BLACK

VIEWPOINT

Editor
B .S. Biko

SPRO-CAS BLACK COMMUNITY PROGRAMMES

86 BEATRICE STREET, DURBAN
1972'

CONTENTS

Introduction

Black Development
Njabulo Ndebele

13

The New Day

C .M.C . Ndamse

33

Kwa-Zulu Development
Chief M.G . Buthelezi

49

The New Black

Bennie A . Khoapa

61

Rcyuests for permission to reproduce articles from this publication either in whole or
in part should he addressed to the editor .

ISBN 0 86975 015 1

Printed by the Christian Institute of Southern Africa,

Pharmacy House, 80 Jorissen Street,
Bra.mfont'in, Johannesburg .

NOTES ON CONTRIBUTORS

B.A . student at the

Lesotho, Botswana
He is also the SRC
BLS .

Njabulo Ndebele

is a final year
University of
and
President ot U

C .M .C . Ndamse

i, a distinguished educationist and

Iformer lecturer at the University )f
; ,,rl Hare .

Chief M .G . Buthellezi

k the Chid Executive Councillor

of
the
KwaZulu
Lcgislati
Assembly .

Bennie A. Khoapa

is an experienced social worker

and currently tie
Black Community

INTRODUCTION

Editor
IT IS SIGNIFICANT that in a country peopled to the extent of
75% by blacks and whose entire economic structure is supported
and maintained, willingly or unwillingly, mainly by blacks, we find
very few publications that are directed at, manned by and produced
by black people.
Black Viewpoint is a happy addition by the Black Community
Programmes to all those publications that are of great relevance to
the black people. Our relevance is meant to be in the sense that we
communicate to blacks things said by blacks in the various
situations in which they find themselves in this country of ours . We
have felt and observed in the past, the existence of a great vacuum
in our literary and newspaper world . So manyy things are said so
often to us, about us and for us but vervseldom by us.
This has created a dependency mood amongst us which has given
rise to the present tendency to look at ourselves in terms of how we
are interpreted by the white press . In the process, a lot of us have
forgotten that the values and attitudes of newspapers are governed
largely by the values and attitudes of both their readership and of
their financial supporters - who in the case of the white press in
South Africa, are whites . Therefore, when we read of a report of
any speech or incident which focuses on blacks, we usually find it
accompanied by interpretative connotations in terms of stress, headlines, quotations and other journalistic nuances, that are calculated
to put the report in a particular setting for either consumption or rejection by the reader.
One must quickly add that the moral of the story is not that we
must therefore castigate white society and its newspapers. Any

Introduction

group of people who identify as a unit through shared interests and

aspirations necessarily need to protect those interests they share.
The white press is therefore regarded by whites as doing a good
service when it sensitises its own community to the 'dangers' of
Black Power. After all no white man is wanted outside the laager
when the rest of the white society is facing the illusionary swaart gevaar that only exists in the minds of the guilt-stricken whites . Perhaps only very few whites would not want to be in the laager.
Nom the real moral of the story therefore can only he that we
blacks must on our own develop those agencies that we need, and
not look up to unsympathetic and often hostile quarters to offer
these to us .
In terms of this thinking, therefore, Black Viewpoint is meant to
protect and further the interests of black people . We do not intend
to venture beyond this . We shall not serve as an exclusive mouthpiece for any particular section of the black community but merely
to pick up topics as they come and as they are dealt with by blacks
in various situations.
In the present issue we focus attention on four addresses delivered by blacks in different situations . By juxtaposing there
articles in this issue we hope to reflect the broad spectrum now to he
found in our society both in terms of the different stresses we lay in
the definition of our problem - the white problem - and in the
mooted solutions that all four speakers touch briefly on .
We hope this will generate a good response amongst those who
read it .

BLACK
DEVELOPMENT

Njabulo Ndebele is a final year B. A .

student at the University of Lesotho, Botswana and Swaziland . He is also the SRC
President of UBLS.


Ndebele: Black Development

13

BLACK DEVELOPMENT

Njabulo Ndebele
1.

THE PROBLEM

There are three kinds of socially significant groups in South

Africa . There i the ethnic group, the racial group and), the broad
nation al group .
s The national group is the combination
the racial
a nid the ethnic groups, that is to say, it is the national group which,
.
for purposes of international identification, can also be known a
the people
on of South Africa, or simply as South Africans . The racial
group,
the other hand, is a combination of ethnic groups . Thus,
the black racial group is made up of Zulus, Basotho, Pedis etc . and
the white racial group is made up of Afrikaners, English people,
Portuguese etc. The national group, we shall note,
o is fragmented by
the institutionalised racial conflicts, that is t say in fact the
national
means
group isformed when theracial groups begin to interact
or
.
This
'
implicitly that the most important agent
social
dynamism is the interaction of the racial groups . In other words, it
is not the nation, in South Africa, .
which matters, it k the racial
groups . Indeed, there is _nation South Africa -,(a nation presupposes apvoluntaia
unified political co-operation of all the
social groups within State
tate)
However, on the level of simple human relations, at any
South
particular moment, any particular individual in
Africa is
,4 paper for the Sv,nposi
DEVELOPMENT urganiscd
Organisation (S,4 SO).

- CREATIVITY AND BLAC '

hr he S-0, African Students'

14

Ndehele: Black Development

faced with three levels of socio-politico-economic conflicts . 'There

are the conflicts he experiences within his own ethnic group; those
he experiences within his racial group, and those he experiences as a
member of a racially divided state . There is conflict within and between ethnic groups, and conflict within and between racial groups .
In these conflicts, the conflicts within any particular group tend to
he diminished whenever that group comes into conflict with
another similar group . In any conflict, two or more parties are both
and at the same time, fighting against each other for an objective
which neither has . It may be that one party has already reached that
objective, so that the losing party is engaged in a constant effort to
remove the victor from the coveted place . On the other hand, the
victor is engaged in an effort to maintain his position. Thus, in
matters of state politics, the victor can be in a position to control his
opponent in a conflict by force, if necessary, in order to maintain
his position .
There is a hierarchy of conflict in South Africa . The greatest conflict is that between the races . The race which is in power is the
white race; that which seeks the power it does not now have is the
black race . The white races is able to control the black race, by force
if necessary, in order to maintain its position of power. The white
race precludes the black race from participating creatively in the
quest for industrial development and, consequently, for political
power . The white race tries to make it difficult for the black race to
reach certain academic standards, thus excluding the black race
from the quest for intellectual and ideological power. The white
race seeks to prevent the black race from making any constructive
and creative contribution to the black race's own cultural
development, by creating social conditions unconducive to
meaningful cultural expression, thus excluding the blacks from the
guest for cultural power in a distinct cultural identity . The white
race tries to minimise the conflict within and between its ethnic
groups in order to maximise its efforts to dominate ; it also tries to
maximise the conflict within and between the ethnic groups of the
oppressed black race in order to minimise the latter 's resistance in
the racial conflict . Thus by such means, the white race prevents the
black race from attaining political power . The whole socio-political
framework in South Africa is based on the preservation of the
superior-inferior relationship between white and black, a relationship essential for the maintenance of white domination .
Ttic need for freedom is an essential and natural characteristic of
humanity. That is to say, there is no human being who can willingly
accept a status of political servitude . It is self-evident therefore, that

Ndehele: Black Development

15

the white race in our country seeks to perpetuate and unnatural condition . It is important, therefore, to realise that nature is on the side
of the blacks . It is important, furthermore, that the blacks cultivate
and develo a philosophy of nature and of life that will centre
around the concept of human worth and human.dignitytot'only
whence yaltti our own selves do we find it necessary to struggle for
the preservation and theassertion of that which is valuable in us .

II.

SOCIETY AND POLITICS

Politics is the quest for and the use of power ; and society is the
interaction of various power-groups . This view of politics and
society is what I may descrihe as a functional view in terms of our
human circumstances in this country . It is functional in the sense
that it is a necessary view to hold in the creation of a practical
attitude towards the assessment of our condition . We blacks must
sit down to examine the various power-groups in our midst, with a
view to finding out which of these groups can be most effective and
relevant towards our necessary, and hence natural, struggle for a
more meaningful participation in the shaping of our country's
dcstinv.
It goes without saying, therefore, that there is a hierarchy of
power-groups in a political structure . But all these groups have one
thing in common - the desire to propagate a point of view which
must be acceptable to a great number of individuals . The highest
power-group is that which has been granted the right and, at the
same time, the privilege to rule a people . In seeking the greatest
power that man can ever wield, this group is conventionally referred
to as the political group or party . There are other power-groups
which are normally rcitrrcd to as social groups, that is to say,
smaller groups which by virtue of' their existence, natural necessity
and interaction determine the nature of a community of people i .e .
ctdtural groups, educational groups, religious groups, industrial
groups, sports groups and others . An important characteristic of
these social groups is that they may not necessarily be in conflict
with one another, for cacti seeks to assert itself in its own field of
interest

Ndebele: Black Development

16

III. POWER-GROUP AMONG BLACKS

(a)

The Peasant and Semi-Peasant

There are social divisions among the blacks, which are of a universal nature . Such are those which exist between rural and urban
blacks . The former, who in the history of many social and political
revolutions have often been regarded as having the greatest
potential as an agent or as an instrument for the mobilisation of
human forces towards social, political and economic reforms, are
virtually a dormant group in South Africa . This group, whose members are known as peasants, is mostly to be found in small rural
ethnic concentrations either in reserves or in the small towns
bordering the reserves . Where the towns are far from the reserves
but not very far from the big towns, the peasants of a particular
rural area may be made up of several ethnic groups living together
and working for the same white farmer . The existence of these
people has more often than not been an embarrassment to the
urban blacks whose relative social advancement has tended to make
them wish to forget their wretched past, constantly being brought to
I~ bythepeasant and his companion, the migrant labourer.
The peasants_ on the white farms have almost no political consciousness . Their day is rigidly scheduled according to some form of
' compulsory routine. They have accepted, either consciously or subconsciously, the fact that they are not working for their own betterment ; rather, they are working for a white master who seems to
have a right to benefit from their labours . They have no social
security . They do not own land . They can be driven away from the
farms almost at the whim of their white master. Even their very survival is not as important as the survival of their master . Theirs is the
life of insignificance, of diseases, of ignorance . -Their whole personal
orientation is geared towards serving their master. They are grateful
that their master allows them to build =rusted zinc lean-to's half
a mile away from the master's mansion . They are human
possessions which the white master does not value .
Indeed, he does not even value their labour, as such, for he
accepts their labour as much as he accepts the fact of breathing .
You only value the process of breathing when your lungs are in
trouble . Before then, your lungs are some aspect of yourself that
you seldom think of in your life. That is the extent to which human
in have been reduced - mere insignificance .
et, in spite of all his apparent degradation, we would be wrong

