October 23 to 29 2009

I am not my hair

The other day one of my close friends confided to me: ‘God is a racist!” We were having our recurring conversation about hair. This confession got me thinking (again). Let’s face it, for black women, this is a sore topic (‘Afro or no? Raising the hair issue”, Friday, October 16). And not just for black women — remember Spike Lee’s early film School Daze? I will never forget the musical scene in which dark-skinned African-American females with apparent ‘nappy tresses” sang, juxtaposed against their light, bright, damn-near-white African-American female counterparts, about —wait for it … ‘Good and bad hair”!

I’m sure this wouldn’t be popular in post-apartheid South Africa, but it would be good to do a social experiment in which all female newborns are physically separated from all male newborns. In this solely female nursery, India Arie’s (hit?) song I Am Not My Hair should be played repeatedly for at least the first 24 to 48 hours of the baby girls’ lives. Their mothers can then be given the extended version of the tune when they are discharged from the hospital. All together now: ‘I am not my hair, I am not my skin, I am a soul that lives within —”

I would like personally to thank the few authors of children’s books who promote the virtues of embracing one’s locks, however tight the curl. Yet many a developing black female continues to struggle with this particular aspect of her appearance. And please don’t give me the argument that everyone wishes they had something different! Unless and until you have attempted, at home, in a salon, or even in the bush to have your hair dyed, fried and laid to the side in an effort to approach the so-called Standard of Beauty, you have not the foggiest idea of what all this ‘oh my nappy hair” business entails.

With my own daughter and to other black females who feign listening, I will try to reinforce the fact that black hair is Handsome, Awesome, Irresistible and Righteous and set an example for them by wearing my own hair naturally. After all, Afros, cornrows, dreadlocks and braids are beautiful. – Ann Blevins

From the notorious musical to Hannah Pool’s article (‘Straight talk: A hair-raising issue”, Friday, October 16), the issue of black women and hair revolves around both race and a conscious/subconscious blurring of cultural aesthetics.

It is obvious that the dominant Western culture exerts influence over literally everything we wear and for African women this includes their hair. Traditional African hairstyling, which I personally feel is more appealing, has taken a back seat because of the racist psychological damage done by slavery and colonialism.

The references to kinky hair and the proliferation of skin bleachers does not help reinforce one’s acceptance of self.

The irony is that the reinforcement of an inferiority complex is the propellant of the beauty industry and cuts across races. Comments about one’s looks as well as the status of one’s hair are universal, but more so among people of colour as a result of historical prejudices that are cemented by commercial business interests.

Teaching our girl-children to be contented about themselves and their hair may be a possible solution. Chris Rock’s cinematic attempt, albeit comic, may add value to such attempts at social awareness. — Billy Mayaya, Lilongwe, Malawi

Hani biography lacks integrity

There is a serious problem with the biography, Chris Hani: A Life Too Short by Janet Smith and Beauregard Tromp. Sello S Alcock hints at the problem but does not identify it (‘Portrait of a warrior-scholar”, Friday, October 16) when he notes that they ‘manage only to gloss over” certain complex episodes in Hani’s life in exile.

The authors are senior journalists on The Star, which makes the matter more disturbing. Smith is an executive editor and Tromp is a senior reporter who won the Mondi Shanduka Newspaper Journalist of the Year award this year, as well as other awards.

Yet their biography fails on a basic criterion: integrity to sources.

The crucial chapter concerns Hani’s relation to the mutiny of about 90% of the trained troops of Umkhonto weSizwe in Angola in 1984, the incarceration of leaders of the mutiny in Quatro prison camp and their subsequent fates.

Hani’s role in suppression of the mutiny (though he was not responsible for the public executions at Pango camp in May 1984) and in suppressing democratically elected committees representing ANC exiles in Tanzania in December 1989 sits oddly with his own near-execution at the hands of Joe Modise in 1969, whom he and six other survivors had criticised for shortcomings of leadership in the Wankie campaign. As Hugh Macmillan has put on record, Hani’s memorandum criticised ‘secret trials and executions” and ‘extremely reactionary methods of punishment in MK”.

Smith and Tromp, however, do not cite essential first-hand sources, although their book shows they had knowledge of one of these.

They criticise, but do not quote, Comrades against Apartheid by Stephen Ellis and Tsepo Sechaba (1992), who are scrupulous about giving their sources. Ellis and Sechaba make clear that their account of the mutiny in 1984 ‘relies heavily on the account by a number of former ANC guerrillas in Searchlight South Africa no 5, July 1990,” (a magazine published in London but banned in South Africa, of which I was co-editor) and they cite also a first-hand interview with one of the five authors of this account.

Smith and Tromp make no reference to this published first-hand source, despite it having been provided to them by Ellis and Sechaba. It has been available on the internet for nearly 10 years. First-hand evidence is neglected in favour of a tendentious reference to a secondary source.

They also neglect another first-hand source: the book by a participant in the mutiny and prisoner in Quatro camp, Mwezi Twala. They mention him by his exile name, but his book, Mbokodo (1994), is not even cited in their bibliography. Here are two mutually supportive first-hand sources that Smith and Tromp do not make available to the reader.

