Genius of Credo Mutwa can snap SA out of autopilot

Arguably, Credo Mutwa was the first to diagnose what our country would become, and offer a prognosis about what needs to be done to transcend our unhealthy conditions, says the writer. File photo

Arguably, Credo Mutwa was the first to diagnose what our country would become, and offer a prognosis about what needs to be done to transcend our unhealthy conditions, says the writer. File photo

Published Jan 8, 2017

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SA has an opportunity to unify itself and instil national pride by using, inarguably, the genius of Credo Mutwa, says Jeffrey Sehume.

South Africa finds itself without effective executive political leadership. Being on autopilot means the country is subject to vagaries of internal and external forces. The negative effects of this state are evident in the schizophrenic national policies.

This lack of direction exists alongside the threat posed by the growing army of unemployed and unemployable people. Our autopilot condition is not limited to the political sphere, but also extends to the social and cultural fabric.

A consequence of this is that we are passive consumers to globalisation such as Western market goods, technology, media, ideology and language. This explains the talk of democratic South Africa experiencing linguistic liquidation (linguicide) and knowledge genocide (epistemicide). Simply put, we do not know who we were, and who we are, anymore.

Which figure predicted South Africa being enmeshed in an autopilot political space? Arguably, Credo Mutwa was the first to diagnose what our country would become, and offer a prognosis about what needs to be done to transcend our unhealthy conditions. Mutwa was able to do this due to his blessings, or curse if you will, as a political prophet and literary genius.

A "genius" is defined in the Merriam-Webster dictionary as “a person endowed with transcendent mental superiority”. Mutwa approximates this definition owing to the various monikers associated with him. Those less convinced of his genius have derided him as a charlatan. But like the biblical Jeremiah, Mutwa was castigated as an outcast owing to the truth behind his prophecy. He is on record for predicting, among other things, the 2001 Twin Tower attacks and the ensuing war on terror, the 1976 student uprisings, and the 2008 removal of democratic South Africa’s second president.

Mutwa is an outlier since he emerges almost sui generis, that is, without precedent all the more so since he is an autodidact of sorts. For his jeremiad prophecy and the originality of his genius, he has suffered in both the apartheid and democratic eras.

Still, what lessons can be derived from the life of Mutwa? Why is it important to revisit the treasure trove of his cultural output?

One ingredient behind the ascendance of post-1978 China lies in its past. When its colonisers left, China reverted to its pre-colonial civilisation to draw inspiration and guidance even as it appropriated what was most relevant from, say, Western systems economic management to eventually birth unique hybrid framework.

Mutwa then is on point in reminding us about coloniality as a condition that outlives colonialism.Long after the apartheid legislation has been removed, Mutwa opines that black South Africans remain “a downtrodden casualty of history forever dependent like a whipped slave upon her former oppressors”. This dependency syndrome is now highlighted by the #DecolonisationMovement led by edgy young people seeking their identity in the education curriculum dominated by Western knowledge models.

In an effort to document, preserve and cerebrate our own understanding, in 1964, Mutwa published his magnum opus entitled Indaba, My Children. This masterpiece was his attempt at showcasing his people’s complex world views. Why was this critical for him to achieve? What benefit could accrue from such a project?

In so doing, Mutwa was able to respond to the "double consciousness" spoken of by W.E.B Du Bois. A "double consciousness" is apropos in our globallised world where identities are almost the same where everyone talks the conspicuous consumerist language of iPhones, Starbucks, Rihanna, CNN.

This "double consciousness" highlights a “sense of always looking at one's self through the eyes of others, of measuring one’s soul by the tape of a world that looks on in amused contempt and pity”.

Not being able to use one’s own understanding is evident in our approach to education. While the government spends close to 15 percent of its revenue on education, the actual returns are pitiful as made obvious in our country’s primary education sector being rated, by the World Economic Forum, 126th out of 138 countries. Without focusing on early childhood development, the focus on matric outputs becomes null and void.

Mutwa counsels us on endogenous development, such as attained by China and Singapore, based on what exists in the storehouse of our pre-colonial civilisations. We are schizophrenic in our approaches, individual and collective, because we do not appreciate what it is that makes us unique beyond the symbolism of Mandela, Tutu, and lately, Trevor Noah and Elon Musk.

Who are we as a nation: an imagined community born during colonialism and after apartheid? In this 21st century where the world has become interlinked, the preservation of one’s culture and science is imperative. The failure to recognise this has resulted in Brexit and Trumpism, which are blowbacks against a neo-liberal order intent on homogenising economies, ideologies and cultures.

The rise of nationalism is not only an expression of a return to what Joshua Kerbel calls a "clash of cognitions" or world views, but for us in South Africa, a red flag to appreciate the unequal power relations in this clash between a privileged white system and nascent black identity battling to locate its genesis and relevance.

In certain societies, the foundational texts that offer national pride and consciousness are a non-negotiable. It is not open for discussion in Germany to measure the lasting value of Goethe’s oeuvre, or Shakespeare’s in the UK, Soyinka in Nigeria and even Homer in Greece. South Africa has that opportunity to unify itself and instil national pride by using, inarguably, the genius of Credo Mutwa as retold in Indaba, My Children.

* Sehume is a researcher at the Mapungubwe Institute (MISTRA).

** The views expressed here are not necessarily those of Independent Media.

The Sunday Independent

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