Nobody knows my name

Our Heritage Month has just begun. Accordingly, many of us will be involved in many activities to celebrate our common heritage throughout the month, and not just on 24 September, Heritage Day. For the month, our government has put forward the theme - "Celebrating our Living Heritage ('What we Live ') in the Tenth Year of our Democracy."

Our Department of Arts and Culture says that our living heritage consists of all the objects and practices that "communities, groups, and in some cases, individuals recognise as part of their cultural heritage, transmitted from generation to generation, (which) is constantly recreated by communities and groups in response to their environment, their interaction with nature and their history, and provides them with a sense of identity and continuity, thus promoting respect for cultural diversity and human creativity."

The Department says that it wants us to use Heritage Month "as a vehicle for a long-term vision of collecting, preserving, protecting, promoting and disseminating living heritage". Hopefully, as many of our people as possible will participate in this process that is central to the success of our continuing effort to give birth to a new and humane society, one of whose critical elements is our diverse and common "sense of identity and continuity".

Perhaps many of us do not have the time to reflect on these matters, which UNESCO refers to as the "intangible cultural heritage". There are many tangible problems and challenges to which all of us have to respond, daily, arising out of the stubborn legacy of colonialism and racism. In this situation, it may indeed be difficult to focus on what is described as "intangible".

However, difficult as it may be, we have to grapple with the intangible. The objective of a better life for all does not only refer to the material. It also encompasses the spiritual, the intangible.

More than four decades ago now, in 1962, the African American novelist, playwright, poet and essayist, James Baldwin, published the book of essays entitled, "Nobody Knows My Name". That simple title communicated the deeply painful message of loss of identity and continuity, of the reduction of a human being into a thing without a soul.

It immediately brought to mind the dehumanisation of James Baldwin's forebears, the Africans transported as slaves to the United States. As they lost their freedom, they also lost their names. Given other and alien names by the slave masters, they ceased to be who they had been, and were. They became the new sub-humans defined by the slave owners.

As we imagine them silently recalling who they really were, fearful of telling those who owned them as productive property what their real names were, we can almost hear them saying - nobody knows my name!

The fact of slavery and the intolerable agony they had to endure as slaves, were the tangible realities with which they had to contend every day of their short lives. Those who observed them from afar, with no knowledge of what it meant to be a slave, cruelly torn away from your family, your people and your native land, would have thought that for the slaves to weep bitter tears as they silently told themselves - nobody knows my name! - would have been the most irrational indulgence.

And yet in their intangible creations, their songs, the slaves sought death rather than a longer life characterised by slave labour and the denial of their identity as fully human persons. In their 'negro spirituals', they prayed for the speedy advent of the day when they would go to heaven, where they would be human again.

One of these spirituals, "Nobody knows who I am", says:

"O, nobody knows who I am, a-who I am,
Till the Judgement morning
Heaven bells a-ringing, the saints all singing
Heaven bells a-ringing in my soul
Want to go to Heaven
Want to go right
Want to go to Heaven
All dressed in white.

O, nobody knows who I am, a-who I am,
Till the Judgement morning
Heaven bells a-ringing, the saints all singing
Heaven bells a-ringing in my soul
If you don't believe
That I've been redeemed
Follow me down
To Jordan's stream."

The spiritual "Oh Freedom" is perhaps even more direct.

"Oh freedom
Oh freedom
Oh freedom over me!
And before I'd be a slave
I'll be buried in my grave
And go home to my Lord and be free.
No more moaning
No more moaning
No more moaning over me!
And before.
There'll be singing.
There'll be shouting.
There'll be praying."

The slaves prayed for Judgement morning, when they would be redeemed, when they would be free and home again, with Heaven's sacred bells ringing in the souls of those who, on earth, had been treated as nothing more than soulless and disposable beasts of burden.

Born in 1891, the African American, Claude McKay, was one of the poets, with Countee Cullen, Langston Hughes and others, whose writings gave birth to the period of the flowering of African American creativity described as "the Harlem Renaissance".

Fortunate to have been born after the emancipation of the slaves and the aftermath of the birth of the Pan African Movement led by W.E.B. du Bois and others, Claude McKay could refer elsewhere other than the grave and heaven, to reclaim his sense of identity and continuity.

To repossess this intangible right, he composed the poem entitled "The Tropics in New York", which reads:

"Bananas ripe and green, and ginger-root,
Cocoa in pods and alligator pears,
And tangerines and mangoes and grapefruit,
Fit for the highest prize at parish fairs,
Set in the window, bringing memories
Of fruit-trees laden by low-singing rills,
And dewy dawns, and mystical blue skies
In benediction over nun-like hills.
My eyes grew dim and I could no more gaze;
A wave of longing through my body swept,
And, hungry for the old, familiar ways,
I turned aside and bowed my head and wept."

