MASILO LEPURU | Important for political parties to explain their ideas on national question

The reputed African philosopher Odera Oruka sparked a famous debate on the nature of African philosophy following his essay entitled “Four Trends in African philosophy”.

He divided African philosophy into four trends, namely ethnophilosophy, professional philosophy, nationalistic-ideological philosophy and philosophic sagacity.

The nationalistic-ideological school deals mainly with African political philosophical ideas such as African nationalism. There is no adequate engagement with the national question in “post-apartheid” SA from the perspective of African philosophy.

Part of the reason is the “marginalisation of African philosophy” in SA and the persistent problem of racism. In addition to these issues, the so-called post-apartheid SA has been in the dysphoric hell of the unravelling of the “rainbow nation of God” for many years. Several political parties and movements have emerged to attempt to resolve this political issue of nation-building and social cohesion.

The history of the problem is long and complex. While political parties promote their manifestoes to attract voters, they do not explain in explicit terms their ideas on the national question.

Many of these parties seem to confine themselves to politics of efficiency such as the provision of services that are associated with governance. Many leaders claim that voters will not eat ideologies and political visions.

This implies that it is the work of intellectuals to analyse and tease out the ideological orientation and political visions. Many intellectuals have attempted to write on the national question. These include the likes of Anton Lembede, Neville Alexandra, Archie Mafeje and Jabulani “Mzala” Nxumalo.

But most of the writings were in relation to the apartheid regime. While few books analyse their writings, there is no sufficient and solid discussion about the national question in the context of the so-called post-apartheid SA.

The controversy regarding the Cape Independence and Orania is fundamentally about the national question. Should SA remain a unified state or be fragmented through secession?

This question lies at the core of the issue of nationalism and nation-building. SA has a complex history of nationalism. Because of conquest in wars of colonisation since 1652, the issues of nationalism and nation-building are fundamentally about the land question.

There is a dialectic of thesis and antithesis in relation to it. The thesis is white nationalism while the antithesis is the reaction of indigenous to it.

The main antagonism has always been about the settler and the native. Different ideologies are utilised by these two main antagonists in the struggle for the resolution of the national question. These different ideologies have resulted in at least three trends.

The first trend is the white supremacy. This frank spirit was behind the creation of the two Boer republics. It is the same spirit which informs the existence of Orania today, 

The second trend is the Marxist trend which consists of the combination of some indigenous people and their white communists. Two comrades epitomise this trend, namely comrade Nosizwe (Alexandra) of the Unity movement and comrade Mzala (Nxumalo) of the Congress movement. On the basis of the Azanian Manifesto comrade Nosizwe envisioned “one Azania and one nation”.

This is in essence as socialist Azania controlled by workers irrespective of race. The so-called Freedom Charter is the foundation of a non-racial united democratic SA as envisioned by comrade Mzala and his Congress movement of the ANC, SACP and Cosatu.

The third trend is the Pan-Africanist trend. This trend comprises the Africanist school of Anton Lembede, which called for “Africa for the Africans”. The other school is the Azanian school of Robert Sobukwe and Steve Biko, which called for a post-white supremacy unified Azania in which the African majority will assimilate foreign minorities such as whites and Indians.

Given the resurgence of the white supremacist trend as well as the dismal failure of the second trend of the Congress movement, it is time to call for the third trend especially the Africanist school of Lembede.

• Lepuru a researcher and founding director of the Institute for Kemetic and Marcus Garvey Studies