Paying tribute to an African philosopher

| December 21, 1749 – October 15, 1987 |

The year 2013 marks the 26th anniversary of the cowardly killing of the great son of Africa, an advanced Marxist and genuine revolutionary- Thomas Sankara died on October 15, 1987. This month of October is the hunger month meaning the opportunity for every one calling himself a revolutionary to make a difference.

This is the man who aggressively dealt with tormenting poverty that characterised Burkina Faso, and secured at least two meals per day, educated the masses in his country that Africa has capacity to produce enough food for its children by using the availability of productive land and mobilisation of natural resource for development of the country without waiting for those who use the power to manipulate Africa and exploit its resources and underdevelopment.

This is the man and a leader who led by example, vibrated within the masses and with the masses without hailing above the heads of the poor great masses, who lived a simple but quality life.

The challenge we have today more so facing the young people in our societies is the proper orientation that extol and celebrates the debauched life style of the rich and the famous. Societies that are descending to venality with bumbling performance on governance by public servants. This life styles are determined to be ingrained in all the systems to produce masters of corruption and vipers that penetrated the weak and ignorant.

Today we need to congratulate the progressive decision taken by the leadership in the continent –AU summit recently on the role and political pattern by ICC which is partisan towards Africa as a continent. Albeit others believe that the withdrawal from ICC will have been the mistake by African leaders who are “purveyors of violence” to “scupper an the international justice mechanism”.

We all agree that victims and “all African, deserve justice”. Justice should not only be justice when facing Africa, crimes only becomes crimes when committed by Africans. This is where the relevance of the most popular song by Peter Tosh reggae singer saying “every body talks crime crime crime crime, but who are the criminals”.

The interview on the 24th August 2013 on television channel -TR the former US marine officer: Ken O Feebe confirmed that US behaves like a “spoilt child” and is the “worse criminal” in the world politics.

I really don’t have to go deeper to elaborate on this point except to say I solemnly trust every body and every progressive government wait with patience to see justice done to the Libyans and Iraqi people. The decision by AU summit was a bold and decisive decision by our leaders.

Nobody will ever stand up on our behalf to stop the complacency by the West towards our rich continent. However, we need to make a point that Africa will only have a united voice if all countries with their leaders who continue to be the faithful minions to the former colonial powers could cut loose their umbilical cord with their exploiters, the former imperialists colonial powers. One thing for sure that Thomas Sankara was going boldly and unblinkingly challenge or question is the presence of the French forces in or on our African soil.

Which seeks definitely to secure their interests and permanent presence in Africa. Imperialists still recognises the richness of our continent, they still aspire recolonisation of Africa through their so called investment projects that takes land from our people because one third of world’s untilled arable land is in Africa, they continue their protuberance in our rich continent, yet imperialists staid, sullied Africa as so backward, corrupt with incompetent leaders.

Yes, let alone those enamored with money which makes them to be gratuitous looters and musters of corruption. Adding to the former, is the attitude to rich the history of our continent which is described as unedifying gyrations of barbarous tribes in picturesque laced with pogrom.

While we recognize the cradle of civilisation, we need to respect our culture and art that imitate real life and represent allegorical expression of avant-garde ideas in our societies in Africa which must extol not the imperialist virtues, but need to be resistant to the banality of the bourgeois culture coupled with the Western style of development as the best approach to accomplish growth and development in the modern economies with egocentric administrations.

The fad that the masses has the capacity must be acknowledged with the support of the state that understand the customs, cultures and needs of the toiling masses.
Our people only have the inelastic demands for food and shelter as the basis for their human dignity. We need to avers that not only politicians must account on their activities, so as the administrators in our public services, as they are expected to assiduously perform their duty as smooth bullets with steely efficiency.

We need build a better Africa that is self sufficient and economically independent from the imperialists developed world, and put a dead end to donor-recipient relationship to our continent. This is a necessity and condition to end the iniquitous social relations and erode the basis that make the West to treat this continent as a beetles object characterised by deleterious effects foisted by the imperialists.

For how many generations and decade shall African continent be subjected to manipulations, treated with complacency by the West that undermines our concreter unity and complete independence, and development? For how long shall we be regarded as incorrigible animals without dignity characterised by pogrom? Surely Thomas Sankara remains among the heroes for the wretched of the earth, whom history of humanity will be replete without their actions and ideas that have survived the passage of time to inspire future generations.

Definitely, he remains a symbol, and accurately understood the basic defining characteristic of a revolutionary is to be a portal of service to the masses and paragon of moral integrity with capacity for irreconcilability with everything false.

The delay of subjective element of revolutionary transformation has accumulated with devastating and tectonics effect that mankind is paying with unending wars. This include the need to end anachronistic privilege on obsolete Veto Powers in UN Security Council. No body must be perspicacious to realise this necessity.

Parkies is the SACP provincial secretary and ANC chief whip in the Free State Legislature