Run-away Triumphalism

With due respect to all those who sacrificed so much for equality, democracy and non-racialism…

C4L has become a staunch proponent of Constitutionalism, not just from watching current events, but from its first-hand experience of losses and damages at the hands of Triumphalists in 2012.  Those events are now reaching both the criminal and civil courts, two years later.  It could take another 2 years to wrestle the perpetrators to the ground, so to speak.  This reminded is stated first just so that what follows is not seen as detached arm-chair intrusion.  We want triumphalism to be brought under control, for it has been running amuk for far too long.

Today the United States ambassador has raised diplomatic objections to comments made by the vice-minister of defense, not just implying but stating that the Public Protector Thuli Madonsela is a CIA agent.  The ambassador, an African American, is right that South Africans can see through smoke screens and are not likely to believe such a fairy tale.

What the vice-minister said at a public event on Saturday is: “We can't allow people to hijack the ANC. We'll fight and defend the African National Congress. uThuliumele asitshele ukuthi ubani ihandler yakhe [Thuli must tell us who her handler is].”  He reportedly went on to say: "They are even using our institution now.... These Chapter Nine institutions were created by the ANC but are now being used against us, and if you ask why it is the Central Intelligence Agency. Ama [the] Americans want their own CEO in South Africa and we must not allow that.”

Madonsela has already taking appropriate action.  The short statement issued by her office says: “The public protector has decided not to fully comment for now, except to say that a letter is being prepared to ask Mr Kebby Maphatsoe to retract his accusation in 72 hours and apologise or provide incontrovertible evidence on his accusations.  Failing which, the public protector will be left with no choice but to invoke contempt of the public protector powers. The letter has already been sent.”

The Act that created Madonsela’s office makes provision for criminal charges of contempt to be brought for any insult to her or her deputy, or for actions that inhibit her ability to conduct investigations, with jail time or a fine stipulated as punishment. Madonsela has never invoked those powers, saying she prefers not to take matters of her office to the courts.

All the opposition parties have also protested. 

Now some of you know that I concur with Professor Sampie Terreblanche, who has been a Poverty-watcher for decades.  In his book Lost in Transformation, he tracks the linkages between the end of the Cold War and the end of Apartheid.  He makes a convincing case to say that Mandela’s government really had little choice but to accept the path of capitalism, but that in doing so, it took a wrong turn.  The benefits have been felt by only a minority of black people, while the majority have not enjoyed a “democracy dividend”.

He explains how the balance of the Cold War was replaced by a world with one super-power.  He tracks the march of capitalism into Africa and in particular South Africa, its legacy being the triple conundrum of poverty, inequality and unemployment.  Frankly, I can buy into all that he argues, in terms of American hegemony and the rich getting richer while the gap widens between rich and poor – without becoming anti-American.  In fact, this path of capitalism was brought to you by the ANC!

So the vice-minister’s attack is not on America or the CIA, it is a direct hit on the office of Public Protector.  In other words, he is attacking the Constitution.

This is the clearest example yet that I have seen of Triumphalism.

C4L has lived with the same attitudes for a decade:

·         We voiced protest over the delays in rolling out ARVs, only to find our attempts to raise funds to build ARV clinics blocked by SANAC at the Global Fund (Round 5).  At the time, the chair of SA’s country coordinating mechanism was Jacob Zuma

·         We raised concerns about what we called the “Epiphany murders”.  Soon the media was calling the “January murders”.  When the 17^th young leader in 12 years was shot in 2011, C4L organized a poster campaign.  The slogan was simple – 17 reasons to demand transparency.  No government funding has landed at C4L since, even in cases where we have won tenders

·         In October 2011 there was a national “whistle blowing week”, the first and the last.  Convinced that whistle blowing is a virtue in a open society that champions transparency, C4L confronted government over tender irregularities related to the Community Work programme in 2012.  The response was harsh – marginalization of C4L from the CWP

Fortunately now we have a visible triumphalist singing from this same ANC song sheet at the highest levels, in full view.  To him, his party is more important than the Constitution, because of a logic that says, the Constitution was brought to you by the ANC.

To this triumphalist’s way of thinking, Chapter 9 institutions are not for the rule of law but rather to validate the party line.  It is a one-party-state way of thinking.  Not an open society.

