Category Archives: Jacques Depelechin

In the Name of Ota Benga

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In the Name of Ota Benga

by Jacques Depelechin

IN THE NAME OF OTA BENGA
Who on March 20, 1916
Took his own life
In his memory
Let us stop people like Mr. Generic Autocrat (GA),
his supporters and allies,
in their determination to torture and kill
people that many of them are driven
to contemplate suicide

Is it not people like Mr. GA
Who drove Mohamed Bouazizi
To take his own life?

I received the news of the latest attempts by (Mr. GA) and company to evict people from where they live, on land that happens to be public land. Several months ago I remember having a hard time understanding the behavior of people like Mr. GA. I have a hard time understanding Mr. GA of today. Maybe this effort could also help him understand himself in a context and a dynamic that he might not have contemplated.

Sometimes, people who can only see their own history or, worse, their own individual dreams do tend to forget that even they would not find life worth living if it were not for the existence and contribution to life and living by the people that they despise the most.

Given the historical context, in South Africa, more precisely, in the Durban’s neighborhood coveted with such raging persistence by Mr. G (a distant cousin of Mr GA), it is not difficult to conclude that he is convinced that he is on the winning side. But then during January, February, March of this year, he kept seeing on TV people like Shamita Nadoo and Nozuko Hulushe turning into heroines. Standing up they were saying in most eloquent terms they were tired of being on the losing side.

However, given Mr. G’s trajectory as well as his objectives, it is quite possible that this kind of evening news diet was not so helpful after all. It must have been distressingly stressful. Under stress, most normal human beings tend to behave abnormally, and, from the reports, it is fair, so far, to look at Mr. G as a normal being. Still one is forced to ask, on the basis of reports, could it be that Mr. G is acting abnormally, i.e. against his own interests, his own future?

If he is stressing at the news coming from Tunisia and Egypt, could it be that, unconsciously, Mr. G might be aligning with the rich and super rich autocrats of Tunisia and Egypt? If so, he might be doubly forgiven for feeling stressed out. Could it then be that Mr. G’s conscious way of relieving the stress is to act in solidarity with the obesely rich Tunisian/Egyptian, without flying to Tunisia/Egypt?

It is so much easier and cheaper to take it out on people who live so cheaply, in Mr. G’s view, that they should be gotten rid of, in stages.

After all, the example coming from on high, he will be forgiven, again, for confusing the situation in Tunisia/Egypt with the one that prevails in South Africa.

However, the richest of the richest in South Africa, certainly aware of the behavior of people like Mr. G, can see how much opportune (and cheaper), for them, it will be to get rid of the likes of Mr. G before the VV (virtual volcano) of the poorest of the poorest gets too hot for them.

Mr. G has openly complained about people he does not like, talking to the media. A strategy that can only increase his stressed out state; and Mr. G is aware that the more people know about his doings, the less shining he might appear to his political friends. Greater exposure cannot be good for sure because, deep down, he has to know (remember he can be normal at times) that what he is doing is not only against the law, but also immoral, amoral, against decency and dignity. In short, he knows, deep down, that he is going against all of the things that, possibly, his mother, tried to instill in him.

But then, in his childhood, who knows for sure, he might have sworn, after having been humiliated by a white person, that, one day, he would take his revenge and be the richest person in South Africa.

However, Mr. G’s ambition, fed by a quirky imagination and vision, seems to be on a collision course with the will of those who are saying “enough is enough”.

Mr. G himself must have observed, while watching TV, that fear had changed side, almost overnight. The poorest of the poorest (he used to refer to them as the cheeky ones), were gaining on all fronts that mattered in politics. Having lived injustices for so long, they articulated their denunciations of their torturers more eloquently than the best trained and most experienced lawyers and/or academics could ever hope to do.

Having experienced indignities and humiliations from institutions that were supposed to work for them, they have become their best advocates for calling for their transformation. They have become experts of why democracy keeps failing when it serves only those who can pay for the politicians.

One must not discard the possibility that Mr. G., sensing that the tide might be turning, has begun to ask himself unlikely questions. Could it be that his recent nightmares might be a signal that his projections for the rosy future will indeed go up in flames and be reduced to ashes? At the same time, it is very hard for him to let go when he felt so close to achieving his dream of rubbing shoulders with the millionaires and billionaires of the world. Hence his stressed out state that leads him to do things that seem, to the ordinary person, so incomprehensible.

Like many of his friends, Mr. G. must be wondering if the things he has seen on TV will keep growing and change the way people relate to each other, radically, irreversibly. They (G and friends) thought they could control anyone, but especially the poorest of the poorest, through fear, but fear no longer works as it used to. He has never had nightmares in his life, but now it is almost every other night. Could it be that he and his friends went too far when they razed to the ground the altar to the ancestors.

