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Monday, 11 April 2016

Southern African Times

Writing the Struggle

   
And it was in this furnace that moulded comrades like Major Willibard“Nakada Shikolo” Tashiya (West Front regional commander, member of SWAPO Military Council), Jackson Mazazi (instructor/commissar for politics and the Vietnam Political Information Officer), “Mbunjana” Munashimwe (camp commander at Vietnam Front), Kalwele Saleus Nehunga (Vietnam physical training instructor), Sakeus “Jocks” Heita (Western Front regional commander for anti-aircraft), David “Kapinya” Mbango (Western Front regional political commissar), and Sekitus “Situation” Shoopola (Western Front regional commander for logistics).
These men are the subject of  Willy Mary Amutenya’s “Brave Unyielding Comrades”.
The account captures the period from 1978 to 1990 and Amutenya (real name Mweshilengelwa Willy Amutenya) unravels the torment he went through when the struggle started and why he had to join the war.
Amutenya attended Anamulenge Primary School from 1966 to 1972 and secondary school from 1973 to 1975. In 1976-1977, he worked for the government as a Telecom switchboard operator at Ondangwa Post Office.
After getting involved with SWAPO, Amutenya was elected vice secretary of the Youth League in the then Ovamboland in 1975.
He decided to cross into Angola in 1978 because of harassment and death threats from the South African Defence Forces and the notorious Koevoet Units.
After four months in exile, the SADF raided Angola attacking SWAPO refugee camps.
Unfortunately, he was one of those captured and brought back to Namibia for incarceration in Mariental.
“By mid-January 1978 I received regular deaths threats from members of Koevoet in Oshakati and Ondangwa while I was in the middle of covert preparations for the armed struggle for liberation.
“I had an ominous feeling that my days were numbered, and decided to leave the country early in March 1978. “Since I had been assisting members of PLAN in Namibia, it was not difficult to get over the borders.
“I was smuggled into Angola and ended up at the Vietnam (Chetequera) transit camp, roughly 40 kilometres from the Angolan-Namibian border.
“Vietnam transit camp became my home from March to May 1978.
“On Thursday, 5 May 1978 the South African Defence Force invaded southern Angola, brutally attacking two SWAPO-led refugee camps, Cassinga and Vietnam.
“I lost my right arm in that violent clash, and was captured as a prisoner of war together with 190 others,” he reveals.
Amutenya and his fellow prisoners were released from Keikanachab Prison in 1984 through a pressure campaign by the Council of Churches in Namibia and other parties involved in the conflict for implementing UN Resolution 435.
This is but one story in this narrative.
While the war itself is of great interest, sometimes life after the war is an even greater story.
Amutenya’s life since the struggle has differed from many of his comrades because he pursued education rather than politics.
In 1985, Amutenya worked for the Anglican Diocese of Namibia as a pre-school teacher at the Anglican Kindergaten in Katutura before moving to the Roman Catholic Church as a social worker, co-ordinating Justice and Peace Commission issues on human rights in 1988.
He then studied for a certificate in Theology through correspondence from Theological Extension College of Southern Africa.
He also obtained a diploma in Production and Supervision from Damelin College in 1994 and thereafter worked for the Ministry of Higher Education as Chief Hostel Patron for International Youth Hostels.
 
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Cape Town Delivered Another Successful WTM Africa In 2016

Thandisizwe Mgudlwa

Thousands made their way to Cape Town gets ready for the 2016 version of World Travel Market (WTM) Africa this week.

South Africa needs to watch, listen and learn from yet another opportunity that consists of the best in the tourism industry, in order for the country to develop it's economy.

Last year the Cape Town successfully hosted this premier travel event in Africa with thousands ascending to the 'Mother City' and created new and unforgettable memories.

For this years event though, exhibition leader, Thebe Reed Exhibitions for the third year running, brought Africa’s leading travel and tourism gurus to the southern most tip of Africa, Cape Town.

Cape Town, a multiple international award winning city, is known for its creativity, nature conservation and numerous historical, heritage and cultural pluralism.

Carol Weaving, Managing Director of Thebe Reed Exhibitions notes she had been keen to see as many local travel professionals as possible come through the doors during the 3 days of engaging travel and tourism business activities.  