He wants Thuli Madonsela to be punished.  Whereas the Opposition parties, and also the ANC’s allies in the ruling alliance – COSATU and the SACP – have all come out in support of Thuli Madonsela standing up to Jacob Zuma over Inkandla.

To the Triumphalist, a government is subordinate to “the party” and the checks-and-balances of Democracy are an inconvenience.  Opposition parties are enemies and any individual or NGO that questions party policies is reactionary.  Innovative thinkers like the EFF are traitors.  The best antidote to this pseudo-democratic way of thinking was expressed today by the Council of Churches:

"It is with deep dismay that we have observed the responses of the president and the African National Congress to the report of the public protector on the Nkandla project, and the degeneration of these responses to a personal level."

"We express our unwavering support for the office of the public protector... and applaud her courage and her integrity."

"We urge those whom we supported in the days of the struggle against the evil monster of apartheid to not disappoint us now and take us into their version of a 'monster state' in which all are afraid to speak their mind and undertake their tasks with courage and integrity."

"Respect the office of the public protector and the person appointed to maintain our integrity as a nation, and deal with those who do not."

God bless Thuli Madonsela and may God protect our Protector!

Three Key Themes Revisited

Earlier this year, C4L launched three blogsites, on three themes that seemed distinct, important, and recurrent in our bulletins and prayer letters over 7 years.  The trilogy includes:

1. Altruism, philanthropy and missions
2. Leadership (which frequently raises related questions around non-racialism)
3. Youth

Well, today’s Sunday Independent just made it too easy for me!  I simply cannot resist sharing with you some tasty and nourishing morsels from it…

On Leadership                                                                       www.trilogy-leaders.blogspot.com

Young Msusi Maimane is the new parliamentary leader of the Loyal Opposition.  He wrote a public response to comments about him, that an ANC stalwart was forced to retract in parliament.  Here are some excerpts:

Sisulu commented that I was nothing more than a “hired native” or “black commodity” who was in Parliament to do “someone else’s bidding”.  These attacks are in line with the ANC’s narrative of racial mobilization and an abandonment of former president Nelson Mandela’s project of non-racialism.

Here I am: a young, black South African who grew up in Dobsonville, Soweto, surrounded by the struggle.  In many ways, my life is also a model of everything that the ANC fought for – except one: I am the parliamentary leader of the Democratic Alliance.

The comments made by Sisulu espouse the same attitudes as the former NP (Editorial note: the ruling party during the apartheid era).  It is an attitude that as a free black South African, I owe everything – my background, my education, my freedom – to the ANC.  Therefore, my politics must also be aligned to the ANC.  That is not freedom.  True freedom means that I am free to choose either the ANC or the DA.

My personal choices are not a betrayal of the freedoms which the ANC fought for, but rather the exercising of those freedoms.

Black & White, Rich & Poor

South Africa has historically been divided by race.  The term “rainbow nation” was coined to capture the need for reconciliation and “managing diversity”.  But this is changing, as power and wealth are moving slowly but surely into the hands of the “historically disadvantaged” – and with a rising number of poor whites.  Twenty years after the advent of Democracy, a kind of class system is emerging.  On this note I quote at length an excerpt from a recent article by Yacoob Abba Omar, called Rebuilding the soul of the nation:

“One of the government’s seminal documents, issued by the Presidency earlier this year, titled “Twenty Year Review 1994-2014”, notes there are “varying views about the transparency of the amnesty process, the adequacy of the reparations and the completeness of investigations and prosecutions, as well as the overall impact of the TRC in forging reconciliation”.

“This sense of unfinished business is what pervades a recently concluded Mapungubwe Institute research into Nation Formation and Social Cohesion, due to be released in July. It will also impact on the government’s attempts to rebuild the soul of the nation.

“The Twenty Year Review also talks of the need to address moral decay in society and the need to instil positive values. As long as Zuma remains convinced that he has done no wrong as far as Nkandla is concerned, and in the enrichment of his close family, and the many other things he has been accused of, he will make feisty calls for the level of morality to improve in South Africa.

“Ethics in the public service is but the tip of the iceberg when it comes to addressing the soul of the South African nation.

