Physical decolonisation is conceptually simple; it is the domestication of sovereignty, the relinquishment of political control by foreign powers. This has long since been achieved. But unsatisfied with second place in their place of birth, South Africans rightly have set about to redefine the trajectory of the culture. The problem with philosophical decolonisation is that far too often, opposition to former colonists does not take the shape of a return to tradition to cultivate new fruits and flowers, but the purchase of cut flowers from a rival florist. In Africa, as in many other places, rebels against the West European powers did not invent new ways of thinking, nor did they root themselves in old ways of thinking and lean their vines on the trellis of civilisation, instead, they sufficed to sow the seeds of Marxist dogma, with some minor variations.
The Thirsty Vine
The Thirsty Vine
The Thirsty Vine
Physical decolonisation is conceptually simple; it is the domestication of sovereignty, the relinquishment of political control by foreign powers. This has long since been achieved. But unsatisfied with second place in their place of birth, South Africans rightly have set about to redefine the trajectory of the culture. The problem with philosophical decolonisation is that far too often, opposition to former colonists does not take the shape of a return to tradition to cultivate new fruits and flowers, but the purchase of cut flowers from a rival florist. In Africa, as in many other places, rebels against the West European powers did not invent new ways of thinking, nor did they root themselves in old ways of thinking and lean their vines on the trellis of civilisation, instead, they sufficed to sow the seeds of Marxist dogma, with some minor variations.