs a collective effort. The food crisis demands new thinking — Lucas Ntyintyane, Cresta

A chance to take bold steps
The Palestinian Solidarity Group (PSG) is disappointed by Nadine Gordimer’s decision to participate in Israel’s 60th anniversary celebrations (May 2). The PSG is a secular group of people who are horrified by the injustices suffered by the Palestinians.

Gordimer could use Israel’s 60th anniversary to invite boldness. The past cannot be undone but can be unlocked. Israel needs to:

From Israel’s point of view, it has to accept that the Palestinians are not going to go away and that no military force and political and socio-economic repression will kill Palestinian resistance to being occupied.

There is only one way out of this catastrophe: Israel must honour the UN resolutions demanding its withdrawal from occupied Palestine. This will by no means solve all problems, but failure to take it guarantees the perpetuation of conditions that not only dishonour the memory and meaning of the Holocaust but are a disgrace to contemporary humanity.

Nadine, let’s hear from you. —Lutfi Omar and Sue Rudin, Palestinian Solidarity Group

Havel and Lessing: a plea for Zim
We are deeply concerned about the growing crisis in Zimbabwe and the slow pace at which matters of constitutional importance are progressing.

The people of Zimbabwe have expressed their will for the future of their country. They have the right to see it implemented as a matter of priority. The delay has thrown a shadow over the electoral process and casts doubt on the integrity of the authorities charged with implementation. Post-election violence has compromised any continuing electoral process, which must operate within the framework of the Constitution.

We call upon all who can bring influence to bear on events in Zimbabwe to ensure that the rule of law is upheld. This includes the right of all the people of Zimbabwe to cast their votes through electoral processes that are free of coercion. It also includes the right to see their vote at the ballot box transformed into a democratically elected and accountable government.

The world is united in admiration for the patience of the people of Zimbabwe in pursuing the democratic path to renew their country. However, the patience of the world is running out in waiting for their wishes to be honoured. —Václav Havel, writer and former president of the Czech Republic; Doris Lessing, winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature (2007); Bill Morris, trade unionist and member of the House of Lords; David Puttnam, film producer and member of the House of Lords; and Kenneth Roth, executive director, Human Rights Watch

With regard to the Zimbabwe elections, what do the observer missions say about the counting and release of voting results in the presidential election? Have they made any comment on the five-week delay in releasing the result and on the removal of the ballot boxes from the ZEC control centre to an unknown destination? Are these missions confident that, under the conditions, a run-off vote will be free and fair? Please can the M&G get the feedback from these missions.– Owen, Harare

Good medicine, actually
I am writing in response to ‘KZN’s bad medicine” (May 2). I am a doctor working at Groote Schuur Hospital in Cape Town. I did the first six months of my community service at Manguzi Hospital in 2005 and I had the privilege of working with Dr Blaylock during that time.

I was inspired by his dedication and commitment to serving people in need. He is one of the kindest, most sincere people I have ever met, always there to listen with a cup of tea when the frustrations of working within a tragically under-resourced system became overwhelming.

During the years he has lived and worked at Manguzi Blaylock has become a much-loved and integral member of the community and has always treated his colleagues and patients with respect.

Northern KwaZulu-Natal is in desperate need of skilled resources, in particular healthcare workers, to deal with the escalating TB and HIV/Aids crises. As someone who has worked in rural medicine for several years, Blaylock is skilled across a range of disciplines, including surgery, anaesthetics, paediatrics, obstetrics and family medicine.

Thus, in addition to providing a high standard of patient care despite a lack of resources and constantly increasing patient loads, he is able to offer much-needed guidance to the inexperienced community service doctors who are sent to Manguzi every year.

Why does the provincial minister of health seem so intent on driving out such a valuable resource? She is doing the people of rural KwaZulu-Natal a great disservice. — Dr Frances Wilson

Questionable
Because of our varying cultural backgrounds, we tend not to ‘speak ill of the dead”. However, for a publication of your standing to allow such an appallingly sycophantic obituary to be published such as the one relating to ANC functionary Andrew Masondo (April 25) is highly questionable.

Masondo’s role in the brutal torture and killing of ANC cadres in the infamous Angolan ‘rehabilitation” camps is well known and has never been denied. It is a measure of the man that, when put under pressure, he displayed his true values which were bolstered by his military training in Moscow. These did not include democracy, compassion or fair-mindedness. Your obituary conspicuously failed to cover this aspect of his life. — Tim Sargeant