Activist’s book offers new generation’s political perspective

“RAMAPHOSA cannot be our savior.” So says activist and author Sizwe Mpofu-Walsh, who was speaking during a question and answer session at Ike’s Bookstore in Morningside on Saturday. Mpofu-Walsh who recently released his book ‘Democracy and Delusion’ and a ten track rap album which mirrors the book, was part of the 15 authors who headlined this year’s Time of the Writer International festival.

“Every-time we are on the cusp of really dealing with issues in our society, there comes a shock absorbing Messiah who is always a man who is going to save us. It is such a juvenile narrative but somehow it has such a great sway, that I can see us falling into it all over again. We nearly just got to the point where we were about to claim a portion of our democracy and then suddenly we got sold this fairy-tale and now everyone has gone ten steps back again. Five years later we are going to be in the same position and some new Messiah figure is going to absorb the shock again,” said Mpofu-Walsh.

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Son of advocate Dali Mpofu and a Rhodes Must Fall leader at Oxford University, Mpofu-Walsh says the book seeks to addresses ten “myths” about South African politics and it is aimed at interesting young people to politics, while the album is a gateway to the book and it is aimed at changing the mis-conception on hip-hop. The book consists of 10 chapters in which Mpofu-Walsh debunks ten myths in South African politics such as the statement that the ANC liberated South Africa; state participation in the economy is dangerous; South Africa has reckoned with Marikana; Living conditions are improving; and Land reform threatens stability.

“I wanted to really strike at the heart of some of the deepest shared assumptions in South Africa’s political discourse. My view was that we thought we were having deep and profound debate but we were confusing depth for fractions and so there was a lot of contestation but there wasn’t a lot disagreement on the root of our political debate. That is why I called it Democracy and Delusion. Ageism in our politics is quite acute, how do we have a ‘new dawn’ when the cabinet looks like an old age home. People are skeptical about young people speaking about politics but what the book has proven is that people are actually thirsty for a new perspective from the newer generation,” he said.

Mpofu-Welsh’s literary and musical debut follows the 2005 release of Royal School of Hip-hop with his crew Entity, which included rap heavyweight AKA and Greyhound. He was also part of a group of former and current pupils of the elite private school, who call themselves #OpenStJohns. The school was thrust in the media spotlight last year after a teacher was fired for racially abusing students.

“When I got to St Johns College I was faced with a different kind of racism, on the one hand it gives you social advancement, this social capital and the ability to navigate yourself in the world of privilege but on the other hand there is great deal of self denial which goes along with that assimilation. We tend to exclude elite schools from our purview because everyone thinks there is at-least good quality education, but the problem is that, particularly for black students who are faced with the binary, where if they don’t go to a public school education system which is in crisis, they have to go to an elite school which is steeped in colonial apologism and racism which presents this very difficult choice and pressure on the black students,” concluded Mpofu-Welsh.

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