[Debate] I Thus Caught That Colonial Mind-Set At Work

Tue Apr 10 11:30:03 BST 2012

Even the ’great’ man himself, KM, could say of his Black son-in-law, Paul
Lafargue, that he “has the blemish customarily found in the negro tribe – no
sense of shame, by which I mean shame about making a fool of oneself.”
Whilst Engels says of the same person, Lafargue, that he is “in his quality
as a nigger a degree nearer to the rest of the animal kingdom than the rest
of us.”  Plus ca change, and all that.

From: debate-list-bounces at fahamu.org [mailto:debate-list-bounces at fahamu.org]
On Behalf Of Mandisi
Sent: 09 April 2012 15:42
To: debate-list at fahamu.org
Subject: [Debate] I Thus Caught That Colonial Mind-Set At Work

http://www.zcommunications.org/i-thus-caught-that-colonial-mind-set-at-work-
the-mis-representation-of-post-apartheid-social-movements-by-mandisi-majavu 

I Thus Caught That Colonial Mind-Set At Work: The Mis-Representation Of
Post-Apartheid Social Movements 

by Mandisi Majavu

Frances Piven and Richard Cloward (1977) once wrote that when poor people’s
movements go against the doctrine of those who regard themselves as the
intellectual revolutionary vanguard, the movements are often derided and
dismissed. History is full of examples in which movements were dismissed for
either being too “nationalistic” or for “lacking class consciousness”. For
instance, although the Black Consciousness Movement (BCM) is now regarded as
one of the political movements that played a significant role in the fight
against the apartheid regime, it was once accused of being manipulated by
the CIA. The Unity Movement, a defunct political organisation that also
fought against the apartheid regime, characterised the BCM as an “American
implantation, class-based and manipulated by the CIA” (Chisholm 1991).    

In differing degrees, post-apartheid social movements have learnt that
disagreeing with those who see themselves as the intellectual revolutionary
vanguard comes at a high cost. Owing to the legacy of the apartheid system,
the intellectual revolutionary vanguard in South Africa tends to be educated
middle class white activists who research and write about social movements
for journals. In the academic/intellectual circles, it is this intellectual
revolutionary vanguard that sets the tone and the perimeters of the debate
regarding social movements in post-apartheid South Africa.  Black
intellectuals such as Buntu Siwisa (2008) refer to these middle class white
activists as “city-based intellectual-cum-activists”. Siwisa further notes
that these “city-based intellectual-cum-activists” are characterised by the
fact that they are university educated and have secure employment, while
grassroots based black activists are uneducated and are often unemployed.

Recently, poor black activists in South Africa have found themselves the
target of a nasty campaign that is led by Heinrich Bohmke---one of the
“city-based intellectual-cum-activists” that Siwisa wrote about in his
article, which is entitled: “Crowd Renting or Struggling from Below? The
Concerned Citizens’ Forum in Mpumalanga Township, Durban, 1999–2005”.
According to Siwisa (2008), Heinrich Bohmke was once the “legal adviser” and
one of the “prominent organisers” of the now defunct  Durban-based social
movement, Concerned Citizens Forum (CCF).

These days Bohmke sings a different tune however. He is of the view that
“Social Movements are Dead”.  Through his blog, Dispositions:
<http://dispositionsjournal.blogspot.co.nz/>
http://dispositionsjournal.blogspot.co.nz/, Bohmke has unleashed a series of
hostile and destructive attacks on poor people’s movement. Bohmke’s contempt
for black leadership is unmatched. For example, he argues that S’bu Zikode
of Abahlali baseMjondolo (AbM) is intellectually incapable of discussing
Frantz Fanon without the help of a white mentor. In his own words Bohmke
writes that: 

“When we read Abahlali statements and speeches by Sbu Zikode it is
Pithouse's [a white academic] take on Fanon not Zikode's that is found, word
for word.” 

Bohmke continues:

“For a painful example of this, view Sbu Zikode's interview outside

     a Fanon lecture, hosted by the Church Land Programme, on “Why is Fanon

Relevant Today .... Although he treads water fairly well, Zikode is plainly
out of

his depth and the platitudes about Fanon could apply to any human rights
activist.”

