“I hope history judges you for not fighting for Afrika.”
I still struggle to fully express the thoughts and emotions that ran through me at that moment when I decided to sit in front of heavily armed police officers, I had no ammunition but my books.
By: Fatimata Moutloatse
I had never really imagined how my confrontation with death would present itself. In fact for the longest of time I was quite afraid of death. However once you truly believe in something, you are prepared to fight for it by all means necessary – even if it means dying for it. That is my stance on the liberation of black people.
The #FeesMustFall movement is more than just a “protesting minority who seek to deprive other students of their right to learn”; through access to education this movement seeks to restore the human dignity of the most socially and economically excluded people.
It is no secret that black people form the bulk of the population and are deprived of socio-economic opportunities due to their dispossession during colonialism. Nevertheless, what makes me so frustrated is the fact that people do not seem to take this movement and its general call for free decolonised education seriously. I mean, how can you not take access to education seriously? Especially when most of the societal ills we experience as black people are a result of lack of access to education.
On the other side of the spectrum, the type of education we do have access to seems to further subjugate the black person.
The call for free decolonised education transcends the university spaces and finds its origins within our pre-school and primary school. As an activist within this movement, I realise that our demand can never fully be achieved if we continue to dismiss the appalling conditions of the overall education system in South Afrika. Therefore access to education and a curriculum reform are the right steps to take. Cummon, I mean, take us seriously!
Education cannot mean sending poor South Afrikan youth to institutions hoping to produce a larger labour force which perpetuates a capitalist agenda. Instead education should mean service to Afrika. Service to millions of black people who remain rejected, excluded, displaced and dispossessed due to colonialism. Now if that is not reason enough for people to see the importance of free decolonised education, then I don’t know what is.
Mine is to say that the emancipation of all Afrikans is paramount to the restoration of Azania. I will continue to fight for those who cannot fight for themselves, speak for those who cannot speak for themselves and ultimately teach them enough that they one day will be able to fight and speak for themselves.
I hope history judges you for not fighting for Afrika.
IZWE LETHU MA’AFRIKA
