THIS ARTICLE WAS PUBLISHED FIRST BY THE THINKER: VOLUME 20 ;JUNE 2011 ISSUE
The use of metaphors and parables remains one of the greatest assets in the African education system. Supported by a rigorously used system of storytelling and use of symbols, metaphors have for centuries provided indigenous scholarship about and for African civilizations. The intellectual resilience of African wisdom cues and philosophy endowed idiomatic expressions have not only served as repositories of community values but also anchored a normative environment comparable to recorded philosophy of other civilizations.
The use therefore of metaphors creates for society a rather neutral platform to reflect on itself in relation to presented phenomena. With the advent of technological advancement, machines have come to create new and interesting metaphors. The train is one such metaphor in the explanation of the evolution, growth and development of South Africa’s democracy.
A train is a mass carrier of goods and people from one destination to another; for purposes of this illustration the human carrier train will be the object of explanation. South Africa is herein presented as a train that will always be in motion given its capacity and inherent endowments; both material and human. Irrespective of prevailing conditions a train will always be in motion for as long as there is a driver, passengers, a conductor and tracks upon which the train must always move.
The South African train is in constitutional terms born in 1910 and has had a number of drivers and all manner of passengers. At the time of writing this article the South African train has stopped at 20 stations, determined at each station who is the new driver and where should the train be going before the next compulsory stop. These stations will for our purposes be the election dates that were consistently kept to be in five year intervals. In each station the train would have new passengers coming on board with new aspirations about the direction the train should take. The ticket to board the train has for a sizeable period been a contestable area, since boarding passes were determined on a race based criteria.
The most critical of the requirements to board the train has not only been class but a race approved class. Mahatma Ghandi became the literal example of how a person's social standing in society was not a guarantee for acceptance onto the train. Your capacity to afford the train ticket by virtue of your hard work and merit could be revoked at any time a person of a colour different to yours determines your standing.
The train would however continue to move forward, albeit to the exclusion of the majority of passengers. At every station the question of the excluded majority became a rallying point for continued support of those that abrogated themselves the right to drive the train. At all times the train focussed on a path that was in itself informed by providing for the general welfare of those that are defined as legitimate passengers. This state of affairs created from amongst passenger constituencies that started to interrogate the absence of other obvious and legitimate passengers.
As this interrogation was gaining momentum, the would-be passengers outside the train organised themselves into a movement to repudiate all policies designed to exclude them in the train. The struggle to be on board the South African train grew to become the world’s known moral cause ever to be advanced by humanity. The exclusion of passengers on the basis of race was declared, and continues to be, a crime against humanity. It was only in 1994 (and at one of the set stations of the train) that a breakthrough occurred and all those who live in South Africa could be on board the South African train. The race criteria was thus repudiated and all that could be on board needed only their South African citizenship to be on board.
The post 1994 train had more passengers and new majorities emerged with the passenger discourse changing in terms of where the train should now be going. The new majorities focussed on driving the train whilst the resident minorities within the train focussed on the tracks upon which the train moves. As some amongst the resident minorities disembarked the train because of their relative influence of the passenger discourse, a new terrain of contestation about the train emerged. This terrain had more to do with laying the tracks for the train than driving the train.
Given the truth about the design and structure of the train being designed to serve the interests of a historical minority, the tracks of the train would direct it to destinations that are far away from where the majority is found. In fact, the majority of would-be passengers were by design supposed to be spectators of the train without being in the train. The challenge therefore for the new passenger majority remains that of not only driving the train along the established tracks but on the development of new tracks that will create on boarding opportunities for the majorities. The challenge of ironsmiths and availability of iron and steel as well as the land to lay the tracks has now become a new area of struggle. This area is however disadvantaged by the absence visible exclusion criteria and thus procures for a sophisticated battle plan by all South Africans.
The science of trains and infrastructure teaches us that the laying of new tracks is an expensive exercise that requires long term planning and resourcing. The condition of planning for new tracks dictates therefore the recognition of where the old tracks are and how to create sidings to connect new areas as well as ensuring that the train continues to be in motion as you are laying new tracks. The assignment becomes intense when the planning environment has as core resources new planners with old planners focusing on protecting the old tracks; presumably with a mindset to maintain the status quo with few of the new passengers.
