Robert Ascherman
Abahlali baseMjondolo (Shack Dwellers) Movement South Africa
South Africa
Abahlali baseMjondolo, whose name means “residence of the shacks” in Zulu, is the largest and most powerful movement to arise in the post-legal apartheid years in South Africa. Today their mission is to oppose the de facto economic and social apartheid being led by the African National Congress—Nelson Mandel’s Party, which itself overthrew legal apartheid.
Because of this dynamic, it is impossible to understand the shack dwellers’ struggle without first understanding the history of the struggle against legal apartheid. One of the key components of the struggle was the Black Consciousness Movement, as articulated by Steve Biko. Biko argued that apartheid would never be successfully defeated so long as a mass scale of black Africans—the people who suffered the most from apartheid—faced a nefarious inferiority complex, which made them defer to the authority of white liberals who wanted to lead the movement, as opposed to following the leadership of black Africans.
Despite concentrating my studies at Gallatin in Liberation Psychology and Social Movements, I had never heard of Biko when I first decided to spend my summer in South Africa with Abahali. My decision was solely based upon a need to work with an organization that communicates in English. I chose Abahali over the Indian organization, Ekta Parishad, because of what felt like a semi-personal connection to the shack dwellers. My best friend and mentor, Dan Jones, a previous Gallatin Human Rights Fellow, had introduced me to Abahali’s documentary, Dear Mandela.
Throughout my independent study this semester, Biko’s ideas have been quite inspiring, especially when applied to Abahali baseMjondolo by scholar and Abahali member, N.C. Gibson. This has been quite fortunate for me as a student, helping me clarify my career goal of writing a book or PhD dissertation about why a liberation psychology movement is needed and how it could be created.
As an organizer, Biko’s works have inspired me in regards to a key question from the fellowship seminar: Should human rights be approached as a strategy or ideology; a practice or a devotion? Biko’s writing—along with the article, “The Power and the Crisis of Human Rights,” by Amnesty International’s former executive director, Larry Cox—has helped me realize that the answer has to be both. Cox shows that uncalculated and unstrategic approaches to human rights only result in co-option. Likewise, Biko shows that Black Consciousness, a strategical articulation of Black Empowerment, gave direction to a new movement struggling against apartheid, and accomplished this because its devotion to the notion that “Black is beautiful.”
Further, Biko shows that Black Consciousness as a model for poor/dispossessed consciousness is a key step in achieving human rights. Shame, stigmatization, and inferiority complexes based on poverty and dispossession prevent social movements from achieving human rights. However, a devotion to human rights, which views the subject not only as a practice but also an ideal, enables the development of committed leaders who can connect people across all lines to achieve justice.