“The Mapungubwe Institute has tabled a proposal to government departments and parts of big business that what we need is a broader, deeper, multi-layered and multi-faceted interrogation of the ethical foundations of the South African nation.

“Such an interrogation must cover politics, business and the government, but also extend to the family, civil society and faith-based organisations, as well as the role of education, sports, entertainment and the media, in shaping the ethical foundation of our nation.

“It will have to address the scourge of crime in every form – domestic, white collar, violent, sexual, petty – which has come to touch every South African.”

I second the emotion!

But how?

Personally I think the seminal phrase in the quote above is “shaping the ethical foundation of our nation”.  Who is doing that?

Surely the churches, mosques and temples are contributing.  But has anyone ever studied the moral and ethical values espoused on the soapies like Scandal, Isidingo, Generation, and 4 de Lann?  South Africans, women in particular, collectively, must spend a lot more time every week in front of the “boob tube” than in a church pew.

In everyday life, work places should be ruled by the King Code on Corporate Governance.  Mervyn King has always included a section in that code on Ethics.  Companies are encouraged to adopt a code of conduct, deriving from an internal, intentional set of core values.  The King Code basically promotes the Golden Rule – do unto others as you would have them do unto you.

It’s a good start, but so many concerns have been expressed globally about the lack of morality of corporations, which don’t have souls.  They exist to make a profit and their directors are bound (by law) to do what is best for their company, that is - for its bottom line.  So the extent to which that profit motive can be balanced by having a double bottom line (financial and social) or even foster a just and developmental corporate culture can be questioned.

One nonprofit in South Africa is tackling this challenge head on.  It is called Unashamedly Ethical, and C4L is a member.  Check out its URL on that name.  It is a good effort.

On President Zuma’s state visit to the UK, the press really roasted him, in particular for polygamy.  In his sixties, he had just fathered a “love child” with a young lady in her twenties.  His reply was cryptic - that we need to hold a Morality Summit.

Yes, I agree.  I echo his thought that we do not even ask the right questions, to say nothing of not having the right answers.

Three Bible stories come to mind.  First the parable told by Nathan the prophet when he confronted King David.  The way the rich and powerful treat the poor and unemployed needs to be exposed.  Second, the parable of Jesus about separating the sheep and the goats.  Clearly, each groups had a distinct ethical foundation.  It was those who expressed their faith by sharing, by engaging with the poor, who were welcomed into the Kingdom.  Finally, the parable of the rich man and the beggar Lazarus.  Guess who ended up in heaven?

One can connect the dots between the Reconciliation emphasis of 20 years ago with the Redistribution emphasis of today.  Not just in South Africa, but in the church, globally.  In one denomination, the Pope is making some good noises about this theme of Inequality.

This week I saw a movie called Heaven is for Real.  Have you seen it?  I really resonated with the Pastor in that movie - whose son gets to go to heaven and come back.  He saw naked truth in his son’s frank honesty and simplicity, he was just too young to be complicated or manipulative.  But his grappling with that issue really divided his flock.

That is where I find myself.  I say repeatedly what I think is clear, obvious and scriptural.  Yet some are skeptical and uncomfortable, and I find myself alienated from some genuine believers.  I can only quote David Bosch, the great South Africa theologian: “Christianity that doesn’t begin with the individual, doesn’t begin; but Christianity that ends with the individual, ends.”  On this ethical foundation let us rebuild the soul of the nation.

Any options Left for South Africa?

For some time, fledgling parties on the political map have been centrist.  After all, even the South African Communist Party is ensconced in the ruling alliance that is brought to you by Neoliberalism.  Some of the ANC’s top cadres are from the SACP, which many believe would not fare well if it contested an election on is own.  These ministers live in the same “fat cat” fashion that the ANC is known for – saying one thing about lifestyle audits and doing another (rather like Breshnev in the heyday of scientific socialism).

Then there are the trade unionists.  They are said to be toying with the idea of forming a Labour Party for the next election, but again, they have been ensconced in the ruling alliance.  Until recently when some principled unionists have raised the question whether they belong in a ruling alliance that espouses Neoliberalism.

Few are their voices – those diehard Leftists like Tony Benn of the UK, who died recently.  He is remembered as “champion of the powerless.  The British PM said: He was a magnificent writer, speaker, diarist and campaigner, with a strong record of public and political service.”