Ndebele : Black Development

17

to suppose that then is no vital part of the peasant's personality

which does not secretly abhor the degrading agent and the inhuman
physical conditions to which the agent subjects him . An intuitive
knowledge of natural justice tells the peasant that the life he is
his
leading is far from ideal; that he is insecure; that he wishes to own
property and work for his livelihood as any person proud of
physical strength, would wish. However, to wish for so-thing is an
indication that you do not have it a, the moment of wishing . Thus,
the next step is to try to find ways and means of acquiring the object
of your wishes. What, therefore, can the peasant do? Nothing. It is fact that on their own, they cannot do much. They are weakened, as
a group, by ignorance ; by lack of political awareness ; by immediatee
ethnic differences
lifewhich to them are still the determinants of th
basic conflicts in
.(This peasant group is, indeed, a good example
of a power-group that has no actual power . However, their
potential power is immense indeed - t it this potential power that
should interest us, for indeed, real social and political change, if it is
to be a goal for all black people, can only be realised in the
mobilisation of all possible human resources .
Closely related
nt and to the peasant group, is a group that has become
semi-peasant
nt
semrban .
is the. group of migrant
mines
the
A good number of
labourers, most of wh.m--uwork inThis
these come from neighbouring black countries . These migrant
labourers
suddenly
find
themselves
uprooted
from a rural life which
find
they
uninspiring when compared with the stories of a
. They co- tothe
the town and freamorous life in the big citiesblaCksAgain,
quently mix with the urban
tendency of the
urban blacks has been to look
down upon these labourers on
t
account of their untutored ways
Having been in contact with .e Itlife of the towns, they have some
measure of political awareness
is also important toarealise that
n enhanced
when they_p_et back to their homes,_ they
social status . They become interpreters of the fast-moving
with
world
. Thus, they realise,
.Utiiae-_sorne of them become fairy literate 0
with some
ulation, that there is a lot they d not have which
t
better members
ers of their country, the white mast-, have . They can
do ore for themselves than their completely peasant companions.
W must realise, therefore, that this group can b a very important
agent for social change in the rural areas.

(b) The Urban Blacks

,,, urban blacks are the most socio-politically aware among the


18

Ndebele: Black Development

black groups . This is because the urban black is more advanced

socially, politically, economically, educationally and in many other
ways that make life in the urban areas supposedly more meaningful .
That is one of the unexpressed, main political reasons behind the
policy of the Bantustans. The urban blacks, because they know toe
much (much more than the lower classes among the whites) must be
divided into ethnic groups and sent to their homelands . There, they
shall become a semi-peasant group, because basically the homelands are intended to be labour reservoirs of migrant labourers . In
the homelands, they can be very easy to control ; easy to convince
that they are inferior, and easy to convince that they have political
power when in actual fact that political power is only the freedom
to organise effectively, through a government machinery, migrant
labour, as some black neighbouring countries are doing . The black
governments in the homelands are going to do the white man's dirty
job.
However, in his relative advancement, the urban black
backward in relation to his white counterpart . He works in the
till =
same
factory as the white worker ; diagnoses the same diseases with the
white doctor after having written the same examination ; worships
the same God as the white churchgoer and generally does many
other jobs which the whites do ; yet, in a state which, by virtue of his
colour, discriminates against him, he is unable to participate in any
decision-making processes affecting him and his work .
He has repeatedly compared his skills with those of his white
counterpart and has not found his skills wanting . There are two
social evils which beset the life of the urban black . He suffers primarily because of the black colour of his skin; and secondarily as a
member of the exploited class to a capitalist economy .
One of the most shattering characteristics of an advanced
capitalist economy is that it tends to he extremely acquisitive .
People want to lay their hands on almost anything that is brought
to their notice by cunning advertisements . The urban blacks have
joined this acquisitive world, and the life of this world is
characterised by extreme alienation from oneself. Each person
lends to move away from himself in a hid to acquire things external
to his own person. Thus, the acquisition and the hoarding of
material things is responsible for a proportional rise in social status .
That is to say, people do not matter, it is things that matter . '1 pings
_,U people ; people no longer make things, that is to say . people
no longer approach work astd matter with a creative heat, because
their handling of matter is no longer a means of s elf-expression . it is
now a barr<:n conlormity 10 an impersonal acquisitive norm . An ac-


Ndebele: Black Development

19

quisitive society is also characterised by its purposelessness . There is

no intrinsic purpose behind this blind acquisition of material things;
indeed, acquisition is an end in itself. That is why after having acquired out of conformity, one has no value for that which one has
acquired, because it has no intrinsic value for one .
A casual and brief look at the history of racism in South Africa
shows that the early white settlers were sincere in their belief in the
inferiority of the black man. They were driven by deep-seated
religious beliefs. Now, it is no longer that way. There are very few
whites now religiously committed . Let us not be deceived, the
Afrikaner is no longer as deeply religious as he was in the nineteenth century . Today, he has tasted of the material fruits of
modern society and is determined to enjoy them for as long as he
can . The effect of religion is only powerful immediately after human
appeals to it have been successful . After that, that influence and
power wane with each passing generation . That is why today, the
Afrikaner speaks of ideologies, because an ideology is a rational
product of the mind .
That is why he now speaks of 'youth preparedness', because he
cannot now rely on irrational and mystical religious appeals . The
capitalist society has removed all the mysticism and seeks to be enjoyed on its own terms - rationality and indoctrination . That is why
rational justifications for apartheid only succeed in being feeble .
The true foundations of apartheid are irrational and that
irrationality has now disappeared. Indeed, the effect of apartheid today lies in the statute books - laws long written, and laws being
written . The latest laws are now written with a view to the benefit of
the economy and not of religion .
This fact leads us to a very important conclusion . We have seen
how a fast-moving capitalist economy advances with a proportional
increase in alienation . The white South African does not know himself; he knows only that he is white, but of the collective humanity
of whites he has a vague knowledge because they have lost it . The
capitalist society has had its toll of self-alienation; and the laws
passed to the capitalist's benefit have helped him along by providing
him with the maximum opportunity for hoarding wealth . The black
person has ceased to he just a person who is black, he has now become a vital tool in the hoarding race ; the acquisitive marathon
race . The black person has been reduced to a thing . There is no
difference between the machine and the black person . The money
he earns is the oil that serves to keep him running . The blacks have
been relegated to a vague genera lily in terms of human dimensions,
and to a specific generality in terms of exploitative and quantitative


20

Ndebele: Black Development

economic productivity. They have been reduced to a mere racial

concept of labour by all the sections of the white community.
Blacks are known as : labour in the factory ; labour in the mines ;
anonymous labour in the essential services ; labour in the Kitchen .
'Labour and 'black person' in South Africa are synonymous . In
changing such concepts about them, the blacks can cripple the evil
reality such concepts serve . They must realise that the whites cannot
help but acquire, and in doing so, these whites may be ignorant of
the injustices they perpetrate, having been rendered feelingless by
the blind urge to acquire . The blacks must assert their human
dignity and rebel against an institution which relegates them to the
status of things .
By what has just been said, it should not be understood that the
implication made is that there are no racial conflicts . Among the
whites, the fanaticism about race has simply watered down to
negative attitudes springing from a self-inflicted ignorance . That is
why apartheid has all in all become 'petty' . Apartheid is no longer a
pseudo-ideology ; it has become an economic principle . This is an
important development for the black person . It means that the
black man must be careful of concentrating on the racial struggle,
to the detriment of the economic struggle, because the latter may
have hecome more important than the former . The whites continue
to make declarations about white superiority and Western
Civilisation . These declarations seemingly seek to underline racial
conflicts ; they are in essence intended to hoodwink the black man
into believing that his only problem is the racial one . This is clearly
brought out by the liberal elements among the whites . The liberal
cry against the oppression of the black man is essentially ethical .
l hey do not want a politically free black man, they simply want a
happy labour force. They have publicly declared that the happier
the blacks, the more they can produce economically . Tu the liberal,
the black person is still a thing, only the thing must be given more
oil to function with better efficiency . Let us look closely now, at the
urban blacks.
The black person has in the past tended to demonstrate to the
whites that he was also capable of being a professor, an engineer, a
businessman, a technician and other highly professional persons .
So his whole personal orientation became geared towards this personal display . Little did he realise that in trying to prove himself he
was dome so nni on his own terms, but on the terms of the Nhites .
He had to prove himself within standards of life which had in
themscI cs the capacity to oppress him, not within tIt standards of
his own indigenous civilisation . T h", today he is still crying for


Ndebele: Black Development

21

education, sacrificing for it to the extent of starvation because the

game of personal display is still being played . There is a vague
notion of what education is, and what it is for . We have all heard at
some stage in our life the distraught old lady saying : My child, what
can we do in this world without education? This question is still
being asked. But it is the wrong question . The correct question
should be : When we have education, what do we do with it'?
What is happening now is that the blacks acquire education with
only a vague aim for its utilisation . The real shocking tragedy comes
when the black man realises that even with his education, he is still
not really accepted by whites . He is still given lower wages ; he
cannot do some jobs because of job reservations .
I -his struggle for education created social problems within the
urban black population . - hhose who struggled for this education for
personal display tended, psychologically, to dissociate themselves
from their ,ignorant lot . In this way a black middle class, the
darlings of the white liberals, was formed, that is to say, class
divisions were formed among the blacks. Some of the members of
this class due to their political perspicacity decided to seek the
political kingdom on hchalf of their people . This group reigned
during the time when the teacher and the priest were highly respected members of the black co nununity . Because they brought
themselves close to the people, their political influence lay in the
fact that they were the f'ew whom the people could present to the
world as symbols of success . The influence of this group reached
both its zenith and its downfall at Sharpeville . Sharpeville indicated
that the intelligentsia had failed . At that time, the factory worker
was just beginning to earn more than the priest and the teacher . I he
ordinary, uneducated man could buy a car and even run a business,,
I his new economic power, insignificant though it was, gave the
ordinary man confidence and an increased self-reliance . But it was a
self-reliance that had no political direction . It was a self-reliance
commanded more by a mere instinct for survival . When, under
oppressive conditions, the group has failed, each person goes at it
alone . I hus, any collective racial feeling against the whites was
greatly diminished, because cacti person felt he was suffering as an
individual .
When the struggle seemed to be that of individuals, the decadent
values su typical of capitalist economies set in . When there is excessive individuality, objective morality ceases to have any meaning
at all . Rapidly, the hlacks were absorbed into the str am of ii
duisitivrness. I tic mural elfcc, this had un the social lilt of the
Marks ~sas phenomenal . I hr appeal of the mass ntrdia became