In the same article, which is entitled “Ventriloquism, Fanon and the Social
Movement Hustle”, Bohmke attacks another poor people’s movement---the
Unemployed People Movement (UPM). He mocks and ridicules the movement saying
that:

“UPM hands do not hold the pen. Kota [Ayanda Kota is the leader of the UPM]
and Co. supply the raw data but the narrative into which 'the more
important' parts are inserted is supplied by an outside mentor. It is both
above and beneath individual UPM members to write what appears in Inboxes
the world over.”

 Bohmke then zooms in on Ayanda Kota. Quoting an anonymous source, he writes
that:

“An academic who shared a platform with Kota remembers him struggling
through a speech on Fanon. ‘It was painful’, he says, ‘you could see he did
not write the speech’.”

One of the most enduring racist stereotypes is the belief that blacks are
incapable of cerebral functioning (Wright 1997). Thus Bohmke finds it easy
to portray black leaders of post-apartheid social movements as morons. As
far as Bohmke is concerned, black leadership of social movements imitate
whites when they engage in intellectual debates, and additionally, black
leaders need white help to talk about Frantz Fanon.

Bohmke further accuses the black leadership of post-apartheid social
movements of being dishonest, labelling them hustlers who enjoy the benefits
that come with the status of being leaders of social movement.

“The black man, a bit of a hustler, who can blame him, an activist too,
thinks that

he can pull the strings. There are the airfares, the money from the NGO's,
the

sense of grandeur. But he is ensnared. The strings tighten, the dependence

increases, room for maneuver less so. He must perform. Give township tours
to

researchers from overseas. Denounce the bad white rival of his mentor. Keep
a

semblance of an organization going.”

When the AbM refuses to work with the Centre for Civil Society in Durban,
Bohmke writes that the poor people’s movement is used as a “stalking horse”
by a certain white academic to fight his own academic battles. I quote
Bohmke:

“And then being the stalking horse for a silly and unsustainable boycott of
the Centre for Civil Society, where one of its mentors worked and had to
leave under a cloud of allegation by women colleagues, not political
persecution, at the exact time Abahlali's boycott began.”  

The underlying message being that poor black people are simply incapable of
reaching their own conclusions. Bohmke has an annoying tendency to portray
poor black people as lacking initiative and without agency.

Writing disparagingly about poor people’s efforts to organise themselves,
Bohmke accuses the AbM of being a brand and of being a “liberal NGO”. 

“The brand representation of Abahlali is of an organization with strong
anarchist tendencies; it is resolutely democratic, militant, massive,
vibrant and radically autonomous of the state. It is an organization with
chic aesthetic affinities, theoretical inclinations towards Badiou, Fanon
and Engels...”

The AbM is a movement of the poor for the poor. Contrary to Bohmke’s claims,
the AbM is neither a brand nor a liberal NGO. I quote the AbM:

“We have thought for ourselves, discussed all the important issues for
ourselves and taken decisions for ourselves on all the important issues that
affect us. We have demanded that the state includes us in society and gives
us what we need to have for a dignified and safe life. We have also done
what we can to make our communities better places for human beings. We have
run crèches, organised clean up campaigns, connected people to water and to
electricity, tried to make our communities safe and worked very hard to
unite people across all divisions. We have faced many challenges but we have
always worked to ensure that in all of this work we treat one another with
respect and dignity.”

The AbM is made up of poor people; people who were impoverished by the
apartheid regime. These are people who unlike Bohmke were deprived of life
opportunities simply because they are black. These are people who have the
humility to give speeches in their second or third language (i.e. English)
in order to share their experiences with the outside world. 

Blinded by his cultural chauvinism, Bohmke demeans the efforts of these poor
people by portraying them as imbeciles who go around imitating their white
mentors. I quote Bohmke: “When people interview the leader they appreciate
his obvious qualities but also know full well that the speeches and articles
are not his work.”  

Bohmke has also accused the AbM of having “dubious allies”. According to
Bohmke,

“Abahlali is affiliated with the Informal Settlement Network launched in May
2009. The Informal Settlement Network (ISN) ‘is an alliance of
settlement-level and national-level organizations of informal settlement
dwellers in South Africa’.... The ISN is supported by the Community
Organisation Resource Centre (CORC) based in Cape Town and the transnational
Shack / Slum Dwellers International (SDI) based in the United States.” 

The AbM has stated on record that as a matter of fact, “we have never joined
the ISN and we are not even aware of their programmes and projects.”
According to the AbM, Bohmke is a “liar”. The UPM calls Bohmke “the
notorious slanderer”.

