Various Departmental representatives
Representatives of NICSA
Academics
Private sector
Our civil society
Ladies and gentlemen.
It gives me great pleasure to be part of this third National Consultative Conference of the CRL Rights Commission under the theme: “Cultural, Religious and Linguistic Rights in South Africa.” This conference takes place when the democratic South Africa is about to celebrate its 20th anniversary. It is just a few weeks after the delivery of both the State of the Nation Address and the Budget Speech by His Excellency, President Zuma and the Minister of Finance Mr Gordhan respectively. In his State of the Nation Address, the President has called upon all of us to align our plans to the National Development Plan which directs our actions towards vision 2030. Of importance and relevance for CRL Rights Commission to note, is the section that deals with social cohesion and nation building.
This conference also takes place just after the opening of the National House of Traditional Leaders by our President on 7 March 2013. During this opening, the President raised fundamental and very serious issues that require our urgent attention. He has made a clarion call to the nation on the relationships that have to be created going forward amongst the traditional leadership institutions, the governance structures, business and the people of South Africa. The President focused on three critical issues: nation building, food security and indigenous heritage.
The National House represents the whole institution of traditional leadership in South Africa. It is also an undisputable fact that traditional and khoisan leaders are custodians of our indigenous culture and heritage.
The organisers of this conference have asked me to talk about “culture,” focusing on cultural rights within the ambit of our Constitution, pride of our cultural diversity as well as mechanisms to strengthen democracy in South Africa. Ladies and gentlemen, coming from the department with many affairs, I have chosen, with your permission Programme Director, to go beyond my scope to stimulate debate and to prompt national discourse, especially because of the complexity and importance of this subject on culture. I will not so much talk about our successes since 1994 in the area of cultural pride and unity in diversity or good work done by government and the Commission; it’s a well known fact that a lot has been done and achieved.
However, we still have very serious challenges that require our collective efforts. President Zuma when opening the National House of Traditional Leaders painted a grim picture about the so-called nuclear family, especially the issue of fatherhood when he talked about “absent living fathers.” He raised these issues to encourage all sectors of our society to stand up and be counted and to do something about our deplorable situation. He said “it is well known that the presence of a father has a positive effect on a child’s life, academic performance and social and emotional wellbeing.”
He gave the following illustration to make his point clearer when he said “South Africa has a serious challenge of absent living fathers, especially African households with the lowest proportion of present fathers at 31.1% while Indian children have the highest at 83% with white children following closely at 80.8%. For coloured children, the proportion was at 53%.” This is a very serious matter that must be addressed.
Ladies and gentlemen, people who are culturally grounded with self-pride, caring, loving and compassionate would not abandon their children. All this, has to do to some extent, with our historical evolution in South Africa. I will come back to this point later.
Before we fix what seems to be broken, we must first of all understand what it is that must be fixed and to agree on how it must be fixed, that is why we are gathered here today. I will come back later to deal with these issues.
We are pleased that the CRL Rights Commission, an independent Commission established to give effect to the respect of and protection and promotion of culture, religion and languages including peace, social cohesion and nation building, has today invited us to share our perspective on the cultural rights landscape in our country. Given our painful historical background, we still have a huge task ahead of us to continue building a united, caring, proud and a patriotic South African society. It is about the battle of the mindset.
Programme Director,
Culture is said to be the way of life, and it covers the arts, politics, dance, laws, customs, language, beliefs, places and manners of worshipping, institutions of the people like the courts and the entire systems that come to define those people.
Issues pertaining to culture are least talked about outside of lecture halls. The concept of culture, especially, African culture generally, is associated with backwardness, whereas Western culture is conceived to be more progressive. We have been taught that cultures are not equal. It is a known fact that some cultures have been more privileged and more equal than the others. Of course, it has to do with power. We have dominant and subjugated cultures.
The last time I seriously engaged on this concept was more than two decades ago when I was studying sociology. Dialogue on culture, should not be confined exclusively for academic gymnastics for the sole purpose of stretching and sharpening our brains. In my view, this debate or dialogue on culture must be part of the national agenda and to enrich social cohesion, nation building discourse and for the betterment of our society.
Furthermore, it is conceded that culture is dynamic, it evolves over time. The product of different communities interacting and living together is acculturation, assimilation and diffusion of different cultures. How do we, therefore, handle this notion of culture in the context of boundary-less global village we live in today, in the communication space dominated by social media?
