A few years ago at university, a heated argument broke out in class between me and another student. I was saying that the nationalisation of the land would ensure its equitable distribution and redress some injustices of the past – he was arguing that those who own the land today worked hard for it and should not have to be forced to hand it over to the state.
Of course, I was quick to point out that those who own the land today might be working hard on it, but that this does not negate the fact that the land was acquired through a systematic process of violent dispossession and the killing of black people that can only be described as genocidal.
It was only after the debate concluded that it dawned on me that the classmate who was advancing such a regressive argument was wearing a T-shirt bearing the image of Argentine-born Cuban revolutionary Ernesto “Che” Guevara.
The irony of wearing a symbol of communism while advancing an anti-working class argument was evidently lost on the gentleman. I would witness this rather curious irony many times in my life. Interestingly, it always involved Che Guevara.
It confounds me to no end how Che has become a symbol of the capitalism he fought his entire life against. Within activist spaces, it is often the vilest of individuals, those who most symbolise conspicuous consumption, philistinism and contempt for the poor, who can often be seen adorned in regalia bearing Che’s revolutionary image.
Even the cigar, which Che and other Cuban revolutionaries smoked in honour of the peasant tobacco farmers, has been transformed into a symbol of opulence and status. It is a preserve of the elite, the “comrades” who are far removed from the nervous conditions of natives.
I was reminded of this when I read about the renovation of the former president Nelson Mandela’s house in Houghton. The make-over by the Nelson Mandela Foundation and Motsamayi Tourism Group will see the Mandela home transformed into a luxury tourist hotel, to be named the Sanctuary Mandela.
Jerry Mabena, CEO of the Motsamayi Tourism Group, is quoted as saying: “We named it Sanctuary Mandela because we want it to be a place where one can visit to rekindle their spirit in reflection of Mandela’s life.”
To “rekindle” one’s spirit “in reflection of Mandela’s life” will cost R4,000 a night for the cheapest room, with the Presidential Suite going for R15,000 a night. This is happening in a SA where 11-million South Africans live below the poverty line and where the official unemployment rate is 32.6%, the highest in the world according to the UN Statistical Yearbook 2000 – even higher than Occupied Palestine and other conflict zones and war-torn countries.
Mandela dedicated his life to the pursuit of a just world in which poverty would be eradicated. He was a champion of humanitarian efforts that were aimed at improving the lives of the poorest of the poor – particularly children.
A fitting honour to his memory would be converting his derelict house to something aligned to his ideals: a museum in pursuit of education, a service centre for migrants and the poor – something that speaks to who he was and what he sought to achieve.
Instead, his symbol, like that of Che, is used to perpetuate the very system he fought against, and to create an enclave of conspicuous consumption and luxury for the 1%.
It would be hilarious if it wasn’t so tragic.
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