By Zulumathabo Zulu © 2016
Dimakatso Discourse – Part 5
Enter Dimakatso Discourse – Part V. This conversation is about Dimakatso briefing The Creator and The Linguistics Engineer of the Tosamasiu Planetary System Nteterwane about the real impact of colonization and enslavement and the direct impact on the evolution of the future. The purpose is to have a discursive analysis around the impact of colonial history. The questions that arise out of this discourse include betrayal, destiny and economic disenfranchisement. In this discourse, the conversation is mainly between Dimakatso and Nteterwane. The conversation is already in progress.
Dimakatso – Thokoza Makhosi! Tlatlamacholo emotle! Haona ya tshwanang le wena (Tlatlamacholo! The Beautiful One! There is no one like you!). My ancestral companion Nteterwane. It is a sacred honour to be with you. I learnt a lot of important lessons from you the last time we met. Your knowledge, experience and skills are incredible! Your superior skills of analysis are breathtaking. To be an engineer and a linguist is a rare combination. You have greatly inspired and motivated me. You are the sacred one! You are the amazing engineer!
Nteterwane – Thokoza Makhosi! The indefatigable Dimakatso! The sentiment is mutual. You please the great creator with your zealous spirit in the great path of truth seeking. We are also pleased with your ethical sense of higher purpose and the manner in which you have become one with Lesika la Hoila (the ritual of cleansing). You inspire many who come after you or look up to you as a living role model. Your examplary life can only be likened to the sacred light of Tosa (Jupiter). We wish you well as you reach even further into the deep secrets of the cosmos. It is the cosmic knowledge that is the basis of all knowledge. Even the venerated Ditaola tsa Basotho (The geomancy of the Basotho) trace their origins to the stars. Those geomancy instruments are the models of the sacred star systems. Thokoza Makhosi!
Dimakatso (giving an update about her people) – I would like to take this moment to brief you about the state of my people. The purpose is to give you a contextualized perspective on the harsh reality they face on a daily basis. We are here to seek new ways of doing. The object of this discursive exercise is to equip and empower them so that they can re-invent themselves. The access you have given us is most appreciated and forever cherished. We hereby declare our availability, readiness and willingness to utilize the opportunities you afford us. Thokoza Makhosi! We sanctify the exposure you give us with a view to using this sacrosanct platform to architect new pathways that enable my people to own, control and direct their own destiny.
Dimakatso (defining destiny) – We define destiny within the framework of the Basotho philosophical construct of Lesasa. In our language, Sasa refers to the canonical root of destiny. For us, Lesasa is not isolated from the present or the past. There is a continuum from the past, the present and the future and back in a recursive loop known as Lekgutla (recursive system).
Dimakatso (delivering the update) – I hereby update you about my people of Lefatshe Planetary System.
Wounded and Scarred by History
The colonizers first arrived like friends who deserved the warm hospitality of our ancestors. We have since learnt the hard way that those who seek to subjugate you, first propose love and present themselves as your friends and when you become disarmed by the spell of their friendship proposition they brutally backstab you from behind and you fall into the unbreakable chains that you will never be able to extricate yourself from. The ethos of this foreign rule shall forever overrule everything you feel, think or do and the rest is history. Like a powerful bird of prey, they squeeze and tighten their talons around you so that it is impossible to escape from their clutches. The only thing that escapes is the blood that flows from you. It is when you see the blood of the prey that you know that it is all over and it shall never be the same again.
Nteterwane (interjecting his impressions) – Thokoza Makhosi! This is the most moving account of what your people have been subjected to. We shall further discuss your rendition at the end of your presentation but I just wanted to express my sentiments because one cannot remain motionless like a poker player while such a moving account is being made on behalf of your people. Thank you for ensuring that we hear this from the horse’s mouth. For the longest time, the historical experience of your people have been narrated by those who do not share a lived experience of what it is like to be colonized, enslaved or raped by foreign occupation. You are breaking new ground by narrating your own experience from the vantage point of your lived experience. Thokoza Makhosi!
Dimakatso (continuing) – Thokoza Makhosi! Your sentiments are sanctified. My people suffered two forms of foreign occupation namely (1) brutal methods of colonization and (2) brutal methods of enslavement. Both systems were powerful institutions that lasted hundreds of years and were effective enough to disinherit the natives; to scatter them from their own ancestral lands; to ship them abroad as enslaved merchandise to be sold in foreign markets; to throw them live into shark infested sea waters if they showed any signs of resistance; to force them into harsh exile so that they became stateless; to flatten their cultural milestones in order to impose foreign milestones; to destroy their indigenous institutions of learning in order to brainwash them with foreign education systems and theories; to force them into sexual intercourse so that they became dirty and despicable; to force them into foreign religiosity so that they hated themselves and lost their knowledge of self so that they walk without a memory of who they are.