He has never asked himself so many questions in his entire life. At the same time he feels odd because, for the first time, he is forced to think for himself, but the questions that are coming to his mind are incredibly hard. It is as if he is being tested, but what for? He is not interested in running for office, after all it is so much easier to get things done the privatized way, for just a pittance paid to folks who have never seen so much money in one time going into their pockets.

But then the questions keep coming: is it worth taking such short cuts?

This is not based on any person alive or dead but “Trials and tribulations of a person virtually invented in South Africa” shall continue its next episode soon.

Letter to the Motala Comrades from Jacques Depelechin

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Dear friends, Dear Shamita Naidoo,

I am writing this to thank you all for your exemplary solidarity. At times
it is difficult to say thank you briefly. I wish i could be more brief,
but here it goes.

I have been meaning to write you since I heard of the latest attacks
against you. I still cannot understand how South Africa under the
leadership of the ANC is allowing the law of the land to be taken in the
hands of people whose behavior seems to come straight out of apartheid
South Africa. Such behavior seems to be widespread. It is happening in
Durban, in Joburg, in Cape Town, mostly against the poorest of the
poorest.

The assault is against the poorest of the poorest. In our common histories
of discrimination inside and outside Africa, there is a pattern one can
observe: the poorest of the poorest are seen/presented (especially by the
richest of the richest and their allies) as incapable of thinking for
themselves, by themselves. In other times, the poorest of the poorest were
enslaved in Africa and shipped across the Atlantic and northward. The
process was a complex one and there are still academic battles going on as
to the responsibility for a genocide whose impact and consequences still
remain impossible to calculate in human terms.

Atlantic slavery is mentioned because, in various places, in Africa and
outside of Africa, people resisted the process. The most well known one
was what the Africans did in Haiti from 1791 through 1804. Then, it was
also thought by the french (the “owners” of Haiti when it was still known
as Santo Domingo and its black population) that the slaves could not free
themselves from slavery. In the mindset of the ones who became filthy rich
through slavery, the slaves could not be capable of thinking of freeing
themselves. Indeed, according to the Black Code (1685-1848), enslaved
Africans were nothing more nothing less than furniture to be discarded when
it became useless. How could pieces of furniture think?

From Atlantic slavery to post apartheid South Africa, the poorest of the
poorest have been treated as if they are not part of humanity, as if they
cannot think for and by themselves. But, as in Santo Domingo/Haiti, the
same people who have been discriminated systematically have shown that they
are the conscience of humanity, they are the ones who live, who think, who
breathe human solidarity.

People who are eager to become the richest of the richest, like Ricky
Ricky Govender will seek to eradicate the poorest of the poorest because
they are the only safeguard against the quickest realization of their
dreams/our nightmares. I am sure Govender has other explanations and has
used them, but in the process of seeking to realize his dreams, he must be
shown, systematically, constantly that he is also eradicating humanity,
just like the enslavers were doing centuries ago, when this system was
invented. Such a system is increasingly revealing itself, through people
like Govender and its known and unknown allies, devoid of any respect for
the sacredness of life and living people.

Motala Heights is a sacred place because there are people who live there,
people who are born there, people who die there. In this sacred place, the
residents built a temple, the Shembe Temple.

Govender thought it was ok to destroy the Shembe Temple because he had been
destroying little by little the people of Motala Heights, with impunity,
and, apparently, with the approval of those who are supposed to defend
every member of society against unlawful practices. That is how, little by
little, the law of the land gets eroded. That is how, little by little, a
whole country can slide toward situations which are reminiscent of nazism,
apartheid.

I have written all of this to say thank you to Shamita, thank you to all
the people who are living in Motala Heights, thank you to all those who
stand, actively, in solidarity with the poorest of the poorest against the
destruction of the constitution in South Africa, the destruction of people,
the destruction of humanity. Thank you for showing, by example, what it
takes to stand up for the emancipation of humanity.

Deepest thanks
Jacques Depelchin

Response to S’bu Zikode’s article by Jacques Depelechin

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Dear S’bu Zikode and Dear members of Abalhali baseMjondolo,

I have just read your description of what has happened, and I find it hard to believe. There is no point being long because you have written so eloquently that it would be impossible to do better.

This one thing though. How is this possible in the land of those who gave everything so that such things would not happen again, ever? Am I naive? Where have all those great voices which stood up for the poor, for the non whites? Where are they? Is it possible that there is so much work that they cannot be heard where you were?

Is South Africa listed as a Christian country?

I am asking for a very simple reason. I have never met anyone who says that Francis of Assisi was a bad person. In fact, whenever the name comes up, people’s eyes brighten up, whether they are believers or not. Francis of Assisi became the patron saint of the poor because he loved the poor beyond anyone, including himself.

Are there Franciscans in South Africa? I am wondering because if there are any, one would think that they would support you, in memory of the great man from Assisi.

But above all, S’bu Zikode, thank you for speaking up. As Martin Luther King once pointed out, to be honest and remain silent as a contradiction. He said he was not worried about silences, but he was worried about honest people who remained silent.

Do take care, jd