We are not all black

During a Student Affairs Conference at Stellenbosch one of the speakers correct me to say 'African black' and not 'black' people when referring to people from the isiXhosa, seTswana, isiZulu, etc groups.

I almost burst out laughing for the simple reason whether you used the term 'African black' or 'black' you still black. For me the tag 'African' is problematic because of two reasons.

Firstly, westerners use the term 'African' in a derogatory sense. If you do not want to believe me just watch CNN and BBC on Africa. If you a westerner and you picture Africa, you see famine, civil wars and people that are running naked through the Kalahari. This is the backward conception of the word 'Africa'.

Secondly, it is a term used in South Africa to exclude other 'black' people. In SA coloureds, Indians, and people from the isiXhosa, seTswana, isiZulu, etc groups are sometimes collectively referred to as 'black'. So a good question to ask would be when can you use the term 'African' black.

'African' black is used in AA and EE policy and 'black' is used in BBBEE policy. So why the difference? The answer is located in the concept 'equal opportunity'. The first part of the answer is simple. Employment specific retributive discrimination need to take place to address the discrimination of the past. In the past equal opportunity to employment was not given to all races.

But this does not explain 'black' and BBBEE. To answer this question we need to visit history for a while. If you old enough or if you have read wide enough you will notice that opportunity for coloured, Indians and "African' blacks to the economy was denied. Here no opportunity was given to these group, hence the difference today.

However, this does not explain the exclusionary nature of the term 'African'. The explanation is simple. Coloured, whites and Indian citizens is also African. They were born and bred on this continent. So 'African black' make Coloureds, Indians and Whites not 'African' which is problematic. This mean that these group is strangers or do not belong on the African continent and that they have to go back where there came from.

However, here is a fact that is often overlooked. The Khoisan is regarded as coloured and according to history the Khoisan have been in Southern African longer than any other group. Doesn't this make them more African than any other group?

We need to be more critically of the concepts we are fed at university, schools, the government and even the media. If not we have a situation on our hands where 'some animals is more equal than other animals'.

PS: It is already happening.

25 October 2011