In remembrance of a brilliant young man called Steve Biko, who gave his life to the South African liberation struggle, the annual Steve Biko National Conference 2014 was held at the Durban University of Technology (DUT) Hotel School, Ritson Campus, last week to mark the 37th anniversary of his death.
The event was held in conjunction with the Steve Biko Foundation and UMTAPO (a non-profit organisation engaging young people in learning) and it addressed the issue of nation building and the challenges still faced 20 years into democracy. The conference featured four speakers who addressed subjects that were close to Biko’s heart.
Professor Sathasivan “Saths” Cooper tackled the issue of racism and tribalism in South Africa with the question: Is One Nation in One Azania a myth?
He said it’s important to have social cohesion and inclusiveness in communities and in society at large, and we need to find mutual solidarity and expression among individuals and communities.
“There must be a process whereby a society with diverse origins, histories, languages, cultures and religions come together to work towards eradicating the divisions and injustices of the past, to foster unity and promote a countrywide consciousness of being proudly South African, committed to the country and open to the continent and to the world,” he said.
Prof Cooper said it’s a problem that anti-racism is not incorporated into South Africa’s legislation. The bill of rights excluded racism, making it easy to be embraced in recent times.
Prof Cooper is president of the International Union of Psychological Science (IUPsyS), based in Montreal, Canada and vice-president of the International Social Science Council. He played a key role in the anti-apartheid struggle and worked closely with the late Biko.
Giving insight on whether black consciousness still has a role in nation-building and the future of the country was Black Consciousness activist Veli Mbhele, who said Biko’s contribution to the development of black radical theory and practice was one of the most critical moments in the global and historical evolution in the second half of the 20th century.
“To fully understand the paradoxes in the make-up of South African society, we must bear in mind that both in historical and contemporary terms, the project of nation building has never been conflict-free, class or ideologically neutral. Nation building, like all human activity, assumes the political, social, cultural, economic and ideological context of its time and location.”
He said one of the most fundamental implications of black radical theory was that as part of extricating themselves from oppression, the first task that black people needed to perform was to understand the source, content, form and instruments of their oppression.
Mbhele said the Marikana uprising was the single most important event, in contemporary terms, which embodied the Bikoian type of radical black consciousness.
“We will all have to accept that, even under ANC rule, our beloved South Africa is nothing else but a neo-colonial bastion of white-supremacist capitalism that is managed by blacks on behalf of whites. And for this reason, it is not black consciousness that must incessantly justify its relevance or future but us, the black majority, who must be haunted by the tragedy of our indifference in the midst of growing anti-black brutality, both in South Africa and other parts of the world,” he said.
Veli Mbele is a black consciousness activist, essayist and political commentator. From his teenage years, he held various leadership positions in childrens’ rights, cultural and educational bodies.
Providing an insight into education and morality in present day South Africa was Crispin Hemson, who also spoke about the personal experiences he had with Biko.
Crispin Hemson is the Director of the DUT-based International Centre of Non-violence (ICON). ICON’s mission is to create and nurture, through a range of initiatives such as education, a culture of non-violence.
“Steve Biko saw morality as consisting of the struggle against oppression. Our education system is still designed about the lack of knowledge, and when this is education for young African people, a sense of what people do not know. We need instead to capture the richness of their resources, the richness of languages and the capability for bringing change. For me, this is a moral education, an education that addresses Biko’s moral injunction to challenge oppression,” he said.
Adding to the topic of nation building was social activist Liepollo Lebohang Pheko, who spoke on the need for a humane and ethical guiding framework for true nation building.
“Nation building is a stressful and often contested endeavour. For as long as nations have existed with national identities promoted as the essential locus of collective identification, they have been controversial and uncertain, as their limits are stretched, questioned and reconstructed.
“But nationhood as an idea was also created in the struggles that won our liberation, as African people identified with a physical and psychological entity, which existed in the form of a geographical location where cohesion survived among members who felt a sense of belonging, patriotism and pride.
“In this, collective memory is not necessarily an exact recollection of facts, but rather a social context to support and embrace all memories and assure us of belonging, going forward – and in this, a large amount of aptly unapologetic African pride is vital,” she said.
Liepollo Lebohang Pheko has wide experience in the public sector and non-profit sectors, as well as in development consultancy. She is considered to be a leading exponent on trade agreements and policy across Africa, having conducted impact studies for SADC and the EU to assess trade impact on employment patterns, wealth distribution and local sectors.
After the enlightening speeches, the forum was divided into groups who engaged in constructive debates, adding practical methods to assist in confronting hindrances to nation building, as well as a means of moulding DUT students into leaders of tomorrow.
-Waheeda Peters
Pictured:(Left to right): Black Consciousness activist Veli Mbhele, ICON director Crispin Hemson, Prof Saths Cooper and social activist Liepollo Lebohang Pheko, at the annual Steve Biko National Conference 2014.