I often hear people say, we must “preserve” and “maintain” our cultures. Yes, there are good things that must be preserved and maintained, however, we do have harmful cultural practices too that must be abandoned. We continue to have culture change as a permanent feature of all cultures and societies. CRL Rights Commission, you have the most difficult task to reverse the legacy of colonialism and racism which has persisted for centuries.
Given our history of colonialism and subjugation, indigenous people have been made to feel ashamed of who they are and look down upon their own culture, heritage, language and spirituality. Those who are able to speak English proficiently are perceived to be more educated and sophisticated. As a result of this mindset, very few parents support the idea of using indigenous languages as media of instruction in schools. Countries such as China, Japan and others have progressed and prospered faster than those that use second and third languages as media of instruction. What therefore is the role of the CRL Rights Commission in this discourse? How do you change these mindsets?
South Africa has established a firm foundation by crafting one of the most progressive Constitutions in the world. This Constitution forms the basis for restoration of the dignity, integrity and the self-worth of our people, especially indigenous communities including the khoi and san as well as uniting our diverse cultural communities to be able to realise the ideal of “unity in diversity”.
The Constitution and CRL Rights Commission alone will not be able to deal with this elephant. It requires civil society and all of us. It further requires willingness, a conscious decision and commitment by each and every one of us- South Africans. The support by CRL Rights Commission and other stakeholders should be the second step in the process of building our society. Let’s take advantage of the democratised environment.
Ladies and gentlemen, there is indeed a great task of creating a balance between affirmation of the previously marginalised cultures and to also support the previously dominant cultures and languages such as English and Afrikaans informed by the expression “not throwing the baby with the bath water.”
In order to appreciate our cultural heritage, we must bravely and boldly confront the following three basic philosophical questions:
Who we are, where we come from-our roots, what our consciousness is and the purpose of our existence as well as our environment and the world.
We have to reflect on our history, culture and self- identity. Why is it important for us to revisit the issues of identity, culture and our history? It is significant because:
Identity, heritage and culture are three important elements that have a bearing on our self-worth and dignity
When national identity is not clearly defined and twisted, we become baseless as a nation.
The President, while addressing the House on 7 March, confirmed that for us as a people to move forward, we need to be reminded of our past, or to learn our history, reconnect with our current cardinals and compass - that is where we are today, in order to find our path to our destination. We must therefore, know who we are, our history and where we are heading.
Surely, we do not deserve the Christopher Columbus Award. These awards are given to people who do not know who they are, where they are, and when they get there they will not even know that they have arrived.
Let me briefly take you down memory lane to provide the context for my address today. Hegel, in his Introduction to the Philosophy of History, made this observation about Africans when teaching his university students centuries ago: “for it is the essential principle of slavery that Africans have not yet attained self-consciousness of their freedom, and consequently sink down to a mere thing- an object of no value.” Hegel further denigrated our continent when he said “at this point we leave Africa, not to mention it again.
For it is no historical part of the world, it has no movement or development to exhibit...what we properly understand by Africa is the unhistorical, underdevelopment spirit, still involved in the conditions of mere nature, and which had to be presented here as on the childhood of the world’s history. He concluded by saying “the history of the world travels from East to West, for Europe is absolutely the end of history; Asia the beginning.” It is indeed clear in this brief historical account that Africa is cast to the margins of world history and the place of the African people placed at the bottom of the European so-called “dominant culture” which sealed the fate of the African society.
I want to share the following interesting vignette to make my point clearer:
Richard Dowden, in his recent publication entitled: “Africa- Altered States, Ordinary Miracles” says that the image of Africa conjures up in most people’s minds outside of the continent, as the Dark Continent, the heart of darkness, a place of horrific savagery: inhumanity. Dowden further affirms that in Europe, Africa has a reputation of poverty, disease and war. But when outsiders do come to Africa, they are often surprised by Africa’s warmth and welcome.
Dowden further makes an important observation about different cultures and world views when he gives African and European perspectives in the following anecdotes: “I sometimes ask visiting Africans (in London) what strikes them most about the way Londoners live." Suni Umar, a journalist from Sokoto in Northern Nigeria, gives this perspective: “People walk so fast, and they do not talk to each other. I came to the Office in London and the people working there did not even greet me or each other. Even first thing in the morning they do not greet each other. I was lost and I walked up to a man and asked the way. He did not reply. He did not even look at me. He just walked away.” Dowden maintains that Africans have in abundance “social skills”. These are not skills that are formally taught or learned. Dowden maintains that “Africans meet, greet and talk, hold hands and embrace and share. All these things are as natural as music in Africa. In value terms, all these attributes can be converted to what one would call “African philosophy,” African way of living or culture.
