Any movement is built
from within, from one’s heart and one’s experiences. I have had the honour of
being part of a few movements be it in my university days as a member of
various student bodies, to my time in Church movements trying to understand
faith in a post-colonial Africa.
Global Unites is a
movement that is building other movements that will change the world. My first
foray into the Global Unites blog is a two-part piece that captures some of
thoughts and passions as a young radical trying to make sense of the movement I
was trying to build in my mind. It was written 11 years ago and it illustrates
some of my formative thinking on big socio-political, socioeconomic and
cultural matters. I hope it sheds some light for the young movement builder who
is trying to make heads or tails of the experiences and circumstances that
inspire the desire to champion change, not only within but change of one’s
community and society.
REVOLUTION MEANS REVELATION, THE SOLUTION IS EDUCATION.
Introduction
Revolution is what the African peoples did when
they rebelled against colonial and imperial oppression in the 20th
Century. Revolution is what Steve Bantu Biko wrote about, he wrote about the
revolution of mind through Black Consciousness. Revolution is an outward act of
the heart, mind, body, and spirit. It is an act of defiance erupting from
within oneself. However, revolution has taken on a strange twist, which has led
it to the proverbial dark side. Revolutions have died in peoples’ mind. Today
revolution inspires misconceptions, lies and selfishness.
Revolution for me started of when I realised that
I was Black and that, at the time was a bad thing. This truth continued to
confirm itself throughout my formative years. However, the revolution was underground;
it was embedded in my heart, mind, soul and spirit. So I had no idea it was
there. It was like lava that follows under volcanoes, waiting to erupt. It
finally erupted in 2002 when I addressed students at a Zimbabwe Society Forum
on the political situation in Zimbabwe at the University of Cape Town. The
revolution erupted in such a way that it left me picking up the pieces of lost
friendships, disillusioned by conservative views and a broken heart. I lost
both white and black friends, mostly white friends. I lost my conservative
views of society, which I thought would accept my honest and free expressions.
My heart broke when I realised that my life would not be the same ever again.
I had not anticipated the eruption. I was asked to
speak on Zimbabwe’s socio-economic and political situation from a university
student’s view. I ended up dividing the congregation on a colour lines when I
spoke of my socio-economic and political experiences in Zimbabwe. These
experiences were pretty much based on my colour, my black skin colour. People
judged me on my colour, white people looked down on me in many respects and
blacks put me in the Box of Blackness. The Box of Blackness in a subconscious
box that black people put each other in. It’s the box of poverty, pain,
self-hate, confusion and niggerisation. This is the box that was created by
blacks in direct acceptance of what white colonials drilled into their minds
during colonization. It is the most powerful colonial relic of our history as a
people. It is not visible like the slave forts in West Africa, like Robben
Island in South Africa or our colonial government, political, economic, and
social or language systems. The Box of Blackness is within us, it is deep in
our psyche. Some have managed to discover it but many do not know that it
exists. Biko discovered it and he tried to destroy it.
I was not equipped to handle to my discovery of
the box, the way people reacted to my speech and this left me in a dark and sad
place.
It was in this place of darkness and sadness that
I had my revelation. It was revealed to me by the Almighty GOD that the
revolution was an emotional, mental and spiritual action. It was not only about
speaking out, burning things or picking up guns. It was about emotional, mental
and spiritual liberation. This revelation was what I needed in this place of
darkness and sadness.
The picture of me was that of a young man who had
to embrace his blessings, his calling and his destiny. This young man was not
going to lead a normal life. He was not going to walk the road of a commercial
lawyer; he was not going to walk in a society of illusion and unrealness. I saw
that I was never going to the man I intended to be when I got to university. My
life was going to be about my people, black people in Africa and the Diaspora.
It was not going to be an easy life. I saw that I have to fight for my people,
my children and me. This fight was not going to be easy but it had to be done.
I was going to join those that had gone ahead of me and join those that are
picking up the fight now.
So I had to find a solution.
TO BE CONTINUED…
#GUSummit #GlobalUnites #BecauseYouthCan
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