The meanderings of the train towards the next station create new expectations for the spectator passengers. It thus becomes natural for spectator passengers to focus on the advantages of the next station, particularly as it relates to controlling the various carriages of the train. The struggle for driving the train becomes therefore intense as more and more sub-drivers define their destinations about the train, albeit on the same tracks. The thought of new tracks remains in these conditions a new reserve for emerging elite acceptable to historically race-based elite. Passengers onto the new train will in this new environment be protective of their newly earned ‘seats’ and thus create private sitting arrangements designed to sustain the minorities within the ascending majority.
The class contestations that accompany these protectionist tendencies characteristic of post liberation democracies create a perpetual struggle to control the levers of train driving at the altar of an elusive track laying responsibility. Train coaches have in this muddy environment become enclaves of factionalism thus confirming the general overestimation of the power that goes with taking control of the train and yet not fathoming the corresponding soft power of track laying for the train to actually move. The almost given decline of collective thinking about the past whilst memorising the future creates an exuberant passenger psyche that believes in the consumption of foreign ‘track laying’ models.
It is up to South Africans to start defining what are these tracks, how are they laid, where in the country are these tracks leading us, what capacities do we still need to create broader access to the advantages of the South African train, and what will be the costs of laying the new tracks. As the saying goes, it takes a full generational sacrifice for a society to invest in its future. As tracks are procured, it is the responsibility of those that drive the train to be mindful of the fact that the current tracks were laid with a decolonising mindset and thus very instructive of the independence inherent in the inherited tracks upon which the train currently moves.
Creating new tracks would thus require a national reawakening of proportions that preceded the FIFA 2010 World Cup. It requires a South Africa that embraces it's history with the same passion as it envisions its future; a South Africa that understands the interests of all on board the South African train. The tracks upon which this train must move should all be home manufactured and installed, because only South Africans are or can be experts at their own patriotism.
The train is in motion and the next stop station is 2014 and the dominant passenger coalition is in a process of contesting for the driver that will be in charge when the train leaves the 2014 station. Note that in the driver discourse a corresponding noise about the tracks is becoming loud; it is the cost of the new track laying that will judge new drivers. The conductor whistle is blown
The use of metaphors and parables remains one of the greatest assets in the African education system. Supported by a rigorously used system of storytelling and use of symbols, metaphors have for centuries provided indigenous scholarship about and for African civilizations. The intellectual resilience of African wisdom cues and philosophy endowed idiomatic expressions have not only served as repositories of community values but also anchored a normative environment comparable to recorded philosophy of other civilizations.
The use therefore of metaphors creates for society a rather neutral platform to reflect on itself in relation to presented phenomena. With the advent of technological advancement, machines have come to create new and interesting metaphors. The train is one such metaphor in the explanation of the evolution, growth and development of South Africa’s democracy.
A train is a mass carrier of goods and people from one destination to another; for purposes of this illustration the human carrier train will be the object of explanation. South Africa is herein presented as a train that will always be in motion given its capacity and inherent endowments; both material and human. Irrespective of prevailing conditions a train will always be in motion for as long as there is a driver, passengers, a conductor and tracks upon which the train must always move.
The South African train is in constitutional terms born in 1910 and has had a number of drivers and all manner of passengers. At the time of writing this article the South African train has stopped at 20 stations, determined at each station who is the new driver and where should the train be going before the next compulsory stop. These stations will for our purposes be the election dates that were consistently kept to be in five year intervals. In each station the train would have new passengers coming on board with new aspirations about the direction the train should take. The ticket to board the train has for a sizeable period been a contestable area, since boarding passes were determined on a race based criteria.
The most critical of the requirements to board the train has not only been class but a race approved class. Mahatma Ghandi became the literal example of how a person's social standing in society was not a guarantee for acceptance onto the train. Your capacity to afford the train ticket by virtue of your hard work and merit could be revoked at any time a person of a colour different to yours determines your standing.
The train would however continue to move forward, albeit to the exclusion of the majority of passengers. At every station the question of the excluded majority became a rallying point for continued support of those that abrogated themselves the right to drive the train. At all times the train focussed on a path that was in itself informed by providing for the general welfare of those that are defined as legitimate passengers. This state of affairs created from amongst passenger constituencies that started to interrogate the absence of other obvious and legitimate passengers.
