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<div class="header reader-header reader-show-element"> <font
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href="http://roape.net/2018/09/12/understanding-steve-biko-race-class-and-struggle-in-south-africa/">http://roape.net/2018/09/12/understanding-steve-biko-race-class-and-struggle-in-south-africa/</a></font>
<h1 class="reader-title">Understanding Steve Biko: Race, Class
and Struggle in South Africa</h1>
<div class="credits reader-credits">by ROAPEadmin</div>
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<p><span><strong>On the anniversary of Steve Biko’s
murder, ROAPE’s Remi Adekoya speaks to South
African scholar and activist Mosa Phadi. Phadi
reflects on the legacy of Biko’s radical and
important thought, but also discusses how he did
not consider cohesive alternatives that could now
serve as a counter to neoliberal ideas. In a
wide-ranging interview Phadi also looks at the
political and economic crisis in South Africa, the
Economic Freedom Fighters, the failures of the ANC
and the possibilities of a solution in the
militancy and consciousness of working-class
struggle.</strong></span></p>
<p><span><strong>Remi Adekoya: Today is the anniversary
of Stephen Biko’s murder by apartheid state
security operatives. He has since become a hugely
symbolic rallying figure for many black people,
especially in Africa, but not only. What is your
take on Biko’s legacy today and how he is being
historically positioned? </strong></span></p>
<p><span><strong>Mosa Phadi:</strong> I have a problem
with how Stephen Biko is positioned by the likes of
Donald Woods, his friend and biographer, who
ascribes the whole philosophy of Black Consciousness
to Biko as if he emerged in a vacuum. His argument
is basically that at the time Biko emerged, the
Pan-African Congress (PAC) and the African National
Congress (ANC) were both banned organizations, and
so Biko’s arrival filled a void in the struggle for
black freedom.</span></p>
<p><span>However, if you think about the historical
context of that time, this was not the case. Biko
along with other students started the South African
Students’ Organization (SASO) movement in 1968. If
you think about 1968, this was a year of global
protests; you had the anti-Vietnam war protests,
huge civil rights demonstrations, student protests.
Also going back, there was the background of Ghana
becoming the first African country to gain
independence from colonial rule in 1957, an event
which bolstered other pro-independence movements
across the African continent. There was Julius
Nyerere in Tanzania talking about an ‘African
socialism’.</span></p>
<p><span>Prior to the 1960s even, there was the 1954
Women’s Charter in South Africa demanding equality
between men and women, there was the Women’s March
of 1956, the Sharpeville massacre in 1960, civil
disobedience during that period and many other
instances of struggle against oppression. So,
portraying the South African struggle as essentially
being fought by the PAC and the ANC, and thus once
these organizations were banned, there was some sort
of a lull in the fight against oppression and
apartheid is a false analysis.</span></p>
<p><span>Another underreported issue about Biko and the
era he came of age in is how caught up it was in the
unravelling contradictions of Stalinism and the
Soviet Union in general. Clearly, this was no longer
an alternative as many had imagined after WWII and
most black activists, including the Black Panthers
were thinking about stretching Marxism, using its
insights when it came to party organization, but
viewing the lumpen-proletariat in primarily racial
terms as Fanon did.</span></p>
<p><span>There are similarities between Biko and Stokely
Carmichael in terms of organizing students initially
using non-violent tactics but later becoming
militant and asserting blackness or ‘reclaiming
blackness’ as Stokely would call it. At the same
time Malcolm X was also in the picture, claiming
blackness as the oppressed but also as the
revolutionary agent. Workers were also organizing.</span></p>
<p><span>Acting as if nothing existed before, during or
after Biko is a failure in analysis. It is important
to emphasize that he emerged in a period when a
splintering of ideas and ideological eruptions were
occurring elsewhere and these in turn informed his
ideas. </span></p>
<p><span>Biko’s idea of Black Consciousness even though
original in the context for South Africa, was very
similar to Carmichael’s ideas. My point is that I am
critical of those who try to sanitize that history
by decontextualizing the progression of his
political ideas. </span></p>
<p><span>Having said all that, Biko was a very important
thinker whose ideas have been adopted by many
movements. His ideas of black consciousness were
important in focussing on what apartheid did to the
psyche of black people. He talked about reclaiming
blackness, but also put thought into how we as black
people in South Africa should relate to coloureds
and Indians as the oppressed. He emphasized that
while there was a hierarchy of racial oppression, we
all needed to approach the system as an oppressed
collective. </span></p>
<p><span>Black consciousness is an idea that works best
in a racist white-supremacy capitalist setting.