The sight of tropical African fruits in the shops of New York had reawakened in Claude McKay an innate and unquenchable hunger to return to his roots, to be African and human again. An instinctive and long-dormant physical longing to return to the native land of his ancestors rocked his soul, evoking tears of misery that he could not return to the old, familiar ways he carried in his genes, in which he would have no cause to cry out - nobody knows my name!

As African South Africans we have, perhaps, not known as much pain as was borne by the fellow Africans who were transported across the Atlantic Ocean to serve the New World as slaves. Certainly, the sight of tropical fruits in our supermarkets has never reawakened in us suppressed memories of a continent to which we once belonged. The pain imposed on us by racism has never forced us to think that death was preferable to life.

But we too have had to contend with an historical reality that deliberately sought to deprive us of our sense of identity and continuity. Colonial and apartheid oppression sought to rob us of our "cultural heritage, transmitted from generation to generation, (which) is constantly recreated by communities and groups in response to their environment, their interaction with nature and their history".

Deliberately, this racist system sought to destroy everything that would give the indigenous majority a sense of identity and continuity. This entailed not only the military defeat of this majority and its political subjugation.

It also meant the total transformation of the life conditions that would give the African majority the possibility to maintain its identity and its living heritage. The Africans lost their land and therefore the possibility for an independent economic existence. But this also meant the virtual loss of the intangibles, of such cultural norms as communal life, human solidarity and ubuntu, which were the non-material expression of the material conditions of pre-colonial society.

Our "interaction with nature and history" meant that our living heritage had to bend to the dictates of the dominant social order, which, among other things, celebrated an intensely acquisitive individualism. Based essentially on the values of social and community cohesion, it had to find its place within a society on which the ruling group had imposed the social norm -everyone for himself or herself, and the devil take the hindmost!

Our living heritage would find great affinity with the sentiment expressed by the British historian, R.H. Tawney, when he wrote in his book "The acquisitive society" that, "the heart of the problem is not economic. It is a question of moral relationships. This is the citadel that must be attacked.the immoral, self-seeking philosophy which underlies much of modern society."

Today, and as part of our struggle to build a moral and people-centred society, our country is preoccupied with the challenge of what Nelson Mandela once described as "the RDP of the soul". We are correctly concerned about issues of moral regeneration and a new patriotism. We are proud to say that we are "proudly South African".

All this has to do with the living, intangible heritage for whose preservation, protection, promotion and dissemination, we will seek to use Heritage Month. It should therefore be clear that the fact that it is 'intangible' does not mean that it is unimportant.

It has to do with an age when we too had occasion to say - nobody knows my name. For colonialism and apartheid also deliberately sought to negate our cultural heritage, to deny us our own sense of identity and continuity. In the process our own masters tried to take away our names. Kopano became Jane, and Sipho, Jim. Thus renamed, they sought to use us as putty in their hands, to model and redefine us, so that we would take it as an expression of the will of God, that we should forever do their bidding, as their willing and mindless instruments.

Because the intangible mattered to the oppressed, the ordinary working people responded in their own way to the attempt to deprive them of their identity. As they engaged in hard labour, under the watchful eyes of the white overseers, they chanted - "abelungu ngoodamn; basibiza ooJim." These rhymes, with their rhythm, have also become part of our living heritage, an example of the process of the re-creation of our intangible heritage in response to our social environment.

For many centuries racism has been a defining feature of our society. There are some in our country who find it to their material advantage that all of us should ignore the stark reality that this has left us with a deeply entrenched legacy of racial divisions and inequalities. But this reality is also directly relevant to what we will be doing during Heritage Month and subsequently, to assert our diverse identities, while also promoting our unity, as well as respect for our cultural diversity and the creativity of all our people.

In his book, "Nobody Knows My Name", James Baldwin also wrote about the impact of a long history of racism on his own country, the United States. A creative and sensitive thinker and writer, he knew that what he cared most about, the intangible cultural heritage of his people and country, had to contend with, and thrive within the context of that long history.

And so he confronted the matter directly, refusing to draw comfort from the promise of a better life in heaven, reluctant to still the demons by hoping for his return to Africa, as we should be reluctant to still the demons by a casual reference to a Rainbow Nation. Telling a story about himself, he wrote that "the political and spiritual currents of my very early youth involved a return to Africa, or a rejection of it; either choice would lead to suicide, or madness, for, in fact, neither choice was possible."

