The rhythm and drums beat of the war of Awulethe Mshini Wami, its essence and relevance to the present phase of our struggles for the achievement of our democratic society

25 April 2024

Over centuries of the struggles for the emancipation of human society, resistance and struggle songs, have played a central role, as effective instruments, for the mobilisation of the people for change and therefore shaping the forms and content of our struggles. The historical context has always been in accordance with the realities of the different conditions of our struggles.

They have been the integral part of the tumultuous history of heroic struggles to liberate mankind from all manifestations of oppression and exploitation. Importantly laying the basis for the intensification of the consciousness of the people to understand the nature of oppression and the forms of struggles to liberate themselves.

Revolutionary songs illuminate the way we relate to ourselves as the people, providing inspiration of hope, resilience and determination for the kind of the future we want to build and therefore bringing a sense of solidarity and common purpose. They are a therapy that transform despair into hope.

Even during the ancient biblical times, when Moses led the Israelites into epic struggles against bondage from the land of Pharaoh, they sang songs of resistance and hope, such as “ Go down Moses, go down, go and tell the master Pharaoh, to give us freedom”. The songs became the amphitheatre of hope as they crossed through the Red Sea into the land of milk and honey.

The African slave people, sang beautiful songs expressing the difficult encounters, hardships and sorrow they endured, as they passed through the treacherous middle passage, of the Atlantic Ocean into the American hemisphere. From the belly of the slave ships, they only thing they could appreciate, except the rhythm of their melodies, was the sound of the waves and the beam of the moon through the holes of the deck.

From the hymns of the Hebrews in Babylon, to the Voodoo songs of the African slaves in Haiti, the pathfinders of the first independent slave republic, to the heroism of the Mau Mau rebellion in Kenya, resistance and struggle songs, anchored deep reflections about the demands of the time, and how to accelerate change for the freedom and dignity of the people.

On the eve of his internationalist mission to liberate Bolivia, Ernesto Che Guevara, wrote the famous farewell letter to Fidel Castro, thanking him for the tenacity and continuity of the revolution. Paying homage to the gallantry guerrilla fighter, the renowned Cuban artist, Carlos Pueblo, dedicated the song, “ Hasta Siempre Commandante” which literally says” your revolutionary love is taking you to new places, where they await for the strength of your arms in liberation, here we are, left with clear and intimate transparence, of your beloved presence”.

This is a testament that over the ages, resistance and struggle songs, have been the instruments of our revolution. They have been the glimpse of our encounters and narrative to understand the specific forms of struggles in the different realities of our material world.

Our revolutionary song, Awulethe Umshini Wami, the song of the popular struggles of our people, the song of the ANC, was composed by the combatants of our military wing, Mkhonto we Sizwe, in camps in Angola. The true story of the unbroken record of rich history of struggles led by our glorious liberation movement the ANC, which no thuggish tendencies can rewrite.

After completing training, comrades felt they have been in the camps for a long time without going back home to fulfil the revolutionary duty of liberating our people. With innermost expression of the highest form of revolutionary ferment, they made clarion call to the leadership, to give them machine guns, so that they could go home, to confront the monstrous apartheid regime.

There may be few if not fewer within the ranks of our movement, who were never mesmerised by the chauvinistic charm offensive drive, by the self expelled former President of the ANC and republic, Jacob Zuma, when singing our song, “ Awulethe Umshini Wami”. Many of our people may not have doubted his bonafide, as a self proclaimed leading vocalist, of our revered song, which has become the embodiment of the true history of our struggles for liberation.

Since the unprecedented storms and waves of the Polokwane Tsunami, which propelled his ascendancy to the Presidency of the ANC and the Republic. Some of us have been in a dilemma to reconcile ourselves, with his symbiotic relationship with the song, the rhetoric of Awulethe Umshini Wami, which he dearly wanted in his hands.

We could not ascertain whether he wanted to appropriate “Umshini Wami” for his self seeking aggrandisement or for the best interest of the people of our country. His abuse of the true meaning of the song, became a magical myth of a new man of his own creation.

The dilemma is that he has ostensibly sustained a hegemonic myth that the people of our country needs machine guns and violence to build the foundations of our newly democratic republic. But the truth remains that the new forms of struggles for the socio economic transformation, have nothing to do with machine guns and insinuations of violence.

He has become its firecracker with bothering rhetoric saturated with the images of his mythical world as if the people of our country owe him or as if he was born to be an absolute monarch of our beautiful republic. His rhetoric has become a thread to our newly born society proclaimed by our democratic constitution and bill of rights.

South Africans cannot be fascinated by the adversity of beating drums of war, calling for violence if his pseudo tribal organisation, cannot get the two third majority in the coming national general elections. The ANC will never surrender the important task of transformation of our country to the forces of counter revolution.

The question the people of our country and more particularly the young generation should ask themselves is whether his rhetoric resonates with the socio economic realities we are faced with today. Whether indeed our country needs Mshini Wami to resolve the persisting contradictions of poverty, disease and underdevelopment.

The real and trustworthy soldiers of the glorious army of our liberation struggles Mkhonto we Sizwe, comprehend the historical and theoretical context of the song, that yesterday we needed machine guns to liberate our country and today we need skills and selfless citizens to improve the living conditions of our people.

We see the world from the analysis of our material conditions, from the realities of our daily lessons and experiences, and not from the wishes of our pipe dreams. The ANC remains to be the representative of the wishes and aspirations of the majority of the people of our country.

The past thirty years of our democratic dispensation has been a journey of mammoth challenges and opportunities. Without question the period has proven that the ANC is only political formation with the necessary capacity to lead the revolutionary project of building our better future.

Together with our people we have the obligation to defend the gains of our democracy. Through unity and renewal of our national democratic revolution we shall overcome.

We make a call to all the people of our country to vote for the ANC in the coming national general elections. Voting for the ANC is about our better future, the future of all humanity.

Thanks

Phatse Justice Piitso is a member of the ANC writing this article on his personal capacity.