Labour Party leader Ed Miliband said: “Tony Benn spoke his mind and spoke up for his values.  Whether you agreed with him or disagreed with him, everyone knew where he stood and what he stood for.  For someone of such strong views, often at odds with his party, he won respect from across the political spectrum.  This was because of his unshakable beliefs and his abiding determination that power and the powerful should be held to account.”

This sounds a bit little like the trade unionist leader Vavi, who declined to be listed in the national executive council of the ANC.  But such principled leaders are rare.  Tony Benn was elected to the House of Commons at 25, but his parliamentary career seemed to come to an abrupt end in 1961 when his father died.  As the new Viscount Stansgate, he was barred from the Commons so that he could take up membership in the unelected upper House of Lords.  For three years he battled to change the law to allow hereditary peers to renounce their titles.  Voters in his parliamentary district of Bristol West elected him once more, even though he couldn’t take his seat in the Commons.  In 1963, the bill passed, and the Times of London declared, “Lord Stansgate will be Mr. Benn today.”

Benn favoured abolition of the monarchy, British withdrawal from the European Union, and any strike that was going, hadn’t changed.  His image evolved from a demonized figure in the 70s and 80s to that often-treasured English archetype: the radical dissenter.  Tony Benn renounced his aristocratic title rather than leave the House of Commons.

Enter the radical dissenter

While the parallels with principled Leftists are few among those running the incumbent alliance, a wave of populism is rising behind a new party called the Economic Freedom Fighters.  They are led by a firebrand young leader called Julius Malema.  There are some amazing parallels between him and Canada’s Tommy Douglas, who was regarded by many as its most influential citizen ever.  He formed the first social democratic government ever in North America - the CCF stood for Co-operative Commonwealth Federation.  It promoted co-op models - from agriculture to banking.  The CCF party went on to win five consecutive provincial elections in Saskatchewan. 

His roots were in the church – his career, which started as a Baptist minister, coincided with the beginning of the Great Depression.  At that time, farming had not mechanized to the extent that it has since, so Saskatchewan was the third most populous province in Canada (900 000 people in 1930).  It was populated by farmers from all around the world, who had converged on the Canadian prairies following the launch of Durham wheat in the 1890s - which could be grown at such northern latitudes.

As a man of the cloth during that era, he was no stranger to humanitarian assistance.  He spent a lot of his time working with youth and the unemployed.  As a pastor he wanted to fight for social justice as well, but his church forced him to choose between running for public office and the ministry.  So he decided to run in his Weyburn riding for a new party called the CCF - in national elections.  He was elected by his riding and cut his teeth in politics as an MP representing his constituency in the national capital, Ottawa.

Some amazing parallels with Julius Malema begin here. Both entered politics as youth.  In fact, Malema was the leader of the ANC youth league and still has solid support from his core constituency – youth.  However, like Douglas, his elders/bosses ran him out of the organization that he loved – so he decided to run for office on the merits of his own track record and convictions.  His is the youngest of all party leaders, and by far the best speaker.

The EFF party was launched, symbolically, in Marikana.  This is another striking parallel (pun intended).  For it was the hostility towards miners of the police collaborating with mine owners – during a strike at Estavan, Saskatchewan – that had shook Douglas out of his complacency and comfort as a church leader, into the political arena.

When the CCF later decided to run a full slate of candidates in the provincial elections, Douglas decided to resign as a national MP and lead the party in his province.  He ran on a platform of “public ownership”.  This in not unlike the Economic Freedom Fighters, whose manifesto includes nationalizing some mines, and expropriating some farms.  Thus its critics dubbed the CCF “Communize Canada through Fear”.  Douglas responded that it rather stood for “Children Come First”.

His detractors tried to label him a Bolshevik, a Communist, and so forth.  (One has to remember that the great excesses of Lenin had not yet come to light in the 1930s and Stalin had just come to power.)  But he was not an ideologue - he was basically a kind, honest, forward-looking chap… a straight-ahead guy.  He did not finish high school before entering an apprenticeship in the printing trade.  But he completed his studies in order to enter seminary, where he merged the evangelical and social gospels.

