Mourning

Another deeply thoughtful article by Wandia Njoya:

AFRICA MUST RECONCILE WITH HERSELF, WEEP FOR HERSELF

(i'm only quoting here parts of it)

"Black South Africans had barely heaved a sigh of relief from the trauma of apartheid when Archbishop Desmond Tutu led them to accomplish the super human feat of listening to the confessions of gruesome acts committed against their kith and kin. The TV pictures of Archbishop Tutu's lowering his head as he was overcome by grief remain engraved in my mind, for they represent the profound horror and suffering of black South Africans which could not be expressed through words; only through tears. However, as black South Africans endured this painful grieving process, they were also asked to swallow the bitter pill of amnesty and of no promise of reparations or wealth re-distribution. A casual observer can therefore recognize that South Africa is upheld as the model which the rest of Africa is supposed to emulate; which is to have whites confess their sins before their black victims, pay no reparations or suffer imprisonment, while God damn the Africans as their open wounds fester, leading them to explode against women, children, neighboring ethnic groups, fellow citizens, and in this case, fellow Africans."

"All over Africa, we were and still are flooded with stories about reconciliation between blacks and whites, but never between blacks themselves... The message from this imbalance to Africans is simple: crimes committed against us by each other are normal and do not deserve to be addressed through meticulous court trials, reconciliation commissions and national healing. The only time we are expected to go through these processes is when whites are the perpetrators of the injustice. Thus, Africans are expected to spend time understanding the historical background and institutional structures that led Europeans to commit crimes against us, but the same commitment is not demanded of them when the crimes are committed by our fellow Africans."

"It is high time we Africans sat down and honestly discussed how the human identities of class, race, gender, ethnicity and nationality within Africa have been poisoned by racism. And we must do this within closed doors of our countries and our languages, away from the scrutinizing eye of Western donors and scholars. We must do it for ourselves and among ourselves, damning whether it meets the principles of human rights charters or the mildly enlightening but un-replicable theories such as Marxism and feminism. It is unrealistic and unfair for us to spend so much energy reconciling with and forgiving Europe for slavery, colonialism and apartheid, while almost none on acknowledging, explaining and forgiving the injuries we inflicted on each other across individual, gender, class, ethnic and national boundaries. Likewise, it is absurd that Euro-America culturally and politically imposes a policy of "forgive and forget" on us. How can Euro-America be forgiven when it has not apologized, and how can it claim to have repented the sins of racist exploitation if it has not abandoned the initial errant and exploitative behavior? Moreover, Euro-American continually protects its settlers and post-apartheid communities in Africa, but remains aloof when we unleash our frustrations on each other or when politicians and criminals inflict suffering on their fellow Africans in the name of history or "African standards."

Africa must find the time to mourn; regularly. It makes little sense to celebrate liberation without remembering and mourning the millions of victims who lost their lives under brutality or in the struggle. Africa is further prevented from being emotionally and psychically connected to our history by the philanthropists and do-gooders who shed crocodile, and maybe sincere, tears on our behalf. Every time Madonna, Bono, Angelina Jolie and ilk adopt children, hold concerts, produce documentaries and visit the G8 on our behalf, they effectively impose another barrier between Africans and their past. The inherent message of philanthropy is that Europeans know our pain better than we - the people who bear it - do, and therefore they are best placed to weep for us. Meanwhile, when Africans mourn apartheid, racism, colonialism and slavery, we are told to "get over it" and not to "dwell on the past" that academics separate from the present using the latest "post" theory. And the more we are distanced from our history, the less likely we are to learn from it."

Who's mourning for whom? Who can mourn (what) profusely and who is barred from even uttering it? Do supposedly good-doing efforts like Amnesty, Truth and Reconciliation Commission, philanthropy... shed tears with us or do they effectively gag us from mourning for ourselves, mourning with each other, mourning "with our own voice, in our own words, and in our own languages"? Njoya's article's profoundly affected me with these questions...