there is a lovely facebook page called African Heritage City run by a lovely lady from the Chi. you can check it out HERE. she posts beautiful images of black people and sometimes gives historical footnotes and inspirational quotes. yesterday, she posted this pictured quote from madiba (nelson mandela to you) and the irony (or is the better word hypocrisy?) of these words just screamed at me. how many 18-year-olds in south africa are still waiting for madiba to shake their hands? for how many of their families has absolutely nothing changed since the end of apartheid? didn’t dream (and fight) for change?
you know what else i found on facebook yesterday? a status update from my friend/agitator/activist/eternal thorn in bourgeois politics andile mngxitama about the assassinated south african freedom fighter chris hani:
Today, 19 years ago, chris hani was assassinated by extreme right wingers. His sacp has gone capitalist, the anc has gone neo apartheid. Wud he had stopped the rot? Or wud he have joined the rot? How much I wish chris was never killed, it wud be nice to see how he would operates today within the anc allience. Truth is I have no high hopes.
chris hani was a leader of the south african communist party (sacp). the anc (african national congress) andile mentions is the same party madiba was at the helm of. they are/were thought to be freedom fighters as well. the sad fact of their legacy is that the dream of freedom has been lost leaving andile and others in these modern times burdened with the task of fighting again, having “no high hopes” and needing to re-create dreams.
in lorraine hansberry’s classic play A Raisin in the Sun, Big Walter, the deceased father, is quoted by his wife talking about black people and dreams.dreaming: “Seem like God didn’t see fit to give the black man nothing but dreams — but he did give us children to make them dreams seem worth while.” What happens to these dreams when our children die though? What about Trayvon Martin’s parents? What did they dream for him? What happened to the freedom and justice that madiba dreamt of for south africa?
Zahra Gordon 
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