Jimmy:
Thanks for the clarification on the force behind the embrace. The Winnie/ANC/apartheid epoch presents us with some fundamental issues, one among which you have identified: remorse? I find myself leaning towards the need for remorse on Winnie's part particularly on the death of Stompie, notwithstanding the larger context to which I referred in my initial posting. By the same token, I remain taken aback on the propensity by Africans to do what is going on in South Africa today vis a vis victimage and reconciliation. We are perpetual extenders of the olive branch or should I say the whole tree.
I am not talking here about the seeming absence of a "revenge" or "retaliatory" motive/dimension against systems such as apartheid and slavery as it was practiced here and in the rest of the Americas. Even with our "T" and "R" mentality things do not seem to improve in terms of human relations between the victims and their victimers. I have paid close attention to Mr. Clinton's initiative and I participated in a conference in Miami recently that featured the key movers and shakers behind his initiative on the race issue. Among some of the pricipals that spoke on his behalf, the more conciliatory remarks but one came from us. We tend to be the ones to go all out to explain and understand why victimisers do what they do to their victims and the need for "reconciliation."
The sad fact, of course, is that instead of taking proactive measures that are in the best interest of our nations and those in diaspora in order to prevent the recuurence of such brutal practices in the forms of institutionalised systems, we are busy being victimisers of our own. The time and energy we spend on "T" and "R" deliberations can perhaps be spent on devising ways of preventing African demagogues and opportunists from doing what they are doing to us in the continent. The danger indeed is that the demagogues are now being "democratically" elected. Perhaps in a strange ironical twist, this "T" and "R" mentality that cuts through all strata in our society explains why African victims "elect" some of the most notious African victimisers to rule them. There are times I venture into a realm in search of explanations -- the deep and penetrating influence of Christianity. But then it is the very Christians who created apartheid and controlled a massive slavocracy. In the process of the search, I have heard Africans invoke Biblical warrants to help explain and forgive the Christian victimisers. It is during those lonely moments that I recall and take solace in incidents that happened during the height of the African consciousness movement in the United States in the 1960s when recently arrived Africans from the motherland were being told how to be African by ultra conscious African Americans dressed in "Dashikis" with "naturals," some in corn rolls and all. Anyway, thanks once again for the clarification regarding the embrace.
Fraternally,
Cecil Blake