APPRECIATE SOBUKWE’S IDEAS PURPOSEFULLY

Selby Vusimusi Moyo
activist

By Vusumzi Moyo
Activist

Once you grasp what Mangaliso Sobukwe was all about, you will understand why the ANC could never, and would never, lead the revolution in this territory.

At this point, we have an ANC that is shorn off any semblance of a revolutionary principle.

Indeed, in the ANC African people are losing their breath over nothing; they must redirect their energies and efforts elsewhere.

They must be guided toward the TREE of which Sobukwe spoke.

It is about time that those who claim to embrace the ideals of Sobukwe begin earnestly to teach these ideals to the African people.

For only those thoughts focus and direct us to the responsibility required for the revolution we seek.

I am here not referring to the charlatans who are wont to limit Sobukwe’s ideas, but to preaching the totality of the revolution and emancipation he imagined.

Indeed, Sobukwe’s revolutionary thoughts will tell us how empty the ANC and like parties are.

These parties want to lead people towards revolution, yet they are devoid of principle.

They want to convince us they are engaged in a revutionary war yet they do not have a well-defined enemy.

Sensible people will know that such war will never take place.

Every war is fought by distinct sides, and people are thus given opportunity to choose theirs.

No people can fight in a war when they are neutral.

Worse, neutral people cannot face people who are committed to and are firmly rooted in their side.

That is the orientation of the ANC and those who attach themselves to its charterist ideology of misleading the African masses.

Just like they did recently, enlisting people whose interests clashed with those of the African majority, to speak on behalf of the African majority.

That must be a clear chaos where a side allows its ranks to be infiltrated by those they are supposed to be deposing posing as people of goodwill when they are actually for the other team.

Sobukwe spoke about such infiltration of these liberals who want to be champions of the African revolution.

They are beneficiaries of our oppression and subjugation, yet they want to speak on behalf of the victims of oppression!

Didn’t Sobukwe, and then Bantu Biko later on, warn us about this?

Are some Africans so dumb that they could still allow themselves to be cajoled and swindled so easily – – after such a long time and good counsel?

Is this not akin to treatment of African adults being treated like ‘boys’ and ‘girls’ as Sobukwe observed.

From this came the Status Campaign which was supposed to be a sustained platform for Africans to reassert themselves.

It must truly be a stupid person who can miss this important lesson!

It is unfortunate that there are those in the Africanist ranks who have become political weaklings that they buy into the peddled lie of Freedom Charterism.

I still say that had these renegades really understood Sobukwe and the Africanist cause, they wouldn’t have been lured by peddlers of the Freedom Charter.

For oil and water cannot jell.

But had they really grasped those Africanist ideals, they would not have striven to limit the PAC as a one issue organisation.

Talking about the land question only, we must have realised, by now, that it is weakening, if it has not already weakened, the PAC.

Sobukwe spoke about “Mental Revolution”, which is supposed to be the foundation of revolution.

The idea of the idea of mental revolution directs our attention to the bigger picture.

And it another indictment for anyone to pretend not to understand this was a basic anti-colonial weapon.

No one can ignore the psychological damage colonialism inflicted on the African.

It is a damage that is not easy to survive, as can be seen in those who continue to view entrenchment of colonialism and imperialism as freedom.

Whatever the ANC can say or do, it will remain insipid, as long as the ANC continues to want to lead the revolution without revolutionary ideals or principles.

Indeed, without guiding principles toward true emancipation, the ANC remains an empty shell.

It remains a puzzle that some members from genuinely revolutionary organisations are attracted to it.

However, it is obvious that this organisation is kept alive to advance interests other than those of African people, which it was founded to advance and protect in the first place.

Currently, however, the conundrum is whether those who are leading the PAC are prepared to get back to Mangaliso Robert Sobukwe’s revolutionary path, or continue with their opportunistic orientation.

Meanwhile, the Africanist establishment are confronted with the question of whether they will stand by and watch the ideals of PAC’s founder president lose the power they possess.

Which is a great shame.

Every wasted day is delaying the African revolution, which in turn can render the PAC to a position similar to that of the ANC.

Being a dog that barks without a bite… Unless Sobukwe’s ideals are approached with the purpose they were intended for.