Politicians like Cyril Ramaphosa are often accused of considering ANC unity as the highest value. That may be so, writes HANS PIENAAR, but behind it lies a history that stretches back centuries.
WHEN I was in Mali early in the century to cover the World Social Forum, I ended up at a desert tent to listen to a talk about Esperanto. It wasn't because of a particular interest in it, but because the whole WSF event was so chaotic.
It was intended that way, the idea was precisely to organise things as little as possible so that spontaneity and unattachment could prevail and thus stimulate original thinking among the groups of left-wing activists who came from all over the world to Bamako, the capital. The result was predictable: Information about what was happening where and when was scarce and everyone was racing up and down on “katakatanin" - motorcycle taxis. The number of casualties due to broken kneecaps skyrocketed, as did the fares.
After a few hours of this, you just resigned yourself to where you were and made the best of a bad thing, which turned out to be a good thing that day. The tent where I ended up was welcoming and cool and the old man giving the lecture was bearded and old like someone from Lord of the Rings. At least I could get a nice photo of him, except that my film then ran out. He had arrived there, on his own, set up a small table and notice board and displayed various pamphlets in an old-fashioned style. All the way from France...
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A DEEP HISTORY
The misunderstood politics of black unity
Politicians like Cyril Ramaphosa are often accused of considering ANC unity as the highest value. That may be so, writes HANS PIENAAR, but behind it lies a history that stretches back centuries.
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WHEN I was in Mali early in the century to cover the World Social Forum, I ended up at a desert tent to listen to a talk about Esperanto. It wasn't because of a particular interest in it, but because the whole WSF event was so chaotic.
It was intended that way, the idea was precisely to organise things as little as possible so that spontaneity and unattachment could prevail and thus stimulate original thinking among the groups of left-wing activists who came from all over the world to Bamako, the capital. The result was predictable: Information about what was happening where and when was scarce and everyone was racing up and down on “katakatanin" - motorcycle taxis. The number of casualties due to broken kneecaps skyrocketed, as did the fares.
After a few hours of this, you just resigned yourself to where you were and made the best of a bad thing, which turned out to be a good thing that day. The tent where I ended up was welcoming and cool and the old man giving the lecture was bearded and old like someone from Lord of the Rings. At least I could get a nice photo of him, except that my film then ran out. He had arrived there, on his own, set up a small table and notice board and displayed various pamphlets in an old-fashioned style. All the way from France...
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Next articleHans Pienaar
WriterHans Pienaar is a writing fellow of the Johannesburg Institute for Advanced Study and writes dramas, novels, short stories, poems and non-fiction in Afrikaans and English. He works for Vrye Weekblad.