Nteterwane (seeking reinstatement) – Thokoza Makhosi! Are you saying that the people were thrown live into the sea and became eaten by sharks that infested these waters? How ruthless can anyone be to carry out such an extreme form of brutality? Please also restate the aspect about the people being forced to lose their knowledge of self.
Dimakatso (clarifying) – Thokoza Makhosi! The colonizers and slave traders had no sense of humanity with respect to our people. They violated our most cherished maxim “Motho ke motho ka Batho” (A human is human as a result of the humanity of others). The slave master and colonizer applied the principle of separation and uprooting so that the clannish systems of human solidarity were broken. Their temperament was like short fused so that any perceived sense of resistance was met with ruthless execution at the gallows, firing squad or being thrown into the sea to be guzzled by hungry sharks. My people were also stripped of their cultural heritage so that they became like clinically sanitized and devoid of their true self. The purpose was to turn them into empty and pliable shells so that they were reshaped according to ways that were foreign to them. This kind of radical reshaping of my people into something else gave the colonizers and the slave masters the power to control the mind, the feeling and the body of my people.
Nteterwane (injecting some analysis) – Thokoza Makhosi! This ruthless execution based on a perceived sense of resistance means that they [the colonizers and the slave masters] were governed by a defensive brain as opposed to a rational brain. We shall do more analysis after your instructive presentation. You may proceed.
Dimakatso (continuing) – Thokoza Makhosi! Absolutely, the brain of the colonizer and the slave master was a defensive brain and I still think that this is the case even to this day with respect to some colonial descendants. We shall consider the profile of such a defensive brain when we discuss that segment. The result of this colonial and enslavement experience is that my people became economically disenfranchised. This means that for the first time in their history my people were unable to own, control and direct their own economic destiny. They now had to work for colonial and slave masters who treated them like dirt. They became wounded and forever scarred by the nefariousness of this historical experience. Thus far, no amends have been made with my people by way of economic justice and there does not seem to be any desire on the part of the colonial descendants to right the wrongs of the past.
Betrayed By Leadership
My people feel also betrayed by some of their own leaders in one form or another. When the colonizers first appeared from the sea, our ancestors felt the need to roll out red carpets for them because they thought the colonizers had come to forge links of friendship and peaceful coexistence. That was the first tragic mistake by our ancestors; a brutal betrayal of future generations and their descendants.
The second mistake was to negotiate for a peaceful exit from the oppressive past but without the colonial descendants having to make any sacrifices or guarantees with respect to economic justice for the natives of the land. The theory at the time was that economic justice posed a threat to the peaceful stability of the land something that is proving to be the highest form of betrayal.
This is like a man having a sexual relationship with a woman but outside the public eye; a tragic case of nefarious scorn to the hapless woman. In this case, the rights of the woman are a taboo subject.
This woman is not empowered to lay a legitimate claim to his official estate. She remains dirty, morally despicable and economically disenfranchised while the man remains clean and highly regarded by society for his moral, economic and professional influence. He has the inheritance to pass on to his fortunate descendants but she has no inheritance to pass on to her unfortunate descendants. Every new generation has to struggle afresh to make ends meet without any benefit from those who have gone before them as a result of the brutality of this colonial and enslavement experience.
It is the glaring economic injustices of this kind that now pose a real threat to the true stability of the land. The land is facing a real prospect of civil conflict as a result of the unjust systems and frameworks that bind the natives of the land to a perpetual state of economic disenfranchisement.
Nteterwane (seeking clarification) – Thokoza Makhosi! When you refer to the betrayal by your leadership i.e. the ancestors who first encountered the colonizers and the modern leaders who have “liberated” your people from the colonial past, are you saying that the colonizers are not alone in the blame but your leaders also stand to blame for the methods they used in emancipating your people? Is it the case that both your chosen leaders and the colonial descendants are responsible for the current state of economic disenfranchisement?
Dimakatso (clarifying) – Thokoza Makhosi! This is the ontology! This is the state of being with respect to the current situation of economic disenfranchisement. The leaders agreed to frameworks that perpetuate the state of economic, academic, religious and cultural enslavement. For example, the sacred shrines and burial grounds of our ancestors are currently under the clutches of the colonial descendants. The ground hogs make burrows into our burial grounds or the colonial descendants clear the land for a golf course. When our people try to return to those sacred grounds in order to honour their ancestors, they get shot at for trespassing. When the colonial descendant is brought before a judge for prosecution, the defendant and his attorney mount a credible defence that the defendant thought that the human he shot was a monkey. The court of law then decides to set him free thus leaving a bitter aftertaste in the mouth of the natives of the land. When the medicine woman goes to a mountain to get a medicine plant, she gets shot at or arrested for trespassing. These things are happening because of the kinds of contractual agreements between the colonial descendants and our leaders which did not incorporate inputs from our people. In the distant past, there was a clear line of separation between the people and the colonizers. Today, you cannot formulate that distinction; making the struggle even harder than before.
