Judiciary Makes Canada’s Safety Questionable - Minister

By Vusi Moloi © 2009

“Terror...the Final Frontier. These are the machinations of the mothership War on Terror. To explore strange new fiction; to seek out new conspiracy and new victimizations; to boldly go where no level headed thinking has gone before.” Rejigged for this article by this writer.

The Canadian Federal Government Minister of Public Safety Mr. Peter Van Loan has charged that the Canadian judiciary is impeding the Government’s ability to fight terrorism. According to published reports including those appearing in the National Post of September 27, Mr. van Load blamed the judges for not “deferring to the Government’s efforts to deport foreign suspects.” This follows a string of cases in which Government attempts to detain without trial or deport persons living in Canada were quashed by the Canadian courts. The Minister said this “raises questions about whether we can protect national security”.

The Liberal Party of Canada website had this to say “The Conservatives are going down a dangerous path by imposing their political will on our most cherished institutions,” said Liberal Justice and Democratic Reform Critic Dominic LeBlanc. “Freedom to question is one thing – but threatening independent bodies when we don’t agree crosses the line.”

Brazen Statements Shocking

This writer was shocked by these brazen statements which invoke memories of the apartheid Government which got frustrated by some progressive judges who set free a number of political detainees held without charge. First of all Canada is the great country to live in and as a result the national security must be upheld by all of us at all times no matter what. Every right thinking Canadian person in this country understands that and appreciates that. A few overzealous persons out there associate ethnicity with the degree of loyalty making some appear less loyal than others.

Minister Must Take a Page From Star Trek

Minister van Loan must take a page from the great Star Trek of Captain Pickard. In the episode The Drumhead a respected and highly placed Admiral Satie convenes a tribunal of inquiry into the dilithium chamber explosion incident as well as the landing of its schematics into the hands of the Romulans.

The Klingon Exchange Officer J’Dan became suspect number one after the Security Officer Worf of the USS Enterprise had found that a legitimate medication used by J’Dan for his medical condition had been instrumental in the sequencing of the secrets of the dilithium into amino acids which in turn got transmitted to an enemy race the Romulans. Converting information into chemistry is not a strange thing in itself since this is a process that happens naturally in human brain chemistry where an impulse is converted into chemical messengers known as neurotransmitters as a result of the synaptic connections which necessitate this conversion.

Member of Enemy Race

D’Jan admitted that he was a sympathizer of the Romulans an enemy race but denied involvement in the explosion of the dilithium. A medical technologist Simon Tarses was questioned and a Betazoid assistant of Admiral Satie used his psychic ability to sense that Tarses was hiding something. Admiral Satie imposed stiff restricted movements on the medical technologist but these were vetoed by Captain Pickard who didn’t think it wise to curtail his Starfleet officer exclusively based on intuition. A more invasive background check of Tarses revealed that he had erred in his job application by not disclosing the fact that he was partly Romullan.

Captain Pickard personally queried Tarses and satisfied himself that barring the omission of the fact that Tarses was partly Romullan he was still a fine officer who did not deserve to be put through the omnipresent torture of the proceedings of the witch-hunting tribunal.

Trial By Insinuation and Innuendo

In the end Captain Pickard mounted a strong protest to the Admiral Satie who was now even bringing the Captain of the USS Enterprise into disrepute by questioning his loyalty to the USS Enterprise. Captain Pickard remonstrated on behalf of his crewman Tarses against what he termed a trial “based on insinuation and innuendo”. He registered another strong protest on behalf of another crewman D’Jan “This man has a Romulan grandfather. For that, his career stands in ruins. Have we become so fearful? Have we become so cowardly that we must extinguish a man because he carries the blood of a current enemy?”

In one of the rare moments of passion Captain Pickard convincingly shows us that as humans we cannot engage in the unethical theatrics of destroying people’s lives on the basis of insinuation and innuendo.

Conclusion

The judges are the voices and eyes of reason. They solve problems through logic. They rule by fact and not innuendo. This is one branch of our democratic institutions that makes us who we are and uniquely Canadian. Has the Minister (perhaps inadvertently) overstepped his bounds by casting doubt on the judicious role of judges?

About the Author

A former South African Television Journalist, Vusi Moloi is a published author of a contextual poetry book, A Goodbye To My Little Troubles, and maintains a blog, Zulumathabo on the Internet.

