Madam Speaker, hon members, distinguished guests, friends and comrades, it is hot here. You can feel that.
Yebo, kuyashisa. Kushisiswa yini. [Yes, it is hot. But, what makes it hot?]
The debate on its own is proving to us that it is the other way round. The topic says "Acting in Unity in Pursuit of Peace, Development and Social Justice", and it is what we have been seeing and not in this House only. I am saying that to talk about our own continent while we are inside its boundaries is something which not everybody is lucky enough to be able to do.
I would like to thank the Office of the Chief Whip that informed me yesterday afternoon that I will be participating in this event. Celebrating Africa Day to me means celebrating the whole package of good, as well as bad happenings of the past, present and those we will be faced with in the future.
This opportunity for today is opening my eyes to the following things: Within 10 minutes, you cannot define Africa Day; within 10 minutes you cannot give your colleagues the history of Africa; someone will have to do it on another day, when we really celebrate Africa Day as a parliament in Africa. As for what is happening now in some parts of Africa, particularly in the SADC region, we cannot be celebrating it. Somebody will have to talk and analyse this sudden burst of thunder.
We finally have to live up to each of the tasks of identifying those issues, if they do exist - those that unite in pursuit of peace, development and social justice - from this speech that I will be delivering. Identify it on your own at home, here with your family.
In doing so, I have decided to make use of the fallen hero of our soil, Steven Bantu Biko as my shield and my blanket to cover all of our African brothers, African sisters, our parents, our grandparents, Africa's rivers, Africa's valleys, Africa's mountains, fountains, rains, the forest, the crocodiles and the dangerous as well as friendly animals, hiding in the rocks and hillocks of our continent to name but a few.
I am using Steven Bantu Biko to cover all of them. To dedicate this celebration, I will allow his own words to directly celebrate with us. I am going to request you to keep quiet. You can talk with your mouth, but to yourself. You should keep quiet and pretend as if Steve Biko is here with us and he is talking. If you love nature and you have been to a waterfall, just imagine you are at that water fall but there is no waterfalling, only Steve Biko's voice flowing saying:
One of the most difficult things to do these days is to talk with authority on anything to do with African culture. Somehow Africans are not expected to have any deep understanding of their own culture or even themselves. Other people have become authorities on all aspects of the African life or, to be more accurate, on Bantu life. Thus we have the thickest of volumes on some of the strangest subjects - even the feeding habits of the urban Africans, a publication by a fairly ``liberal'' group, the Institute of Race Relations.
He continues to say:
In my opinion it is not necessary to talk with Africans about African culture. However, in the light of the above statements, one realises that there is so much confusion sown, not only amongst casual non-African readers, but even amongst Africans themselves, that perhaps a sincere attempt should be made at emphasising the authentic cultural aspects of the African people by Africans themselves.
He continues again to say:
Since that unfortunate date - 1652 - we have been experiencing a process of acculturation. It is perhaps presumptuous to call it ``acculturation'' because this term implies a fusion of different cultures. In our case this fusion has been extremely one-sided. The two major cultures that met and "fused" were the African culture and the Anglo-Boer culture. Whereas the African culture was unsophisticated and simple, the Anglo-Boer culture had all the trappings of a colonialist culture and therefore was heavily equipped for conquest. Where they could, they conquered by persuasion, using a highly exclusive religion that denounced all other Gods and demanded a strict code of behaviour with respect to clothing, education, ritual and custom. Where it was impossible to convert, firearms where readily available and used to advantage. Hence the Anglo- Boer culture was the more powerful culture in almost all facets. This is where the African began to lose a grip on himself and his surroundings.
You can come back now from your valley where you have been listening to the water called Steve Biko talking to us about Africa Day. This is the book he called I Write What I Like. This is not him now; it is me. When we celebrate Africa Day, we should be able to successfully monitor how far we have shifted as Africans from what the late Steve Biko said before he died at the age of 30. We should be able to see and plan carefully as to how best we can add more value towards him and others whom he worked and finally died for.
This topic, its content and its implementation ... iyasetshenzelwa. Lolu xolo esikhuluma ngalo awulutholi uhlezi lapha emabhentshini futhi ubanga umsindo. Uyithola ngokuthi uye kubantu base-Afrika ... [... are worked for. This peace that we are talking about is not achieved by merely sitting there on the benches and making noise. You get it by going out to the people of Africa ...]
Who are both black and white. Hence we call them Afrikaners because they are Africans.
Uyaluthola ngokuthi uhambe uyosebenza; ungakhulumi ngalo lapha. [You get it by going out to work and not just by talking about it whilst you are sitting here.]
We should be able to see and plan carefully as to how best we can add more value to it. We are in Africa. Therefore, the celebration of Africa Day annually has to have its own committee that will ensure that the whole gallery of a parliament in Africa in Cape Town depicts the practical reality of Africa in its totality. Even the food from our restaurants in Parliament should also celebrate Africa Day on that day. I was eating there; there was nothing African about the food. When we want to create jobs in an African Parliament that is situated at the tip of Africa that is regarded to have resources, we should create jobs for people who are going to cook African food for us on Africa Day - potjiekos and breyani - and then we can talk on this good topic of "Acting in Unity in Pursuit of Peace, Development and Social Justice.
We really thank everyone for coming today. I hope the Africans that are sleeping peacefully are hearing us as we try to celebrate Africa Day.
Mayibuye i-Afrika! [Let Africa come back! [Applause.]