From a Place of Blackness: A Correspondence between Andile Mngxitama and Aryan Kaganof
Published by Sankara Publisher (2013)
ISBN: 978-0-620-51886-4

FOR long the whiteman has made it seem as though without him, Africa and the black race are doomed.
This is not the case.
Africa is capable of standing on its own.
What the whiteman has done is prejudice blacks.
In the book, From a Place of Blackness which is a correspondence between Andile Mngxitama and Aryan Kaganof, issues of the plight of blacks at the hands of whites are discussed.
“As a kid I was taught to fear God, hate kaffirs and love money,” Kaganof writes.
“I failed at all three.”
This is typical of whiteman thinking.
Even when they came to Africa, the aim was to make money.
Use religion to ‘steal’ from the blacks, was the message carried by the first missionaries to Africa sent from Belgium by King Leopold II.
In Mngxitama’s correspondence, the writer clearly states how whites have been robbing Africa not only of her human resources, but also natural resources for too long.
When the whiteman set foot in Africa, his mission was the same – loot and plumber.
From slavery to colonisation and neo-colonialism, whites have not stopped.
“And white who care came into our midst and took,” Mngxitama writes.
“Whites took the land, labour and African souls.
“At the end of that taking, we were mere voids.
“Well, they even took black flesh and threw half into the bottom of (the) Atlantic Ocean.
“What’s left is a void.
“A black void!”
The writer concludes: “All whites are enemies of blacks.”
All the whiteman has done is abuse blacks.
The writer is of the opinion that blacks should not forget the ills of the whiteman.
By so doing, they would be wary when dealing with whites in the future.
Mngxitama writes whites have sown seeds of division among blacks and with a divided race, whites know they can easily penetrate and conquer Africa.
During slavery, it was blacks who captured fellow blacks to sell as slaves. During the colonial era, blacks were conscripted into white-led police forces and armies.
These blacks were used to carry out injustices on fellow blacks on behalf of whites.
And in modern day politics, whites fund opposition parties in the guise of promoting black empowerment and development, yet in fact they (whites) want to topple African governments.
“Please for the black everything is for the first time – we have no capacity for memory, for if we did, we would not so readily forgive those who harm us,” Mngxitama writes.
“I understood more clearly the idea of an Askari.
“The Mau-Mau were destroyed by the Askari – black soldiers in the service of whites.
“Lumumba was destroyed by the Askaris, see the last picture of the man manacled (to) the back of a lorry on the way to his death, not a single white present.
“Thomas Sankara was murdered by a black hand in the service of whites.
“So we run away from whiteness into the whiteness of the black hand.”
The book contains a piece by American-born black revolutionary Assata Shakur who became the first woman to make America’s list of top terrorists.
Her crime was speaking for the emancipation of blacks.
“Black life expectancy is much lower than white and they do their best to kill us before we are even born,” writes Shakur.
“We are burned alive in fire-trap tenements.
“Millions of black people have died as a result of indecent medical care.
“This is murder.
“They call us murderers, but we do not control or enforce a system of racism and oppression that systematically murders black and Third World people.”
Shakur clearly shows that whites care less about lives of blacks.
All they want is to use blacks to their advantage.
After using blacks, they are tossed in the bin like rubbish.
Mngxitama suggests whites do not forgive blacks who fight for blacks.
It was the duty of the blacks to recognise these heroes who speak up for their rights.
All the whiteman wants is to crush the development of blacks.
Today whites preach democracy and the need to uphold human rights to African countries yet they do not practise what they preach.
“Racism is going nowhere as long as the structures of white supremacy remain intact, covered in the language of democracy and non-racialism,” Mngxitama writes.
It is time for Africa to stand up and prove the blackman is capable of going it alone.