Africa Must Produce or Perish – Response

By Vusi Moloi © 2009

Preamble

The great African genius mind Philip Emeagwali wrote an interesting article published on the Africa Unbound Magazine Africa Must Produce or Perish. This is my response to that article.

An excellent article by an award winning African scientist Philip Emeagwali injects the much needed thought provocation in challenging the Africans to rethink their economic development strategies. First of all let me add my voice to a list of many in paying homage to brother Philip for his courageous article. It’s not easy to buck the trend and get people to think seriously about matters of their survival. In addition, brother Philip has been and continues to be an inspiring role model to the rest of us particularly the new generation. Thank you for being an ambassador of Africa through your achievements.

The commentator of Philip Emeagwali’s article added excellent fresh points, which increased the brightness of the light bulbs on this important top. Now that well deserved tributes have been expressed, we continue with the topic at hand. Brother Philip’s article raised at least for four points regarding developing Africa’s economy namely (1) reliance on exporting raw materials, (2) lack of intellectual capital (3) technological prominence and (4) “Made in Africa” solution.

Reliance on exporting raw materials

The juxtaposition of the question “When will Africa run out of natural resources?” with respect to “When will Africa be unable to export raw materials, either for lack of our own oil or because foreign markets have themselves dried up?” is instructive. This phenomenon has already happened among some countries i.e. Ghana (known before as the Gold Coast) and Mali were world's leaders in supplying more over two thirds of the world's gold at one time in history but not anymore. South Africa has captured that position.

What do we learn from this? Both Ghana and Mali never ran out of natural resources nor did the world’s demand decline as confirmed by South Africa’s current fulfillment. In fact Mali (poorest country) is the 3rd largest gold producer after Ghana and South Africa. What then are the reasons? Could it be that a change of post-independence dynamics and priorities resulted in these once African powerful empires losing their once dominant position in this area? Ghana moved on to become number one in exporting cocoa the position that has since been overtaken by Ivory Coast. Nonetheless, Ghana has recorded a series of impressive GDP growths overtime making her a shining example of Africa’s focused, creative and consistent development.

The fact that African countries export their resources to European countries in what is an exploitative relationship (not exclusive to Africa i.e. Iraq) where Africans get less for what their resources are worth is legendary in our modern history. Let’s make a hypothetical but real case about Ghana. Suppose it costs Ghana 2 cents to produce a cup of cocoa. She sells it for 5 cents where four cents go back to production and 1 cent builds the schools, hospitals and helps small farmers.

As a result of this Ghana produces the highest number of university graduates in Africa. Western countries now say, “We think 5 cents is rather steep for a cup of cocoa. We will give you foreign aid in exchange for giving us cocoa at 1 cent”. When Ghana protests this unfairness we hear that there has been coup in Ghana while Nkrumah was visiting abroad. The neighbors of Ghana watching this say “let’s not do what Nkrumah did lest it happens to us” which triggers a vicious cycle of underdevelopment. The organic intellectual capital of Ghana leaves the country. In the meanwhile Western countries shake their heads at a proverbial problem of African coups while they are part of the creation of this instability.

Exporting resources can be a profitable business that boosts the developments projects of a country a case in point being Canada, which has overtaken Saudi Arabia as the largest supplier of oil to the US. The result of that is the Canadian dollar that has become equal with the US dollar despite the market gyrations. Canada is not treated like a Third World country and she gets a fair price for her natural resources.

While foreign aid, as previously mentioned, is an instrument that has hampered and continues to hamper Africa’s development, it does not have to be. Israel receives foreign aid in the amount of five billion dollars each year and it’s a prosperous country despite the fact that the country does not contribute to the US economy in return. In other words foreign aid to Israel does not make business sense to the US as it does with an African country that supplies resources in return at a cheap price. I discuss this in my article Vice President Warns Israel Against Attacking Iran in my blog Zulumathabo on the Internet.

Even though the argument against relying on natural resources has merits, there are other forces at play, which may still frustrate Africa’s development efforts even when she has moved from her reliance on natural resources. What can Africa do to mitigate those intrusive forces that stymie her development efforts? This is one big question moving forward.

Reliance on Exporting Raw Materials

This is an interesting point. African countries have done poorly in attracting and retaining African intellectuals. The problem exists on three fronts (1) African government relying on European expertise and less on their own experts, (2) African governments not facilitating the return of the Africans living outside Africa and (3) the returning Africans often perceived as a threat to those living in Africa.