Is Malema a Marxist? or a populist?  If by “populist” one means a politician who listens to people’s grievances and builds their platform based on that, then the parallels with the CCF continue.  Douglas called it “a struggle for economic democracy”.  The EFF says that South Africa has gained political independence but not economic freedom.  This is reminiscent of Douglas’s famous fable about Mouseland.  The mice kept electing a government of “fat black cats”… when they could no longer bear it, they voted in a government – of white cats!  (The order should be reversed when Malema’s re-tells the story!)  Until finally one brave mouse came up with a radical new idea – why not form a government composed of mice?  For which he is locked up by the cats.  This parable concludes that while both mice and men can be locked up – you can’t lock up an idea.

This is very significant for both Douglas and Malema.  The CCF government introduced agricultural cooperatives, credit unions, car insurance, minimum wage, paid holidays, unemployment insurance into Saskatchewan’s economy.  Not to mention education for all and Medicare as part of its social security system.  Quite frankly, while “scientific socialism” collapsed a few decades later, CCF ideas have become the gold standard of modern democracies.    

Douglas never lost a provincial election.  After five consecutive victories and the introduction of his flagship Medicare, he decided to move back into national politics.  He became the first leader of the NDP – formed by merging the CCF (stronger in the west) with the Labour movement (stronger in the east).  The same thing is now in gestation in South Africa.  About half of COSATU’s members have already started withholding their dues from the ANC, and given notice of departure.  That is distinct from the emergence of the EFF, and more ideological.  Malema is leading a populist movement that is grievence-driven.  Why not?  South Africa is passing through tough times of high unemployment not unlike the “dirty thirties” in Canada.  This creates conditions for the mice to ask: why do we keep voting in governments composed of fat cats?!

The NDP has never won a national election in Canada, though.  Today it does form the official Opposition (second place) and it has formed governments in several provinces.  In various minority-government scenarios, it has held the balance of power and used that to further people-centred causes.  For example, Medicare went national under Lester Pearson while Douglas was leading the NDP, holding the balance of power in Parliament.  You can’t lock up an idea.

The consecutive CCF governments in Saskatchewan were fiscally sound and eventually eradicated a heavy provincial debt that was inherited from the previous Liberals.  There is no reason to suppose that the EFF cannot find creative solutions to gain more economic equality while at the same time being fiscally responsible.  The two are not mutually exclusive.  Douglas proved that to posterity.  Yes it could mean increasing taxation, nationalizing some mines or expropriating some farms.  Ultimately, the greater good must prevail.  There is no need to completely abandon capitalism in exchange for socialism.  Home-grown solutions in a mixed economy can work just fine.  Nkrume said that Africa does not need to look to the East, or to the West – it needs to look ahead.

One great leap forward would be to reduce waste and corruption.  Nkandla has become an emblem in this respect.  As premier of Saskatchewan, the official car that Douglas used was a Dodge.  He did not use a Cadillac.  When asked what epitaph he would like on his gravestone, Douglas replied: “He loved people”.  You cannot steal from people you love, or cheat them.  Nor can you waste what belongs to them.  He once summed up his credo by saying that what matters most is how we look out for each other, not how we look out for ourselves.  This sounds very much like ubuntu.  Neither Nkandla nor Marikana give the impression that the ANC loves the people.  Malema is their new champion… in the footsteps of Tommy Douglas.

Malema was recently asked about his own “fat cat” lifestyle as leader of the ANCYL.  He credibly answered that he had simply adopted the culture of the ANC.  He added that the EFF abides by different guidelines and he now accepts that a bling lifestyle is inconsistent with the EFF’s pillars and goals.  The CCF also made mistakes.  Some of its experiments did not succeed.  When he entered the fray of national politics, Douglas did not even always win in his own riding.  Similarly, Malema may have to sit out a season in the EFF office, not in parliament, for legal reasons.  He is young enough to absorb this - even if it is caused by government manipulation - and not too old to learn and change if it is not.  Douglas was bitter the first time he lost in a riding, as that was new to him.  But he got past it and moved on.  You can lock up a mouse, and a man – but you can’t lock up an idea.  Julius Malema is the only real contender on the Left in the 2014 election.

Happy 90th Birthday!