The WTM Africa 2016, which kicked off on Wednesday and ended on Friday at the Cape Town Convention Centre (CTICC), is an event which organisers have confirmed that "the spotlight is on the continent as international exhibitors, buyers and visitors descend on Cape Town to create valuable partnerships and negotiate successful business deals which will contribute to the impact the industry has on the African economy."

WTM Africa also brings to the table, a diverse array of premium exhibitors, associations and tourism authorities.

"As Africa’s leading B2B exhibition for both inbound and outbound travel and tourism markets, presenting a diverse range of destinations and industry sectors to South African, African and International travel professionals. Through its industry networks, global reach and regional focus, WTM Africa creates exclusive business opportunities, providing industry professionals with quality contacts, content and communities," according to organisers.

And WTM Africa 2015 saw over 500 exhibitors showcase their products and services to 4127 trade professionals over 3 days, with 7600 prescheduled appointments and 2 days of very successful speed networking. 

This prestigious gathering has been blessed before with key tourism authorities exhibited here with then likes Abu Dhabi Tourism, Culture Authority. The Authority conserves and promotes the heritage and culture of such places as Abu Dhabi emirate. They manage the emirate’s tourism sector and markets the destination internationally through a wide range of activities aimed at attracting visitors and investment.

Tracey Krog, Country Manager, South Africa – Abu Dhabi Tourism and Culture Authority who commented that  WTM Africa 2015 was the first time destination Abu Dhabi and its key partners showcased prominently to the South African and African travel industry with exhibitors such as Etihad Airways and Oryx Tourism participating on the TCA Abu Dhabi stand.

Included in last years WTM Africa’s diverse array of exhibitors was Namibia Tourism. Area Manager for the destination, Cristina Cicognani, who has the distinction of showcasing the country along with 20 Namibian Tourism suppliers.

Cicognani noted, “WTM Africa has created a wonderful international platform for our Namibia Tourism Suppliers to showcase their tourist related products. Last year marked the year in which Namibia celebrated its Silver Jubilee, 25 years of successful and fruitful years of a peaceful independence. 

She said, Namibia Tourism Board is always proud to support their businesses in South Africa and to the International Tourist Trade.

A true highlight of WTM Africa 2015’s was the official charity, The Tourism Child Protection Code of Conduct (The Code), which together with leading South African tourism industry stakeholders signalled their game-changing approach to protecting children from the worst forms of exploitation. 

"The Code is an industry-driven, multi-stakeholder initiative with the mission to provide awareness, tools and support to the tourism industry in order to combat the sexual exploitation of children in contexts related to travel and tourism."



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Thursday, 7 April 2016

Southern African News


USAID ends Southern Africa 

Trade Hub contract


   
> Mpho Tebele
Gaborone- After more than five years, the current contract for the United States Agency for International Development (USAID)’s Southern Africa Trade Hub is coming to a close, an official announced on Monday, March 7.
The USAID Southern Africa Trade Hub works to enhance economic growth and food security in the region through trade.
USAID regional trade adviser Paul Pleva said in a statement that “With deep gratitude, we say farewell to USAID’s Southern Africa Trade Hub. After more than five years, the current contract for the “Hub” is coming to a close.”
He said this is not really an end, but just a transition. “You will soon hear more about USAID’s Southern Africa Trade and Investment Hub, a new project to continue the work of the current hub. This new project is still under procurement,” said Pleva.
The hub has reported increases in access to warehouse receipts and new deals for exporting garments.
“We’ve seen financing come together for greater agricultural production and the establishment of new labs for testing standards. We’ve read about new rules for promoting renewable energy and portals for keeping traders informed. Although we say good-bye to this Hub, the results will carry on,” he said.
Pleya said at the heart of the Hub was a dedication to results. “The Trade Hub has reported on increases in access to warehouse receipts and new deals for exporting garments.
“We’ve seen financing come together for greater agricultural production and the establishment of new labs for testing standards.
“We’ve read about new rules for promoting renewable energy and portals for keeping traders informed. Although we say good-bye to this Hub, the results will carry on,” said Pleya.
USAID’s Trade Hub was integral to implement President Barack Obama’s “Feed The Future” (FTF) initiative by enabling Southern African farmers to improve agricultural production and supply nutritious food in the region where some countries often face food deficits.  It was headquartered in Gaborone with a budget of more than $80 million over five years (from 2010 to 2016 March).
With offices in Gaborone, Botswana; Centurion (Pretoria), South Africa; and embedded advisors in offices in Malawi and Namibia, the Trade Hub worked primarily in Botswana, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Swaziland, and Zambia.
The Trade Hub provided needs-driven assistance to the Southern African Development Community (SADC), the Southern African Customs Union (SACU), governments, and private sector organizations in eight countries to advance regional trade within Southern Africa while incorporating gender integration, environment compliance, and strategic outreach in all activities.
As a regional program the Trade Hub’s objective was to reduce the time and cost of transporting goods across borders by deploying modern trade facilitation tools such as trade information portals and national single windows in selected countries.
It was also aimed at strengthening the competitiveness of the grain, soy and groundnut value chains by reducing post-harvest losses, introducing better seeds and technologies, strengthening regional agricultural institutions                  and supporting trade and investment links.
Its objective was to Increase capacity for regulating and enhancing the clean energy sector to increase investments.
It was also to improve the regional trade, investment and integration enabling environment through regulatory reform and the promotion of harmonized standards.
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PUMPMAKERS launches world’s first platform for DIY Solar Pumps in AFRICA