Relying on Western Expertise

There are lots of educated Africans inside Africa who get passed over for Western experts. Somehow some African governments believe that a European expert is better than an African expert. Some African countries advertise that they are experiencing an acute short supply of engineering talent and yet the locally trained African engineers roam the streets unemployed. Since European engineers are expensive this results in the shortage of engineering skill. Part of the problem is that some foreign aid stipulations force certain African countries to hire Western experts as part of the justification of foreign aid dollars to the taxpayers of the donor countries which results in the unemployment of locally produced African engineers. In Canada a Government development agency like CIDA (Canadian International Development Agency) used to state the fact in their literature that seventy cents of every dollar was spent in Canada as part of the Government mandate. Part of this resulted in African countries having to employ Canadian experts to satisfy this requirement. Another paradoxical effect of foreign experts is that some of them (not all) do not share the sentiments and beliefs of African values as a result of being socialized to view Africans as less human than their Caucasian counterparts. This is like having an atheist build a place of worship on your behalf. What kind of quality do you think will be the finished product?

Facilitating Return of Africans Abroad

Not enough is being done to enable the return of African intellectuals from abroad. In the past, African governments have relied on UN and other European sponsored programs, which facilitated the return of Africans. In the absence of those programs we are back to square one. President Zuma of South Africa once made an interesting point that there were two kinds of Africans outside Africa i.e. those who had made it and those who had not but had skills. He said it was important to attract both and provide land for them to help develop Africa. It would help to know what is currently being done to facilitate the return of the Africans living abroad by African countries. Maybe some can shed a light on this important issue?

Outside Africans Wrongly Perceived

Some of our brothers and sisters living in Africa perceive Africans of the Diaspora as somehow a threat to them (wrongly or rightly). This problem persists to this day. As a result some Africans in the Diaspora feel unaccepted in their own countries. This may not be the case in every situation but there is at least a degree of threat perception associated with being an African in the Diaspora. Some Africans have returned to Africa only to go back to the Diaspora.

Technological Prominence

This issue is extremely important particularly we technology workers understand this better. One challenge is that some African countries rely on Western countries to determine their technology agenda particularly the foreign aid recipients. I once researched the idea of providing high speed Internet via satellite in Africa. I found that the companies doing this where Western countries based either in Europe or US. The cost of bandwidth was prohibitive and some were in fact providing very low download/upload speed ratios at exorbitant prices. It seemed their prices were based on the fact that African governments would be paying for the services hence their skyrocketing. The assumption of these Western satellite companies was that Africans didn’t know much about technology leading them to provide inferior services at very high cost.

The biggest challenge to Africa in this area is infrastructure. South Africa has partnered with Russia to launch their own satellite into space in order to make bandwidth available in the country. This is one positive step in attaining technological prominence since this gives an African country the ability to architect technological infrastructure without relying on others to do it for them.

Failure to architect Africa’s own infrastructure systems may in fact lead to another form of technological colonialism where African countries are subjected to inferior technology. For example African countries already rely on foreign technologies like Windows, which is an infrastructure system to store, manipulate and manage their mission critical data. Why can’t African countries sponsor a research in developing their own infrastructure technology like an operating system as well as an African computer? Moreover we have genius minds like Philip Emeagwali who is an architect of a super computer. Instead many African countries are looking for donated computers from abroad.

The premise of "intellectual capital" and "technological prominence" addresses the very core of Africa's problems. The problem fundamentally remains historical and it's the vestiges of economic and intellectual colonialism that consistently vary the parameters of this issue. Right now the number of Africans connected to the Internet is less than 5%. The main problem is lack of access to computer hardware. Another restraint is the cost of telecommunications. In many African countries, in order to for an African to call her neighbor the phone goes to some Western country who in turn routs the call to the neighbor. A number of people in Europe get paid each time two neighbors talk over the phone making telecommunication extremely expensive.

The big mover in the technological prominence must include, among others, attracting great technology talent currently living outside Africa such as Philip Emeagwali. What will it take for African countries to attract the sons and daughters of the African soil from the Diaspora?