22

Ndebele : Black Development

irresistible . Black people began taking to fashions buying .cars

;
Thus
generally
developing
arevolve
compulsive
urgemoney
to seek
entertainment
their
lives
began
to
around
and
the
accumulation
of
wealth . How else do you explain the actions of a man who hugs a
pair
when expensive
his familybrands
is starvingill
Itferred.
isoftheshoessameworth
with about
liquor,thirty
whererands,
the more
are pre(a) 7lae Black Middle Class
1-his
class
to earlierbusinessmen,
on as the Iawycrs,,luurnalists
darlings of the white.
liberals
. Itprofessional
is wasmadereferred
up ofpeople
doctors,
and
other
. Mosttheofshared
them characteristic
have become obsessed
with
capitalist
values
.
They
have
of in-aldulging
in theareexploitation
of aware,
their uwntheypeople
.noThispolitical
is because,
though
they
politically
have
commitment_
'hereown isno also
thetheadded
viceareas,of individuality.
Bccausc
Africans
can
land
in
urban
the
white
liberals
were
heard
tothey
speakwereon given
behalfland,
of this
black
middletheyclasswould. Itworkwasforargued
that
if
hence
security,
the
maintenance
ofthelawoppression
and order.
l hisblacks
invariably
means thatof this
thca
would
assist
in
of
the
.
l
he
womenfolk
class
have
formed
ineffective
socialand groups
Leagues
where
table manners,
recipes,
darning such
methodsas arcWomen's
discussed.
The
journalists
are worse
. white-owned
There is no.black
press therefore,
in South
Africa
.
l
he
few
black
papers
are
It
follows,
that
their
editorial
policies
as
decided
by
the
whiles
are
geared
towards
financial
gains, for
and the
the exploitation
black editors ofseemthcirown
to agreepeople
to he .used
asstrategy
direct
instruments
of blacks
this press
is istoonmaketheirfeeble
attacks
on apartheid
astheyan in-Iarehe
dication
to
that
it
side
.
An
indication
that
not
interested
political rapes,
educationsports,
of the adultcn
blacks isandthe other
space
they
give events
to ingorythe
murders,
sensational
. They
justify intheirsuchactions
bn. making tulsr
claims
thatl heblacks
are
keenly
interested
things
black
middle
class
is
also
characterised
by
a
general
lack
creative
imagination
. There seems
to he endless
imitation
andresearch
veryof
little
innovation
.
Scientists
will
complain
about
a
lack
of
facilities-ahat is there to prevent them from building a small back~ard
laboratory?
Similarly
will complain
a lack
teaching
aids musicians
- what
is will
thereteachers
to prcsent
them classi-d
fromabout
makingmusic
so,-?andoI
Accomplished
continue
planing

American Jazz without researching or experimenting with a wealth

of musical forms and rhythms around them . There is a general
frustration from self-pity which does not seem to struggle to find
outlets. This is a group that should be in the forefront of a black
renaissance in South Africa. This class must wake up and review its
position in the black community . It should come nearer to the
ordinary workers for it is the latter who can give them a genuine
support towards the realisation of healthy dreams, and not the
white liberals .
(ii) The Workers
The workers are by far the greatest number of urban dwellers .
Like the peasants, the urban workers have a great potential for
effecting social change ; but they have had no effective leadership .
But unlike their rural companions, the workers are to some extent
conscious of their political position, even if their dissatisfaction is
only feebly and vaguely expressed . The workers are very active in
their urban social setting . They have shown great initiative and
creativity. From them we get mbaqanga musicians, actors, beauty
queens, soccerites, soul musicians, gangsters . The middle class
seldom, if ever, takes the challenge that the creativity of the workers
present. The middle class never develops on the crude initiative of
the workers precisely because it despises the workers' efforts . They
forget that the mainsprings of a true cultural identity come from
below.
It has been mentioned that the workers lack effective leadership .
Like most workers throughout the world, the black urban workers
are caught up in the webs of a socio-political environment they
cannot fully comprehend . It is the educated middle class who can
explain to the workers the workings of the system they live in, in
order to channel this vast wealth of initiative towards the
destruction of the system . There is a group in black urban society
which can be regarded as a sub-group of the workers .
(iii) The Black Religious Sects
There are more than three thousand religious groups in South
Africa . A number of theories have been advanced to account for
this occurrence. The generally accepted theory is that because black

national political expression, they sought this expression in

religion . Most of these groups broke away from the main whitedominated denominations .
(iv) The Basis for a Black Socio-Political Change
We have seen what I consider the most important groups in the
black community and we have noticed that under over-bearing oppressive socio-political conditions, the more aware, by virtue of
their education, tend towards a frustrated and apathetic acceptance
of the situation, whereas the less aware show a great zest for life .
Society cannot change significantly unless the crude initiative and
creativity of the less aware are crystallised into comprehensive gems
of' thought by the educated . If this does not happen, society as a
whole lives by intuitions, and intuitions have never been clear
agents for purposeful collective and effective action .

(a) The Blacks and the Philosophy of Life

Life is there to be lived, and lived fully. To live life fully means
putting into practice as far as possible the life of the rational
imagination . An essential characteristic of the imagination is that it
varies in direct proportion to the availability of physical circumstances conducive to emotional self-expression . The emotional
and spiritual states of our being enlist the assistance and cooperation of the mind towards their expression . It is the mind that
examines physical possibilities of emotional expression . if the mind
cannot manipulate physical reality, imaginative reality soars to
great heights. ,If the latter does not find physical expression
frustration sets in . Frustration can be passive and it can be active .
The former is that which seeks no outlet ; it simply forces the victim
into a world of dreams only. Active frustration searches for outlets
for relief. It enlists another faculty of the human being - the will .
Active frustration, however, puts great reliability on the rational
faculty. The mind is forced and pressurised into seeking practical
solutions .
We can see, therefore, that the essential duality of mind and
matter is an ever-present reality . The mind seeks to manipulate
matter to thr hrnrfit n1 a third human riimrntiinn - -- n's sniritnal

Ndebele: Black Development .

25

arranged in a dialectical pattern, it is also true that in the dialectical

opposition between good and evil, man tends to wish for the perpetuation of the good .
If man tends towards this desire, then it is only because nature
wills it so . The spiritual being in man determines the good to be pursued. Thus, when man handles matter, he does so with the aim of
doing something good with it . Having considered these factors very
briefly we can see that without man, matter is valueless ; and
without matter, man has nothing with which to express himself .
The purpose of man is self-expression in the manipulation of
matter. When man has transformed matter into an object of inner
expression, he is magnified and made valuable because he has
created something of value . The aim of society therefore is to create
an order in which individuals can create, and politics is nothing but
the quest for the power to create maximum opportunity for man to
create. Thus politics, properly conceived, is also a creative
occupation . The creation of society, for the purposes mentioned, is
a collective activity, that is to say society is for man . Any society
will tend to develop a culture peculiar to it . Thus, culture, in its
broadest meaning, is a shared characteristic among members of a
particular society of tending to seek self-expression in a defined
pattern of activities. But there is such a thing as universal culture,
such as the world objective knowledge, science, mathematics,
technology etc. These are not the monopoly of any one society ; it is
simply that some societies acquired them before others .
The black man must begin to see life, his life in particular, in
terms of the above thesis . There are certain basic moral tenets which
are essential prerequisites in the quest for a creative society . The
black man must believe that it is both good and right for him, so
long deprived of human worth, to seek the freedom to give expression to his humanity ; he must believe that it is both good and
right for him, so long degraded, to reassert his human dignity, he
must believe that it is good and right for all citizens of South Africa
to share equally in the creation of' the means of self-expression ; he
must believe that it is both good and right to believe that he holds
the right view because it is not in conflict with universal objective
morality; he must believe that a system that relegates humans to the
status of feelingless things is both wrong and evil not only because it
degrades man, but also because it desecrates those values and heliefs which man holds most dear . (We cannot talk about man
without in the same breath talking about the purpose of his life as is
indicated by his values). The black man must believe that it is both
go,ud and right that it he Icis such a system continue to degrade him,

26

Ndebele: Black Development

he is contributing to the desecration of his own beliefs ; he must

believe that it is both good and tight that human beings are more
than just tabour entities ; that the black man's mind and being, if
given free expression, can create great works of art ; great music ;
great philosophical thought; great scientific contributions all of
which can make South Africa a great country . If the black man can
see himself as such, he has already begun the journey towards
freedom; he has begun to turn the heaven of his thoughts and beliefs
into a physical reality on earth, and in South Africa .

(b) The Blacks and Indigenous Culture

Culture includes customs, traditions and beliefs . But customs and
traditions are man-made, therefore they can be changed according
to whether man continues to find value in them . No sooner has man
created something than he either wants to improve on what he has
made or create something else . Culture therefore is essentially
dynamic . That is why the blacks must set about destroying the old
and static customs and traditions that have over the past decades
made Africa the world's human zoo and museum of human
evolution. When customs no longer cater for the proper development of adequate human expression, they should be removed .
Almost all the so-called tribal customs must be destroyed, because
they cannot even do so little as to help the black man get food for
the day.

(c) The Blacks and Ad

Today, the black man plays music with new musical instruments ;
he uses paints and the chisel, and he writes . The black man must use
new instruments without shame, for science and technology are the
rightful inheritance of all men on earth. But the use to which the
blacks put these things is their peculiarity . The blacks can develop
their own universal standards of artistic excellence . They must
ignore the white critic who, in reviewing a black art exhibition, says
thL black artist has not progressed beyond the township themes .
Such critics do not appreci . .,e the paradox in the fact that there is
universality in parochiality . Black music must become more renective. -1 lie present state of music is chaotic .

