PHAPANO PHASHA
As a researcher, one can only imagine what was on the mind of a young Pixley Ka Isaka Seme, born in KwaZulu-Natal, who, at the age of 29, went to King Dinizulu to ask his blessings to form the ANC and unite all Africans.
Seme was a young Zulu man born and bred in Inanda. He was born in an era when African kings and chiefs were either being killed or exiled by the white oppressor for their land and wealth.
I do not perceive that this is how Seme saw himself, as he was a Pan-Africanist and internationalist, but for the purpose of historiography this must be recorded.
You cannot separate a child from its parents, hence you cannot separate the ANC from KZN.
The ANC was formed by a young man who was given full support by a Zulu king to unite all ethnic groups and tribes.
You must recall that in 1906, at the age of 25, Seme had written the speech “I am an African”, which he proudly presented at the University of Columbia in the US with his peers from the continent and globe who were tired of being subservient to the white man. But, more importantly, black men who were tired of black on black hatred because of narrow ethnicism, tribalism and indeed regionalism.
You actually come to the conclusion that, in fact, the ANC is back to 1911 and prior to that because we have really failed our forefathers, in particular Seme, who formed the ANC because he wanted to annihilate this backwardness.
Indeed, it is historical to acknowledge that were it not for Seme and King Dinizulu, the ANC would not have been formed or exist today. It's important that one emphasises this because we have leaders who have resorted to narrow nationalism, tribalism and regionalism to isolate and denigrate leaders who come from KZN.
Pixley Ka Isaka Seme, who had come back from the US where he had studied law, was encouraged by the courage of luminaries such as Marcus Garvey and WEB Du Bois, who were the leading lights on both the scholarly and political enlightenment of black people across America, the West Indies, Britain and Africa.
Therefore, Seme understood that to achieve the bold mission of uniting Africans, he couldn’t achieve this dream alone, and neither could he achieve this legacy-driven mission only with Zulus. He approached our dear great-great uncle, Rre George Dick Montsioa, a Morolong man who was born in a small village in Mahikeng, in the North West, called Magogoe, in 1885. He also approached the likes of Richard Msimang and Alfred Mangena.
These were young people brought together by the cries and circumstances of their people, and they understood that they could not bring the white man to cease his exploitation and oppression of black people if they were not united.
All of the above – Seme, Montsioa, Msimang and Mangena – were lawyers who were legal representatives of either kings and chiefs who were dispossessed of their land or leaders whose people were subjected to the harshest laws either by Britain or the Boers.
Many of us are tribalists and regionalists, which is the very character trait that our forebears detested.
We treat the descendants of the very founders of the ANC as lepers, and we do this without presenting any ideological debate.
We really ought to ask ourselves as ANC members today whether we truly belong in this organisation because many of us do not identify with its historical mission and founding values.
Today, it's difficult to go to the Eastern Cape to hear a solid debate on leadership without comrades resorting to either tribalism or regionalism in their choice of leaders. The same with Limpopo, which seems to have mastered the art of elevating this backward behaviour.
It is difficult to hear and see many leaders born outside of Gauteng denouncing this backwardness, which has captured our organisation.
A comrade born and bred in Gauteng will not support a leader simply because that leader comes from his clan, village, or tribe. That is why, as Gauteng, we are the only province that could nominate a Lindiwe Sisulu, Zweli Mkhize, Cyril Ramaphosa and Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma and permeate all these contradictions, diversity and paradoxes of choice on who must lead this organisation.
What is certain is that these narrow permissions were created by the very leaders who understand that if we, the ANC masses, were ideological, we would have long since removed them because they serve the interests of capitalism and the West.
So the very survival of many ANC leaders is dependent on reducing us to tribalists and regionalists.
They are not ideological. They cannot tell you what they did over the last five years. When there is a crisis in one of the provinces or the ANC, they resort to tribalism, so these leaders are a threat to the very foundation of the ANC.
However, let’s also concede that this crisis can also be traced and blamed on leaders from KZN who once preached and resorted to tribalism by driving the narrative of 100% Zulu, which divided this organisation and drove us back into the dark ages.
Pixley Ka Isaka Seme, our original prophet, must be turning in his grave.
The umbilical cord that binds this organisation together is in Inanda, KwaZulu-Natal. Hence, when Nelson Mandela cast his first vote in 1994, he voted at the Inanda Missionary School in KZN, where both Seme and John Langalibalele Dube, the first ANC president, were born.
* Phapano Phasha is a political commentator and ANC member