“Made in Africa” solution

A Zimbabwean situation is instructive here. Zimbabwe achieved her independence in 1980. The Zimbabweans are among the most industrious and educated Africans I have ever known. At one time Zimbabwe exported food and other manufactured goods to the world marked “Made in Zimbabwe”. Today they are surviving on food parcels and South Africa is shouldering most of the economic burden of keeping Zimbabwe people alive. How did this happen? When both Mr. Robert Mugabe and Dr. Joshua Nkomo signed the Lancaster Agreement, it didn't have guarantees on the return of the land to the African natives and this fact was a harsh precondition as later described by the then President of Zambia Kenneth Kaunda. As a result the people of Zimbabwe were given a landless revolution. Landless revolutions are not sustainable over the long term, as has been observed in the case of Zimbabwe twenty-nine years later. In my article Why The West Is Less Influential In Zimbabwe I analyze this issue.

The ability to achieve “Made in Africa” requires land in order to build and expand industrial capacity. It’s possible for Africa to attain this coveted status but first she must be able to subdue and prevail over those intrusive forces that have put her in a situation leaving her with a feeling of being robbed. The English system of racial capitalism treats non-English countries on a descending scale with Africa being at the bottom of the totem pole. Countries like India are successful partly because they are allowed to succeed.

When Mugabe agitated for change in order to empower his people, his administration was subjected to a variety of economic sanctions, which proved punitive to the industrial capacity of the country. We see here a classic case where, despite hard work and education, people going hungry in the streets. In my previously mentioned article Why Msholozi is the Greatest Leader of All Time I point out that Western societies regard education as an economic utility vis-à-vis the Africans who regard education as a form of prestige since it allows them to contribute to their societies.

Conclusion

The article of Philip Emeagwali has correctly challenged our thinking. The vestiges of colonial conquest continue to spook Africa’s developments by sometimes spitting harsh fire like a threatened dragon upon some like Zimbabwe. Courage is still a much-needed attribute and Africa needs to be in command of the agenda of developing, nurturing and empowering organic intellectual capacity and technological innovation moving forward. This means cutting loose the strings attached to development in order to turn a new page. Will the new generation heed the call or will status quo continue to keep Africa’s development agenda determined by the outside forces that have no Africa’s interests at heart?


About the Author

A former South African Television Journalist, Vusi Moloi is a published author of a contextual poetry book, A Goodbye To My Little Troubles, and maintains a blog, Zulumathabo on the Internet.

Blog Comment Ground Rules

By Vusi Moloi © 2009

Your interest in the Zulumathabo on the Internet blog is appreciated. You have taken the time to respond to a blog article that piqued your interest and you may as well consider the following rules as a guide in writing a comment that has a higher likelihood of being published on the Zulumathabo on the Internet blog. Since reader’s comments are read only, the blog owner reserves the right to reject a comment that falls outside these ground rules. Please note these rules are subject to change without prior notice.

Rule #1 Read the Article

Make sure you have read and understood the article you are commenting on. It’s amazing how some just post comments having not even read the article they are commenting on.

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Rule #3 Stay on Topic

Zulumathabo on the Internet is a professional blog with professionally written and well thought out substantive articles. Your comments must fall within that framework. Stay on topic and argue your point within the framework of the topic of the article.

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Thank you for considering these rules of the road and good luck in your blog comments.

Obama’s Transcendence of Race

By Vusi Moloi © 2009

President Obama has demonstrated an impeccable skill in refusing to be earthbound by an emotionally charged divisive issue of race after coming under bitter-tinged attacks led by a heckling Republican Joe Wilson who brazenly shouted “you lie” to President Obama over his Health Care Reform an important plank of Mr. Obama’s political platform during last year’s US elections. Despite the strident attacks by the opposition President Obama stayed the course above the fray like an African fish that does not allow the sulphuric salt from the salty depths to over-penetrate its skin.

Incredible Finesse

President Barack Obama is a historic figure given his racial background as the first person of African descent to become the President of the United States. During the election campaign Mr. Obama showed an incredible finesse in navigating the treacherous waters of race and still managed to endear himself to the predominately White electorate. The North American society is hyper sensitive to the issue of racism and has developed a variety of defense mechanisms around the issue. For this reason a race issue was used heavily by the anti-Obama people as an effective tool of alienation in order to turn political opinion against him but the strategy failed.

This week the President invoked his seemingly endless finesse when confronted with the questions of race in the light of the comments made by the former President Jimmy Carter who suggested that a lot of anti-Obama sentiments were motivated by the fact that he was an African-American whom others viewed as unqualified to lead this great country.