There are obviously very serious adverse implications of colonialism on the lives of the indigenous people as affirmed by Dowden when he says that “in many parts of Africa, people lack a sense of ethnic or national identity.” He argues that “they are culturally uprooted, unsure of who they are and what they want to become.” The old ways obliterated, many Africans have not yet worked out new ones as shown earlier.
Given this unpleasant historical account and its implications, it always helps to go back to basics. I now want to reflect on the hermeneutic view which goes right back to our genesis as human beings; the beginning of our existence when God created everything. In Genesis 1:26 God said: “Let us make a man and a woman in our image, according to our likeness. Let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”
What does it mean to be created in the image and likeness of God? Is it about external looks and the colour of our skin? No, it is much more sophisticated and deeper than that. What does it mean to have dominion over every other thing? Does it mean some races having dominion over others? NO! Does this colonial past reflect the image of God? No! God’s image is characterised by attributes such as compassion, love, peace, respect, trust, humility and neighbourliness.
Coming back to the democratic Republic of South Africa, our Constitution, in the Bill of Rights, grants all of us the right to our languages and cultures (at Section 30), and it further, in section 31, recognises each of us as belonging to various cultural, religious or linguistic communities.
The rights in subsection (1) may not be exercised in a manner inconsistent with any provision of the Bill of Rights”. We have indeed come a long way from 1994. Our Constitution propels us towards reconciliation, social cohesion and nation building. It reminds us of who we are and our purpose in life and that working together we can become the best we ought to be as a country when it says:
“We, the people of South Africa recognise the injustice of the past
South Africa belongs to all who live in it, united in diversity.”
The Constitution was adopted in order to heal the divisions of the past and to establish a society based on democratic values, social justice and fundamental human rights. It depends on all of us to make it work. These values are ideals that all South Africans must strive for. It requires fortitude, persistence, positive attitude and hard work.
Programme Director,
The Department of Traditional Affairs through the Minister has been designated to take responsibility for supporting CRL Rights Commission in its administration of its mandate focusing on cultural, religious and linguistic communities. We have in this regard, started by identifying our key stakeholders and to define our role in that space. We have identified traditional communities under various traditional leaders; the Khoi and San communities whose traditional leadership structures, cultures and traditions were interfered with, almost to extinction, various faith communities in South Africa organised under the umbrella of National Interfaith Council of South Africa (NICSA); traditional healers fraternity in their varieties and other organised communities pursuing many particular interests aimed at nation-building and social cohesion.
Programme Director,
I am certain that the Commission has developed an annual performance programme (APP) which you will share with the Department of Traditional Affairs to ensure synergy as we collaborate for a common cause, and to enable the Department to render its support to the Commission in compliance with the Constitution at section 181(3) to make the Commission effective and smooth-running.
What then is our future path? I want to make this assertion that traditional leaders and khoi and san leaders are the custodians of indigenous culture and heritage. A lesson can be drawn from Semou Gueye’s wisdom derived from his article titled “African Renaissance as a Historical Challenge”. He makes an important observation when he says that we urgently need to eradicate all historical psycho-cultural entanglements from our consciousness. In other words, we have to decolonise our minds.
Gueye makes a clarion call to all of us “to rebuild our identity on the solid rock of our best ancestral values, enriched by achievements of successive generations that have shaped our history. He goes on to assert that “our identity must continuously be revitalised by what we do in our everyday life.”
He further makes a profound statement when he says: “to renew, assert and promote ...an open and dynamic identity which considers otherness neither as alteration nor as alienation, nor as a threat, we need to restore the balance of our cultural trade and exchange with the rest of the world.” Any community that advocates cultural exclusivity within the global community misses a golden opportunity for reconciliation and nation building.
The point I am trying to make here is that the notion of “open identity” is not about pigmentation or a question of geographical or ethnic belonging, especially in our context. “Its essence is to be found beyond such purely phenomenal, superficial dimensions.” The issue of “open identity” should be conceived as “a factor of continuous enrichment because it offers scope for the cultural diversity and to ethnic or racial minorities that were brought by history to live with Africans. It provides the opportunity for all of us to assert ourselves and contribute to the “rainbow identity.”
We are looking forward to working with the Commission to achieve its objectives of the Promotion and Protection of the Rights of Cultural, religious and linguistic communities as well as promoting peace and unity in South Africa.
At this point, let me borrow Ben Okri’s exhortation which will spur us to a higher gear when he says: “May the fire of history burn us into a new consciousness. Press forward the human genius. Our future is greater than our past.”
I want to conclude with a story that sums up my address. It is about a skilled hunter......
I thank you!!
