Are Africans really stupid, lazy?
In the past weeks a video clip has circulated in different social media where a black American preacher argues that blacks cannot think. In his passionate sermon, the preacher argues that examples are galore throughout the world to prove that “there is something wrong with the black person’s mind”. This sermon, together with other incidents elsewhere, has really resuscitated the “blacks are an inferior race” debate which started many centuries ago. And I think it is important that we allow this debate to continue with the hope that it shall assist us to better understand the African peoples and possibly…
Let’s drive farming revolution
South Africa’s present and future food production and food security needs can be met, if we are able to deal with our past and build on the future envisaged in the Freedom Charter. Land reform is about dealing with our ugly past and trying to build a future for all the people of South Africa. Nelson Mandela in his wisdom advised us, in particular the previously disadvantaged, that “Africans must recall the terrible past so that we can deal with it, forgiving where forgiveness is necessary but not forgetting”. We must, as he warned, “change South Africa from a country…
Marikana: the poor still exploited
Revolutions distinguish themselves as phenomena that change those who wield social power – replacing old ruling classes with new classes of rulers. In South Africa, the revolution that culminated in the 1994 April democratic breakthrough is always thought of as having ushered in a whole new era of social relations. Because social power that had for centuries concentrated in a small minority was now evenly distributed to all citizens irrespective of race, class and gender. So April 1994 was the historic moment when it was proclaimed: the people are now governing! In other words, the South African revolution is always…