Among other things, white privilege protects Bohmke from being seriously
questioned and exposed for what he is---a bigot on the loose.  In a country
like South Africa where the colonial legacy still affects every single
aspect of people’s social life, a white person’s word carries a lot of
weight. It is against this backdrop that even the most unreconstructed
colonial creature and, an out-and-out racist like R.W. Johnson can still be
accorded intellectual respect and have their racist work circulated in civil
society internet forums. In 2010, over 30 academics from around the world
wrote to the London Review of Books (LRB) objecting to the continued
publication of RW Johnson’s racist rants and ravings.  In their letter,
these academics noted that “we find it baffling therefore that you continue
to publish work by RW Johnson that, in our opinion, is often stacked with
the superficial and the racist.”

To understand how voices such as RW Johnson are continuously given space to
air their white supremacist myths, one has to keep in mind that, among other
things, the white supremacist system gives authority and legitimacy to white
voices that would be regarded as unmitigated racist ravings in an
egalitarian society. What the system aims to achieve is to prevent
understanding, while, simultaneously, reinforcing white supremacist points
of view.

That system makes it easy for poor blacks to be accused of being dishonest,
corrupt and hustlers. In such a context, “all kinds of allegations can be
levelled against you without any proof being offered to support them and
many people will believe them. It can be said that you are undemocratic,
that you are corrupt, that you cannot think and speak for yourself and
worse,” according to the UPM. 

The UPM also points out the dangers of simply ignoring the racist ravings of
the Bohmkes of this world who rely on the white supremacist system to give
their writing credibility and legitimacy. 

“We are aware that other movements and individuals think that Bohmke’s
ravings are beneath contempt and should not be dignified with any response.
It is true that his poisonous attacks on individuals and movements are
always grossly dishonest from start to finish.  ...But while we respect the
views of those that have advised us to just ignore Bohmke’s slander and to
rather focus on building our movement we feel strongly that the left must
confront itself honestly and openly if we are to avoid repeating the
mistakes of the past. The reality is that some of those people in the left
who think that they have a right to rule all popular struggles have used
Bohmke’s slander to try and destroy movements that they can’t control. A lot
of people are fighting ruthless turf wars in the left and some of them have
been willing to use Bohmke’s attacks for their own interests.”

 Indeed, the left at large ought to come to terms with the fact that poor
people’s movements do not proceed by someone else’s rules or dogmas. As
Piven and Cloward (1977) once pointed out, poor people’s social struggles
flow from historically specific circumstances, “it is a reaction against
those circumstances, and it is also limited by those circumstances.” It is
necessary to remember this insight when we discuss social movements.

References:

Bohmke, H.(2012). Ventriloquism, Fanon and the Social Movement Hustle:
<http://dispositionsjournal.blogspot.co.nz/>
http://dispositionsjournal.blogspot.co.nz/

Bohmke, H. (2010). The Branding of Social Movements in South Africa:
<http://dispositionsjournal.blogspot.co.nz/>
http://dispositionsjournal.blogspot.co.nz/  

Bohmke, H. (2009). Between the Halo and the Panga: Accounts of Abahlali Base
Mjondolo.:  <http://dispositionsjournal.blogspot.co.nz/>
http://dispositionsjournal.blogspot.co.nz/

Chisholm, L. (1991). Education, politics and organisation: The educational
traditions and legacies of the Non-European Unity Movement, 1943 – 1986.
Transformation, 15.

Piven F. F. & Cloward, R. A.  (1977). Poor People’s Movements: Why They
Succeed, How They Fail. New York: Pantheon Books.

Siwisa, B. (2008). “Crowd Renting or Struggling from Below? The Concerned
Citizens’ Forum in Mpumalanga Township, Durban, 1999–2005”.  Journal of
Southern African Studies, Vol 34 (4).

Wright, W.D. (1997). Black Intellectuals, Black Cognition, and a Black
Aesthetic. Praeger Publishers: Connecticut.

Open Letter to the London Review of Books. (2010).
<http://jhbwtc.blogspot.co.nz/2010/07/open-letter-to-london-review-of-books.
html>
http://jhbwtc.blogspot.co.nz/2010/07/open-letter-to-london-review-of-books.h
tml

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