Between freedom and unfreedom

April 2006, Al-Qalam

Another 27^th April has just passed. Another Freedom Day, another set of Freedom Day celebrations. Twelve years after our first democratic elections, the “Vivas” and “Amandlas” continue to be chanted on this day.

I remember a few days after this day in 1994, on the 10^th May, when I stood – all goose pimply – with my family at the Union Buildings as Nelson Mandela was inaugurated as the first president of a democratic South Africa. It was a great day for all South Africans, a symbol of the fruits of a long, tiresome, tortuous struggle against Apartheid-capitalism and colonialism.

Twelve years later, there aren’t many people who have goose pimples on the 27^th April. Most of those who shared in the struggle and who suffered the deprivations that resulted from being Black today sit with amazement on their faces as they realise that they do not share in the post-1994 benefits.

I know that after this column is read, some readers will be quietly commenting that in a context where the vast majority of Muslims do not participate in any political activity whatsoever, it would be more appropriate for me to call on Muslims on participate politically, rather than harping on the few things that have gone wrong in the system. And that I must acknowledge all the good things in South Africa after 1994. Allow me to quickly dispense with that criticism.

Yes, it is true that the vast majority of South African Muslims have not celebrated even one Freedom Day and didn’t bother disturbing their well-lotioned skins with goose bumps on the 10^th May 1994. It is true that most South African Muslims don’t care about politics (or other people) and, like those large birds with long necks, prefer to bury their heads in the sand until they are sufficiently alarmed about their personal interests and security. Such attitudes need to be confronted, in our mosques, in our newspapers, on our radio stations. Apathy is no virtue and our commitment to Islam obliges us to be involved. So I am not attempting to provide excuses for the uninvolved. It is also true that a lot has changed in South Africa after the death of Apartheid. But it isn’t just “a few things” that are wrong with the system; it has serious problems. The scale of the problems we face do not allow us to hide them for fear of fuelling apathy; the time to speak out has long arrived.

While government-sponsored events around the country trumpeted and celebrated our freedoms on the 27^th, some people chose, instead, to mark the day differently. Thousands of shack dwellers and residents of poor areas in Durban joined for what they called “unFreedom Day”, remembering the suffering caused by Apartheid and which continues today – for some people, in worse ways.

Poor people around the country are losing patience with this “freedom”. Between 1995 and 2002, the unemployment levels in South Africa almost doubled. Today, South Africa is one of the most unequal countries in the world in terms of wealth distribution.

Millions of South Africans live in squalor and disease in squatter camps (I prefer this term to the euphemistic “informal settlements” which makes it sound as if squatter camps are ok, just different). If you can imagine sharing a toilet and a tap with 1,000 other human beings, then you can imagine living in a squatter camp.

The basic rights that South Africans fought for seem, for the majority of our people, not much closer to being achieved than they were ten years ago. Of course, this group does not include the distinguished business leaders who have benefited from the elite empowerment of BEE, nor does it include the rich whites that continue to own and control the wealth of this country. Nor, for that matter, does it include the majority of those that grace our newspapers and television screens as the political elite. Most of these latter groups seem to have lost touch (for those that were, at some point, in touch) with the masses of poor people, increasingly vulnerable to Aids, crime and death by starvation.

It is these millions of poverty-stricken people who either snubbed their unwashed noses (because they just don’t have the water to wash) at Freedom Day or who participated in alternative, unFreedom Day events. After all, what is freedom for you when you do not have access to water or electricity, when you live in a shack in a stinking camp with sewage flowing in the streets, when you live in fear of fires and rats at night and of violent death during the day, when there is more certainty in the prospect of long-term unemployment than in “a better life for all”.

It is these millions that decided to vote with their feet in the last two elections: this year and in 2004, by keeping away from the voting booths. It is these millions that ensured that only 38 percent of South Africans of voting age voted for the ANC in 2004. There is a message there somewhere, for those who wish to think.

Nabi Muhammad (s) is reported to have said that: “Poverty leads to unbelief.” Understanding this hadith implies a careful examination of the role that Muslims have to play in this country – between now and next year’s Freedom Day.

Of course, many Muslims will continue on our merry way with our heads buried way down there, unaffected and unaffecting. Many others of us pretend to be politicians and try courting those we think are the power brokers in our society: invite Thabo for tea, samoosas for Naledi, supper with Essop and everything will be fine. I’m surprised no maulana or shaikh has pitched up at the Johannesburg High Court in turban and long dress (as some did when Schabir Shaik was in court) to support Zuma and help him sing “Awalethu Mshini wam”. Then there are those who masturbate our communal egos by getting newspaper posters of government ministers and counting for us how many “Muslims” are in cabinet and in parliament. As if that should assuage or massage our consciences.

There will be no freedom in South Africa as long as people continue to be forced to live as sub-humans – while others kill themselves of overeating. There will be no freedom as long as we allow the voices of the poor to be silenced through constant indignities, through manipulating the law, through making this a country that serves only capitalism (seems the struggle against Apartheid-capitalism is not really over).

Poverty leads to unbelief. And to crime. And anger. And uprisings.

There will be no Freedom Day until we are all free!