Addressing major media organizations including CNN’s John King President Obama outlined his position in a sophisticated fashion “Are there people out there who don’t like me because of race? I am sure there are... That is not the overriding issue here. I think there are people who are anti-Government. I think there are… there has been a long standing debate in this country that is usually that much more fierce during times of transition where when presidents are trying to bring about big changes, I mean the things that were said about FDR(Franklin Delano Roosevelt), pretty similar to the things that were said about me, that he was a communist, he was a socialist, things that were said about Ronald Reagan when he was trying to reverse some of the new deal programs.. They were pretty vicious as well.”

The same comments were echoed on ABC when President Obama said “Are there some people out there who don’t like me because of my race? I am sure there are. Are there some people who vote for me because of my race? There are probably some of those too.”

Intellectual Prowess

The intellectual prowess of President Obama is nothing short of amazing. The ability to finesse an extremely divisive issue of race enables him to exit the crushing jaws of political opposition like the great Canadian seagull that boasts an instantaneous vertical lift above the ground whenever it gets bounded by the forces of reaction.

President Obama’s Press Secretary Robert Gibbs underscored the fact that it was important to put emotions in check “despite the depths of our beliefs” while having important political debates without making anyone "feel uncomfortable". The question of debating contentious issues within the confines of civility of discourse requires a non-partisan approach and restraint of self-interest. The most fierce opposition to the Health Care Reform comes from the insurance industry 38% of which employs less than 20 persons per organization. The Health Care Reform could enable the government to work more directly with the insurance carriers who comprise 62% of the industry effectively reducing if not eliminating the middle man with a minimal impact on the overall job statistics.

The Paradoxical Fact of Socialism

The Republicans have done a good job in defending the business establishment and have traditionally regarded what they viewed as big government to be bad for the structure of the economy hence their vehement dismissal of the Health Care Reform as an exercise in socialism.

The paradoxical fact of interest is that socialism is a good thing for big business like $750 billion bailout to giant insurance companies like AIG (American International Group) and big banks like Citigroup something that has angered the taxpayers. You see how it works? When the government gives bailouts to big business (business socialism) it’s a good cause but when that bailout (citizen socialism) goes to a taxpayer it’s an evil socialism. This explains why socialism will always live side by side with capitalism because the capitalist business needs the socialist government bailouts to thrive. The same principle applies to the concept of subsidy vis-à-vis welfare i.e. when the government gives money to a business enterprise it’s a good subsidy whereas the same money that goes to a taxpayer is referred to as an evil welfare system.


How Is It Possible To Transcend Race?

Mr. Obama’s shrewd thinking understands that the issues at stake are not racial but rather economic. This writer has articulated this fact in other articles like Obama’s Ground Troops Tackle the Last Frontier to show that the premise of racism is to distract from substantive issues of economic control so that we all get emotionally embroiled in matters that have no bearing on the real transformation of people’s lives. The strategy has proven effective in alienating certain groups from the mainstay of the economy. This explains why President Obama was quick to distance himself from the idea of racism in order to stay focused on the real issues that have a bearing on the economic future of the people.

The astute President Obama also understands the powerful sorcery of race in fragmenting and alienating the core base of support. A case in point are the African descendants who have found cohesive solidarity to be an elusive thing for more than 400 years due largely in part to emotionally responding to the issues of race instead of focusing attention on the economic front which is what will change the equation of equality in the final analysis.

Conclusion

The advent of Mr. Obama’s Presidency has injected a new perspective on dealing with issues of race and his consistent refusal to be earthbound by his racial background has given him powerful wings to vertically lift himself off the ground. The new generation will do well to take a page from the great President Mr. Barack Obama and a living legend in his own right.

About the Author

A former South African Television Journalist, Vusi Moloi is a published author of a contextual poetry book, A Goodbye To My Little Troubles, and maintains a blog, Zulumathabo on the Internet.

Brandon Huntley Is Not White

By Vusi Moloi © 2009

Brandon Huntley is not White after all. For all intents and purposes, Huntley is a Black guy who passed for white because of his impressive Caucasian looks. The convincing power of his Caucasian looks was such a flawless execution that the great Canadians, who still care about skin complexion, neglected to take a DNA test which would have convinced them otherwise.