Ndebele: Black Development

27

Mbaganga cannot make one think seriously about life : the same
applies to soul music as it is played by South African blacks. Black
musicians must study the kind of music we have and improve on it .
Drama, that great art form of human expression, is still very poor.
It portrays the trivial aspirations of frustrated people without
making the people want to outlive such trivialities . The blacks must
ignore the white critic who says that drama is not a black art form .
Drama is a universal art form, and the black playwright must
develop on the dramatic events peculiar to his environment . The
blacks must ignore the frustrated black journalist who says that
South African blacks must win the political kingdom first before
they begin to create artistic works of any meaning and merit. Indeed, it is the great art works that inspire a bondaged people
towards seeking freedom . An imaginative exploration of the
miserable human conditions in which people live, touches the fibre
of revolt in them ; the fibre that seeks to reassert human dignity . Indeed, an inielicctual awakening is a vital pre-requisite to any
signiticant social change.

(d) The Blacks and Religion

Religion is a very important and highly efletiite li>rm of social
control. A wrong religion can influence people I : xards vtrong ai :d
irrelevant values and aspirations . ft have see x+ religion has
seemingly been used as a suhstitut, for political expression . In being
thus, religion in the black community has become barren, because it
has no intellectual content to it . Ihus, tfic many sects we sec au-e a
pcrpetu.ition of bondagea
l he blacks must obliterate all these sects .
Chi the other hand, the hlacks must turn their backs on all the
Western Churches ; they have been shorn of all emotional content.
A genuine religion will spring out of the blacks' own circumstances,
just as a genuine philosophy of life should . 11 should he a religion
that will find Clod through man : and not man through God . Man
must understand himself first before he can relate himself to God . A
religion of today must he like a true work of art : it must rationally
centre in man and yet he rooted in an inexplicable mystery, the
appeal of which is emotional . Religion is man-made, and because it
is man-made it is also subject to the forces of change .
A strong religion is one which, over the ages, has continued to he
an accepted determinant of social morality . If and whenit fai ls
something else must be devised to keep society's confidence in
accepted moral codes .

28

Ndebele: Black Development

We have looked at the various aspects of the socio-political

situation of the black community in South Africa . It is now for the
black man to begin to work . It is work that involves a whole human
re-orientation. The blacks must awaken intellectually, spiritually,
socially, morally, culturally and in many other ways that make life
worth living. If the whites do not want to change their attitudes, let
the blacks advance and leave them behind ; and when they have
been left behind, let them be waited for on the day they realise the
value of change. The important thing to realise is that what the
blacks are striving for is more valuable than racial hatred . The
blacks must know what they want when they cry for freedom. They
should not be put in the situation whereby when they get this
freedom they do not know what ta n
with it . The struggle is more
than a racial oar; it is also a human one ; a human struggle involves
development in all human activities that are the marks of true
civilisation .

THE NEW
DAY

C. M . C. Ndamse is a distinguished
educationist and former lecturer at the
University of Fort Hare.

THE NEW DAY

C .M .C. Ndamse
PRINCE BISMARCK once said that one-third of German
university students broke down from overwork, another third
broke down from dissipation, while the other third ruled Germany .
I do not know which third of the student body is here tonight, but
I am confident that I am talking to the future rulers of this country,
and also of the free countries who may have come to this centre of
freedom.
It is my belief that this institution is not only interested in turning
out mere corporation lawyers, skilled accountants or entomologists. What it is interested in, and this I hope is true of every
university, is in turning out citizens of the world, men who comprehend the difficult, sensitive tasks that lie before them as free men
and women, men who are willing to commit their energies to the
advancement of a free society . That is why you are here.
Dr Bracken is still alive . My remarks on and references to him
must naturally be limited . Here we have a statesman who eloquently proved the difference between a statesman and a politician .
A statesman thinks and prepares for the next generation . The
politician thinks and prepares for the next general election . Here we
have a politician who has eschewed mud-slinging, and always
fought with clean hands. Here we have an educationist whose name
has been a password from generation to geheration . He is one of the
Delivered at Edgar Brookes Academic and Human Freedom
Lecture for 1972 at University of Natal, Pietermaritzhurg, on
Friday May Sth, 1972 .

* SOUTH AFRICAN BANTU SOCIAL WORKERS' ASSOCIATION

Mailing Address:

Executive Head
of Organisation:
Purpose of
Organisation:

President
To concern itself with social Welfare
development in the Black community .
To unite all Black and
social workers .
To encourage
promote the active
participation of trained social workers in welfare agencies, and Black self-help organisations whose goal is to alleviate distress
and poverty in the Black community .
To advise and co-ordinate to
the work and
activities oft branches to
and
guide these
branches with respect
their programmes
including branch meetings, conferences,
institutes and seminars .
To collect and administer funds for the
furtherance of the objects of the association.
To seek representation on Social Welfare
bodies, government institutions, commissions and councils dealing with particular social problems.
To en
and foster co-operation and
where desirable
rable to affiliate with other organisations with similar interests, aims and
objects .

29

Ndamse: The New Day

35

end. I may say that I fully agree with Paul Sauer, when after Sharpeville he said : 'The old book has closed and a new one has begun' . So
profound are the changes and upheavals. But I fully realise that
there is nothing more difficult to share and perhaps easier to refute,
than a particular angle of vision on human affairs . Historical
change and changes in the circumstances in and of man have a way
of deluding the observers .
It may be that the complexity of our times comes from the fact
that many processes are going on simultaneously. There is a definite
setback in the political control exercised by the peoples of Western
Europe for centuries. The people of Western Europe committed the
fatal mistake of associating political control with the 'white colour' .
The black world has been asserting its rights with ever-increasing
determination .The Declaration of Human Rights means more to
the blacks than many people realise or care to know . The blacks are
now aware of their numerical superiority . They have watched with
glee the struggle between the United States and Russia - the
Colossus of Europe, in Smuts's words . They have evolved the
doctrine of non-alliance . They have used the United Nations
Organisation to good advantage . There is above all the dramatic
phenomenon, the new discovery by the black peoples : Black
Consciousness. May I in passing sound this warning that wise men
ignore this new development at their own peril . Another process
was a world-wide expansion of the technological and egalitarian
revolution which Western Europe set in motion - the West Europeans have changed everything because as their dominion grew,
they invented and carried through the decisive modern revolutions
based on the drives of equality, science, technology and fair play .
The white man's transformation affected everybody else . They
began, perhaps not without cause, to think well of themselves . They
forgot the cardinal lesson . They are no exception . They foamed
dry about their civilising mission. Had they not rescued peoples
from barbarism, converted the heathen, whatever that meant, and
made three blades of grass grow where none grew before? They even
claimed some special endowment and privilege for the colour of
their skin. Western civilisation and Christianity were synonymous .
The converted were, however, not allowed to discuss the ills of this
world. Golden seats awaited them in the world to come.
This did not go on without being noticed . Cetwayo, the Zulu
King, expressed himself succinctly . Referring to the activities of the
white people, he said, 'First come missionary, then come rum, then
come traders, then come army'. But Cecil Rhodes expressed himself
more clearly, 'I would rather havee more land than niggers' . Con-

36

Ndamse: The Net , Day

quest and power do not confer intrinsic value . That lies in Man's
being alone, the humanity he shares with all God's creatures. The
fact that the two world wars were conducted by men of white skin
tells only that during that period, they had the edge in strength,
weaponry and new techniques. Indeed, if at time, to be in terms of
superiority, we would all be living in a well-ordered Utopia . Our
world is still largely what they made it to be . The confusion and
violence in which our planet is now immersed suggests that the
Europeans are not supermen . They are men, and so are all the inhabitants of this globe . Mankind, I believe, will have a special
chapter for the period in history when a leading nation in the west
dropped the hydrogen bomb on Hiroshima .
The new day we crave for replaces the old day . We choose to forgive and forget the past . Let us close the old books Let us search
ourselves . Let us find out who the real lovers of our
fand are . Let us
be clear as to who the enemies of our land are. Where do you place
those who even in spite of themselves, are prepared to spend and to
be spent to improve race relations? Where do you place those who
boast? May I crave for indulgence in my plea for the consideration
of the black worker!!
The black people are forced to labour under circumstances which
are calculated riot to inspire them with love and respect for labour.
This constitutes a part of the reason why it is necessary to emphasise the matter of industrial education as a means of giving the
black man the foundation of a civilisation upon which he will grow
and prosper . Mere training of the hand without the culture of brain
and heart would mean little . The effort must he to make the
millions of blacks self-supporting, intelligent, economical and
valuable citizens as well as to bring about the proper relations between them and the white citizens among whom they will continue
to live . With proper preparation and with sufficient foundation, the
black man possesses the elements out of which men of the highest
character and usefulness can be developed .
Lessons shall be applied honestly, bravely, in laying the
foundation upon which the black man can stand in the future and
make himself a useful, honourable and desirable citizen, whether he
has his residence in the urban areas or in the homelands . I am black .
I know the black man pretty well - him and his needs, his failures
and his success, his desires and the likelihood of their fulfilment - I
have studied the relations with our white neighbours, and striven to
find how these relations may be more conducive to the general
peace and welfare of both the black man and of the country at 1<rrgc .
I am not minimising the attempts that are being made . But the

Ndamse : The New Day

37

truth must be given in no uncertain terms that these attempts are

too little, too slow, too niggardly and too grudgingly given .
The creation of nationalities and separate states within the ambit
of South Africa has reached the point of no return . We leave this to
time and the safe lap of history . Let me say, however, that the three
million whites are bound to the twenty million blacks by ties which
neither can tear asunder even if they would . The most intelligent in
the University of Natal campus community has his intelligence
darkened by the ignorance of a fellow citizen in the backveld of
KwaZulu . The most wealthy in Parktown would be more wealthy
but for the poverty of a fellow being in the shackles et a Free State
small dorp. The most moral and religious men (in human terms) in
a theological seminary have their religion and morality modified by
the degradation of the man living in squalor . Therefore, when the
black man is ignorant, the white man is ignorant, when the black
man is poor, the white man is poor, when the black'man is in rags,
the white man is in rags or at best, his soul is in rags . When the
black man is the victim of countless diseases, because of the squalor
and abject conditions under which he lives, the white man is in
danger for epidemics and germs defy divisions of colour and creed .
When the black man's crime-wave increases, the whole nation
commits crime. For the white citizens of South Africa there is no
escape . They must help raise the character of the civilisation of the
black man or theirs is lowered .
No member of the white community in any part of South Africa
can harm the weakest or meanest member of the black race without
the proudest and the bluest blood of the nation being degraded .
It seems to me that there never was a time in the history of our
country when those interested in education in this audience should
the more earnestly consider to what extent the mere acquisition of
the degree, the mere acquisition of a knowledge of literature and
science makes men producers, lovers of labour, independent,
honest, unselfish and, above all, good .
Call education by whatever name you please, if it fails to bring
about these results among the people, it falls short of the highest
end . I,hc science, the art, the literature that fails to reach down and
bring the humblest up to the enjoyment of the fullest blessings of
our land, is weak, no matter how costly the building or apparatus
used, or how modern the methods of instruction employed . t he
study of applied mathematics and statistics on poverty and disease
and illiteracy that does not result in making men conscientious in
alleviating the lot and plight of their follow-men is faulty . The study
of art and social sciences that does not result in making the strong


38

Ndamse: The New Day

less willing to oppress the weak means little.