However, its interpretation today is very
neo-liberal. You hear talk of ‘black excellence’ for
instance, there’s nothing wrong with that per se,
but it is a concept tied to a neo-liberal framing
that focuses on the individual. Such an approach
will not help break with the system, but rather
perpetuates inequalities, as capital by nature
produces these inequalities. If you view yourself as
an individual focused on achieving ‘black
excellence’ forgetting about structures which
produce inequalities, then you are not helping solve
the problem. If such views prevail, then a few
successful individual blacks will be put on a
pedestal by black people as symbols of black
excellence and black power while a system
perpetuating inequalities continues to produce mass
poverty.</span></p>
<p><span>Biko’s solutions to black problems were
twofold: black consciousness and black economic
empowerment. The second part is much emphasized
recently, we see this even in the now popular
‘township economy’ in South Africa which is
fundamentally neo-liberal in its philosophy. The
Provincial government in the economic hub of South
Africa seeks to encourage entrepreneurial culture in
various townships. Hence, wants to support Black
businesses. This idea of growing Black businesses
was part of Biko’s emancipatory approach. Biko
wanted to create Black markets and expand Black
business ownership. Once a radical idea it is
currently used to justify elite formation especially
among politically connected individuals.</span></p>
<p><span>Biko’s ideas, while radical at that time don’t
get me wrong, nevertheless played into this
bourgeoise democracy we find ourselves in, his ideas
were radical and important at that time, but he did
not think much about cohesive alternatives that
could now serve as counters to neoliberal ideas.</span></p>
<p><span><strong>Which of Biko’s ideas are popular today
among South African intellectuals?</strong></span></p>
<p><span>His death in 1977 sparked militancy amongst
people, for example when you think of the 1980s
insurgence, I think part of the courage emerged from
Black Consciousness ideas of reclaiming Blackness.
His thoughts about what black freedom should look
like, what type of mentality we need to achieve it
and via which methods, still permeate today through
various social movements. For instance, the Fees
Must Fall student movement sparked in 2016 about
statues which still perpetuate symbols of black
inferiority quoted Biko extensively and his views
were manifest in their demands. They demanded that
first and foremost statues of people like Cecil
Rhodes must go, the curriculum must change and there
should be a higher representation of intellectuals
who look like us teaching us, for example.</span></p>
<p><span>People still gravitate towards Biko today
because when you read his work you can relate to it
as a black person. Even though he wasn’t a
traditionalist who believed in fixed cultures, he
was very aware of the role cultural norms and values
play for everyday Africans in their everyday lives.
For instance, he knew religion was important to
people and his spiritual outlook moved beyond
Christianity and incorporated ideas of ancestors. He
talked about how music can enlighten the wounded
soul, he tapped into daily experiences realizing the
potential of everyday culture to radicalize and
galvanize people into action. When you read him, he
sparks the radical spirit in you to say: ‘yes, we
can fight the system, yes we have the right to fight
the system.’ But then apart from this, you need to
think what kind of world you want to replace the
current system with. This is where his limitations
were. But as a light to spark action, he was very
important.</span></p>
<p><span><strong>What are some of the most popular ideas
among South African intellectuals today regarding
the way forward for the country? </strong></span></p>
<p><span>In academia, especially after the Fees Must
Fall movement, the most popular issue is that of
decolonization. Seminar after seminar, conference
after conference and article after article have been
written on this. The main inspiration comes from
Latin American scholarship emphasizing the need to
decolonize, for example, the knowledge system
amongst other broader structural issues in South
Africa which are inherently Western-oriented and
steeped in racism. This is the most popular school
of thought today.</span></p>
<p><span>Marxist ideas have been rejected, as indeed
Biko rejected them in his day. The link between
class and race has not been integral in our
analysis, Marxism failed to incorporate race into
the equation. Meanwhile, issues centred around our
history and oppression are very important to people.