Refugee Status Based on White Skin

Huntley is a “White” South African who was granted refugee status by the Canada Immigration Refugee Board tribunal on August 27th presided by the only member Mr. William Davis who ruled that Huntley had submitted “a convincing proof” of his persecution as a White person in the hands of the Black South Africans because he was White. Mr. Davis referred to the South African Government’s “inability or unwillingness to protect him." when he said “The evidence of the claimant and the witness and the documentary evidence which I accept as credible show a picture of indifference and inability or unwillingness of the government and the security forces to protect White South Africans from persecution by African South Africans.” This represents a historic precedent where someone has ever been granted refugee status because of the colour of his skin. Huntley was represented by Russel Kaplan who had his own sister Lara Kaplan testify on behalf of Huntley.

New Evidence Contradicts Refugee Claimant

New evidence from a respected historian who happens to be Huntley’s distant relative, Patrick Tariq Mellet of South Africa writes in his Cape Slavery Heritage blog that he maternally shares a blood line of heritage through their grand parents whose genetic roots go back to Huntley’s great great grandparents William Huntley and Mary Anne Haddon whose children had married “black and white South Africans”.

Mellet confirms, using death and archival records of the City of Cape Town, that a Coloured woman Francina van der Kaap who had married one of the first Englishmen to settle in the Xalanga district of the Transkei in the mid 1800s William Haddon was Huntley’s great great grand mother. Mellet further corrobates “Brandon’s great great
Grandparents lived happily in Cala and faced no endangerment amongst Xhosa people in Cala, right through to William’s death at the ripe old age of 100 years in 1908.”

Mellet, who hails from District Six and Woodstock, tells us “This of course makes Brandon Huntley’s case all the more absurd.”

Website Blog Blocked!

Incredibly, the website blog of Mellet at this link became inaccessible but this writer was able to use his superior technological skills to retrieve the article on September 9, 2009 the day that happens to be 999, perhaps an alignment of the planets? Could this be the work of hackers acting under whose instructions?

Canada Reviews the Case

What is the Canadian Government going to do with this case considering that it was premised on a misguided notion of skin pigmentation that is now looking different under the new spotlight? It has since been reported that the Canada Immigration and Citizenship is reviewing the case. This means in one month the Federal Court will announce if it will go ahead to hear the case after which it could take several months before the case is heard by a panel of judges.

In the meanwhile Huntley is a refugee that enjoys the hospitable protection of the great Canadians while South Africa’s international image as the land of peace and reconciliation suffers the stringent consequences of misinformation.

Refugee Status Not a Race Thing

When this writer became a refugee from apartheid it was not based on race but rather on the apartheid system. When the Jews became refugees it was not based on the race of the Germans but the system of the NAZIS. Canada is the only exception in this rule which has tarnished South Africa’s image as a rainbow nation country. South Africans are understandably angry over this.

Passing for White

Passing for White is not a new thing under the sun. The former Cuban dictator and former Communist Fulgencio Batista had African genes coursing through his genes but the Americans supported him partly because they believed he was white because he convincingly looked white. The great Conceptual Artist Dr. Adrian Piper who had written a powerful analytical article Passing for White, Passing for Black and was herself a racially mixed African descendent became listed as Suspicious Traveler on the U.S. Security Administration’s Watch List and Wellesley College moved to suddenly terminate her full tenured professorship in 2008.

The actress Jeanne Crain was chosen by director Darryl F. Zanuck for a role in the movie Pinky to star the character of an African American woman who passed for White in the USA even though Crain herself was White bypassing talented and brilliant stars like Lena Horne. Another actress Elizabeth Taylor was chosen by director Joseph L. Mankiewicz to star in the movie Cleopatra portraying the life of the North African Pharaoh Cleopatra despite the fact that Cleopatra was racially mixed and even Shakespeare refers to her as a Gypsy woman in Anthony and Cleopatra.

About the Author

A former South African Television Journalist, Vusi Moloi is a published author of a contextual poetry book, A Goodbye To My Little Troubles, and maintains a blog, Zulumathabo on the Internet.

The Trinity of Emancipation

By Vusi Moloi © 2009

Preamble

The African jungle teaches us that the most important consideration is the unqualified compliance with the supreme law of self-preservation. This means that the organism must not be uprooted from its natural environment which facilitates the preservation of both survival and quality of life. The organism must enjoy the autonomy where it’s not subjugated under the claws of predators. The critical factors that remain core to the survival ability of the organism to emancipate itself from the claws of foreign occupation include a piece of ground, a set of ground rules and the ability to be an architect of its destiny.