How I wish that from the corridors and campus of such a university to the humblest mud-hut primary school among the kraals
of the Transkei wild coast, we could burn, as it were, into the hearts
and heads of all, that usefulness, that service to our brother, is the
supreme end of education .
We have had quack ideas repeated ad nauseum that the black
man is an innocent child of nature who needs the perpetual protection of the white man. It has been asserted that education helps
the black man, and that education hurts him, that he is fast leaving
the rural areas and taking up work and residence in white areas, and
that this justifies strict influx control measures . It has been asserted
that education unfits the black man for work and that education
makes him more valuable as a labourer, that he is the greatest criminal or thief and that he is our most law-abiding citizen .
The black man has been told to acquaint himself with the modern
scientific methods in farming ; in the same breath he has been told to
perpetuate and cherish his custom and traditions. The black man
has been told about diet and about the vitamins. Fle is told about
the traditional food and to plant and eat mealier to maitooin
identify. The black man i . 'old to love his mother tongue which he
learnt from his mother's lap and that mother tongue instruction or
medium in schools is the best educational communication known
and yet he is told that to get a decent job he must prove proficiency
in English or Afrikaans or both .
In the midst of these conflicting opinions, it is hard to hit upon
the truth . But also in the midst of this confusion, there are a few
things of which I am certain - things which frtrnish a basis for
thought and action. I know that whether the blacks are inferior or
not inferior, whether they are growing better or worse, whether they
are valuable or valueless, a few years ago there were few Coloureds,
fewer Indians and not so many Africans and now these number
millions. know that whether oppressed or free, the black people
have always
I been loyal to the South African Sag, that no school
house has been opened for them that has not been filled, that the
a,
statements and pronouncements issued by black leaders are
potent for weal or woe as those from the wisest and most influential
men in the Republic. I know that wherever the black man's life
touches the life of the nation, it helps or hinders, that wherever the
life of the white race touches the black, it makes it stronger or
weaker . I know that only a few centuries ago, soldiers and
missionaries alike felt themselves crusaders to save the pagans, that
the blacks came out better Christians . The blacks went to school

Ndamse: The New Day

39

with a foreign language as medium of instruction, they came out

speaking the proud Anglo-Saxon tongue . Today many blacks speak
more idiomatic English than many Afrikaners .
They speak better Afrikaans than many English-speaking South
Africans . Indeed many blacks are thoroughly proficient in English,
Afrikaans and vernacular. A few years ago, the Coloured especially
in the Western Cape was left to the fate of the slow paralysis of the
tot system. That today they are a potential force admits of no debate.A few years ago, the Indians came to South Africa on
invitation . Under the blazing sun their sweat soaked the soil along
the Natal coast .
They would, it was thought, multiply with untold prolificacy, fill
the gutters and if it must needs be, they would be repatriated . At the
time South Africa did not know that these people had an 'eastern
secret' . They have the ability to bear and endure . With their indomitable spirit, they have moved from strength to strength, defying 'ghetto laws' and paralysing restrictions. I am inviting the
'doubting Thomas' to accompany me to Grey Street . Indeed let him
open his radio set on Saturday or Sunday morning and listen to the
wonderful music with an eastern setting . Much credit goes to the
present government for its wisdom to see the need for change of
attitude .
The African tribesmen from all the corners of Southern Africa,
moved in ant-like formations to the mines . From the bowels of the
earth, where many of them have died unwept and unsung they
brought gold and diamonds, which precious stones have mad,
South Africa the white man's 'haven' and the envy of many . For
these humble and innocent children of nature the habitat was the
vermin-infested compound or sack hovel . But l know, who does
not, that their descendants are the commercial tycoons in Soweto .
From the backyards of garages and hovels the black muscles carry
South Africa unflinchingly . Yes, the hand and muscle of men and
women happy in distress and rich in poverty . The world has been
twice faced with devastating wars, and twice the black man has answcred the clarion call to fight for king and country . The wreckage at
the bottom of the sea near France includes the pieces of the Mendi .
The story is told that as the ship was slowly and surely sinking, a
faint voice was heard saying, 'Abantwana barn, Abantwana bam' .
'Oh, my children - my children'! We have reason to believe that this
cry was a testimony of hope that the men had fought a good fight
for a good cause and hatter things awaited their children . In the
second world war the black hands waved knob-kieries and rusted
assegais at Marshall (i -ring's mechanised units . And clay and

40

Ndamse: The New Day

night, the British Broadcasting Corporation, echoing the declaration of the Atlantic Charter, beamed in constant refrains 'we
fight for freedom'.
On the front line the black man did all to save a white brother . At
home the wheels of progress rolled on and there is not a single
attempt to sabotage the war effort reported on the part of a black
man .
1 submit it to the candid and sober judgment of all men, are not a
people capable of such a taste, such transformation, such
endurance, such long-suffering not worth recognising? We crave for
recognition and not tolerance . We call upon South Africa to help us
to help them. One of the clarion calls we are called upon to make is
that our nation with might and main should open the floodgates of
educational opportunities.
For this we need honest men who will face the stark realities of
the situation . There are those among both black and white who
assert with a good deal of earnestness, that there is no difference between the white man and the black man . This sounds very pleasant
and tickles the fancy . But when the test of hard, cold logic is applied
to it, it must be acknowledged that there is a difference - not an inherent one, not a racial one, but a difference growing out of unequal
opportunities in the past and a=nt .
Of course these days it is common knowledge that there is no inherent inferiority on the part of the black man . Some years ago the
black man foamed dry trying to prove that he had as much brain
and intelligence as the white man . If I were provoked, I would be inclined to say that under given circumstances, the black child has
better brains than the white child.
Consider the prenatal care that is given to an average white child,
how the mother is fed, cared for, and nursed . Consider the care
taken in a nursing home or hospital . Consider the nursing the baby
is given . A balanced diet awaits the baby. Hygienic conditions
surround both mother and baby .
On the other hand the black child is born of an ill-fed mother.
Often the black child is born in a thatched rondavel kitchen filled
with smoke . At times the rondavel is infested with vermin . Almost
all the facilities and amenities taken for granted for the white child
are conspicuous by their absence . As he grows he hardly has toys .
There is no children's literature .
There is no radio. The black child and the white child go to
school. It has happened that these have found themselves on the
campus of Natal University . At some stage the two write the same
examination and obtain the same grade . The question may be

Ndamse: The New Day

41

asked, if the conditions were the same from the beginning, what
would be the position? The highest test of civilisation of any nation
is its willingness to extend a helping hand to the less fortunate . A
nation, like an individual, lifts itself up by lifting others up . Surely
no people ever had a greater chance to exhibit the fortitude and
magnanimity than is now presented to the people of South Africa .
It requires little wisdom or statesmanship to repress, to crush out,
to retard the hopes and aspirations of a people.
But the highest and most profound statesmanship is shown in
guiding and stimulating a people so that every fibre "the body and
soul shall be made to contribute in the highest degree to the usefulness and ability of the nation . It is along this line that 1 pray God
the thoughts and activities of this audience may be guided . We must
all recognise the world-wide fact that the black man must be led to
see and feel that he must make every effort possible in every way
possible, to secure the friendship, the confidence, the co-operation
of his white neighbour in South Africa . However, 1 am =from
the white man has no respect for a black man who does not act from
principle . In some way the white man must be led to see that it is to
his interest to turn his attention more and= to the making of
laws that will, in the truest sense, elevate the black man . One of the
greatest questions which our youth must face in South Africa is the
proper adjustment of the new relations of the races . It is a question
which must be faced calmly, quietly, dispassionately and the new
day has dawned to rise above party, above race, above colour,
above sectionalism, into the region of duty of man to man, of South
African to South African, of Christian to Christian .
The black people will fight for the maintenance of their identity .
Yet we should surely admit that we are one in this country . The
question of the highest citizenship and the complete education of
all, concerns all people in South Africa . When one race is strong the
other is strong. When one is weak, the other is weak .
There is no power that can separate our destiny . Indignities and
petty practices which exist in many places injure the white man and
inconvenience the black man . No race can wrong another race,
simply because it has the power to do so, without being permanently injured in its own morals . The black man can, as he has
often done, endure the temporary inconvenience, but the injury to
the white man is permanent . It is for the white man to save himself
from this degradation that I plead . If a white man insults a black
man, ill-trcats him, despises him, it is the white man who is permanently injured . Vexation of spirit comes to the black man
discriminated against or hurt, but death of morals - death of the


42

Ndamse: The New Day

soul - comes to those responsible for discrimination .