My late mother said that my father had two loves – Medicine and Missions.  In the language of Economics this might be for-profit and nonprofit – although both are service.  Maybe some doctors are in it only for the bucks?  But it can be a career of humanitarian service – as the Order of Canada awarded to my Dad attests.  Perhaps the vignette that captures this best is that of a young graduate of medical school departing for the mission field in 1950?  I was born a year later, in Belgian Congo.  So I know whereof I speak!

Dad’s grandfather had gone to China as a missionary – with a guy called Hudson Taylor.  In those days you left your wife and children behind – one of the sacrifices of mission work.  So his son, my grandfather, became a Child Head of Household – to use the language of the AIDS pandemic.  Yet when great grandfather returned from China, he used to pray every day, living in Toronto, that his progeny would become missionaries.

He had immigrated to Canada from Ireland.  This Irish Catholic lad was converted to Protestantism at the Yonge Street Mission.  Did he know about the great Irish missionaries of the Dark Ages, I wonder now?  They were called the Peregrini.  Like St. Columba going to Iona in Scotland.  Others went to England, Holland, and as deep into Europe at St. Gaul.  Unlike the missionaries of Hudson Taylor’s ilk, these guys left home for good.  They basically emigrated as we would say today.  But they were very well resourced, as they were from the aristocracy.  This is ironic – they were well off, but they chose to serve… overseas.

These were the days when the candle of Christianity in Europe was burning low, barely flickering.  But centuries earlier a European called Patrick had gone and converted the Irish.  So it was their turn to return the favour, in the ebb and flow of missions.  Similarly, missionaries from Africa are now refreshing American and British Christianity.

In yesterday’s Toronto Star there is an article about a British socialist – Tony Benn – who dies recently.  It says that he will be remembered as “champion of the powerless”.  Bear in mind the double entendre in quoting the following four paragraphs:

“Prime Minister David Cameron said: “He was a magnificent writer, speaker, diarist and campaigner, with a strong record of public and political service.”

Labour Party leader Ed Miliband said: “Tony Benn spoke his mind and spoke up for his values.  Whether you agreed with him or disagreed with him, everyone knew where he stood and what he stood for.  For someone of such strong views, often at odds with his party, he won respect from across the political spectrum.  This was because of his unshakable beliefs and his abiding determination that power and the powerful should be held to account.”

“He was elected to the House of Commons at 25, but his parliamentary career seemed to come to an abrupt end in 1961 when his father died.  As the new Viscount Stansgate, he was barred from the Commons so that he could take up membership in the unelected upper House of Lords.  For three years he battled to change the law to allow hereditary peers to renounce their titles.  Voters in his parliamentary district of Bristol West elected him once more, even though he couldn’t take his seat in the Commons.  In 1963, the bill passed, and the Times of London declared, “Lord Stansgate will be Mr. Benn today.”

“Benn, who favoured abolition of the monarchy, British withdrawal from the European Union, and any strike that was going, hadn’t changed.  But his image did.  He was over time transformed from the demonized figure of the 70s and 80s to that often-treasured English archetype: the radical dissenter.”

Is it hard to call a celebrated humanitarian missionary doctor a “radical dissenter”?  Well I am thinking of his values.  Going off to Africa in 1950 as a missionary did not exactly make you a card-carrying member of the Establishment!  His own parents had mixed feelings about it, after all the sacrifices they had made to get him the best education available at the time, and after my grandfather’s challenges as a Child Head of Household.

Tony Benn renounced his aristocratic title rather than leave the House of Commons.  A lot of people said he was crazy.

Thank you, Dad, for being a non-conformist when your values demanded it of you.  Thanks for being a radical among Medicine Men.  Thanks for being a dissenter when it comes to the worship of Mammon.  Thanks for renouncing your perceived right to opulence in favour of professional and public service.

My mother remarked how lucky he was – to have two children… one a nurse married to a doctor, and the other a missionary.  Both are modes of service. 

And thank you, Father in heaven, that the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.  We have seen his glory, full of grace and truth.  He was in the world, which was made through him, but he was unrecognized.  Perhaps because he was a radical dissenter?  He also championed the poor and was a missionary from afar – our role-model of service.

