The Tales of a Young Radical Part II

REVOLUTION MEANS REVELATION, THE SOLUTION IS EDUCATION

 

Solution

The solution was not going to be anger and hatred of those people that continue to enslave our minds, bodies, hearts and spirits. These people are not only white, they are also black; the black people locked up in the middle class complex, locked in fake tolerance, capitalism and crazy westernisation. Anger and hatred would not be the best solution. The solution had to be mental, spiritual, emotional and then physical. Although many may think that physical independence from the colonials or oppressors was enough, this is not the case.

Physical independence is the least important part of liberation. Physical independence means nothing if you cannot get respect, food, education and housing with it. However, it may be a good place to start. The solution has to have a greater impact. It has to inspire Black people to believe in themselves, to use their GOD given talents and blessing, to love themselves and each other. The solution has to touch Black spirits. The solution cannot be done half-heartedly, it cannot be done quickly, it cannot lie to people, it cannot allow for further oppression of Black people and it cannot be a failed western concept. It has to be by Black people for Black people.

I think the solution lies in education.

Education 

Education is not what you get after 15 to 20 years of attending schools and universities. What is earned at these places is training for some sort of occupation, which will help you be self-sustaining for the rest of your life. It’s a very physical, specialised experience for physical survival. From what I have seen and experienced, training does not liberate your mind or your spirit. What I have been trained to do does not seem to provide the solution. If it did provide the solution, I should think Africa and Black people should have some solutions for the multiple crippling problems they face on a daily basis. It seems to me that the solution does not lie in our training. Not to take anything away from our training, it helps especially if the training encourages thought.

Unfortunately, the so-called elite tertiary institutions in Africa do not seem to encourage thought. Africans are taught to be employees and workers and not to be employers and builders. This I think stems from our colonial heritage and the Box of Blackness. Black people are being taught to catch up with the West or white people, so as to have a chance of salvaging something to hold on to, something to call our own, something to make us acceptable to the world and ourselves. So this training maybe working against us, that is for Africans. Those getting tertiary education in the US may be having a better experience. From most of the Black Americans that I have met, they are being educated and they are educating themselves.

 Education is not only found in classrooms, it is found in life experiences, in conversations, books, poems and life stories. It is these experiences that may have led Biko to write his thoughts down for us. Biko was educated and he was an educator. He was educated enough to know that Black people needed to free their minds, hearts, souls and spirits for them to live better. Education for him was talking about a broad based solution; the solution was to believe in oneself, to believe in one’s God given gifts and to believe that God did not make a mistake when He made Black people!

In 2002 I began my process of education, I begun to learn about me, learn about the revolution within me, learn about bringing the revolution outside of me, learning to forgive those that colonised my people, oppressed my people, sold Black people out, learning to love myself and my people. Education I have realised is a continuous process and it does not end with a piece of paper stating qualifications. It is a life experience and it can be found anywhere. It can found in conversations, in thoughts, in friendships, in disagreements, im pain, in sorrow, in fear and in peace.

REVOLUTION MEANS REVELATION, THE SOLUTION IS EDUCATION!

By Simbarashe Mabasha/@Simbarashe75

The Tales of a Young Radical Part I- Simbarashe Mabasha

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 20^th 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

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.

 

Revelation

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…

By Simbarashe Mabasha/@Simbarashe75

Global Unites

#GUSummit #GlobalUnites  #BecauseYouthCan