January 7, 2012 - January 13, 2012, The Afro-American
Opinion
A7
America Decides: 2012 Each morning, when I watch the neighborhood children on their way to school, I am re-inspired to do everything within my power to keep our nation’s promise to them. “Develop your talents and work hard,” we counsel our young, “and you can create a better life than the one to which you were born.” This is the same promise that America made to me as a child — and, despite all of the Elijah Cummings obstacles, it was a promise that has been largely honored for tens of millions of Americans who have joined the middle class. Now, however, as our nation celebrates the beginning of another New Year, I must acknowledge that my morning rituals with our neighborhood children are tainted with concern — stirring a renewed sense of determination. My concern is occasioned by more than the staggering challenges that confront so many Americans. As a nation, we have always faced — and overcome — similar challenges. Rather, I am deeply disturbed by the assertion by some in the political leadership of our nation that America works best when each of us is left on our own, unfettered by any significant obligation to each other. During the last couple of years, we have seen this philosophical attack at work in our Washington struggles over healthcare and jobs, educational policy and environmental protection, our national budget and our commitment to fulfilling past obligations. Healthy initiatives such as our responsibility to balance the federal government’s books have been infected by a virus that, left unchecked, could destroy the “full faith and credit” of our nation. Even more devastating, this effort to abrogate the social
contract that has defined the boundaries of legitimate political discourse for nearly a century would steal the future to which our children and their children should be entitled. Fortunately, in 2008, the American people chose a president who understands the fundamental struggle that we face. On Dec. 6, President Barack Obama spoke truth to power in a seminal address during a visit to Osawatomie, Kan. His thoughts on that day (well worth considering as we enter this presidential election year) are available on http://whitehouse. gov), but here are some of his key thoughts. The president summarized how our middle class was substantially enlarged and became more inclusive during the 20th Century, the critical role played by government institutions in that progress, and the attack on this progressive trend by the most wealthy and powerful of our society during the last two decades. He noted how this regressive challenge to the American Dream was a significant factor in the economic collapse of 2008. “This is a make or break moment for America’s middle class,” President Obama observed, “At stake is the notion of our country as a place where working people can earn enough to raise a family, own a home, and secure their retirement. “This isn’t just another political debate. This is the defining issue of our time.” It is worth noting that the president’s Republican opponents also believe that this year’s elections will define our future as a nation. “For the first time since Barry Goldwater made the effort in 1964,” E.J. Dionne observed in his Christmas Day column, “the Republican Party is taking a run at overturning the consensus that has governed U.S. political life since the Progressive era.” “President Obama is defending a tradition that sees government as an essential actor in the nation’s economy, a guarantor of fair rules of competition, a countervailing force against excessive private power, a check on the inequalities that capitalism can produce, and an instrument that can open opportunity for those born without great advantages.” I must respectfully agree. The long-term impact of this year’s electoral contests is
far more profound than the question of who will direct the federal government for the next few years (although continued leadership by a principled and visionary president will be essential if America is to get back on her feet). Election Day 2012 will determine whether our nation continues to have a federal government that can play any meaningful role in our lives. On this critical issue, Barack Obama and progressive Democrats are committed to stability, balance and reasonable reforms. However, the Tea Party and its prospective Republican candidates appear dedicated to the destruction of the government of the United States as we have known that largely positive force in our lives for the last 75 years. These are the stakes — huge and life-transforming stakes for the children of my neighborhood and their families. This coming Nov. 2012, the American people will decide. Congressman Elijah Cummings represents Maryland’s 7th Congressional District in the United States House of Representatives.
100 Years of the African National Congress (ANC) As I reflect on the 100 years of the African National Congress of South Africa, I am reminded of my maternal grandfather Jacobus Mahlangu who served as the secretary of the ANC in the Transvaal Province at the founding of the African National Congress. Because of his political activities, he travelled a lot from the North to the South of South Africa. He was the youngest of the three brothers who moved Mankekolo from Natal Zululand as part of Mahlangu-Ngcobo the Matebele tribe. The others continued to what was then Rhodesia, now Zimbabwe. He was converted to Christianity hence his Christian name, Jacobus. He was educated and very much involved in ANC politics. He was killed in one of his journeys to the ANC conference. My maternal grandmother Mmatlala Mankekolo who I was named after was told about his husband’s death. My Aunt Lydia, the eldest of the five daughters told me they did not have the details of how, why and where my grandfather died. In the next generation of ANC politics in my family, Aunt Lydia Mahlangu took over. She was involved in the Women’s Anti-pass movement of August 9, 1956. She was arrested in Pietersburg during the protest. Her arrest was an eye opener for me at seven years old. I grew up hating the systems of apartheid and yet had a conflict on how to fight the system in the midst of arrests, imprisonments, banning, banishments and exile. As I was growing up, ANC was banned in 1961. ANC leaders Nelson Mandela, Oliver Tambo, Walter Sisulu and the others went underground, and formed Umkhonto we sizwe, the military wing to fight apartheid. The ANC became an exile movement, with some of the leaders like Nelson Mandela, Walter Sisulu and the others in Robben Island Prison with life sentences. In exile ANC was led by Oliver Tambo and other leaders of the tripartite, Congress of the South African Trade Unions (COSATU) and South African Communist Party. (SACP)
