There are some people who falsely define and characterise history as “a bygone moment of lived reality”.
These people simply presume that history is like a metaphysical organism that lives and dies. To be precise, history does not live and die like living organisms. History lives forever and is founded on the prism of eternity.
There is no nation on earth that is insulated from the burgeoning sounds and voices of history. History reminds us of our generic greatness and at times reminds us of our helpless vulnerability.
History teaches us to never forget what was or what could have been. Humans are structured in a way that permits them to create history, to live in history, to rejoice and to despair in the bosoms of history.
History is the most powerful and sophisticated model of abstractive education. History enables any society to learn, comprehend and remember its own limitations and capabilities. Our collective willpower to learn and remember is wholly dependent upon the constraints of history.
In the last seven years, I have discussed with several leaders of the ANC Youth League (ANCYL) the contextuality of ANC history. My ultimate purpose was to gauge the level of historical knowledge and consciousness among ANCYL leaders and cadres.
I have come to a painful conclusion that most ANCYL leaders and cadres have a minimal knowledge of ANC history. Consequently, that creates irreconcilable contradictions and insurmountable fissures between the league and the ANC. Political illiteracy and false historical consciousness are extremely rife and generically pervasive in the ANCYL.
Very little has been done to cultivate political knowledge and historical consciousness among ANCYL members and cadres. That explains the chaos, hooliganism and anarchy that usually characterises the meetings and elective conferences of the ANCYL.
It is not factionalism that has paralysed the organisational functionality and vibrancy of the ANCYL. On the contrary, it is the pervasiveness of political illiteracy and false historical consciousness that cripples the ANCYL.
The organisational paralysis of the ANCYL first emerged at its elective national conference in 2008.
That chaotic conference witnessed the election of ultra-militant Julius Malema as league president. With unprecedented militancy, Malema turned the ANCYL into an opposition party within the ANC. Under Malema, the ANCYL argued that it is both independent and autonomous from the ANC.
The league’s boisterous argument was premised purely on political illiteracy and juvenile belligerence. Youth league leaders insisted that they have a right to formulate policies that are independent of the ANC. That assertion was blatantly incorrect and politically mischievous. The ANCYL owes its organisational existence to the political authority of the ANC.
The formation of the ANCYL was first mooted by then ANC president, Pixley Ka Isaka Seme in 1933. While addressing the ANC executive committee, Seme called for “the formation of a fearless battalion of youthful militants” within the ANC.
Overwhelmed by fear, the ANC executive committee flatly rejected Seme’s militant proposal. In 1943, the ANC leadership formally approved of a proposal to establish the ANCYL.
Hence the official founding of the youth league the following year (in 1944). The ANCYL was not formed outside the organisational knowledge and guidance of the ANC leadership. Because of that, the league should never claim to be a sovereign or independent organisation.
The youth league is an integral youthful organisation of the ANC. The youth league should not compare its political identity with that of Cosas and Sasco.
Cosas and Sasco are purely independent student organisations that are in strategic alliance with the ANC.
The implication is that the two student structures may, at any given time, decide to withdraw from the ANC. That is because Sasco and Cosas do not derive their organisational existence from the ANC.
The ANC should vigorously cleanse the youth league of its political deficiencies, false ideologies and perceptual inaccuracies.
The raging political infighting in the league is primarily caused and fuelled by political illiteracy and consumption of false ideologies. Most youth league leaders and cadres do not read journals and books on political history and contemporary politics.
Misinformed and disinformed leaders pose the greatest danger to any organisation or society. An organisation that is led by a misinformed leader is more likely to plunge into a bottomless abyss of failure. The ANCYL should begin to invest in accurate political education and authentic historical knowledge.
Political illiteracy, false historical consciousness and a “get-rich-quick” mentality are paralysing and polluting the soul of the youth league.
Elvis Masoga
Political analyst