As this interrogation was gaining momentum, the would-be passengers outside the train organised themselves into a movement to repudiate all policies designed to exclude them in the train. The struggle to be on board the South African train grew to become the world’s known moral cause ever to be advanced by humanity. The exclusion of passengers on the basis of race was declared, and continues to be, a crime against humanity. It was only in 1994 (and at one of the set stations of the train) that a breakthrough occurred and all those who live in South Africa could be on board the South African train. The race criteria was thus repudiated and all that could be on board needed only their South African citizenship to be on board.
The post 1994 train had more passengers and new majorities emerged with the passenger discourse changing in terms of where the train should now be going. The new majorities focussed on driving the train whilst the resident minorities within the train focussed on the tracks upon which the train moves. As some amongst the resident minorities disembarked the train because of their relative influence of the passenger discourse, a new terrain of contestation about the train emerged. This terrain had more to do with laying the tracks for the train than driving the train.
Given the truth about the design and structure of the train being designed to serve the interests of a historical minority, the tracks of the train would direct it to destinations that are far away from where the majority is found. In fact, the majority of would-be passengers were by design supposed to be spectators of the train without being in the train. The challenge therefore for the new passenger majority remains that of not only driving the train along the established tracks but on the development of new tracks that will create on boarding opportunities for the majorities. The challenge of ironsmiths and availability of iron and steel as well as the land to lay the tracks has now become a new area of struggle. This area is however disadvantaged by the absence visible exclusion criteria and thus procures for a sophisticated battle plan by all South Africans.
The science of trains and infrastructure teaches us that the laying of new tracks is an expensive exercise that requires long term planning and resourcing. The condition of planning for new tracks dictates therefore the recognition of where the old tracks are and how to create sidings to connect new areas as well as ensuring that the train continues to be in motion as you are laying new tracks. The assignment becomes intense when the planning environment has as core resources new planners with old planners focusing on protecting the old tracks; presumably with a mindset to maintain the status quo with few of the new passengers.
The meanderings of the train towards the next station create new expectations for the spectator passengers. It thus becomes natural for spectator passengers to focus on the advantages of the next station, particularly as it relates to controlling the various carriages of the train. The struggle for driving the train becomes therefore intense as more and more sub-drivers define their destinations about the train, albeit on the same tracks. The thought of new tracks remains in these conditions a new reserve for emerging elite acceptable to historically race-based elite. Passengers onto the new train will in this new environment be protective of their newly earned ‘seats’ and thus create private sitting arrangements designed to sustain the minorities within the ascending majority.
The class contestations that accompany these protectionist tendencies characteristic of post liberation democracies create a perpetual struggle to control the levers of train driving at the altar of an elusive track laying responsibility. Train coaches have in this muddy environment become enclaves of factionalism thus confirming the general overestimation of the power that goes with taking control of the train and yet not fathoming the corresponding soft power of track laying for the train to actually move. The almost given decline of collective thinking about the past whilst memorising the future creates an exuberant passenger psyche that believes in the consumption of foreign ‘track laying’ models.
It is up to South Africans to start defining what are these tracks, how are they laid, where in the country are these tracks leading us, what capacities do we still need to create broader access to the advantages of the South African train, and what will be the costs of laying the new tracks. As the saying goes, it takes a full generational sacrifice for a society to invest in its future. As tracks are procured, it is the responsibility of those that drive the train to be mindful of the fact that the current tracks were laid with a decolonising mindset and thus very instructive of the independence inherent in the inherited tracks upon which the train currently moves.
Creating new tracks would thus require a national reawakening of proportions that preceded the FIFA 2010 World Cup. It requires a South Africa that embraces it's history with the same passion as it envisions its future; a South Africa that understands the interests of all on board the South African train. The tracks upon which this train must move should all be home manufactured and installed, because only South Africans are or can be experts at their own patriotism.
The train is in motion and the next stop station is 2014 and the dominant passenger coalition is in a process of contesting for the driver that will be in charge when the train leaves the 2014 station. Note that in the driver discourse a corresponding noise about the tracks is becoming loud; it is the cost of the new track laying that will judge new drivers. The conductor whistle is blown
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