My generation in the late 60’s into the 80’s came with the new Black Consciousness movement led by Steve Biko. The students’ protests of 70’s and June 16, 1976 which brought the world’s attention to South Africa were inspired by the Black Conscious movement of South Africa. As it was illegal to join ANC or the Pan Africanist Congress (PAC) which split from ANC in 1969, our movement became powerful but the South African regime clamped down the Black Conscious Movement organizations in October 1977. We formed another organization, Azanian people’s organization (Azapo). Three days later I was arrested and spent 21 days in solitary confinement. While the ANC was banned in South Africa, the movement operated underground in South Africa. I worked at the Nutrition Corporation of South Africa (Kupugani) as a nutrition education manager. The shop manager was Joe Gqabi who spent some years at Robben Island prison. He was good in recruiting the youth to join ANC. We organized the Congress of South African Students. (Cosas). Life became difficult for him with the police and he fled South Africa into Botswana for refuge. He continued the work of ANC. After my release from detention without charges, I fled to Botswana and met with Comrade Joe Gqabi. Life was difficult with police chasing us and I was sent to the ANC Headquarters in Lusaka, Zambia. The first day I landed in Lusaka I was fortunate to meet personally President Oliver Tambo and Alfred Nzo the general Secretary of ANC. I was surprised they knew about me, especially about my faith in God. When you are in South Africa, the South African Government’s propaganda made you believe that ANC leaders and people in exile were bad people and terrorists. President Kenneth Kaunda was generous to ANC. We had land and homes to live in. In Lusaka the ANC was united and disciplined. We were taught the history of the resistance of native people through the ANC from the time the whites came to South Africa. In the late 19th century there was Anglo-Boer War which ended in 1902. It was a war between the South African British settlers and the Afrikaners (Whites of Dutch descent) I remember my paternal grandmother, Amelia Pooe telling us at home during those evening storytelling before we sleep, how the British South Africans betrayed the African people after the war. They recruited the Africans, my paternal grandfather
Letters to the Editor Answers to Romney’s Question With respect to that Iowa Road Show that has become the GOP presidential nomination race, it seems that former Gov. Romney continues to attempt to bedazzle the GOP voters with his uncertain trumpet of a voice and his simple-minded logic. He is always asking, “Do we want to be a land of opportunity or a land of entitlements?” Well, that’s an easy one. We want the opportunity to become entitled to some of the benefits of our country that Gov. Romney and all his super-rich family and friends have come to take for granted. These would include, of course, affordable health care, retirement at age 65, decent housing, good jobs and a first-rate education for all children. No wonder the GOP electorate does not appear to trust Gov. Romney. And they might well also wonder if a man so full of bombastic platitudes and glib nonsense can be trusted with the presidency of the United States. David Webb Webbgazzette.com Columbia The Never-Voted-Before voter Four years of Republican and some Democratic intransigence has filibustered the national dialogue with talking points about spending cuts, budget cuts, tax cuts, and cuts on cuts. It reminds me of intransigent southern segregationist politicians during the first three quarters of the 20th century, something I was protected from by my father but read about in books and in
Naphtali Pooe and promised them to share the country politically with them but they did not fulfill their promise. Africans were not happy and they sent delegations to Britain, but they were not heard. In 1910 the Union of South Africa was formed. South Africa was no longer governed by Britain. Africans were excluded and in 1911 the African leaders, mostly religious people, organized the people with a song” Mzulu, Mosotho Umxhosa hlanganani” which meant “All the African tribes must to come together Zulus, Sothos and Xhosas.” One key woman, Charlotte Manye Maxeke, the first graduate and also the woman who amalgamated the Ethiopian Church in South Africa and the AME Church to be one denomination, was one of the founding members. On January 8, 1912 the Congress of the people met in Bloemfontein to form the South African Native Congress. They sang a hymn before their meetings, ‘Ndi khokele UJehova” “Guide Me O Thou Great Jehovah” The ANC became not only a force of liberation for South Africa but also of Africa. ANC had 12 presidents since its founding in 1912. Thabo Mbeki was the 11th president, 1997- 2007, and his vision was not only for South Africa but for Africa. In her famous speech “I am an African “gave birth of African Renaissance and New Partnership of African Development NEPAD. Zuma is the tenth president of ANC and the sitting president of South Africa. There are presently new challenges of HIV/AIDS, White flight, delivery of services to the poor masses, who were excluded during Apartheid, economic challenges that has left most Black South African young male unemployed and underemployed. Even though there are those challenges, the ANC led Government has been able to be successful in other aspects of life. South Africa was able to host the FIFA World Cup in 2010 without incidents. I was in South Africa and it was excellent. As I pause and reflect on the 100 years of the African national Congress, I feel blessed that my grandfather Jacobus initiated me in to this great movement of the African people in South Africa. We had a part of history in it. The Rev. Dr. Mankekolo Mahlangu-Ngcobo is a public health professor, author and AME pastor and founder of Life Restoration Ministries.
the speeches of Dr. King. The political war that the Republicans wage against President Obama brings to the surface the contradictions in American exceptionalism. Painful to watch, the contradictions show that the historic notions of American exceptionalism are rather medieval in its concern for the least among us. The rabid opposition of Republicans and Democrats to health care for all citizens borders medieval, and it’s kind of crude. Just above the surface, a torrential voters’ storm blows toward Nov. 6, 2012 and President Obama is its landfall. For President Obama to win in 2012, he will need 43 percent of the White American vote; 95 percent of the Black American vote; 80 percent of the Hispanic American vote; 80 percent of the Asian American vote; 60 percent of the Jewish American vote; and 80 percent of all other minorities vote. But the tipping point to an Obama victory in 2012 is the Never-Voted-Before voter who rolled him to victory in 2008. For President Obama to get four more years, the Never-Voted-Before segment, again, must vote. Rain or shine. Beyond the inspiration that Obama inspires in the hearts and minds of average citizens, the open question is can progressive organizations, Black controlled institutions, cultural organizations, businesses and entertainers, and other civic minded organizations do the work necessary to return this massive voting block of citizens, the Never-Voted-Before adult voters, to the polls in 2012? Those citizens are key to President Obama winning a second term. Bill Curtis Baltimore