People use terms like ‘triggers’ to refer to pain
that has been inflicted upon us in the past and
emphasize that we need to remedy that. However,
Marxism in South Africa is unable to offer an
analysis of how a history of racial oppression and
being black frames how people relate to various
struggles beyond the workerist approach.</span></p>
<p><span>Julius Malema’s Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF)
are quite popular today both among the Working
Classes and some black intellectuals. This is due
to the failure of ANC to radically change peoples
lives in the townships where there is huge
unemployment. I come from a town called Kagiso. When
I go home, on a weekday, it seems like a weekend
there, young men and women on the streets with no
jobs. There are protests virtually non-stop, people
demanding services. In the 1990s, people waited
patiently for change, but by the 2000s, they started
realizing it was not happening. This has sparked
some xenophobic attacks like recent ones on
Pakistani shop-owners which were looted by people
complaining they were selling stale food. Taxes have
increased, VAT was increased this April leading to
steep hikes in food prices. There is tension
everywhere. </span></p>
<p><span>This is the crisis we’ve been in since
Ramaphosa became the president, squeezing not just
the poor but the middle-class as well. This has
created space for EFF, especially with Malema
forcing the conversation about race into the public
forum. Up till then, the left had been fixated with
class while the conversation about race had been
muted. The left focussed on economic structures,
neglecting the everyday manifestation of being
black. They missed the feelings young people had
about being not just poor, but poor and black as
well. Malema exploited this very well. He too uses
Black Panther methodology, utilizing a
Marxist-Leninist model of party structures combined
with Fanonian elements incorporating race and
treating the racially-oppressed individual as a
revolutionary subject. Again, this goes back to
1960s ideas before and during Biko’s activist
period. Although embroiled in some corruption
scandals themselves, EFF has attracted young
unemployed people, mainly men, but also some
middle-class people who have experienced racism in
the corporations they work in, which are still
largely owned by white people. Some black
intellectuals have also been drawn to EFF.</span></p>
<p><span>However, many of the protests on the streets
demanding basic services like water and electricity
are not organized by any political party or
movement, they have no specific policies, they
simply want services. The new student movements,
meanwhile, are not only using Biko as a symbol, but
also challenging gender dynamics, ideas of feminism
have become key debate in struggles with power and
patriarchy. Women are protesting against domestic
violence and patriarchy, again taking us back to the
ideas of the 1960s which are coming back in
different ways. In general, revolutionary ideas
about race and gender dating back to the 1950s and
60s are returning, the only difference is that they
are emerging today in modern form and style,
especially with the proliferation of social media
which can be used to spread a message very rapidly.</span></p>
<p><span><strong>Is there any party who, in your
opinion, if they came to power, would best deploy
that power towards the betterment of the people?
You’ve mentioned EFF in a rather positive light
but said yourself they have been implicated in
corruption scandals too. On what basis do you do
associate them with any hopes of true positive
change for downtrodden South Africans? As you
know, history is replete with examples, plenty in
Africa unfortunately, of people riding to power on
the back of all sorts of equalitarian slogans only
to gorge themselves on the state’s resources once
they get there.</strong></span></p>
<p><span>Well, what are the options? There is the
Democratic Alliance which is a very liberal party,
so you are assured of a set of liberal economic
policies if they get into power. Additionally, they
seem to place no emphasis on our history and don’t
recognize the psychological scars apartheid has left
on black people. Ideologically, this is thus not a
viable option for me. Then you have the ANC and the
EFF. EFF wants state capitalism. They should be
understood as a party that is left of the ANC, not <em>that</em>
leftist you understand, but simply left of the ANC.
