I cannot proudly say “I am an African”

On April 27 I cannot go to the top of Lebombo Mountains and say “I am an African and a disciple of Chief Albert Luthuli, Nelson Mandela, Thabo Mbeki, Kwameh Nkrumah, Agostinoh Neto, Eduardo Mondlane, Amilcar Cabral, Patrice Lumumba and Joshua Nkomo because of wounds I inflicted on another African and a human being”.
I cannot quote Luthuli’s speech at Oslo when he received a Nobel Peace Prize on December 11, 1961 when he said “thus it is that the golden age of Africa’s independence is also dark of South Africa’s decline and retrogression, brought about by men, who, when revolutionary changes then entrenched fundamental human rights were taking place in Europe, were closed in on the tip of South Africa and so missed the wind of progressive change”.
This week, we buried human rights and retrogressed into anarchy, barbarism and acted in the same way our dignity was destroyed by colonialists who made an African a slave.
I cannot go to the top of the Lebombo Mountain and profess to be fully human when I acted like a vicious dog in the same way Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini turned Namibians and Ethiopians into lesser humans. I cannot condemn John Bathalzar Vorster for supporting Hitler.
Our acts help those who want to confirm that there is only one good native in South Africa and Africa, Nelson Mandela, but all the rest are barbarians. I cannot use Mbeki’s speech “I am an African”, Mandela’s speech when receiving the Nobel Peace Prize and or use the book by Frantz Fanon “The Wretched of the Earth” as my political bible, because South Africans have soiled our Ubuntu and Africanness.
What will Sekhukhuni, Cetshwayo, Hintsa, Bambatha, Langalibalele Dube, Patrice Lumumba and many warrior men and women who chose honour and dignity to defend our people, land and livestock say about my actions?
If we do not stop this anarchy no matter how corrupt we are, we will have another 1947. Lack of remorse in the brutal killing of Andries Tetane, non-prosecution of killers of Jimmy Mohlahlane (Mbombela municipality speaker) and various killing in Mpumalanga, failure to charge the killers of Mzwandile Mkhize, Sbu Sibiya, Sanele Nxumalo and those involved in arson during the farm workers strike lead to killing with impunity, indirectly motivating and encouraging what embarrasses us.
A president who is homophobic and ridicules Malawian streets cannot go to the top to the Lebombo Mountains and shout “I am an African”.
Let us be true custodians of Madiba 365 days a year!
SIYANDA MHLONGO
KwaDukuza