In the economy of God there is but one standard by which an individual can succeed . There is but one for a race. This country,
which we all love and for which we shall pay any price, for its own
sake, expects that every race shall respect the dignity of man.
During the next decade, the black man must continue passing
through the severe South African crucible . He is to be tested in his
patience, for his forbearance, his perseverance, his power to endure to withstand temptations, to economise, to acquire and use skill his ability to compete, to succeed in commerce, to disregard the
superficial for the real, the appearance for the substance, to be great
and yet small, learned and yet simple, high and yet the servant of
all . This is the passport to all that is best in the-life of our South
Africa and the black man must possess it or be barred out . It is this
discovery that has given birth to Black Consciousness . Moreover it
is with a people as it is with an individual . It must respect itself if it
would win the respect of others . There must be a certain amount of
pride about a race . There must he a great deal of faith on the part of
a race in itself . An individual cannot succeed unless he has about
him a certain amount of pride - enough pride to make him aspire to
the highest and best things in life . Wherever you find an individual
who is ashamed of his race trying to get away from his race,
apologising for being a member of his race, then you find a weak individual . And such a race is weak and vacillating . The apostles of
Black Consciousness adhere to this and are prepared to pay any
price to go it alone. I am not going to call upon liberals to shed
tears, if they have any.
Some of us are convinced that the sponsors of Black
Consciousness hate nobody and bear malice to none . They have discovered, and just in time, that they are children of the universe no
less than the trees and the stars ; they have a right to be here' . And
we are all convinced that in working out his own destiny, while the
main burden of activity must be with the black man, he will need, as
he has done in the past, the help, encouragement and guidance the
strong can give the weak . Thus helped, those of all races in South
Africa will soon throw off the shackles of racial and sectional prejudice and rise above the clouds of ignorance, narrowness and
selfishness into that atmosphere, that pure sunshine, where it will he
the highest ambition to serve man, our brother, regardless of race or
previous condition . We should hear less nonsense about Dutchmen,
Rooineks, and Coolies and Kaffirs . We should realise that every
man, woman and child, no matter what colour or creed, is a vital
component of a tremendous nation-in-being, a momentous ex-

Ndamse: The New Day

43

periment in history, of which we are apart . As South Africans tt

are committed to the arduous task of building a great society, - not
just a strong one, not just a rich one, but a great society. This is a
pact we make with ourselves. We should remember that the bastion
for South Africa is not a particular section of the population, indeed neither is it an increased defence budget or more information
offices, as necessary as these may be . The bastion for this country is
the great society of great men and women dedicated to their motherland not by ties of master and servant, but by mutual respect . Let us
remember what Thomas Jefferson said, borrowing a vivid phrase
from an English Revolutionary, ... `the mass of mankind has not
been born with saddles on their backs, nor a favoured few booted
and spurred, ready to ride them legitimately by the grace of God' .
The effect of discrimination on the human mind has an affinity
with the mental condition we call arrested development ; an
historian whose task it is to record the deeds of the perpetrators of
discrimination towards the blacks, finds himself embarrassed by
what he knows will he the contemptuous astonishment of' posterity .
He feels he is being invited to chronicle the mischief and snivelling
of schoolboys who should he birched and sent to bed in eternal
oblivion. But they have a place in history . It is a humiliation of the
Muse of History .
The new day has come for every lover of South Africa to set the
might of angered and resolute manhood against the shame and peril
of discrimination . These perpetrators of discrimination whose glee
taunts their victim as he is bundled out through the front dour of a
rest atirant, or is thrown headlong into the police van for failure to
produce a pass, do not represent the best among the whites in South
Africa . And I plead for the masterful sway of a righteous and
exalted public sentiment that shall condemn discrimination to high
heaven . Let us remember that there is no escape through law of man
or God from the inevitable :
'The laws of changeless justice hind oppressor with
oppressed. And, close as sin and suffering joined, we
march to fate'.

Mr President, let me say that millions of black hands will aid you
in pulling the load upward, or they will pull against you the load
downwards. The blacks will constitute a fraction and more of the
ignorance and crime in South Africa or a fraction of its intelligence
and progress . They shall contribute to the business and industrial
prosperity of South Africa, or they shall prove a veritable body of

Ndamse: The New Day

45

The highest ttisdotn, the best that tnankind ever knew,

eras the realisation that he ottlc earns his freedom and
existence trho daily conquers them anew' .

KWA-ZULU
DEVELOPMENT

Chief M. G. Buthelezi is the Chief

Executive Councillor of the KticaZulu
Legislative Assemble .

Buthelezi: KwaZulu Development

49

KWA-ZULU DEVELOPMENT

Chief M .G . Buthelezi
IN SOUTH AFRICA, this is one of those rare occasions where
people meet across the colour line not as masters and servants but
as fellow compatriots to commw~icate . This is not to deny the fact
that I came here as a representative of the underdogs of this land
who are the servant-class of South Africa, and whether we like this
or not you represent the master-crass of this land on whom my
people depend for a living .
It was suggested that I should in my short talk deal with '1 -hit
Current Fconomic Situation and how it Affects the Zulu Homeland' . I must say that with all due respect for this suggestion, I am
no eamomist . I will, however, do my best to present in as few words
as possible the picture as I sec it from the point of view of a black
man in the street .
As a historian I will be excused for reading a bit of well-known
history of our land, because I believe that one can never sec things
in their proper perspective, save against the wider canvas of the
history of the land . This is regardless of whatever one wants to look
at, be it political issues, cutturtl or social prohlems . This applies
equally to our economic ills. As a layman I cannot make pretensions that I can offer a diagnosis or even hazard a guess at any
cures for our economic ills in KwaZulu.
However, biting a representative of the patient, I can at least describe the pains, particularly the very sharp ones around the twnmy
which arc so excruciatingly painful! Fven the doctor needs this to
arrive al an accurate diagnosis .
As early as 1880 The Nnral Witness disputed the suggestion that
't,lrhe.cs

1,1 .1(1/tnanesIn",

0,-,b,- 1 ( onatnert e, 16th June l9??.

50

Buthelezi: KwaZulu Development

Africans had any right to consider Natal as their country: 'They are
here as immigrants on sufferance, and not as citizens'. This was
after the Zulu War, when even Zulu territory north of the Thukela
was fragmented deliberately in order 'to break the Zulu power once
and for all', in the words of Sir Bartle Frere and Zulu Territory was
opened up by the conquerors for white occupation . This was not
peculiar to Natal, but happened throughout this southern-most
point of Africa.
My people were at first self-sufficient because there was enough
to eat and no problems of population explosion . This too was soon
brought to an end by the new conquerors who called-upon Chiefs to
supply young men to work on what was then known as Isibhalo .
They were in other words forced to sign contracts to come to places
like Johannesburg and Kimberley and other industrial areas to
build the white industrial empires that we see in full bloom in all the
metropolitan areas of South Africa . Taxation was one of the
methods used to force Africans to move into urban areas to work .
The tragedy deepened when even in the urban areas my people
found themselves regarded as temporary sojourners who were there
on sufferance, only to minister to the reasonable wants of whites .
According to the 1852-1853 Commission Report it was recommended that 'All kaffirs should be ordered to go decently
clothed. This measure would at once tend to increase the number of
labourers because, as they would be obliged to work to procure the
means of buying clothing, it would also add to the general revenue
of the Colony through Customs Duties' .
Coming to the question of the so-called Homelands, as early as
1849 Earl Grey agreed that it would be 'difficult or impossible' to
assign to Africans reserves of such a size that they could continue to
be economically self-sufficient . He added that it was desirable that
Africans should 'be placed in circumstances in which they should
find regular industry necessary for their subsistence' (1).
Not all Africans could be accommodated on the reserves, and the
remainder continued to occupy crown lands and colonist owned
farms. Africans ultimately spilled over into the white farms as
squatters . The reserves were made up of the worst farming lands in
the Colony. According to G.R . Peppercorn, most of the land in the
Impofana reserve is 'as worthless as the sands of Arabia' (2). Only
thirty percent of KwaZulu is arable land.
According to Brookes and Hurwitz there was no increase in land
provision for Africans between 1864 and 1913 (3) . The promises
made by the Hertzog Government Under the Native Trust and Land
set of 1936 for an additional quota of land to my people and other



Buthelezi : KvvaZulu Development

51

ethrlic groups was a recognition of this fact . Little wonder that

whereas other people improve with times, my people have sunk
lower and lower into poverty over the years because they are caught
between
hen two devils.
When
it the
Territorial Authority was inaugurated in 1970 1
made
clear
Zulu
that without consolidation of land, the present
Government's policy would not make any sense . There has been
very little done or said about this aspect of government policy until
last year when the Prime Minister promised to quota
consolidate the Zulu
Homeland only to the extent of the 1936 land
. I pointed out
to him then that consolidating in terms of that quota could hardly
be adequate in terms of setting us up as a separate independent
State in terms of his government's policy.
week
What happened last
has been merely confirmation of what
the Prime Minister said last year and also a few weeks ago in Parliament. I refer here to the so-called draft map for the consolidation
KwaZu,u
whole
of
of
. This is a question which is crucial to the
exercise
setting up KwaZulu as a country and on it hangs the issue of
whether that
we can
the ever be economically viable or not . I wish also to
whole question of our economic potential depends
submit
on it.
Earlier
tal's,
this year I opened
conference
the University of
Na
institute for Social Research
a
on 'Towards
at
Comprehensive
Development
we did in Zululand' . This Conference
KwaZuju~s
, interesting in so
as
far as
to not try to find cues for
economic ills, but
assess
the
complexity
of
KwaZulu's
economic
ills . We
managed
found that there are two issues closely
Zulu interlinked, the problems ren' to the
and development of s he
homeland territories, on the
on, hand,
those relevant to the development of the Zulu people
on the other. Although the two issues
theare closely interlinked, the
problems
not facing the development of
Zulu people, the Am'
Zulu
relate
only
Homeland Areas, but more
to
of directly
Zulu'
nly to
t the
the entire economic, social and political structure
South Africa .
The development
much of the AmaZulu (or that of other blacks for that
matter) is
more closely inteflinked with change and progress
in the common economy
of
and common
.
area of South Africa, than is
theI development
KwaZu] u (4)
-o me the most important area Awhich concerns all of us is that of
the development of my people .
t present we have hardly any employment opportunities for the KwaZulu citizens, no wonder we
,,c only about a third
ourof citizens i n KwaZulu at any time. More
than sixty percent of
able-bodied males
les are away most of the
time .
I

52

Buthelezi : KwaZulu Development

We have at present no industrial growth points except Sithebe

which has few Zulus at present, who are paid very low wages . The
specious argument used by the Bantu Investment Corporation is
that although Sithebe has low wage levels and ample supply of
labour on the credit side, the relatively low level of training is
ranking high on the debit side and it is, therefore, not strange to
find that an unskilled worker is being paid a weekly wage of R5 to
R7 . The Bantu Investment Corporation further state that they
would prefer wage levels comparable with those in the metropolitan
areas but realise that it is far better at this stage of development in
KwaZulu to have say 100 Zulus employed at R7 - a week than to be
able to create say only 10 employment opportunities at R12 per
week . It must also be remembered that the cost of living in metropolitan areas is very much higher than in the vicinity of Sithebe (5).
The argument on the cost of living being lower in rural areas is a
partial truth, because people can only live in accordance with their
means of livelihood . And in any case this is also on account of
poverty and since we have no cash crops except sugar cane in some
parts of KwaZulu, we have a cash economy and it is a remittance
economy, as families depend entirely on cash from their breadwinners, who must earn wages elsewhere . The measuring rod as far
as wages are concerned is the poverty datum line. Food is cheaper
in town than in the rural areas where people are charged extra for
transport costs.
The greatest shock so far in this whole question of whether KwaZulu can ever bee,_conomically viable now or in the dim misty future
has been the decision by the all-powerful South African government in deciding that Richards Bay should be developed as a white
port, and in doing so depriving KwaZulu of the only opportunity of
having an outlet to the sea . No one disputes the fact that Richards
Bay is providing jobs for Zulus, and that this will increasingly he the
case as the Richards Bay complex develops . Job opportunities are
welcome as is the concern of governments throughout the world .
But the question that arises after that is whether we can really be independent as easily as it is so often glibly said these days, if at most
KwaZulu's development means that it is merely going to continue
to he a vast labour farm for white South Africa, as all Black
Homelands are at present?
What is not so encouraging is that even in the metropolitan areas
of South Africa very few of our people are paid above the poverty
datum line . Many surveys have been carried out including one by
an employee of the Johannesburg Municipal Non-European Affairs
Department. I feel certain you are all familiar with these . On the