PUMPMAKERS from Austria have launched the PumpmakersPlatform, a virtual marketplace that helps people help themselves by providing individuals, local companies, NGO's and volunteers with free access to the easy-to-use Do-It-Yourself Solar Pump and a global network to implement projects for everyone where there is a need of water. This helps reduce the global water shortage, strengthens the local economy, creates jobs and prevents migration from rural areas.Pumpmakers have successfully installed DIY Solar Pumps in Africa and Europe since 2012. A single pump system provides up to 1.000 people a day with clean drinking water. Building on the success of these first projects, new PUMPMAKERS projects are following suit in Somalia, Morocco, Zambia, Cameroon and Tanzania.

Free registration for individuals, companies, organizations or volunteers

PUMPMAKERS are expanding the PUMPMAKERS PLATFORM globally with new projects and project partners in the African region. To this effect, entrepreneurs, local companies, NGOs and simply individuals requiring water every day may register themselves free of charge on the PUMPMAKERS PLATFORM, and present their company, organization or project to a global community. Furthermore,PUMPMAKERS are on the lookout for new project entries and water wells as well as existing sources of water with and without water pumps (e.g. hand pumps or diesel-powered water pumps) which may be replaced by or equipped with a DIY Solar Pump. Dietmar Stuck, an experienced Austrian well-builder, founder & CEO of PUMPMAKERSexplains: “There is a huge need for safe, clean drinking water in Africa. To date however, more than 300 thousand hand pumps are inoperative or broken. That’s why our DIY Solar Pump and the PUMPMAKERSPLATFORM present an ideal solution. Project entries on our world map will provide us with the information we need to realize these projects together with our partners.”

Watch the video 1: https://youtu.be/dvH77aOJs4c

Inexpensive, modern, sustainable – a water pump for everyone

Back in 2010, Dietmar Stuck developed the world’s first DIY SolarPump together with his team of experts, using the latest technology as well as a sustainable and patented concept: “All materials as well as the individual parts of the pump are maintenance-free and corrosion-free. What’s more, the pump is affordable and has been designed for easy assembly, even in the remotest corners of the world. Due to the fact that we only use renewable solar energy to pump water from a depth of 100 metres, our system incurs no running costs. The optional hand pumpcan be used for operations at night. More importantly, our DIY SolarPump works independently from wind and fuel. It is the ideal substitute for conventional systems that are often too expensive or require a lot of maintenance.”

Global network to fight the water crisis

Just basic DIY skills and a few parts that are readily available locally are required to assemble and install the solar pump. The pump-kit, piston and gear unit as well as suitable tools or

advertising material can be purchased via the webshop of the multilingual PUMPMAKERS

PLATFORM. The parts needed for the pump tower can either be obtained locally or via the webshop. Videos and images provide step-by-step assembly instructions.

The new platform offers local companies and start-up entrepreneurs – the Pumpmakers – a straightforward business model and the support they need. Pumpmakers can present their services to the global community, network with NGOs, customers or fellow Pumpmakers, report on their DIY Solar Pump project and upload images and videos. A world map highlights water supply needs and shows the status of current projects. According to master well builder Dietmar Stuck, there is a great demand, not only in Africa but also increasingly in South America, Asia and Australia. Therefore, the next series production of the DIY Solar Pump will commence in March 2016.

