In his article Cannibalising Biko’s thinking” Steve Lebelo failed to apply the proper tools of analysis and the application of the theory of the revolution, writes Lehlohonolo Kennedy Mahlatsi.
In his article, “Cannibalising Biko’s thinking simply cannot go unchallenged” , in The Sunday Independent last week, Malesela Steve Lebelo argues that Marxism-Leninist theory robbed the black consciousness and black radicalism generation of its finest cadres, more determined to strike a blow at white supremacy. Nothing can be further from the truth.
Lebelo failed to understand the interconnection between black consciousness and Marxism-Leninism. He also failed to understand that complete national liberation is not possible without social and economic emancipation. Lebelo wants us to believe that black consciousness on its own can lead to the total emancipation of the black people.
He repeats the same mistakes that the black consciousness organisations in the 1970s made, failing to apply the proper tools of analysis and the application of the theory of the revolution. Their blunder was to adopt an abstract view of black consciousness.
“Black consciousness will continue to be a reality in the Struggle”
The black consciouness trend, therefore, is a failure to recognise the real force capable of liberating South Africa; its failure finally means treachery, political death, renunciation of their own role and desertion to the side of imperialism.
We should nevertheless acknowledge that black consciousness will continue to be a vital reality in the Struggle as long as the aspirations of the oppressed have not been fulfilled; and black consciousness will continue to find expression in the ANC. However, it will remain a mere black shell unless it interconnects with the social emancipation of the exploited.
Marxism adds another important element, the study of the process of change which is a dialectical process of inner conflict and contradiction. Hence, there are not various “brands” of socialism. In the brief century that has passed since Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels founded the modern communist movement, Marxism has vanquished all other, non-scientific theories of socialism and proved itself the only correct and scientific theory of socialism. The scientific theory of Marxism-Leninism does not pretend to supply a ready-made formula for the solution of every problem. Nor does it pretend to forecast in every detail the future course of events.
However, based on a study of history, it provides the only correct framework in which the serious revolutionary can approach the problem of leading his or her people against all forms of oppression.
“Men make their own history, but they do not make it just as they please.”
It proclaims the universal truth of certain basic laws of social development and demonstrates that without knowledge of these laws the road to the future is dulled with fog. Marxists do not proclaim to be infallible prophets nor do they ignore the possibility of the accident, the unforeseen or the effect of good or bad leadership.
Marx wrote in his seminal work, The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte, that “men make their own history, but they do not make it just as they please. They do not make it under circumstances chosen by themselves, but under circumstances directly encountered, given and transmitted from the past”.
Once we understand this, we are no longer tossed about in a sea of historical uncertainty. The goals we set ourselves are based on the scientific understanding of the process of change. Our ignorance of the laws of change will not in the long run prevent them from asserting themselves. But once we understand them the process becomes even speedier and less painful. The scientific application of these laws becomes a tool for the building of the future. That is why the Marxist view of history is not just an academic explanation of the world, but an indispensable weapon for changing it.
The approach based on a grasp of materialism as opposed to idealism in philosophy gives us some pointer to the real possibilities of the future. Those who want us to look at racialism as an inborn-diseased idea which is unrelated to its economic base see the future in terms of an inevitable conflict between the white and black races.
This approach has nothing in common with scientific thinking and, whether it comes from the ranks of the enemy or from a few misguided individuals who claim to be in the camp of the forces of national liberation.
From a long-term point of view, the achievement of national liberation and socialism will lay the basis for a final smashing of backward-racial ideas and for the creation of a better South Africa for all. Our revolution is one continuing process. Its immediate emphasis and the chief mobilising factor is black liberation. But this immediate objective has strategic relevance for social emancipation.
It is always important to understand the class and national aspects of our revolution. We set out from concrete conditions of men and women in the South African politico-economic setting, and based on their real life-process we demonstrate the development of ideological reflexes and echoes of life process.
“Black consciousness is simply black nationalism”
Black consciousness, therefore, is a product of no imaginary grievances; it reflects our concrete material conditions in the colour-defined position we occupy in relation to the wealth of the country, the political institutions, education, etc.
Trying to grasp the meaning of black consciousness must not come by juggling with invented abstract definitions, as suggested by Lebelo, but by examining the historic-economic conditions of the oppressed in the country.
We must inevitably conclude that black consciousness is simply black nationalism. The drive towards unity of the oppressed, which is the core of black consciousness, has deep roots in the history of the country.
Pixley Seme as early as 1911 wrote of the voice in the wilderness bidding all dark races of our sub-continent to come together. The Xuma-Naicker-Dadoo Pact of 1947 and the Defiance Campaign are an indelible historical record.
The idea that blacks are in no way inferior to whites was pioneered by the ANC, as was the idea of black unity spreading across the barriers of tribalism, language and ethnicity. Hence, black consciousness was not the beginning and the ending of radical South African politics, but its outgrowth.
* Mahlatsi is a provincial executive committee member of the SACP in the Free State. He writes in personal capacity.
** The views expressed here are not necessarily those of Independent Media.
The Sunday Independent