Recollections

All day today, all 4 South Africa channels (SABC 1, 2, 3 and eTV) have been running non-stop coverage of one story.  There is grief, but it is more a time of deliberation and introspection.  What can be done to honour Madiba's legacy?

I spent 7 years in the 1980s working in what were called the "frontline states" (Angola, Zimbabwe and Mozambique).  I got to know the gridlock well - the proxy wars in Angola and Mozambique and the iron rod of the apartheid regime in South Africa.  Those were tense times.  I travelled with 2 passports - one to use entering and leaving South Africa only, and the other for everywhere else.

Then I moved to Winnipeg for 3 years from 1988 to 1991.  It was during this period that the Berlin Wall was torn down.  That was the delayed end of the Cold War and the beginning of the New World Order.  It was clear that the democratization of Africa would spell some major changes for what we used to call "the racist republic".  One only got glimpses of what has come to light since - that Mandela had been moved off Robben Island although still a prisoner.  And that Oliver Tambo had deployed Govan Mbeki's son Thabo as a negotiator in secret meetings held in London (try to see the BBC movie about this called End Game).

During these years in Winnipeg I walked to work every morning, intentionally.  I walked with God.  I used that hour to say my daily prayers.  So I can honestly say that for years, I prayed every day that Nelson Mandela would be released.  It was symbolic.  The Mandela "branding" of course was an intentional ANC strategy and it sure worked on me.

On Sundays at St Aidan's Anglican church, there was always a time of extemporaneous prayer.  I often prayed for Mandela out loud.  People would sometimes ask me in the foyer after church, who is that guy I prayed for?  A new refugee arriving?  A sick friend?  An international student?  No, I would reply, he was gonna be the President of South Africa someday... but like Joseph, another young man who once languished in an African jail, his ability to interpret and envisage had not yet been unleashed... 

When it finally was, it was remarkable.  He literally tripped the light fantastic!  Another movie Invictus captures how he ruled as President.

That brings me to the latest movie A Long Walk to Freedom.  It's worth seeing.  Especially now during this period of deliberation and introspection.  I know the story very well so I found it "rushed"; they had so much to cover in a mere 2.5 hours.  But they got it right.  Especially the tragic sub-plot about Winnie.

One thing really resonated with me.  Mandela was moved with Walter Sisulu and some other political prisoners to Pollsmoor prison, in Capetown.  Later, he was moved into a house surrounded with a security fence, where he was still under surveillance 24/7.  Still a prisoner, but now isolated from his ANC comrades.  In one scene, they objected to this, imploring him not to try negotiating on his own.  They said it is not the ANC's way of doing business.  In the movie he gets up and says that he has no choice - he is a prisoner - so as a leader he will go ahead and lead.  The movie is graphic.  This is a turning point.  Almost all scenes up to this one involve his comrades or family.  From that scene on, he is usually in the company of whites, albeit still in prison/house at first, negotiating with Boer government officials a way to end apartheid and democratize.

I was greatly encouraged by this example.  For in the past year I have also been isolated.  My opponents have tried to use my isolation against me, to make me look weak or outnumbered.  I am consious of it, bu I too came to that point of saying, well a leader has to go ahead and lead the way.  It has been scary at times, risky, and one senses the distance from comrades and family.  But one has to engage for the sake of your good cause.

This leads me to another request for prayer... as I negotiate with people far more powerful than myself, from a position of relative weakness, still a prisoner of isolation, but all the while holding the high moral ground.  Pray that I can emerge from this period soon, to put it behind me and move beyond it into deeper engagement with those I came to serve.

In Word and Deed

One observer offered the following 19 reasons why he felt that Pope Francis I deserves the accolade as Man of the Year.  I have left the 11 things he did in normal font, and put in red italics things he said to bring his influence to bear on Change.  (This sometimes called public engagement or advocacy.)