Dimakatso (continuing) – Now I turn my attention to the tragedy of losing a moral compass as a people.
Loss of Moral Compass
Some of the leadership has become unethical overtime. This unethical behaviour is also contributing seeds of civil conflict in the land. The unethical behaviour constitutes the loss of a moral compass. We have lost a moral compass as a people. Without a moral compass, we are guideless as a people. The loss of a moral compass also means the loss of strategic direction.
The loss of a moral compass also calls attention to the rise of moral decay among the people. The culture of rule adherence has become virtually non-existent. It is not possible to advance a successful revolution without some kind of a moral code. Great legends like Chairman Mao had the strategic foresight of a moral code when he initiated, along with his comrades Xiaoping and Enlai, a cultural revolution in order to deepen and buttress the gains of a people’s revolution and thus direct their own destiny. Today that nation has become a superpower.
As a result of the lack of a moral code on the part of our leadership then the colonial vestiges in the institutions, frameworks, systems and infrastructures of society have become more deeply entrenched making it near impossible to transform the society as originally intended. They talk about transformation but there is no tangible movement in that direction and there is no credible evidence for it. Only the few become transformed while the rest are left behind in the instances of extreme suffering. As a result, my people have become an object of mockery.
The colonial descendants who own most of the economy have also decided to sit on the sidelines with their trillions of money kept with financial institutions. If these people were to release some of those funds for the common good of society then the nation would avoid an inexorable march towards a warpath. It is a catch 22 situation in that the unethical behaviour of the leadership causes the financial heavyweights to withdraw their financial support for transformation while the very cautious behaviour is planting the seeds of civil unrest. This shows that the destinies of the colonial descendants and the natives of the land are inescapably linked. Who knows what the end shall be?
Loss of Control Over Our Destiny
For my people, destiny is defined as Lesasa. The locus of control with respect to destiny necessitates access to land without being encumbered by any kind of debt or preconditions to anyone. If you are a master of your own destiny you cannot report to anyone for duty; you determine how and when you report for duty. The majority of my people have no access to the land of their ancestors. Some who have access to land are highly indebted to financial institutions. In this case, we have no control over our destiny. We are not masters of our destiny. We are unable to architect and direct our destiny. The locus of control has been lost to those who have the power to exact punishment or sanctions if the people do not toe the line of the oppressive establishment.
To Regain Our Destiny
There is an urgent need to regain our destiny. This means we need to regain the locus of control. In order to own and direct our destiny, we must own a piece of ground. It is the piece of ground that enables a human to produce own food. This means in order to be a master of our own destiny we need to control food production. If there is no access to a piece of ground then the human must have money to buy food. This money must be kept in a banking institution that charges fees every time you withdraw. What you put in is less than what you take out. Moreover, buying food is not sustainable because someone out there controls you like a puppet master through the pricing system. The money is the strings through which they control you. If they increase the cost of food then you need more money to buy the food and that creates an opportunity cost with respect to your other important needs. To regain our destiny as a people, we must regain the lost ground so that we can also pass on our inheritance to our children like other nations.
Dimakatso (concluding remarks) – In conclusion, my thoughts are that the land is most beautiful and has been endowed with the most abundant natural resources and sunshine as well as human capital. The motherland can salvage herself if only some selfless leader emerges in order to inspire the society to transcend its material interests in order to cohere for the common good of all. Like a desert flower that refuses to be defined by adverse conditions, my people can rejuvenate like a desert flower that radiates when the rains fall from the beautiful heavens.
Nteterwane (thanking Dimakatso) – Thokoza Makhosi! We are greatly honoured that you have chosen to present to us the state of your people and the struggles they have to wage on a daily basis. We are grateful that you have given us a high level view with an occasional reference to some specific details. This is most useful to us for our next round of analysis of what you have presented and how as the citizens of Tosamasiu Planetary System we can assist. In the coming days, we are celebrating the cosmic rain and after our celebrations we shall re-engage you on the specific examples of your rendition and the strategic knowledge that ensues from it. Thokoza Makhosi!
Afterwards:
Dimakatso returned to the Lefatshe Planetary System with a huge boost of confidence with regards to her presentation and the desire of Nteterwane of the Tosamasiu Planetary System to assist. Dimakatso understands that the cosmic knowledge of the ancestors will reignite the strategic direction that is needed to advance and embrace the future.
To be continued…
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