Tumi Morake and how we aren’t facing the uncomfortable head-on

Comedian Tumi Morake closed one of her recent stage acts with the line: “White people gave us apartheid and we gave you Jacob Zuma for revenge.”

Although this is comedy, at its most basic, it is political commentary. And the interracial audience loved it.

So it was quite shocking to hear that Morake was now at the centre of allegedly racist commentary in her other job as co-host of Jacaranda FM’s breakfast show.

Some white listeners took offence to her characterisation of apartheid as being like a bully who was never made to take responsibility.

The unhappiness morphed into a social media movement that has resolved to boycott the radio station and their advertisers if action is not taken against Morake.

One would have thought that, on the eve of Heritage Day, Morake’s words would have sparked a conversation about our past, not divisions.

Heritage Day itself came about as a compromise during negotiations, with the leader of the Inkatha Freedom Party, Mangosuthu Buthelezi, insisting on retaining what was then known as Shaka’s Day in KwaZulu-Natal.

So, instead of commemorating a day that is pivotal to the largest group of people in South Africa, the Zulu people, there was a compromise that the whole country would celebrate their heritage.

The day has now been turned into an unofficial Braai Day by some, and that is fine as long as there is space given to those who choose to commemorate a figure that essentially shaped the Zulu nation.

But discussions such as this one are quickly drowned out by the shouting that poses as a voice of reason looking out for the interests of a group that is being “unfairly” targeted by the media.

This group of people has chosen to assume responsibility for the sins of the architects of apartheid.

And when Tumi Morake makes an analogy of apartheid being a bully, this group of people takes offence, without giving thought to what was said.

For days like Heritage Day to actually mean something to everyone, we will have to move to a point where uncomfortable discussions are not avoided.

A lot of people are under the mistaken belief that the Truth and Reconciliation Commission achieved all that was meant to be achieved in terms of bringing racial harmony to South Africa.

Time has, however, proven that all the TRC did was to put band-aids on a festering wound.

The commission never afforded ordinary South Africans a chance to have their say on the legacies of a system that had put a virtual Berlin Wall between blacks and whites.

This lack of dialogue on the legacies of apartheid has led to the white section of our country feeling responsible for a system that they never invented and the other section of our population feeling betrayed because, as Morake put it in her analogy, “the bully was only asked to give back what he stole”.

No retribution. Dialogue will unfortunately not right past wrongs but it is a good place to start a discussion on how to handle what apartheid left us with.

So, when a brilliant comedian like Morake touches a raw nerve racially, the country should rather look at it as an opportunity to engage each other on the different viewpoints from which we look at our past.

When we shut down voices like Morake’s, we create space for racist vitriol to be legitimised. If not dealt with through dialogue, our past will always creep up on us.

Sydney Majoko.