1. He spoke out against frivolous spending by the Church

2. He invited a boy with Downs Syndrome for a ride in the Popemobile

3. He embraced and kissed a man badly scarred by a genetic skin disease

4. He denounced the judgment of homosexuals

5. He held a major ceremony at the chapel of a youth prison, and washed their feet

6. He urged the protection of the Amazon Rainforest

7. He personally called and consoled a victim of rape

8. He snuck out of the Vatican to feed the homeless

9. He auctioned his motorcycle to benefit the homeless

10. He acknowledged that atheists can be good people

11. He condemned the global financial system

12. He fought child abuse

13. He condemned the violence of the Syrian civil war

14. He redirected employee bonuses to charity

15. He spoke out against the Church’s ‘obsession’ with abortion, gay marriage and contraception

16. He called for cooperation between Christians and Muslims

17. He took part in a selfie

18. He invited homeless men to his birthday meal

19. He refused to send away a child who had run on stage to hug him

Our deeds or actions validate our words.  The reverse is also true.  That is, when leaders actually steal from the public purse, or waste resources, or think of their own benefits first with little regard for the plight of those who elected them, then no one listens to them. Thousands of years ago, Lao Tzu put it this way:

“A leader is best when people barely know that he exists.  Not so good when people obey and acclaim him, worse when they despise him.  Fail to honour people, they fail to honour you; but of a good leader, who talks little, when his work is done, his aim fulfilled, they will all say, ‘We did this ourselves’.”

It’s bad when a President says he likes it when women prostrate themselves before him.  Worse yet when people despise him for being too top-down and centralizing.

Burkina Faso

In the language of the old Upper Volta, these words mean: “Land of upright men”.  The country was re-named this by Africa’s Che Guevara, a young leader called Thomas Sankara.

This highlights his idealism.  He was also creative… an accomplished guitarist, he also wrote Burkina Faso’s new national anthem.  He said a week before he was assassinated: "While revolutionaries as individuals can be murdered, you cannot kill ideas."  He was right.  His actions were stopped, but his ideas, idealism, creativity and innovation live on.

He was a military man, so when a military government was formed in Upper Volta in 1981, Sankara got his first taste of governance - as Secretary of State for Information.  He rode to his first cabinet meeting on a bicycle!  But he resigned the next year when he perceived the regime's anti-labour drift. 

These were turbulent times with various failed and successful coups, but two years later, Sankara became President at the age of 33.  The ideology of his Revolution was defined as anti-imperialist. He spoke in forums like the Oranization for African Unity against what he described as neo-colonialist penetration of Africa through Western trade and finance.  He called for a united front of African nations to repudiate their foreign debt.

Here are some of the actions that validated his words and ideas for Change.  They merit recollection (from Wikipedia):

• He refused to use the air conditioning in his office on the grounds that such luxury was not available to anyone but a handful
• As President, he lowered his salary to $450 a month and limited his possessions to a car, four bikes, three guitars, a fridge and a broken freezer
• A motorcyclist himself, he formed an all-women motorcycle personal guard
• He was known for jogging unaccompanied through the capital in his track suit and posing in his tailored military fatigues
• When asked why he didn't want his portrait hung in public places, as was the norm for other African leaders, he replied "There are seven million Thomas Sankaras"
• He sold off the government fleet of Mercedes cars and made the Renault (the cheapest car sold in Burkina Faso at that time) the official service car of the ministers
• He reduced the salaries of well-off public servants, including his own, and forbade the use of government chauffeurs and 1st class airline tickets
• He forced well-off civil servants to pay one month's salary to public projects
• He required public servants to wear a traditional tunic, woven from Burkinabe cotton and sewn by Burkinabe craftsmen
• In Ouagadougou, Sankara converted the army's provisioning store into a state-owned supermarket open to everyone (the first supermarket in the country)
• He redistributed land from the feudal landlords to the peasants. Wheat production increased from 1700 kg per hectare to 3800 kg per hectare
• His government banned female genital mutilation, forced marriages and polygamy; while appointing females to high governmental positions and encouraging them to work outside the home and stay in school even if pregnant

South Africa is experiencing some political earthquakes.  The tectonic plates are shifting, causing a future Labour Party to appear on the horizon.  Organized labour is restless, uncomfortable in the ruling alliance.  This is the second split – between Left and Neo-liberals.  Another split has already emerged – along age lines.  A new party called the Economic Freedom Fighters is the first one ever to be basically youth-led.

Sankara was consistent.  How can you expect the working class and largely unemployed youth both to support a government that has gone mad in terms of waste and graft? 

How can a government that ignores Corruption and spends billions that it can’t give account for (according to the Auditor General) to be a force for Economic Emancipation?