Compared to many traditional water pump systems that are often maintenance prone and expensive, the investment of about $ 7,500 for the maintenance-free DIY Solar Pump is amortised over about one to two years. However, even individuals or volunteers who want to make a difference can help fight the global water crisis. They can invest time and effort by joining the PUMPMAKERS PLATFORM and highlighting their project on the world map. That way, they can effectively draw sponsors’ and organisations’ attention of to the need for water in their region.
“Our goal is to provide thousands of people worldwide with access to safe, clean drinking water and give those wanting to start their own business the support they need. That is why we came

up with a unique DIY concept. It makes people more self-sufficient and effectively helps fight the global water shortage and poverty,” summarises Dietmar Stuck. Today, almost 800 million people still have no access to safe, clean drinking water. As a result, some 10,000 people die every day - most of them are children under the age of five.

Watch the video 2: https://youtu.be/1mogGXbIe8g
For media enquiries please contact:
Dietmar Stuck – CEO, PM Pumpmakers GmbH
Industriepark Strasse 13, 9300 Sankt Veit an der Glan, Austria
Tel: +43 4212 71 88 715
press@pumpmakers.com
www.pumpmakers.com

Background information:
The Austrian master well builder Dietmar Stuck has been active in the water well drilling industry in Europe, Australia and Africa since 2000 and has installed several hundred drinking water wells. In six African countries he carried out surveys for water projects on behalf of humanitarian aid organizations and saw that conventional water pumps were completely unsuitable for local conditions. These experiences led him to develop the worldwide unique DIY Solar Pump: a cost-effective and sustainable solution that enables water to be pumped from a depth of up to 100 meters - independently from electric power. The founder & CEO of PM Pumpmakers GmbH has received numerous awards for his patented concept, e.g.: in 2011, the Energy Globe Award, build! Ideenwettbewerb and Social Impact Award, in 2012, the Innovation-Slot, in 2013, the Ben & Jerrys–Join our Core, in 2014, the Green Business Award, and in 2015, the Vote for a Better Planet Award and Sustainable Entrepreneurship Award. People all over the world should benefit from his knowledge and should be able to easily build wells to supply their village with water and start their own business. Following a successful crowdfunding campaign, the PUMPMAKERSPLATTFORM went live in January 2016, complete with construction plans and a webshop for the DIY Solar Pump.

Further press information:
Please visit https://PumpMakers.com/press to download a detailed PRESS KIT.

IMAGES & VIDEOS can be downloaded at:https://PumpMakers.com/press-photos-videos
Click on http://tv.pumpmakers.com/live-view for a LIVE VIEW of the DIY Solar Pump.

More information: www.PumpMakers.com

Pumpmakers on the Internet:
Website: www.pumpmakers.com
Facebook: https://facebook.com/pumpmakers
Twitter: http://twitter.com/DIYsolarpump
YouTube: http://youtube.com/pumpmakers
Google+: https://google.com/+Pumpmakers
LinkedIn Pumpmakers: http://linkedin.com/company/pumpmakers
LinkedIn Dietmar Stuck: http://linkedin.com/in/dietmarstuck
SOURCE
PM Pumpmakers GmbH
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Southern African News

Should African Countries Adopt The American Entrepreneurship Model?