James Baldwin also wrote: "The reason that it is important - of the utmost importance - for white people, here, to see the Negroes as people like themselves is that white people will not, otherwise, be able to see themselves as they are. . . And this long history of moral evasion has had an unhealthy effect on the total life of the country."

During our Heritage Month, we must all see all our people as people like ourselves. And thus each one of us as national groups will be able to see ourselves as we are. By freeing ourselves of the burdens of prejudice, enabling ourselves to celebrate our diverse living heritage, we will achieve what James Baldwin called "the act of assuming and becoming oneself", no longer denied the right to call ourselves by our own names.

Floor-crossing

Councillors take first step in historic realignment

The floor-crossing period for local councillors, which opened this week and continues until 15 September, has seen the first batch of public representatives of the New National Party (NNP) join the ANC following the NNP's recent decision to dissolve and encourage its members to join the ANC.

By the end of the second day of the period, significant numbers of NNP councillors had joined the ANC in the Western Cape, Gauteng, KwaZulu Natal and other parts of the country. This is the first part of a process of NNP members joining the ANC, which is expected to be completed during the floor-crossing period for national and provincial legislators in September next year.

For the party that was responsible for the formulation of apartheid and its maintenance over four decades, this decision represents an important move to ensure that the legacy of the party ultimately involves the embrace of a democratic, inclusive and non-racial society. It represents an acceptance by the leadership and membership of the party that, after decades of conflict and division, the future of all South Africans can be secured through unity and cooperation.

The NNP decision follows a period of closer cooperation between the ANC and NNP in the pursuit of common objectives. These include building a national consensus founded on true South African patriotism as a critical instrument in the effort to deracialise our society; and developing a unity of purpose to confront the great challenges of our country. The cooperation was also meant to foster reconciliation and good inter-community relations to achieve a truly non-racial and non-sexist South African society. It recognised that South Africa is an African country, and that both organisations have a responsibility to mobilise extensively the relevant human and material resources necessary for the development of both our country and our continent.

The cooperation was taken further in June this year, when the two parties agreed that the Freedom Charter, adopted by the Congress of the People in 1955, should form the common departure point for this relationship.

In a joint statement issued in June, the organisations outline the basis for the further development of the cooperation relationship: "The first decade of freedom has been characterised by a growing spirit of unity among all our people, as they work together to build a new South Africa that belongs to all who live in it. There has been a fundamental realignment of South Africa 's party political environment over the last ten years, requiring all parties to re-examine their role and contribution to the future development of South Africa."

Through its relationship of cooperation the ANC and the NNP had made progress in mobilising communities in support of the broad goals agreed by the organisations; had stabilised governance and accelerated social delivery in areas previously controlled by the opposition; and had forged a new political spirit of cooperation and progress, the statement said.

This new political spirit was highlighted in the April 14 election results, which showed a weakening of the combined support for those parties campaigning on the anti-ANC line. While the results saw a significant decline in the support of the NNP, they confirmed an increasing desire by South Africans for a shift away from the politics of division.

The joint statement, released after the election, said: "The NNP, which was once the party of apartheid, has evolved politically to a point where it is well placed to play a meaningful role in working with others to address the social, economic and psychological legacy of that system. The ANC, which led the people in dismantling apartheid, remains a political home for South Africans from all communities, classes and backgrounds who share the ideal of a united, non-racial, non-sexist and democratic nation."

Any current NNP members wishing to join the ANC will have the same rights and responsibilities as any other ANC members. All ANC members join the organisation voluntarily in their individual capacity, and make a declaration to abide by the aims and objectives of the organisation and respect the Constitution and structures of the organisation.

The ANC will welcome any members of the New National Party (NNP) who wish to join the ANC in building a people's contract at local government level to create work and fight poverty. Any NNP councillors who join the ANC will do so in accordance with transitional arrangements agreed between the two parties.

The 'floor-crossing' legislation is an important instrument to accommodate instances of significant party political realignment between elections. The need for such legislation was highlighted by the formation of the Democratic Alliance (DA) in 2000, and the NNP's subsequent withdrawal from it. Because voters choose the party, rather than the candidate, of the their choice, a member of parliament or member of a provincial legislature would usually lose their seat if their party became part of another party or subdivided to form a new party.

As a result, even after the formation of the DA, the MPs and MPLs of its constituent parties still remained representatives of the original parties. There was no legal provision for them all to become DA members of parliament.

