Thread by @AdHabb

Bemused by some tweets today.I would ignore them, but a final thread of comments is necessary to give a history lesson to some. Before this I must respond to those who fake hurt.They scamming since they engage in toxic ways & fall apart when they get firm responses. Duplicitous!

There are 2 other discriminatory responses:ageist remarks & racist innuendoes about Indian cabal.Ageist remarks are discriminatory.Some who make them are unaware but ageist remarks are typical of skinheads in Europe & US & does not accord with notions of ubuntu that we support.

My history lesson is for racists who use ‘Indian Cabal’. The term has specific meaning in our history. They could read this in books but their politics is defined by spectacle & polemics. So I am left doing a twitter history in the hope they learn something before I block them.

Here goes:Our lib. mvt has multiple traditions,4 of which are relevant for now.The ANC is oldest & has evolved over time. It was an elite petition oriented mvt trying to get a place for black elites in the empire. It became a mass oriented mvt in the 40s as a result of the ANCYL.

But since the 50s the ANC approached the national question as building a nation by bringing together 4 racial groups. It therefore organized these groups through separate organisations. The critique was that they imagined the nation as a multi-racial rather than a non-racial one.

2nd tradition was Unity mvt which emerged from the AAC in the 30s.Centred in the Transkei and W/Cape,led by leaders like Tabata & Gool,it opposed the ANC for participating in Govt structures.They boycotted state instits,opposed racial orgns,holding SA must comprise all within it.

3rd tradition was PAC which split from the ANC arguing it was focussed on creating nation of racial gps & not mobilizing Africans to lead a revolution. It opposed racial orgns holding we needed a single nation led by African majority.PAC did not have whites and Indians within it.

The fnl tradition is the BC which organised all of the oppressed to overcome their sense of inferiority. They mobilized Africans, Coloured & Indians in a single organisation but rejected whites fearing this will distract the oppressed from being the agents of their own liberation

Now for Indian cabal. The term is specific to the ANC since it had orgns,Natal and Transvaal Indian Congresses, that continued to operate after 1960. When politics revived in 80s activists from NIC/TIC joined others to launch UDF which opposed elections & mobilized resistance.

It was here that tension emerged bet. some African & Indian leaders. Because the latter had access to Indian businesses they had resources which gave them leverage in decision making & access to the exiled leadership of the ANC. This created tensions & term Indian cabal emerged.

Pravin Gordan featured in the debate on the cabal & the ANC investigated this in the 90s & patched up divisions. The incident was raised opportunistically by Zuma faction in 2014 when Pravin opposed him. This was cynical because Pravin was part of the Zuma faction in 80s & 90s.

The term was then picked by EFF leaders. Not knowing the history, having picked it up through gossip on the margins of ANC meetings, they used it to attack Pravin who they blamed for their pol. demise in Limpopo. It was also used to weaken Ramaphosa since Pravin was in his camp.

Indian Cabal is a term specific to the ANC. Now people with no understanding of this history use it as a swear word for anyone they do not agree with. Activists from the Unity mvt, PAC &/BC get lumped as being part of cabal when it is foreign to their pol. history & organisation.

Indian Cabal has also become a term to describe people of a particular skin pigmentation. It was never a term to describe persons of a particular racial pigmentation. This kind of thinking is also foreign to the traditions of nonracialism or anti-racism of the liberation mvt.

Knowing this history will not change the thinking of Fascists but I hope they at least read the thread & understand the context of the term. Maybe they will use it in a more nuanced way. I will however block those who make racist remarks. This account is for thoughtful activists.

Finally I wish all a wonderful heritage day. We have a divided heritage with powerful negative & positive features. But if we dwell on what divides us, we will never create an inclusive, socially just nation. Colonialism’s greatest crime was ‘it politicized indigineity’ (Mamdani)

Colonialism divided us between those who belong and those who do not. Nationalist govts continued this politics but turned it on its head, allocating belonging to the previously oppressed. The result has been a continuous fight of who is native and authentic and who is not.

This fight for indigineity has destroyed our continent. It is foreign to PanAfricanism. Our future lies not in where we come from but in our wanting to belong together in a common society.This is the only basis for building a socially inclusive nation. Have a Happy heritage day!