   
> Thandisizwe Mgudlwa
At the Black Forum Conference of September 2004 held at the University of Pretoria, a link between Entrepreneurship and Black Economic Empowerment (BEE) was debated extensively.
Although now its 12 years on since the Black Business leaders and BEE stakeholders gathered, the issues they discussed at the conference are still far from being addressed, as the majority of South Africans and their African counterparts are still living in poverty.
Currently, the are about five African countries which practice BEE. These are of SA, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Morocco, Mauritius and Namibia.
Titled, “Entrepreneurship and Black Economic Empowerment (BEE): An alternative way”, the forum asserted that entrepreneurship is sometimes seen as a process of few peoples.
Some notable outcomes included that, “Although some persons have innate abilities as entrepreneurs, many can also develop this capacity in their life through a learning process.”
According to Timmons (1999: 27), entrepreneurship is a way of thinking and reasoning.
“At the heart of entrepreneurship is the creation and/or recognition of opportunities.”
Therefore, entrepreneurship can help disposed people to change their social life, from poverty to wealth.
On the other hand, BEE is a policy aimed at empowering previously disadvantaged people in South Africa. Botswana, Zimbabwe, Morocco, Mauritius and Namibia.
In Nigeria, BEE seems no longer to be a top of the list these days.
Essentially though, is the question, what is the link between BEE and entrepreneurship?
The forum noted that the history of the Unites States could assist them in explaining how entrepreneurship can contribute to job creation and change the lives of millions of people in SA and the rest of Africa.
How can this be achieved? How can an entrepreneurial mind-set be implemented among the African population? These questions and others were going to ground the paper.
This paper would explain why to focus on entrepreneurship as a remedy to improving African’s lives and eradicate poverty.
The final report also developed definitively entrepreneurship as an alternative way of implementing BEE in an entrepreneurial context.
Furthermore, it was noted that society is the social and physical context in which people establish or acquire businesses.
“Entrepreneurship is important for any society to generate economic growth for social-economic welfare of the population in general” (Van Aardt et al., 2002: 3).
In this regard, Michel Porter (1990: 125) noted that entrepreneurship is at the heart of economic advantage.
The forum further declared that in a South African divided society, where a large part of the population leaves in poverty, entrepreneurship needed to be a ‘must’.
The whole paper has developed a strategic framework in which BEE can be implemented in an entrepreneurial context.
It has been found that during the years 1970s, entrepreneurship was defined as a way of thinking, reasoning, and acting that is opportunity obsesses, holistic in approach, and leadership balanced (Timmons, 1999: 27).
Although this definition of entrepreneurship has evolved over the past decades, however, the core of the concept remains the same.
According to Timmons (1987: 409), entrepreneurship results in the creation, enhancement, realization, and renewal of value, not just for owners, but also for all participants and stakeholders.
At the heart of this process according to Timmons, there is the creation and/or recognition of opportunities, followed by the will and initiative to seize these opportunities.
Therefore, entrepreneurship requires a willingness to take risks-both personal and financial.
During the years 1990s, entrepreneurship was associated with the creation of start-ups.
Today, entrepreneurship has evolved beyond the classic start-up notion to include organisations of all types at all stages.
Thus entrepreneurship can occur -and fail to occur- in new firms and in old, in small firms and large, in fast and slow growing firms, in the private, not for-profit, and public sectors, in all geographic points, and all stages of a nation’s development, regardless of politics (Timmons,1999: 27).
In simple terms, Antonites (2003: 29) defines an entrepreneur as an individual with the potential to create a vision from virtually nothing.
Furthermore, “Entrepreneurship requires a willingness to take calculated risks, both personal time, intellectual and financial, and then doing everything possible to fulfill ones’ goals and objectives.”
This would also also involve “building a team of people with complementary needed skills and talents; sensing and grasping an opportunity where others see failure, chaos, contradiction, and confusion; and gathering and controlling resources to pursue the opportunity, making sure that the venture does not run out of finance when it needs it most.”
At any time, the entrepreneur needs certain resources to start a business venture, or to realize a business opportunity, either outside or inside the business, which are financial, and human resources (Van Aardt, 2002: 5).
From all the definitions outlined here, entrepreneurship holds the promise of future growth, expansion and long-term financial gain; that is why sometimes a small business that is only aimed at the survival of its owner cannot be seen as an entrepreneurial venture (Van Aardt 2002: 5).
The term Black Economic Empowerment (BEE) started slipping into vocabulary of Blacks Activists at about the same time that “Black Advancement” was the term invogue in the late 1970s in South Africa during the Freedom Struggle.
But it was only in the late 1980s, that it began to be used strongly as a counterpoint to the weak “Equal Opportunity” that had been given prominence by the corporate sector.
However, the term as used in the 1980s may well end up being judged by history of the anti-Apartheid Struggle prior to the elections of 27 April 1994.
The term also found itself smack in the middle of the political turmoil that was enfolding in South Africa at that time.
According to Paul Browning (1978), the goal of BEE is to assist in the process of dismantling apartheid and creating a non-racial representative government in South Africa.
“The empowerment strategy has two distinct elements. The first is the breaking down of social barriers as result of increased Black incomes. This will lead to changes in lifestyles and greater communication between Blacks and whites. This in turn will ease the process of political change. The second is the creation of wealth within the Black community sothat in a capitalist society Blacks will be able to vote with their money” (Madi 1997).
The BEE Commission defined BEE as a strategy aimed at substantially increasing Black participation at all levels in the economy. BEE is aimed at redressing the imbalances of the past by seeking to substantially and equitably transfer ownership, management and proportionate control of South Africa’s financial and economic resources to the majority of its citizens.
It also aims to ensure broader and meaningful participation in the economy by Black people. From this definition, there is a keyword that needs to be underlined and which explains the whole policy of BEE,
BEE is a strategy aimed to redress the imbalances of the past by increasing Black participation in their national economies.
For an example, in March, 2008, Zimbabwe’s President, Robert Mugabe signed the Indigenization and Economic Empowerment Bill into law.
The law gives Zimbabweans the right to take over and control many foreign owned companies in Zimbabwe. Specifically, over 50% of all the businesses in the country will be transferred into local African hands. The bill defines an indigenous Zimbabwean as “any person who before the 18th of April 1980 was disadvantaged by unfair discrimination on the grounds of his or her race, and any descendant of such person.”
Moreover, the 2004 forum had concluded, other ways must be explored as alternative means for implementing BEE.
“Entrepreneurship is one. The present initiative tackles the process in the South African context.”
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Wednesday, 6 April 2016

