Saturday 5 May 2012

I am defecting to the ANC by Malaika wa Azania

by Malaika Wa Azania on Sunday, February 13, 2011 at 9:33pm ·
My name is Malaika Lesego Samora Mahlatsi,but you can call me Malaika wa Azania,because it has deeper meaning to me,as it identifies me to my home and connects me to the land of the Afrikan people.I am a 19 year old Black woman,an activist,a pan-Afrikanist Socialist and a writer.I love writing,it's the closest to the gods that one can ever get...

5 years ago i made a decision that few make at 14.I decided that i'm going to change my country.I had it all figured out.I would start a political party,mobilise support,get elected into parliament,become the first female president and make things happen.It was that easy.I was going to do it despite the fear that i might not succeed,because impossible itself says i'm possible.
In 2008 i changed my mind.South Afrika was too small for me.I then decide that i would change the world.I,Malaika Mahlatsi,would become the first female General-Secretary of the United Nations.I would end poverty in Afrika,the "holy war" in the Middle East and fascism in the West.I had it all figured out.
In 2009 i matriculated and in June 2010 i joind a Black Consciousness group called Blackwash.I wanted to tell my people to "Vuka Darkie,because '94 changed fokol".And then i left,because i realised that Blackwash's "Fuck 2010","Fuck Whites" campaigns would change fokol too.
And so in October 2010 i relocated to Cape Town to join an NGO,because i wanted to change the Black condition in the communities of Gugulethu,Khayelitsha,Nyanga,Langa etc.I wanted to challenge Zille's open toilets and the ANC's media tribunal...and then it hit me that all these mean nothing for as long as we remain landless.So i amalgamated the philosophy of Black Consciousness that i'd always espoused,with that of pan-Afrikanism.
2011 came.I returned to the land that once had gold,Jozi maboneng,in a quest for massifying the doctrine that i believe in.I deepened my advocation for pan-Afrikan Socialism,started writing only about it,teaching others about it etc.I thought: "It's not enough.I must do more." I then joined another NGO,more involved with Black issues.
Now,understand that NGO work is evil.The workload is shocking,the money is way too little and the hours excruciatingly long.
You see,being an activist is voluntary poverty.I'm forever broke.It's sad really,that one can be so terribly broke in this era of extreme capitalism.Yet,that's the reality of my life and so,as much as i love my people and want them emancipated from systematic slavery,as much as i want the land of Afrikan people to return to Afrikans,as much as i believe wholeheartedly in the philosophical ideology of Pan Afrikan Socialism,i have realised one thing: my belief will not feed me.It will not clothe me.It will not sustain my life and i need money.Not a lot of it,no.But enough so that i can live,enough so that i can get my own apartment and be independent,afterall,revolution begs for that.And i want a car so that i can travel to mobilise people,to do groundwork.You must travel to reach those that you must conscientise.NGOs can't provide all this.Sobukwe and his brain can't provide this and so,i,Malaika wa Azania,have decided to defect to wher the money is.I am defecting to the ANC to earn atleast R30 000 a month being a puppet.Atleast my needs will be taken care of.

BUT WAIT!

Defecting to the ANC means i'd be giving my people the middle finger.It means i'd be saying to over 35 million Azanians "To hell with your hunger and suffering" and to the settler minority "Continue screwing my people".It means i'd be allowing the very system that i abhor to swallow me whole.It means...it means that i would be betraying the struggle and so,how different would i be from the Nelson Mandela that i resent,the Thami ka Plaatjie that i have no respect for or the Jacob Zuma that i disregard?...
Sushi is appealing and to be honest,so is a tender deal.I'm still only 19 so a little part of me does think of owning a Blackberry and a sparkling red Golf 5...once in a while.
But the price is too high.The cost of defecting to the ANC is too great.Adopting the Freedom Charter is too fatal...
And so,i stick to being broke and overworked.I stick to taking a RoadLink bus to travel long-distance and taxis to commute.I stick to Azania.

I ask of you,ma-Afrika,that you believe,like i do,that the probability that we could lose the struggle to Charterism and capitalism is not reason to abandon this cause which we believe to be just.
It is better that we live on our feet rather than die on our knees.

iAzania izwe lethu!

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