Buthelezi: KwaZulu Development

53

average it is now well-known that the ratio of black to white wages

is 1 :14 . Other industries give what are called fringe benefits and
many of them boast that they look after their employees and provide them with a balanced diet . What Dr Francis Wilson had to say
last week on this point is quite illuminating concerning the recent
rise in the wages in the Gold Industry (6). It is also true to say that
any wise person who uses any beast of burden, would look after it,
feed it well and shelter it so that it can be in good condition to bear
its burdens.
One must also thank and encourage all the other industries that
are trying to narrow the wage-gap . But we blacks wonder what
underlies white thinking in this respect because when one looks
around there are no subsidised shops that sell necessaries of life at
sub-economic rates. At the same time the majority of white South
Africans have for years rejected the idea of accepting black urban
workers as anything but temporary sojourners . These people are
supposed to send money to their families in the Homelands and to
help us develop in the Homelands . The question is, in view of the
above, how does one do it? So far there seems to be no serious consideration of consolidating these Homelands, as a result KwaZulu
cannot at present take even displaced Africans from white farms as
it is congested . We are developing a new class of rural Africans who
cannot even have token arable allotments, and cannot keep any
stock, who are settled in what are called closer settlements . Owing
to the stringent application of Influx Control regulations these
people cannot freely go to look for jobs in urban areas .
An additional burden is caused by lack of a free and compulsory
education
oft for blacks, which is available for the white group . So that
some
he meagre earnings that are sent for necessities have also
to be used to pay for the children's education, in fees, books, in
some cases for the privately paid teachers and also to put up school
buildings. At this juncture I wish to congratulate those white people
who are assisting in providing funds towards the Read Bursary
Fund, ASSECA and other similar projects . These are palliatives
that are very necessary and which we highly appreciate .
The Homelands are all being given 'self-government' . In other
words we are supposed to provide facilities for our people from our
taxation and from allocations from the Consolidated Revenue
Fund made to us by the Republican government . At present it is not
yet apparent that these Homeland governments can provide
separate but equal facilities on the basis of this . In fact the KwaZulu
budget of 32 million rand for the current financial year is, despite inflation, hardly a drop in the eeem, in terms of providing facilities





54

"uihele.-^,waZu^De~lop~~

for four and a quarter million Zulus . Even for our Civil Service it is
.
going to be difficult to get the best men in view of this
differentiation in salaries on the basis of race .
a ppar nt reluctance on the part of white South Africa
to There
consoislidate
an
th Homelands realistically, to make them independent countries in a meaningful -~. There
is alsoareas
a n equal
luctance to accept our people who are in the urban
as permanent resid nts in these areas . It might also be pointed out that all
of
us i ncluding myself, may be indulging in self-hypnosis by even
trying to believe
o
we South
can successfully create several ethnically
o rientedec.n mies in
Africa instead of one .
Severa I questions at once arise such as, does ~hite South Africa
hop to have her cake and eat it?
O'sAt some So
poi t we have got to dec id,
live,e waym,or the 'ieve
othen world
Or d
white
uth
n Africa hope we can
all
in . a ake-be
ad infinitum throug sheer force of
arms? ' h , " seems to be the
0 time for decision vyhether we are going
to be set up as viable H me ands or not. This is the dilemma of
white South Africa, in which
ilemma
South Africa alone has placed herself .
It i~ black South Africa's d"Ot Wieldtoo, wit the difference that
t a,,d
since
th,
black South Africa does
the pow r of the bulle
b;, llot, it is a dilemma in which b ' lack outh Africa na
ho is been placcud
le
as
the apportioning of bla~e win athis dile.maly! am
pa b 1, far
talking about is concerned . But
r we all have equal reason to 'Cry the
Beloved Country', since ou destinies are so inextricably interHow long are urban Africans going to remain temporary so-,
Journers in the metropolitan areas of South Africa'? If we blacks
a,~ human as whites can anyone tell me what are these virile ableodied men in hostels and compounds supposed to do in order to

Ih, . into tnctropofitan~a oreas, the question can be askt~d: Can otir
of
a~ale white compatriots countenance the idea
I 10
vi vne; in separation
~ _ia 't thoro from their wives, and only make i
to their wives
at
during the Easter week-cnd and during a few days
Christmas

volved m the
of illHomel'
z1ll_i nd policy? I believe that it is a nioral duty to
be involved
h
ating human suffering, even it' that i 11, nos,
ie can do. For thi~here
reason It believe that despite t le nian .
s otne scope to help my people to
pointed out t
is
developeven within the limitations ofthe policy . That is mhy I ha,


Buthelezi : KwaZulu Development

55

great admiration for what American firms like Polaroid, I .B .M .,

and Pepsi Cola, and banks like Barclays Bank and Standard Bank
are doing in giving equal pay for equal work regardless of race .
These firms should by now have put our own South African firms
to shame, if at all we still have a conscience such as I believe South
Africans have . Do South Africans feel happy that foreign firms
should take this lead, and that South African firms should drag
their feet instead of following in their footsteps?
I believe that apart from the development of people themselves
there is still a little scope for developing these Homelands whether
one believes in separate development or not . The Homelands to me
are a challenge whether one regards the Homelands policy as a
political fact or a fantasy .
I believe that their development even on the basis of establishing
micro-economic activities is something in which all of you can assist
us. Community development schemes are a necessity in areas such
as KwaZulu where people are as a result of poverty still victims of
diseases of want such as malnutrition, kwashiokor and tuberculosis.
I believe that where there is economic infra-structure, industry
and commerce in South Africa should not hesitate to help us to
establish industries, not necessarily as cures for our economic ills
but even as palliatives . To me while South Africa battles in trying to
make up her mind about the future, we should not forget that
human lives are at stake here . What is more our whole future, yours
and ours, and that of our children depends on this . I believe the
manner in which the future will unfold, that is whether it will he
peacefully or violently, depends to a large measure on these factors .
We cannot hope that the nerves of our black population will stand
this insecurity indefinitely both in the urban and rural areas .
We do not ask to be given doles or what we do not deserve . We
would like to be self-reliant and having contributed so much towards the production of South Africa's wealth, we are at least entitled to a little of it, to set up on our own feet, be it in the urban or
rural areas.
The Ovambo strike has given us a foretaste of what may one day
overtake us, and I do not believe that we need to wait for the
trauma of a confrontation of that kind to ensure our peaceful coexistence on this southernmost point of Africa .
At this particular time in the history of South Africa it might he
as well to ponder over the words of Mr H .D . Winter who was
Minister for Native Affairs in the Natal Government when the Bambatha Rehellion, which arose as a result of the imposition of the
Poll Tax, took place. After the Rebellion a Commission was

56

Buthele.-i: KwaZulu Development

appointed to hold an inquiry into the causesread

of the Zulu Rebellion
~r H .D . Winter's evidence is interesting
to
to of
the more
.
as by
and
no means sympathetic
the cause
the black people
so as in
he
Natal
this is what he had to say among other thing-

'The heavy burdens which - had been pressing on the

people for many years past; for he added, the master may
continue to hit and strike his dog until the time coma
when the dog seizes hold o; the hand of the master . This
was what had occurred' (7).

FOO'I'No ,rEs

2.

5.
".
7.

David Welsh: The Roots q/'Set rcx:atiun (Oxford lheivcrsity Pr,- 1971) p. 117 .
Uavid Welsh: Ibid
.
Edgar It . Br-kes and N . flurwitt : The Native Re,ervex of Nati'l (Natal
Regional Survey Vol. 7 (Cap, town) p. 17'.
Statement summarising Major Points emerging during the proceedings u; the
Co Ference: 'Fowards a Coinpreh-sivc Development in Zululand' prepared by
the
)r. Organising Secretary, L. Schicint-, Dr . Francis Wilson and S. Kahn, p, 1 .
M- Olivier : Interview,with - 1 ini Muil The -al Afere,r dated 8th .lone,
1971,
--.1
_idp- I - 1--, 1112 .
Welsh: The Roots of Seg-alion (Oxford University Press, 1971), p .
3 12. (Quotation from evidence 1906-1907 Commission Re,,, p. 9).

THE NEW
BLACK

Bennie A . Khoapa is an experienced

social worker and currently the Director
of the Black Communit_I.y Programmes .

THE NEW BLACK

Bennie A . Khoapa
WHEN YOUR SRC President invited me to come here and talk to
you, I replied that I did not feel it a great priority of mine to do so,
for 1 belong to a group of people who are seeing increasingly the
futility of devoting a major portion of their time to talking and intellectualising about things that prove unhelpful to both sides because we see things differently .
Your President did not agree with me and he argued that= is
some value in getting white students at least to be aware of some of
the things that make people (black and white) in this country see
things differently and he assured me that white students at this University would benefit something from what I have to say .
1 finally agreed to come here today and talk to you with the full
understanding that I do not believe that what I say here is
necessarily going to he useful for the group I am most concerned
about, that is, black people . But if you benefit anything from what I
am about to say to you well and good, if you don't I will not hold it
against you because it will prove what I said earlier, that it is not
possible for me and you to see things the same way until we have redefined a few things . Feel free therefore to walk out just as soon as
you think you can't take it any longer.
I feel that it is important however to state very clearly where some
of us stand at this time in our history . Very often the viewpoint of
the so called 'militant black' has been so badly misunderstood that
it becomes necessary to explain it for the benefit of those who are interested in understanding it sincerely . I will attempt to do this now,
and in doing so I will start first of all by looking at two concepts
which have bedevilled this country for many years . These concepts I
refer to are integration and separation.
An address

to students o/' the University o/ Cape T nrn, Jttntc'

1972 .

