Kae Matundu-Tjiparuro
“We urgently need revolutions in all the independent African countries where the anti-colonial revolutions have not yet evolved into national democratic revolutions.” They need the second phase of the African Revolution. They need national democratic revolutions.”
Writes African ideologue from Botswana, the late Dr Goabonang Kenneth Shololo Koma, in his 1994 pamphlet titled The Second Phase of the African Revolution Has Now Begun. Which he was to follow up with another in which he was to propound and expound the agenda for the Second Phase of the African Revolution. It would be interesting to know if such a treatise was ever realised by the late Dr Koma. But one thing that he reminded Africa is: “Nobody has any doubt at all about the fact that the anti-colonial revolution in Africa was betrayed. Hence, the need for the Second Phase of the African Revolution.”
When the late Dr Koma wrote this treatise, Namibia was barely four years old, having achieved independence in 1990. This was after over a hundred years of the anti-colonial revolution and/or national revolution, if you wish. If one has to trace it back to the 1840s, Imperial Germany, starting with missionaries and other settlers, started to establish connections with the then South West Africa. Of course, with Imperial Germany following suit, not long after, to herald and usher in officially its colonial occupation proper. Triggering off the anti-colonial revolution spearheaded by the indigenous people, first the Ovaherero, Ovambanderu and Nama, with the rest of the country’s indigenous people falling later in line, culminating in the launch of the armed liberation struggle in the mid-1960s.
Likewise, when Dr Koma wrote his treatise in 1994, the South African anti-colonial revolution was reaching the stage of the consummation of the Democratic Revolution via the Codesa negotiations to dismantle Apartheid to pave the way for South Africa’s first-ever democratic elections, which led to the first democratically elected government in 1994.
As Dr Koma maintains, the anti-colonial revolutions in most of the independent African countries have been betrayed. One may and can, in the case of Namibia and South Africa, perhaps give them the benefit of the doubt with regard to betrayal. In view of the fact that by then Namibia was only a nascent state, and a democratic South Africa was only being born. Contrary to other African countries, some of whom by then were 60 years old or so. But 36 years down the line for Namibia and 31 years for South Africa, can it really be said that indeed the anti-colonial revolutions in the two countries, just like in most of the rest, if not all African independent countries, have not been betrayed and/or are and have not been on the path of betrayal?
Ala Dr Koma, democratic revolutions must and should have followed the anti-colonial revolutions to pave the way for the Second Phase of the African Revolution (Namibian and South African revolutions), which must have begun. Has such been happening and/or is happening in both Namibia and South Africa? Can we with certainty say the necessary foundation is and has been laid for the would-be natural transition from the anti-colonial revolutions to the democratic revolutions and eventually the Second Phase of the Revolutions?
Indeed, that the revolutions in both Namibia and South Africa have been betrayed could not have been said in many words other than in some of the interventions at the summit of Southern Africa’s former liberation movements in South Africa this July. Among them are eminent leaders like former Mozambican President Joaquim Chissano. Quoted as saying the liberation movements have deviated from what they stood for, which was to serve the people. “It is crucial that we recognise that, over time, we have made mistakes. In many of our countries we have witnessed the weakening of democratic institutions, the growing distance between parties and citizens, the appropriation of public resources by private interests, and intolerance towards dissenting voices,” he was quoted as introspectively reflecting.
Serving the people has indeed been trumpeted by most, if not all, of the former liberation movements, now ruling parties. But there’s been little evidence on the ground, and among communities and the peoples that are meant to be served, that they actually have been served, are being served and are at any time in the foreseeable future going to be served properly and deservedly, as per the promises after promises of these parties. Rarely, for that matter, has one been hearing about the mission now, which is about radical transformation. But ruling has become an end in itself instead of being a means to an end. This end is supposed to be the transition to the democratic revolution and the subsequent phase of the revolution, which is the economic revolution. Dr Koma’s Second Phase of the African Revolution.
If Chissano’s litany of the happenings is anything to go by, there’s nothing indicating, let alone inspiring, hope and expectation that the necessary and sufficient groundwork has been and is being laid for transition from the anti-colonial revolution, which itself seems to have been hijacked by capitalism. To be able to move to the next is all the more a necessary condition for the next phase, which is the democratic revolution.
Nothing speaks more to the stagnation of the former liberation movements than the theme of their last summit this year. Defending The Gains, Confronting The Future Together. Yours Truly Ideologically cannot but imagine what the gains in most of the independent African countries, let alone Namibia and South Africa, are needing defending?
The elephant in the room, all along during imperialism and colonialism, has been and continues to be capitalism. That has remained intact, if not entrenched and/or remodelled to continue the syphoning off of the natural resources of the targeted formerly colonised countries and the exploitation of their peoples. With their would-be political leaders, who are in essence the gatekeepers of the capitalist system and not servants of the people as they have been acting and pretending, thereby hoodwinking the unsuspecting, benign and docile masses. While what they practically have been and are doing is continuing to prop up the capitalist system. Which is what economic emancipation, which Namibia has been harping on, just entails.
Addressing the conference of the African National Congress local government councillors in South Africa recently, Reverend Frank Chikane referred to the morality of revolutionaries, which is different from a religious morality. One cannot but ask if such a morality exists in Namibia as a foundation for the advancement of the revolution? Are those referring to self and fellows as comrades? Comrade in what, in the Revolution? Or in jostling for a place in the scramble for plundering the country, aiding and abetting capitalism?
