OF THE several responses to the local election polls, particularly in the print media, a critical issue was touched on by Wits vice- chancellor Adam Habib when he wrote: “The ANC at least in recent memory, prior to Zuma, saw tradition and culture not in a static sense but as capable of evolving and being compatible with the project of modernity.”
The ANC under Zuma has made a complete detour from this “trajectory”. This, according to Habib, lies at the heart of the ANC’s retention of its major support base in the rural areas while being greeted with telling rejection by its former supporters in the urban areas.
Therein lies the rub! In the early days of reconstruction, an enlightened and visionary ANC leadership courageously laid down the markers of modernity in a society hamstrung by those aspects of culture and tradition which were cunningly distorted to serve the designs of the apartheid regime. Most prominent in this appropriation was the altered role of “chiefs” who became, in return for a mess of pottage, its effective channels in the disempowerment of their “subjects”.
Naturally the ANC’s subsequent dealing with “Traditional Leaders” was a delicate one, but there was no mistaking its trajectory towards a true democracy.
Enlightened ANC policy made for some impressive gains until Zuma came along and once more we descended into a blurring of what constitutes culture and tradition on the one hand and what constitutes modernity on the other, giving rise to the false notion that these concepts are mutually exclusive. If you will pardon the pun, Zuma is a staunch upholder of polygamy, which goes against the grain of a true democracy and, indeed, true culture.
The advocates of polygamy sought justification for this undemocratic, patriarchal practice in culture and tradition. After the installation of a government of national unity, Thabo Mbeki, in his more sober moments, called attention to the fact that South Africa is divided into two unequal societies – one black and poor and the other white and well off. To many in the latter group, cultural dominance and a consequent sense of racial superiority were as natural as the breathtaking view from the wide-bay windows of privileged mansions on the western slopes of Table Mountain. Even worse, they came to believe that they were the sole custodians, the “trendsetters”, of “modernity”. It was almost as if the concept was introduced to a backward sector of the world by the enlightened West.
At this point we need to remind ourselves that the abuse of power and the distortions that underpin it are not exclusive to any one race.
That would be playing the race card in the manner of the opportunists, who seem to have captured the soul of the ANC together with tenderpreneurs and their ilk.
In their retrograde election campaign, Zuma and his acolytes in the ANC unashamedly aimed their racial barbs at the DA, describing it as a “white” party that sprang from megalomaniacs such as Verwoerd.
As they say, you can fool some of the people some of the time…
That sorry recourse may be dismissed as being what “politics is all about”.
The effect, however, is to further derail the once admirable aims of the ANC and the question arises: how do we get true reconciliation and reconstruction back on track.
The ANC remains the major player. The anxiety is whether it can succeed in ridding itself of the opportunists, and their alarming network of cronies. The anxiety is whether the ANC can win back its soul, nurtured with such absolute faith, integrity and sacrifice by giants such as Chief Albert Luthuli, Oliver Tambo, Dr Dadoo, Ruth First, Nelson Mandela, Walter Sisulu, Ahmed Kathrada, Reggie and Dulcie September, and so many other selfless crusaders for true liberation.
Progress towards democracy is dependent on clearing up the distortions of culture and modernity. The very strength of culture is its dynamism – its openness to change. Yes, language, indigenous dance, music, drama, storytelling and the visual arts must be reclaimed from under the destructive foot of cultural dominance.
In doing so we cannot ignore the imperative for growth germane to all cultures. Culture denies itself when it becomes so fixed in time that it is no more a living thing. Real change nourishes, enriches.
But such growth cannot ensue when a domineering culture continues to call the tune. This has happened with the appropriation of the concept of “modernity”, especially by the privileged sector of our society. For Pete’s sake, modernity began the moment the first thinking humans emerged from the Sterkfontein Caves, when the first “caveman”, manufactured the first paints and, untutored, created the first works of art on cave walls. It continued through time with successive innovations such as the Dravidian discovery of the concept of nought, through the Chinese invention of the abacus, the forerunner of today’s computer and right through numerous such initiatives that landscape the short history of humankind.
And again for Pete’s sake, modernity got its kick-start long before Western man emerged from his caves and shed his animal skins at a time when people in the East were wearing clothes, building homes, temples and streets and teaching their children how to count. Let’s pause there and take a deep breath to prevent ourselves from appearing to advance reverse racism and sounding like we’re imputing virtue and intellectual superiority to any one exclusive group of peoples.
We need to constantly remind ourselves, whatever our race, ethnicity or religion, that we have a rich common heritage and the South African experiment was a brave voyage towards a true democracy over the tumultuous waters of distortions unleashed over time by the lust for untrammelled power.
We need so very urgently to get this voyage back on track. That’s what the ANC we once knew was all about. That’s what “modernity” is all about – not your Camps Bay kugel, your Gucci shoes or your Towers of Trump.
● Govender is a South African playwright. His book, At the Edge and other Cato Manor Stories, won the 1997 Commonwealth Writers’ Prize for best first book, Africa