On the 16th and 17th of February 2022, the country was subjected to one of the greatest attacks on the history of our liberation struggle since 1994. On these two occasions, a racist right-wing organization proved to us all that choosing to forgive people who have never asked for forgiveness, has consequences, and those consequences are a disrespect for the heritage and humanity of African people.

It was for the second time in a decade, that the struggle song, sung by brave combatants who confronted guns with stones, was put on trial. An organization that fundraises through swaart-gevaar, and manipulating crime to create a panic of a white genocide in South Africa, dragged black people to court, by undermining their ability to reason.

Dhubula Ibhunu, a chant popularized by firebrands such as Peter Mokaba, was placed in a context where it serves as an instruction or a command, to shoot white farmers. This song, which exists alongside many liberation songs and chants which embodied our fight against colonialism and Apartheid, is chanted today across the political spectrum with a variety of lyrics.

It is chanted in the trenches of the mines by exploited men and women who dig for minerals which are used to accumulate wealth for the mining cartels. It is chanted by the militant youth which continues to demand free education on university campuses, and it is the rallying call for black farmworkers who are compensated with alcohol and made to live like animals in the land of their birth.

This chant, is in line with the iconic farewell message, sung on the burial of the militants of uMkhonto we Sizwe. As Chris Hani was lowered to his final burial place, the solemn words were sung, “Hamba Kahle Mkhonto, Mkhonto we Sizwe, Thina Bantu bo’Mkhonto SIzimisele, ukuwabulala wona lamaBhulu” 17

At no point in time, did it ever occur to the mind of antiapartheid activists, that this meant we must bear machetes and arms, and attack white farmers. This is because the sophistication of the black mind, which the racist minds of the likes of Afriforum cannot comprehend, has an appreciation of metaphors and symbolism.

The history of black resistance, resistance to slavery, colonialism, imperialism and Apartheid, is a history of song. As Steve Biko puts it in not so many words, black people express their joy, their sorrow and their resistance through song.

From the negro spirituals during slavery on the plantations, to Africans who sung as they threw stones against the Apartheid regime. When black people chant and sing against a system of domination, they do so by placing an identifiable face to the system that oppresses them.

Our people are not stupid, they know the meaning of their songs and chants. They remember their struggle and draw courage from those who came before them, by singing these songs and chanting these chants. As the Former President of South Africa Thabo Mbeki eloquently puts it, one will misunderstand these African chants if they are from outside of this African tradition.

This tradition is not one where the lyrics of songs and chants have a literal meaning. It is a reflection on experience, on feelings, and on the need to achieve a certain objective. That objective in terms of Dubula iBhunu has never been to kill. The problem with racists is that they undermine our people’s ability to think coherently. To the racists of Afriforum, black people are an uncivilized people, who will go into a frenzy once a song is sung, and mistake that for an instruction to commit murder.

This is made worse when one considers there is no direct correlation between this song and the murder of a farmer. The history of our liberation is very clear when it comes to waging an armed struggle against our oppressor.

When Nelson Mandela and Walter Sisulu led the formation of uMkhonto we Sizwe, and resolved to embark on an armed struggle, they never sang a song. They made practical efforts to obtain military training, went into exile and built links with Cuba and Russia to enhance their ability to overthrow Apartheid by any means necessary.

When the Zulu King Dingaan murdered British invaders, he never sang a song, he gave a direct command, “Bulalani Abathakathi”, which means kill the wizards or witches when directly translated. He said kill those who intend to bring us misfortune.

So, the alarmist attack on our heritage of struggle is not based on any objective reality or history. It is an attempt to fundraise by an organization whose greatest wish is that our history of defying the subjugation of African people must be erased.

If there is a genuine concern about hate speech which is directly linked to the pain, trauma and torment of people, the section of Die Stem in South Africa’s national anthem must be where we begin.

A song sung in the torture cells of Vlaakplaas, today sits comfortably as part of our national pride, in our national anthem. This song, which was sung while racist Apartheid operatives drank alcohol after beating and maiming activists, is sung today in the face of traumatized liberation heroes, yet there is no cry of hate speech in that regard.

Die Stem is as provocative and hateful as the Nazi salute, which is banned from public discourse across the world because of the pain it represents for Jewish people. It is as distasteful as the use of the word “Nigger” when uttered by a white person in the United States of America, which made slaves of our people for centuries.

It is part and parcel of the celebration of conquest, in the same way the statues of racists such as Hendrik Verwoed, D.F. Malan, Louis Botha, Cecil John Rhodes and many other genocidal racists, continue to occupy public place in our society through statues and street names.

The racists of Afriforum seek to conquer us at the level of symbolism, by erasing our history, and placing their history of genocide as one to celebrate in South African society.

All self-loving black people must resist the erasure and criminalizing of our gallant struggle against white domination. This is our land, and as long as we struggle towards economic freedom and the return of what belongs to us, we must never allow anyone or anything, to ban our sources of inspiration.

This article first appeared in the March 2022 edition of Radical Voice, the online journal of the Economic Freedom Fighters.