awakening while eating

Written by Maleke Montshiwagae

the concept of "at least I'm doing something" is often quite reactionary. .. the reactionary charity force often use it to negatively alter the emotions of those committed to "fundamental" work regarding the black condition. ... . labels such as armchair critics are attached to "fundamental workers" to discredit their contribution given their often inconvenient and uncomfortable questions

while one acknowledges the importance and realities of the "now hunger " question within the black grammar of suffering, one also has to be cautious of the reactionary nature of charity when not coupled with a reawakening program . ..

Firoze Manji in an article under the ''thinking Africa'' Newsletter is quoted as saying: " In the struggle for emancipation, private organizations such as NGOs role has to be focused on acts of solidarity, not acts of charity. Their role is to amplify the voices of the oppressed, not to speak on their behalf. The name of the game is emancipation- I think that has to be the basis upon which everything else is done"....

he continues to define two forms of freedom, namely emancipatory, in which individuals and communities push boundaries and challenge those who delimit their freedom, and licensed freedom, in which the parameters are set and constrained by others rather than those who seek their own freedom!..

therefore, if "doing something" takes a white liberal form of feeling sorry for black people and therefore coming over to "help" by feeding them soup etc without any emancipatory agenda that would assist in dismantling the black condition, then that approach is extremely reactionary and cannot be supported from a "fundamental work" point of view. I would say that it speaks rather to a licensed freedom in which the terms of engagement are predetermined by the "helper".

if there's any charity black people could do with, is the charity of the collapse of capital relations through which blacks will be guaranteed the human status simply because the current capital relations are based on a dehumanized black reality. for example, the foundations of USA's Anglo-Saxon racist capitalism rests upon the black men as the "other" , therefore "doing something " must always be coupled with a burning desire to emancipate the black from being the "other" towards being black the human. .... hence the talk of a collapse in capital relations as we know it.......

let's do something yes! . . a sustainable emancipation. ...

Mosia Mahlomaholo