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Opinion piece Malaika Wa Azania Memoirs of born free

Opinion piece Malaika Wa Azania Memoirs of born free
My take: by Sinazo Mtshengu

On Tuesday 19 August 2014, Canrad hosted a book launch “ Memoirs of a born free” by  Malaika Wa Azania. A socialist activist who is fighting for issues affecting the African continent.
I am impressed by Malaika, she is confident in her views and she knows what she is fighting for. At the age of 22 many young people are still trying to figure out what their course is. She seemed very secure in her views and unapologetic.
She is firm in her ideals of blackness, fighting for the majority that is black, poor and African. Malaika seemed radical to me, but she is fighting for a cause she believes in and her cause is economic freedom for Africa, for the deconstructing of western ideologies in African minds and the freedom to be black for Africans. In a country that is torn apart by economical hierarchy and class, Malaika is challenging the institutionalised county of South Africa and the African contentment which is owned by “white people”, but given the face of black people, according to her.

She used examples of black CEO’s who are hired by white owners. “Why can’t black people be owners, rather then faces for a BEE certificate”, Maliaka said, “ white people’s wealth is undeserved”, she added.
The idea of BEE is to close the gap of the previously disadvantaged South Africans, not to increase the wealth of those who are already wealthy, or to feed a selected few black South Africans. Malaika focused highly on the fact that white people are using BEE, but she did not dwell on the fact that our own African leaders are the biggest beneficiaries of the BEE. It seemed to me that if  it has to do with the wrong of the black man, she was quick to dismiss or divert the blame to white people.  

What are the possibilities of a rainbow nation?” A striking question from Malaika. In her question, she questions the ideals of which the new South Africa are based on, ideals of democracy. A nation that Arch Bishop Tutu and the late Tata Nelson Mandela believed in and aspired for South Africa to be.
Can we really call South Africa a rainbow nation?  A rainbow has many different colours and each are layered on top of each other, but in the rainbow there is no black, Malaika pointed this out to the audience, but she did not point out that there was no white either. 
But in a rainbow there is no colour that dominates, all are given equal space to be seen. So the only thing that represents a rainbow in South Africa, is the many races and cultures that the country has. But there is no equal opportunity to be seen and shine, there are those who still hold the power over many Africans, as one of the audience members pointed out, the rainbow has one colour on top of another, in that sense we are like the rainbow.

Her ideas of setting platforms of activism for Africans to fight for their right and for the emancipation from the system of the West that has oppressed Africans for so long, was one that I agreed highly with. Africans need to tell their own stories and for their stories not to be told by a white man.  I agree with the ideas of Africa and the images of Africa should come from Africans, people who live in Africa and people who understand Africa. The notion of African stories being told by Africans, is one that many African literature writers and authors are fighting for, the freedom of Africans to tell their own stories. As someone who is in media, I believe that Africans need to run their own media, outside the influence of Western Media. The History of Africa needs to be documented by Africans and not people who studied Africa and Africa from America or from England.  

The fight for the black mans emancipation seems to be high on her agenda, although South Africa may call its self free and democratic, whom does this freedom and democracy really belong to and who does it benefit? “ We can not come to a place where democracy means the same to us”, this was a comment from the floor audience. The black man is still a slave to the Western institutions, Africa has lost its identity in the quest of becoming Westernised, what is wrong with solving African problems the African way? Mandela and the ANC were able to bring peace to a nation torn into two by hatred and violence on the bases of culture differences and racial differences, by using the African values, through Ubuntu and talking things out as the elders of the ANC and of the elders in the fight for freedom in Africa. 

My opinion about Maliaka is that she is radical, but she is radical because maybe for her, the only way to achieve her goals may be through radical action and proving speech, she needs to get attention for action. I may not fully agree with everything she says, but I agree with the idea of freedom for Africans, not just black, whom she sees as the biggest victims of the Western worlds regime over Africa. In my view she seemed to forget that Africa is not made of only white and black, but rather coloureds and Indians as well, that too have been forgotten by the system, by the institutions that run our country.
Malaika seemed to defend and almost justify black on black hatred and violence (tribalism), but white on black was unjustifiable and black on white, well she feels that “black people can not be racist”, but rather they are justified to hate the white man. I personally disagree, but that is what she is calling for, young black people who will critically analyse and have something to say.  
We will not agree on everything, but I do agree that Africans needs to be set free and own their own land.


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