Last night I revisited Richard Attenborough's CRY FREEDOM. In that
cinema i fell in love with Biko all over again. Over and over again
Biko was attacked for encouraging a new form of racism, black racism.
As the apartheid government propagated hatred,Biko preached his gospel
based on a new found pride in being black.
I look at my Africa today and i cannot wondering how Biko would have felt if he lived today. There is so much black on on black violence and all our calamities are blamed on the white man. A lot of crimes are committed in the name of righting the wrongs of the colonial era. Remember that is how the Hutus justified the genocide in Rwanda. This is how we justify black on black violence today.
Police brutality has taken centre stage in African politics. The message is very clear, "constitutional right or not, we will keep you off the street by all means at our disposal". The violence in Zimbabwe is a representation of African politics at it's best. Everyday the internet is flooded with images of Zimbabweans beaten to within an inch of their lives. All this is a Zimbabwe that has been under black rule for 36 years. As usual, African leaders have endorsed the violations with their silence.
Black on black violence is the deepest betrayal of all that is African. It is deplorable to rape your sister because she will not agree with your outlook of the world, to murder your brother because he sees things differently. African politics today believe they earned the right to violate their brothers when they participated in their liberation.
Am i saying that a bullet hurts more when the weapon is fired by a black man than when a white man fires it? No! Violence is deplorable no matter who the perpetrator is. I just feel that when my brother violates me i feel alone because then i know no one will be there to defend me. When my children grow up fearing their neighbours, how am i going to teach them about black pride. If i have to travel to a foreign land in order to be free then it means all the men and women whose ideologies i follow are all wrong. When my own brother violates me then he insinuates that people who claimed we had no capacity to rule ourselves were right. I wish those who have decided to rule Africa by employing a culture of fear understood the perils of their actions, better still, i wish thy cared.
I look at my Africa today and i cannot wondering how Biko would have felt if he lived today. There is so much black on on black violence and all our calamities are blamed on the white man. A lot of crimes are committed in the name of righting the wrongs of the colonial era. Remember that is how the Hutus justified the genocide in Rwanda. This is how we justify black on black violence today.
Police brutality has taken centre stage in African politics. The message is very clear, "constitutional right or not, we will keep you off the street by all means at our disposal". The violence in Zimbabwe is a representation of African politics at it's best. Everyday the internet is flooded with images of Zimbabweans beaten to within an inch of their lives. All this is a Zimbabwe that has been under black rule for 36 years. As usual, African leaders have endorsed the violations with their silence.
Black on black violence is the deepest betrayal of all that is African. It is deplorable to rape your sister because she will not agree with your outlook of the world, to murder your brother because he sees things differently. African politics today believe they earned the right to violate their brothers when they participated in their liberation.
Am i saying that a bullet hurts more when the weapon is fired by a black man than when a white man fires it? No! Violence is deplorable no matter who the perpetrator is. I just feel that when my brother violates me i feel alone because then i know no one will be there to defend me. When my children grow up fearing their neighbours, how am i going to teach them about black pride. If i have to travel to a foreign land in order to be free then it means all the men and women whose ideologies i follow are all wrong. When my own brother violates me then he insinuates that people who claimed we had no capacity to rule ourselves were right. I wish those who have decided to rule Africa by employing a culture of fear understood the perils of their actions, better still, i wish thy cared.
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