Southern African News


Writing the Struggle – Our 

condemned cultures 2


   
In his 1959 paper delivered at the Congress of Black African Writers, FRANTZ FANON talks about how the absence of national cultures also affects the struggle for liberation in Africa and how the few countries and peoples who cling onto remnants
of their culture are made redundant by disinterest and non-participation of the majority. This, writes WONDER GUCHU, still affects Africa and the African today
Culture is like glue that keeps a people together. That is why Chinese, Koreans and even Americans have strong sense of nationality than most of us in Africa.
Apart from gluing a people together regardless of their ethnicity, culture also engenders a sense of pride such that all peoples feel unsafe once their country is under threat.
Take the USA, for example, injury to one is regarded an injury to all. But in Africa, opposition parties would rather take a different opinion to that of the ruling party
just for the sake of being the opposition. There is no national pride in policies which benefit the very people African opposition parties claim to represent.
In fact, Frantz Fanon argues, in his 1959 paper delivered at the Congress of Black African Writers and included in his book, the “Wretched of the Earth”, that colonial domination “disrupt in spectacular fashion the cultural life of a conquered people”.
“This cultural obliteration is made possible by the negation of national reality, by new legal relations introduced by the occupying power, by the banishment of the natives and their customs to outlying districts by colonial society, by expropriation, and by the systematic enslaving of men and women,” he writes.
Fanon also says where people should be dynamic in pushing for national issues and changes; the absence of culture makes it impossible for them to do so as an entity. In other words, where the natives think they would have made strides in development and progress the fact would be that they had not gotten anywhere.
“The immediate, palpable and obvious interest of such leaps ahead is nil. But if we follow up the consequences to the very end we see that preparations are being thus made to brush the cobwebs off national consciousness to question oppression and
to open up the struggle for freedom,” he explains.
Once a people adopts another people’s culture just like what most of us in Africa
have done, it becomes unimportant to fight for freedom because we would have become part of what we want to fight against.
In the event that there are people who still pursue some culture, Fanon says such actions will become just ‘a set of automatic habits, some traditions of dress and a few broken-down institutions’.
This is apparent in Swaziland, for example, where dress still remains the core of a culture that has long been gone. It can also be seen in Namibia where the Herero
in particular maintain a distinct dress code which has everything to do with the former colonial master. Even the Zulu in South Africa maintain a dress code and
a few cultural traits that benefit just a few people within the society. These are just cores which, according to Fanon, are “remnants of culture” with no “real creativity and no overflowing life”.
He says such clinging to a “culture which is becoming more and more shrivelled up, inert and empty” withers away ‘the reality of the nation and the death-pangs of the national culture are linked to each other in mutual dependences’.
“After a century of colonial domination we find a culture which is rigid in the extreme, or rather what we find are the dregs of culture, its mineral strata.
“Little movement can be discerned in such remnants of culture; there is no real creativity and no overflowing life. The poverty of the people, national oppression
and the inhibition of culture are one and the same thing.”
But, Fanon, adds, such negation of national culture contributes to aggression,
“The negation of the native's culture, the contempt for any manifestation of culture whether active or emotional and the placing outside the pale of all specialised branches of organisation contribute to breed aggressive patterns of conduct in the native.” Still because of lack of a national culture, such aggression is “poorly differentiated, anarchic and ineffective”. The African intelligentsia, according to
Fanon, resorted to literature in an effort to address the absence of national cultures.
• Next week, the column discusses how African literature became a symbol of protest and an instrument for fostering national cultures.
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Southern African News

