I would like to share with fellow Africans my thoughts on why Europeans, Asians and Euro Americans think Africans are stupid. It is because of the things some of the African people are doing.
I stopped listening to the SABC radio show presented by Sakina Kamwendo because she was moved and switched to Power FM hosted by Bob Mabena and Thabo Mdluli during the same time slot.
On the 24th of October, I sent about four tweets to Power FM following a discussion about the resignation of former DA “leader” Mmusi Maimane in which I expressed my views. One of the tweets was sent during the time they were interviewing Patricia De Lille who said Maimane was not showing principled leadership. In that tweet I asked if De Lille herself was principled because her crossing of the floor with a PAC parliamentary seat didn’t show she was principled. This tweet and the others were ignored until I tweeted that they needed to understand white supremacy; how it operates and how to combat it. Bob Mabena responded and inquired if I thought they didn’t understand white supremacy. He said that I was out of order, myopic and self-important. This was not the first time he responded to me in a similar way and apologised when I made him see reason.
On the 25th October, I switched to Motsweding FM, a Setswana language radio station immediately before the 7.00 hrs news and continued listening. I couldn’t stand the shallowness of that programme. The presenters spoke about how to propose love to someone and asked listeners to call in to say how they propose love to someone. JD Sol and Kabelo Molopyane were doing that show and they were moved probably because last year they went to Robert Sobukwe’s house in Graaf Reinet to broadcast live from there a few weeks before Mama Zondeni Veronica Sobukwe passed away. Goitsemodimo Seleka’s contract was not renewed by managers of Motsweding FM probably because he did shows that raised the political consciousness of the African people. If presenters of a radio station run by Africans who raise the political consciousness of African people are fired or shifted by managers to become producers and presenters of irrelevant shows, it is not proper.
I then switched to an Afrikaans radio station called Monitor which is also a SABC radio station and it was completely different. When I switched on, two ladies were discussing social media. One of the ladies said some people didn’t think before they wrote something on social media and I immediately thought of one of the hosts of Power FM’s breakfast show, who should have been cautious on how he responds to listeners on social media and avoid taking issues personally. The Afrikaans radio station also reported about Ivo Morales’ re-election and covered elections in Botswana. The station is informing its listeners unlike indigenous languages radio stations and commercial radio stations such as Power FM, Radio 702 and Kaya FM.
The way the media deals with the resignation or firing of Mmusi Maimane from the DA demonstrates they have scant comprehension of white supremacy. The media doesn’t approach the imbroglio of the DA versus Maimane and other African stooges as an issue of white supremacy or racism. They view it as something else. The DA, as I have argued previously, is using African people as voting cattle. The DA regards the African people as expendable the same way Marcus Garvey argued in the early 1920’s that the Communist Party of America regarded African Americans as expendable. It is the same white supremacist logic by the same white people notwithstanding their different ideological disposition. What do these Africans want in the DA when there is the PAC, BC groups and a host of other organisations?
The media eschews the nagging problem of white supremacy in the DA because the media is, by and large, controlled by white people. Some media commentators claim the DA, a predominantly white party, was a promising opposition political party to the ANC but Helen Zille has destroyed all that. Others say Lindiwe Mazibuko - dropped like a hot brick by the DA - had warned Maimane about the white cabal that controls the DA. Didn’t Mazibuko know about this white cabal before joining the DA?
The African “leaders” in the DA knew the truth. The problem is that they are after money irrespective of how it is earned. They are animated by egoism and in the process throw everything – morals, ethics, scruples and principles out the window. Maimane and other Africans in the DA were token leaders.
If a person creates a storm when white supremacy is critically appraised then that person has a problem considering the extent and magnitude of the damage caused by white supremacy and the havoc it wreaked in Africa. African leaders and those of African descent who challenged and fought against white supremacy are no more. Here in South Africa well known cases are Onkgopotse Tiro, Bantu Biko, Robert Sobukwe and many others. On the continent it was Patrice Lumumba and others. In the US It was Malcolm X and others.
When African leaders whose countries are endowed with mineral wealth and other natural resources accept loans with compound interests and mortgage the future of posterity, whites and Asians conclude that these people are stupid. When African people accept paper money in exchange for minerals and other natural resources and accept devaluation of their currencies, whites and Asians conclude that these people are stupid. When African countries trade among themselves using foreign currencies like the US dollar, pound Sterling and French Francs, whites and Asians conclude that they must be stupid. When Africans take that same money to Switzerland banks and banks in other European capitals and forfeit it when they die, whites and Asians conclude that these people are stupid.
When corporations and the white elite buy the ANC presidency at the cost of R1 billion, whites and Asians conclude that these people are stupid. When an Indian family controls the coffers of an ANC government, whites and Asians conclude that these people are stupid. When essential SOE’s such as Eskom and others are privatised when millions of Africans who emerge from centuries of oppression where they didn’t enjoy basic services such as electricity, then whites and Asians conclude that these people are stupid. When the ANC government allows white farmers to feed African people GMO’s, whites and Asians conclude that Africans are stupid. When some Africans don’t give a damn about determining their own destiny, whites and Asians conclude that these people are stupid.
Still wondering why whites and Asians think Africans are stupid?
By Sam Ditshego
Republic of South Africa.