I will vote for them. Not because I believe they, or
any other party, can emancipate the working-class.
No, the working-class have to find the agency in
themselves to fight for themselves.</span></p>
<p><span>No politician or political party will save the
working class or the poor, let’s not be delusional.
For me, the hope is that the working-class will
organize and fight for themselves. EFF wants state
capitalism and this can go two ways as history
shows. It can become very authoritarian or focus on
building new forms of elites. EFF is important for
debates linking race to class, but I don’t naively
believe they will be our saviours. As always, the
working-class will continue trying new parties,
hoping for something better. But only their
militancy can force change. EFF is a child of the
ANC and they cannot break away from the corrupt
links of the ANC. </span></p>
<p><span><strong>What then would be the value added of
the EFF for regular South Africans were they to
one day win power?</strong></span></p>
<p><span>If they come to power, of course there will be
reforms, they wouldn’t be able to just rule in a
business-as-usual fashion. They would have to make
concessions to the poor. The land question would be
addressed, land would become state-owned. With
regards to key financial sectors like mining, they
are currently trying to propagate a 3-way ownership
system in which the state would own say, 50% of a
mine, the community 10% and the rest would be
privatized. They want to show capital they are ready
to negotiate with it while at the same time trying
to sustain their radical image. </span></p>
<p><span>But they have opened a space in the debate,
emboldened people to believe they have a right to
push. I know the militancy they came with can’t be
sustained if they win power. If they win, there will
be some big reforms, but there would be
contradictions too, no doubt. And yes, there is the
danger of dictatorial tendencies in them. That is
the risk involved with them. Yet, I still think the
working-class should vote for EFF demanding some
specific reforms. </span></p>
<p><span><strong>So, basically you accept they are a
risk, but think they are a risk worth taking?</strong></span></p>
<p><span>Yes, I do. Also, one major issue they deserve
credit for pushing onto the agenda as well is that
of land reform, the idea of the expropriation of
land without compensation. Even though there were
various landless people’s movements in the 2000s,
EFF emboldened that demand and now parliament has
passed a resolution to amend the constitution
allowing for land expropriation without
compensation. However, right now, public
consultations are being held, expected to end with a
report by end of September.</span></p>
<p><span><strong>If President Ramaphosa eventually signs
that amendment into law, is there any plan in
place for how exactly this process would look?</strong></span></p>
<p><span>No, right now there has not been any debate on
who would get what and on what grounds. The
politicians are simply caught up in the militancy of
the people who are demanding reforms. This whole
land issue also reflects ideas popularized by Biko
years ago. Apart from the physical desire people
have to get their lands back, it is also part of a
psychological recognition that <em>this is your
land</em>. The planning of our cities today is
still the same as it was under apartheid with
developers able to keep certain areas exclusively
rich and white. Or even in the rural areas, you have
a situation where all the best farmland is owned by
whites, so they are the farmers while the blacks are
simple village residents with a few black people who
managed to carve their space in the agricultural
sector. People are now imagining a different kind of
space; a different kind of South Africa and
politicians are rushing to respond because they want
votes. But the discussion about who will get what
and whether this process will really empower the
poorest South Africans has yet to be started. </span></p>
<p><span><strong>Mosa Phadi completed her PhD at the
University of Johannesburg in 2017. She has worked
for years on questions race and class, including
two ground-breaking reports on the local
municipalities of Mogalakwena and Lephalale. She
has worked as a researcher for over six years,
published peer-reviewed articles and producing a
research documentary film focusing on the idea of
a middle class in Soweto. </strong></span></p>
<p><span><strong><br>
</strong></span></p>
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