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Opinionista

Who will be left to speak for you?

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Andrew Ihsaan Gasnolar was born in Cape Town and raised by his determined mother, grandparents, aunt and the rest of his maternal family. He is an admitted attorney (formerly of the corporate hue), with recent exposure in the public sector, and is currently working on transport and infrastructure projects. He is a Mandela Washington Fellow, a Mandela Rhodes Scholar, and a WEF Global Shaper. He had a brief stint in the contemporary party politic environment working for Mamphela Ramphele as Agang CEO and chief-of-staff; he found the experience a deeply educational one.

Surely all lives matter, and we should dig deep and ask ourselves why we make the choice to treat some tragedies differently to others, both in terms of our reaction to them and our memory of them.

Things are never as simple as we would wish them to be. There are, of course, some things that are simple, and often those are the things that require us to stand with others. On 2 April 2015, we looked on at the events unfolding in Garissa, Kenya, where gunmen stormed Garissa University College and killed at least 148 students in an incident reminiscent of the Westgate Shopping Mall attack of 2013. The inability of our African leaders to show solidarity in this time of pain and shock with the people of Garissa and Kenya is devastating.

Those very leaders, at least eleven of them, made the choice to march in Paris as a sign of solidarity with the people of France after the attack on Charlie Hebdo and the death of 12 people in the offices of that French satirical weekly newspaper. More than 40 world leaders marched with about two million people on 11 January on the streets of Paris. The world did not simply stand by silently.

The tragedy at Charlie Hebdo galvanised people globally with the words Je suis Charlie trending, but it was not that simple. Many, including some in mainstream media, articulated the sentiments that Muslims should explain themselves. There was a palpable expectation that Muslims should explain that not all Muslims are terrorists or that somehow Muslims globally should take responsibility for the acts of extremists and murderers.

We all have choices to make. Many people believed that they would in solidarity stand by the words Je suis Charlie, but there were others who believed that it was okay to be Je suis Mohamed or even Je ne suis pas Charlie.

We have seen this before, and the narrative that #BlackLivesMatter reminds us that sometimes we need to rage. We are reminded that often we don’t get what we want to see in the mainstream media or from our leaders.

The recent fires in the Cape Town area are another reminder. The size and scale of this fire was indeed noticeable while the world watched and supported the effort. Millions of rands were raised, donations streamed in and a sterling effort was mounted in order to support the efforts to put out the flaming inferno. Yet we are hesitant to compare tragedies so as not to seem unkind. We are even more hesitant to contrast those recent fires in the South Peninsula to the fires of Langa or Khayelitsha in Cape Town.

Surely all lives matter, and we should dig deep and ask ourselves why we make the choice to treat these tragedies differently, both in terms of our reaction to it but also our memory of it.

The date 14 April 2015 marks an entire year since the night when Boko Haram kidnapped about 276 female students from the Chibok Secondary School in Borno State, Nigeria. The response by the Goodluck Jonathan administration was insufficient or even indifferent at times, as was his government’s response to issues around corruption or the economic issues. The people of Nigeria, in an important election, made the choice to vote that government out of power and to try once more with Mr Buhari. The trick, now, is for them to ensure that they continue in their efforts to be vigilant; after all, it is our collective duty to ensure that our leaders do in fact live up to our hopes.

I am reassured, however, by the Wits students, who on Monday reminded us all that perhaps the future of defining who we are and how we interact in the world is “in our hands”. These Wits students staged the Garissa solidarity march, after many days of silence, instead of just looking on at the wanting behaviour displayed from our leaders.

The past few weeks have been a troubling time, particularly in KwaZulu-Natal. We have seen an uptake of anger and violence directed against foreign nationals. The official view by government is that these attacks are driven by criminality. However, the denial of the unfolding xenophobic or Afro-phobia is startling in the face of this escalation and the fact that lives have been lost and are in danger. This may not be in our name, but it is unfolding on our watch. We have to stand up before it is too late.

All of these events remind me of Pastor Martin Niemoller’s provocative statement and poem –

First they came for the communists, and I did not speak out –
because I was not a communist;
Then they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out – because
I was not a socialist;
Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out –
Because I was not a trade unionist;
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out – because I
Was not a Jew;
Then they came for me – and there was no one left to speak out for me

We have to dig deep and start emulating the values enshrined in our own hopes and aspirations and in our Constitution. We must begin to use our voices and stand with all those who are being threatened.

We cannot afford to let them be forgotten.

Je suis Marikana. Je suis Chibok Girls. Je suis Rwanda. Je suis Garissa. Je suis Azania! Je suis African. DM

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