A Piece of Ground

An organism needs a piece of ground it can call its own. When the lion chooses to settle on a particular territory he must trust his natural instincts and ceremoniously pee around the ground to mark the perimeter of his own piece of ground. Those that stray within his borders must sniff the ground and back off never to be seen as trespassers by the border patrols. A piece of ground lends territorial integrity and a sense of permanence to those who have built their sanctuary in the land of the ancestors.

A Set of Ground Rules

It’s not enough to be part of the natural environment. An equitable set of ground rules must exist to ensure the continuity and stability of existence and the ability to interact with others within the confines of mutual respect, autonomous existence and collective belonging. It’s the ground rules that constitute orderly coexistence when chaos threatens to impose itself. The wisdom of the collective and the ancestors is embodied in the ground rules. It is this body of sacred rules together with syntactic compliance that gives the collective and its members a survival advantage.

Architects of Their Own Destiny

The citizens of the African jungle must be able to belong to the collective and architect their own destiny as they see fit uninterrupted by foreign occupation or indirect foreign rule. They are the domain experts in the land of their ancestors and know what is needed to gain a survival advantage. Anyone who says otherwise is a treacherous impostor driven by self-interest and not the interests of the collective.

Learning From Others

When Mao Tse-Tung and his comrades won their revolutionary struggle in October of 1949, it gave them the ability to achieve the trinity of emancipation when they regained their piece of ground, wrote their own constitution and embarked on the path of economic emancipation as architects of their own destiny. They had shaken off the chains of foreign occupation and were unstoppable on the road to the new dispensation. Fidel Castro and Che Guevara achieved the same trinity of emancipation in January of 1958. They wrote their own constitution, carved their own land and chose their own leaders. The Russians achieved the same in 1917 via the Bolshevik Revolution where they wrote their own constitution, gained their own piece of ground and became architects of their destiny.

When Zimbabwe gained independence in 1980 she failed to gain the trinity of emancipation since she didn’t write her own constitution. The constitution was written for her by others which effectively entrenched indirect foreign rule. Zimbabwe didn’t gain her piece of ground even though she chose her own leaders to represent her. For this reason, Zimbabwe only gained one third of the trinity of emancipation. Today she continues to be tossed back and forth and sometimes getting squashed by the vicious claws of indirect foreign occupation.

When South Africa gained her freedom in 1994 she wrote her constitution under the circumstances which extracted extreme concessions from her and imposed a heartless restraint with deep claws upon her piece of ground even though she was able to choose her own leaders. South Africa effectively achieved less than half of the trinity of emancipation hence the bitter struggle continues as I write these lines.

Discussion

The unconditional compliance with the trinity of emancipation as we have seen with other revolutions like China, Cuba and Russia engenders a sense of irrefutable fulfillment in the hearts and minds of the indigenous people of the land.

When Zimbabwe was negotiating Lancaster Agreement, she had plenty of time to learn from those who had gone before her like the great Kenneth Kaunda of Zambia who later decried that the exclusion of the land from the Lancaster Agreement was a harsh precondition as reported in the article Why The West Is Less Influential in Zimbabwe. Prior to ratifying the agreement Mr. Robert Mugabe questioned the logic of accepting such independence without a piece of ground but he signed off anyways. He has now learnt the hard way that if it is not there in the first place it will never be there going forward. He broke one important maxim of the African jungle and that is to trust one’s instincts at all times. He had felt a sense of hesitation but went against it anyways. This is the greatest thing he will ever regret and it will haunt him all the way to the grave.

South Africa had plenty of time to learn from the mistakes of others like Zimbabwe and be inspired by others like Mao-Tsetung. Amazingly she duplicated the exact mistake of “willing buyer, willing seller” from Zimbabwe which had already established a track record of unmitigated failure in the previous fourteen years. Now fifteen years since 1994, South Africa is still far away from the finish line with respect to achieving the trinity of emancipation. We hope that the great Msholozi will cover enough ground even though the forces reaction are better resourced to resist any bold moves with respect to a much needed change.


Conclusion

The University of the African Jungle and her curriculum of The Supreme Law of Self-Preservation teaches us to gain a survival advantage by following the trinity of emancipation. Others who have achieved the trinity of emancipation, despite a high price being paid like China, Russia and Cuba inspire us to go forward in the great struggle for freedom and advancement.

About the Author

A former South African Television Journalist, Vusi Moloi is a published author of a contextual poetry book, A Goodbye To My Little Troubles, and maintains a blog, Zulumathabo on the Internet.