John Knox Bokwe’s hymn A Plea for Africa still resonates in 2022 as the world finds itself in the midst of war, ever-present racism and the never-ending trauma South Africans face daily due to rising fuel prices, loadshedding and overwhelming mortality rates caused by ailments such as depression and other causes.

Black Consciousness advocates and fight for the right of Black people to exist in the world as a complete, and free human beings, and for the world in which racialised identities are not the measure of people’s humanity

“Africa and the world are yet to recover from Sankara’s assassination. Just as we have yet to recover from the loss of Patrice Lumumba, Kwame Nkrumah, Eduardo Mondlane, Amílcar Cabral, Steve Biko, Samora Machel, and most recently John Garang, to name only a few. While malevolent forces have not used the same methods to eliminate each of these great Pan-Africanists, they have been guided by the same motive: to keep Africa in chains.” — Antonio de Figueiredo, February 2008.

There is something deeply disturbing about being Black in the world we live in - and that is the realisation of how fragile our very existence is.The realisation that, regardless of your social status, the very fact, nature or duration of your existence is not something that you have control over as a Black person.

As part of women’s month commemorations, it is fitting to remind ourselves as a contemporary South African public, about the poem penned by the ‘Prophet of Marabastad’ Es’kia Mphahlele, entitled Tribute to Zodwa Veronica, a Great Woman.

When will we, who call Ga-Kgosi Galeshewe home, ever have the guts to confront the diamond- stealing- murdering- raping British, for what they did to our Warrior King, Kgosi Luka Mpolokeng Jantjie? (1835-1897).

I am telling you all of this MaDlomo, to remind you of how many of your own 'comrades' would prefer that we don't openly talk about the fact that, as the Reverend Akhona Gxamza once remonstrated “We can’t be scrap metal collectors in the land of our birth”.

“[T]he only thing which we wanted for our country is the right to a worthy life, to dignity without pretence, to independence without restrictions. This was never the desire of the Belgian colonialists and their Western allies…” - Patrice Lumumba’s Letter from Thysville Prison to Mrs. Lumumba.