Writing the Struggle – Our 

condemned cultures

   
In the past weeks, this column has dealt with the issue of culture used as a tool to destroy or enhance a people’s freedom.
Chinua Achebe aptly described African cultures as being at a crossroads while Amilca Cabral went to great length to illustrate how the oppressors made sure that the oppressed have no culture, which simply translates to identity.
Cabral argues that culture when summed up creates history and that once a people’s culture is destroyed, there won’t be any history to talk about.
In the case of Africa, the oppressors destroyed the continent’s history by making the oppressed believe that their cultures are either evil or backward.
This is exactly why Chaka is not seen as a conqueror but a ruthless tribesman who wantonly killed and drove out other tribes. Compare Chaka with Napoleon who is described as Napoleon the Great.
And when our children are taught history lessons, they will admire Napoleon more than they would do Chaka because of how each conqueror is treated in cultural and historical terms.
Today, our women die to be thin because, according to Western culture, beauty is in being slim. African cultures elsewhere admire big women.
This week, another great son of Africa, Frantz Fanon takes another dimension to how culture contributes to a whole person and how the destruction of such equally leads to lost generations.
In his speech delivered at the Congress of Black African Writers in 1959 and included as a chapter in his book, “Wretched of the Earth”, Fanon states that colonial domination “disrupts in spectacular fashion the cultural life of a conquered people”.
The speech titled, ‘Reciprocal Bases of National Culture and the Fight for Freedom’, Fanon further says that most oppressed people easily allow their cultures to die because they negate “national reality by new legal relations introduced by the occupying power, by the banishment of the natives and their customs to outlying districts … by expropriation and by the systematic enslaving of men and women”.
“Every effort is made to bring the colonised person to admit the inferiority of his culture which has been transformed into instinctive patterns of behaviour, to recognise the unreality of his 'nation', and, in the last extreme, the confused and imperfect character of his own biological structure,” Fanon writes.
Consider this: Your grandfather dies and when his spirit returns, Christianity declares it an evil spirit but Jesus Christ died and rose from the dead after three days yet is seen as having overcome death.
It’s neither here nor there that your grandfather comes back in spirit and that Jesus Christ is said to have risen in his physical form – the bottom line is both died and came back.
According to Fanon, the laughing stock among the oppressed peoples are those within the intellectual group who “throws himself in frenzied fashion into the frantic acquisition of the culture of the occupying power and takes every opportunity of unfavourably criticising his own national culture, or else takes refuge in setting out and substantiating the claims of that culture in a way that is passionate but rapidly becomes unproductive”.
“The common nature of these two reactions lies in the fact that they both lead to impossible contradictions. Whether a turncoat or a substantialist, the native is ineffectual precisely because the analysis of the colonial situation is not carried out on strict lines.
“The colonial situation calls a halt to national culture in almost every field. Within the framework of colonial domination there is not and there will never be such phenomena as new cultural departures or changes in the national culture.
“Here and there valiant attempts are sometimes made to reanimate the cultural dynamic and to give fresh impulses to its themes, its forms and its tonalities,” Fanon points out.
Just like Cabral, Fanon also says when the oppressor condemns a culture and a people keep on it, this action is viewed as resistance to domination.
During the war of liberation for Zimbabwe, for example, the guerrillas believed that the spirit of Nehanda Nyakasikana and Sekuru Kaguvi – the doyens of the first Chimurenga – always led them.
This belief came from what Nehanda is said to have prophesied shortly before she was executed. It’s said Nehanda said her bones would one day come alive to fight back.
This cultural aspect – the belief in the power of dead – was seen by the oppressors as a threat. It was for this very reason that mbira as both an instrument and music were banned in Rhodesia.
It’s not only in Zimbabwe where the spirit of the dead was called upon as a pillar of strength but in South Africa too where the deaths of Robert Sobukwe as well as many others was exhorted in times of great need.
So in order to destroy the spirit of rebellion, the oppressor makes sure that the cultural aspect of it which gives people a common phenomenon dies first.
And we have allowed this to happen in Africa. But culture does not die completely because when a people fight back to regain their freedom, they still dig deeper into their core beliefs.
• Next week, we will see what happens when people scour their conscience for the remnants of culture for self actualisation.
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