62

Khoapa: The New Black

Very often, it is assumed that if a person is not an 'integrationist'

in South Africa, he is therefore a 'separatist', and that because an increasing number of black people are rejecting 'integration' as a
national goal, they are therefore separatist',
'
i.e. they make the
permanent separation of races a national goal . This is nonsense.
The black people who have been accused of being separatist are in
fact not separatist but liberationists.
Central to both integration and separation is the white man .
Blacks must either move towards or away from him . But his presence is not nearly so crucial for those who pursue a course of
liberation' . Ideally they do whatever they conceive they must do as
if whites did not exist at all . At the very least the minds of the 'new
black' are
builtliberated from the patterns programmed there by a
society
on the alleged aesthetic, moral and intellectual
superiority of the white man.
Liberationists contend that integration is 'irrelevant' to a people
who are powerless . For them the equitable distribution of decisionmaking power is far more important than physical proximity to
white people .
This means complete emancipation of blacks from white
oppression by whatever means blacks deem necessary, including,
when expedient, integration or separation .
What the new black man is talking about is liberation by any
means necessary and this does not depend on the question of
whether blacks should integrate or separate .
The fundamental issue is not separation or integration but
liberation . The either/or question does not therefore talk to the
point that the New Black is making .
We will use the word 'regroupment' to refer to that necessary process of development every oppressed group must travel en route to
emancipation.
What people usually call separation in the black community is
not separation but regroupment. It is not separation for blacks to
come together on matters of common policy . It is not separation for
blacks to go on Sunday to a church which has never been closed to
anyone. It is not separation for blacks to go into a room, shut the
door and hammer out a common policy .
I would now like to explain why the liberationist gets irritated by
the constant accusation that he should either be for separation or
for integration or otherwisetime'
be a fraud . This kind of either/ or thing
is irrelevant and a waste of
nd energy and I will say why.
First, the either/ or thing is irrelevant and immaterial :

Khoapa : The New Black

63

because it confuses means =d ends, strategy and tactics .

it makes a fetish out of mere words and offers a predetermined response for every place and time . What is to
be done? - that depends
"_s
on
. what? - on what advances the cause of black
liberation

The question of the presence or absence of white people is a

tactical matter which can only be answered in a concrete situation
by reference to the long-term and short-term interests of blacks .
,,.0m
The tactics will depend on the situation and will flow naturally
that situation if people will only remember that the aim is not
t o separate or integrate but 1. triumph.
The second reason why I say that this 'either/ or' proposition is
irrelevant is because it is based on false premises . It assumes that
blacks are free toassumption
choose and that their only
do options are to
the horns of
the coma dilemma . This
does not
full justice
plexity and the tragedy of the black man's situation . It ignores the
infinite gradations between integration and separation and the fact
that there i a third choice - pluralism, and beyond that the fourth transformation . Even more serious is the hidden assumption that
blacks are free to choose ex nihilo. But the essence of our situation
at this moment is that we can neither integrate nor separate . We are
caught just now in an impossible historical situation, and that fact,
which terrifies some, and leads others to despair, gives our struggle
a grandeur, a nobility, and a certain tragedy which makes it of
moment to he world .
It is impossible to draw a straight line in a curved space . Both
'integrationists' and `separatists' are trying to create right angles in a
situation which only permits curves . The only option is
'transformation' of a situation which does not permit a clear-cut
choice in either directThe philosophy of liberation
liberation recognises this fact and suggests
that we use history a~, a tool of appraisalblack
and analysis. It points out
community, whether
that all movements for liberation
have
in the
integration or separation,
failed, and asks why? What were the
movements' strong point, and weak
made
the points? What mistakes were
and what can we learn from
mistakes? Another evasion of
the situation is to assume that blacks can integrate unilaterally, and
from
assumption it is but one step to the pernicious
old idea that
blacksthis
are polarising the country. This is the same
policy of
giving a white disease a black name (the Native Problem) and


64

Khoapa : The New Black

blaming the oppressed for the oppressor's agression . It is not

'separatism' of blacks but the 'separatism' of whites which threatens
this country . The decision is in the hands of whites . If they want
transformation, let them give up their separate neighbourhoods and
institutions and organisations and come out in the open . Until then,
blacks must organise and use their group strength to wrest control
of every organisation and institution within reach .
The either/or proposition is false also because it is based on a misunderstanding of the modern world which is grounded on power,
group organisation and group conflict. This is a world of groups . A
man's power depends ultimately on the power of his group . This
means that oppressed individuals must recognise their common
interests and create a group . Groupness is a simple exigency of the
situation . The oppressor creates a situation from which the
oppressed can only extricate themselves by a regroupment .
From this sketch, it is clear that the oppressor and the oppressed
must clash . Some men try to avoid the exigencies of the situation by
preaching universal brotherhood. But it is a mystification to preach
universal brotherhood in a situation of oppression .
Paradoxically, a prerequisite for human solidarity is a feeling of
non-solidarity with men who stand in the way of solidarity .
Paradoxically, the oppressed can only bring about a future of universal brotherhood in proportion as they feel and exhibit group
solidarity among themselves and cease to feel solidarity with the
enemies of human solidarity.
Indeed we shall earn the right to love all men by struggling aginst
some, we sha11 earn the right to hold hands with all men by refusing
to hold hands with all men who stand in the way of all men holding
hands with all men .
Here, as elsewhere, the devil must be driven out first . It is too
soon to love everybody .
This brings us to the paradox of integration, to the fact that
blacks must sing black and black together before they can sing
black and white together, to the fact that black integration must
precede black and white integration, to the fact that blacks must
unite before they can separate and must separate before they can
unite .
There is nothing ominous or subversive about this principle . It is
simply an exigency of the situation. History has charged us with the
cruel responsibility of going to the very gate of racism in order to
oestroy racism - to the gate not further .
The either/or proposition does not explicate the dialectics of
development in which a negation is necessary for, synthesis.


Khoapa: The New Black

65

Sweet are the uses of 'integration' . The stress on Black

nationalism and Black separatism in white media is ideological; its
function is to keep blacks unorganised and powerless .
Whites have organised racially oriented
businesses, unions, churches, newspapers, resorts,
country clubs, youth camps, welfare agencies, ethnic
studies departments, colleges, universities, unmarried
mothers agencies, child welfare agencies, vacation
associations, war veteran
groups, professional
associations,
employment
services, theatres,
encyclopedias, funeral homes, homes for the aged, agricultural societies, boards, tourist agencies .

But, whites are always telling blacks that organisation on a

national basis is a ao-no . It is especially naughty for blacks to form
organisations without white members and white officers .
Finally, the either/ or dilemma is irrelevant and immaterial because it is a reaction to an action . Both integration and separation
are responses and largely emotional responses at that to white
oppression .
Neither integration nor separatism deals with the question, for
both remain on the level defined by whites . Both integrationists and
separatists are excessively preoccupied with the question of sitting
down beside the white man; the 'separatist' is excessively preoccupied with the question of 'not' sitting down beside the white
man . The liberationist says the presence or absence of the white
man is irrelevant . What obsesses him is the liberation of black
people, and the white man is free to aid that liberation by contributing information, sweat, money and blood, but he is not free to
join that struggle or to lead it . Preoccupation with the white man
leads to blunders, confusion in the ranks and demoralisation ; it obscures the issues. It is possible for example to be free, creative and
happy without being in the presence of white people . It is also
possible to be free, creative and happy in groups which are not all
black . Neither separation nor integration confronts the system in its
totality for both share the same root postulates . In one way or
another both deplore the fact that white people do not love black
people. But love is irrelevant . History is a struggle, not an orgy.
Men decide matters of fundamental interest not on the basis of
goodwill but on the basis of social necessity - on the basis of what


66

Khoapa: The New Black

they =i ve to be in their interests . Men do not and cannot love

each if their material interests conflict . As long as institutions,
particularly economic institutions, make it necessary for one group
to hate another in order to maximise its position, then integration is
impossible .
It is not necessary to argue the either/or question of whether
racism is basically economic or basically ideological. What is
certain is that racial problems can only be solved in a climate of
economic equality. The 'either integration or separation' dilemma
ignores the implications of this fact. One side ignores it by calling
for 'integration' of the blackman into the economic status quo. But
the prerequisite for integration, i.e. transformation, is the
integration of the economic order .
Most proponents of the either/ or dilemma find such discussions
tedious. Basically they are idealists, they believe that the words in
the books mean something .
The philosophy of liberation calls for a transcendence of the
either/or dilemma which has had such disastrous impact on
white/ black policy. The liberationist concedes the power of the integrationist's dream but points out that black power is necessary to
accomplish it.
A philosophy of liberation requires a frank appraisal of the institutions and policies of the white communities. A philosophy of
liberation also requires an advanced programme of economic democracy . Racial integration requires economic integration, and this
in turn, requires a recognition that the race problem cannot he
solved without profound structural modifications in the country ;
without real changes in the tax structure and the relations between
the private and public sectors, without a redefinition of all values
and a redistribution of income and power .
A philosophy of liberation requires a re-appraisal of the policies
and institutions of the Black Community. We must re-evaluate
everything we are doing and saying. We must rise now to the level
of conceiving the black interest as a universal interest . Too many
people think blackness means withdrawing and tightening the
circle . On the contrary, blackness means expanding, and widening
the circle, absorbing and integrating instead of being absorbed and
integrated and from that perspective, it is easy to see that a
philosophy of liberation requires black people to cast their light not
over one thing but o er everything . We must rise now to the Icvel of
buck hegemony, the idea that blacks must establish moral and cultural authority over the whole . A philosophy of liberation requires
transformation . It says that everything must he made anew, hart we

Khoapa: The New Black

67

recognise that blackness, as so many people have said is necessary

but not sufficient . Being black is not enough . One must be. black
and ready together .
A philosophy of liberation requires unity . Black unity in turn requires black organisation . We need more, not fewer, black
organisations, we need black-oriented or black-based youth camps,
centres, colleges, welfare organisations etc .
For the New Black, this is a preparatory stage . The means are not
now available for entering the final road . Our task therefore is to
prepare for 10, 15 and 40 years . The only question now is whether
black people are made of such stuff as histories are made of, and
black people must answer that question in the presence of the world
and in the presence of the black living, the black dead and the hack
unborn .