When local government elections were held in 2000, these parties contested the election under the banner of the DA. But when the NNP withdrew from the DA, there was no legal provision for councillors who formed the NNP 'component' of the DA to be representatives of the NNP.

It was in part to address this anomaly that the 'crossing-the-floor' package of laws was introduced. It was also aimed at providing a way of accommodating any future instance of political re-alignment in councils and legislatures without undermining the basic principles of the country's electoral system -and without causing disruption to the process of governance. This is in line with the practices of a number of democracies across the world which use the proportional representation electoral system.

During the floor-crossing period, the ANC will welcome into its ranks any local government councillors from other parties who meet the criteria laid out in law and who demonstrate a genuine interest in working as part of the ANC to meet the needs of the South African people.

All ANC provincial and regional structures will be monitoring the floor-crossing process to ensure that it strengthens the ongoing effort to improve service delivery and accountability at local level. Structures will therefore be required to give attention to the track record and integrity of any councillors wishing to join the organisation.

The ANC is seeking people who can add value to the work of the organisation, not simply people who will increase the organisation's numbers.

Achievement Awards

Branches and councillors have a month left to enter for awards

Branches of the ANC, Women's League and Youth League, and ANC councillors, have just under a month to submit entries for the ANC's 2004 Annual Achievement Awards.

Branches and groups of councillors who want to be considered for these awards, need to submit their entry forms by 30 September. Each year the ANC presents awards in four categories: to the best performing ANC branch, ANC Women's League branch, ANC Youth League branch and group of ANC councillors. These awards are presented to the winning structures at the ANC's annual anniversary celebrations on 8 January.

The awards were initiated in 2000 to highlight the achievements of ANC structures, and to reward best practice within the organisation. This forms part of a broader effort to strengthen ANC branches and those of the leagues, and to locate the ANC branch at the centre of all ANC activities and programmes. It is also meant to acknowledge the contribution of the branch to its immediate community.

The winning branches are those which have been able to successfully recruit new members to the ANC, induct them in the practice and politics of the ANC, and involve them in practical work to take forward the programme of the movement. They must have strong roots within their communities, be active in addressing problems that face the community, and be at the forefront of local development.

The winning group of councillors are those which have most effectively in the past year used the institution of local government to benefit the people of their area. They must be united and work as a collective. They must have a clear vision for the council, and a programme of development that is realistic and sustainable.

The awards are named for outstanding cadres of the ANC, whose individual qualities of commitment and selflessness are an example to every ANC member. During their lives, each of these people made an immeasurable contribution to the struggle for freedom and a better life for all.

The award for the best performing ANC branch is named after Sol Plaatje, a prominent founder of the ANC and its first Secretary General. A distinguished writer and political activist, Plaatje played a leading role in mobilising opposition to the 1913 Native Land Act. The award recognises Plaatje's conviction that only united, organised action can bring about meaningful change. The ANC branch remains to this day the primary vehicle for social transformation.

The Charlotte Maxeke Award goes to the best performing ANC Women's League branch. Maxeke, described as "the mother of African freedom in this country", was the first president of the Bantu Women's League. Formed in 1918, the league was the forerunner of the ANC Women's League. Throughout her life, Maxeke showed outstanding qualities as an ANC activist, social worker, teacher, journalist, church leader and thinker.

The Anton Lembede Award is awarded to the best performing ANC Youth League branch. Lembede was a founding member and the first President of the ANC Youth League. Though he died in 1947 at the tragically early age of 33, Lembede made an indelible mark on the history of the ANC, the role of the youth and the direction of the struggle. It is Lembede's emphasis on the unity of the youth which must guide ANC Youth League branches as they continue his struggle for national liberation and development.

The ZK Matthews Award goes to the best performing group of ANC local councillors. Matthews is credited with initiating the process which led to the Freedom Charter, which stated the fundamental will of all South Africans that 'the people shall govern'. Matthews was President of the ANC in the Cape province, Africa Secretary of the World Council of Churches, and Botswana's first ambassador to the United States. The award is a tribute to his contribution to the affirmation of the will of the people and his strong belief that government should act as the servant of the people.

The previous winners of the award, for 2003, were the Ivory Park North branch in Gauteng (Sol Plaatje Award); Kabokweni Ward 21 Women's League branch in Mpumalanga (Charlotte Maxeke Award); Thabo Mbeki Youth League branch in the Free State (Anton Lembede Award); and the ANC councillors in the Amathole region in Eastern Cape (ZK Matthews Award).

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