Listening to the silent majority

[36]

Jabulani Patose: ‘We need men of prayer, men who conquer, men who can withstand difficulties and temptation. We need God to play an important role in our lives again. We don't need the kind of leadership we have today. They are leaders that constantly zig-zag, say today this, tomorrow that. These leaders launch strong views on the election platform, but once they get into power they act contrary to their promises and what they have been saying.’

Without wanting to discourage 27-year-old Jabulani Patose from Boipatong township, I did point out to him that perhaps 99 out of 100 politicians the world over were in the class of leaders he just described. I recounted how I had travelled in 1968 with Richard Nixon in New Hampshire, when he again ran for President, and had heard him a dozen times a day make solemn election promises and watched him do the opposite once he got to the White House. He won the election, basically, because he promised to end the war in Vietnam. However, he waited until well into his second four-year term as President to carry out this pledge at the cost of tens of thousands more dead American soldiers and millions of slaughtered Asians.

Jabulani: ‘Still, I believe, that in this stage of our struggle for liberation we need honest leadership. I have no statistics about the amount of corruption in black townships, but I believe strongly, we blacks should get together at lower levels and start learning. Until now, we have acted too often out of desperation. But, with every single desperate act, more people were needlessly killed. Schools have been burnt and even more grief was brought upon black communities.’

He continued, ‘At this moment, I am running around telling our youths they should try to concentrate on their school-work. I keep stressing that they first of all need a solid education, in the interest of

[p. 44]

their country, of course. Some tell me that education is of no use and that they want freedom now. I say they will not know what to do with their liberation, if they haven't gone to school first. We already have black educators, doctors, engineers and lawyers. A lot of blacks have already enjoyed a good education. But others advocate school boycotts, and advise to sabotage classes, and stop learning in order to become liberated first. But what would freedom mean to our people, if our heads are empty? We would not know what to do with our freedom, nor be able to handle it with care, with reason or with a trained mind.’

It delighted me to hear my young friend, only in his late twenties, underline the importance not only of proper learning but also the inevitable link between learning and the practical use of intelligence. The mind cannot possess knowledge a priori. It has to process experiences and allow the brain to interpret input. It can become properly structured only through a constant stream of truthful information from the outside world. Scanty or inaccurate input will result in an underdeveloped mind and underdeveloped output. Chains of organic molecules shape our thoughts and opinions, round the clock. But it is the trained mind that will be able to stand as a signpost pointing the way to others.