They do, however, make wild and generalised aspersions about ‘the writings of disgraced former ANC cadres”, and about alleged but unspecified comments concerning Hani by unnamed ‘anti-ANC former cadres” — for which no identifying references are provided.

These are the methods of innuendo and slur, not of the biographer or historian. They are unworthy of the authors’ profession.

Readers seeking a more reliable understanding will soon be able to compare their book with the account from Searchlight South Africa, which was cited by Ellis and Sechaba, but neglected by Smith and Tromp. It appears in my book, Inside Quatro: Uncovering the Exile History of the ANC and Swapo, to be published by Jacana Media later this month. — Paul Trewhela, Aylesbury, UK

Left with unreasonable demands

The left-wing grouping in the tripartite alliance has not changed its strategy to undermine the ANC (‘ANC’s civil war with the left hots up”, October 16). They used Jacob Zuma to seize control of the ANC.

The battle for the soul of the ANC forced our president to ride on the back of the tiger. The tiger is beginning to turn against him by making unreasonable demands such as unionisation of the army, removal of Trevor Manuel from planning, total abolition of labour brokers, nationalisation and a change of monetary policy.

The SACP discussion documents from the December conference are disturbing. They have a simple message: if you are in the SACP you are a worker and a revolutionary, but if you are in the ANC you are untrustworthy and anti-worker.

These documents are divisive and sectarian, hence the strategy to have Gwede Mantashe as ANC secretary general, to have communists in Cabinet, to seize control of ANC structures and spread this ‘revolution” in other provinces.

This factional activity is what Billy Masetlha and others are complaining about. Will our president take a stand against it? Masetlha’s group must canvass support to defend the ANC against abuse and the manipulation of Zuma by the left-wing faction.

If Mantashe and his faction lose control of Zuma, they will label him a neoliberal or neo-Mbeki-ite or an agent of Obama-liberalism. Zuma, like Nelson Mandela and Thabo Mbeki, should stand firm against these opportunists and hypocrites. — Nokwazi Thabethe, school of political science, University of KwaZulu-Natal
 
The 52nd conference of the ANC in Polokwane ushered us back to the traditions and culture of the ANC and the movement generally, in which alliance components are viewed as distinctive features of our revolution.

This opened doors for cadres to participate in building our nation in the corridors of power as members of the ANC. The dual membership that ANC and SACP cadres share is the defining feature of the struggle we are pursuing and each organisation appreciates the value added by this duality. — Thembinkosi Rawula, deputy secretary, Young Communists League, Mbuyiselo Ngwenda district

Fire first, ask questions later

If the police are trigger-happy now (‘Killings by cops at 10-year high”, October 16), how much more will they be if they are militarised? Do we want another demon besides crime to finish off our brothers and sisters?

I witnessed an incident in Jeppe, Johannesburg, when the police started a bullet-spitting spree and the residents decided to fight back because the ‘red ants” apparently wanted to demolish a building and its inhabitants had no alternative accommodation. When people protested, the police shot blankly into the crowd until a taxidriver came to their rescue and beat the hell out of the police with a knobkierie.

I saw another incident, on Sunday October 18, next to the MTN taxi rank. Some people were having an argument and when one big-bellied policeman came along, he didn’t bother to ask what the commotion was about, but fired blankly into the group of guys who were arguing.

With this kind of policing, I wonder if anybody is safe in South Africa any more? This is what happens when you hire a police chief who does not have a clue. — Malibongwe Luyenge, secretary, United Democratic Movement Youth Vanguard, Gauteng

Dim analogy

Thank you for explaining what lies behind Eskom’s tariff proposals (‘Eskom’s crazy plan”, M&G Business, October 16). But Kevin Davie’s (or is it Eskom’s?) comparison of ‘world electricity prices” with South Africa’s is misleading or, at the least, unclear. What is the basis for the comparison? And why is it that South Africa, whose currency is cheap on international markets, is compared only with countries whose money is expensive?

If we were to compare how many hours a South African must work to earn enough to pay his electricity bill with the number of hours worked by his overseas counterpart, we find that South Africans already have some of the world’s most expensive electricity — not the cheapest. — Paul Asquith, Knysna

In brief

I hope the threat to our korhaans (October 16) does raise a ‘brouhaha”. But please note that a brouhaha was never a bustard! Surely the bustard hunted mercilessly by Arab falconers is the houbara bustard. — Margaret Hoile, Durban

I have always followed the Mail & Guradian and generally regard your coverage as better than other local publications. I fully expected a significant change in the political set-up in Botswana — after all, the M&G published a number of reports to this effect. Instead, the ruling Botswana Democratic Party came out of the election last week with an increased majority. Maybe you need to reconsider the objectivity of your correspondent. — Hennie du Toit

It is obvious that political expediency and a Western bias determine who wins the Nobel Peace Prize. But to confer it on Barack Obama because of his intentions is like giving an Oscar to an actor for a brilliant performance in a movie yet to be produced. — Firoz Osman

The Nathi Mthethwa scandal left me dumbstruck. He lived in a hotel because his home was being renovated — from December to August! Minister, are they renovating your home or are they rebuilding it from scratch? — Sandile Gumede