Black Hope/White Fear: Reflections on economic transformation in South Africa (2013)
Written by Wayne Lee and Vince Musewe
ISBN 978-0-620-53939-5
Published by Reach Publishers’ services

IT is a dog eat dog world.
By the 19th century, the white race characterised by Britain and its allies had realised this fact.
This was reinforced in 1859 by Charles Darwin in his book On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life, later simply titled The Origin of Species.
Many thinkers around that time had already realised that it was ‘each race for itself’, whatever means necessary to survive.
Earlier in 1848, a European writer Charles Pearson had said, “Perhaps in the not so distant future, we will find ourselves surrounded by the blacks and yellow lines of people we once thought as servile.”
This explains why all white States when threatened will band together.
The contention that began with England and Zimbabwe soon turned into a European Union (EU) ‘problem’ where all 28 members supported the sanctions imposed against the country at the behest of the English, never mind that it would be detrimental to their trade with Africa.
Yet there is a naivety with the black race that is disturbing to say the least.
Just recently, President Robert Mugabe was elected First Deputy Chairperson of the African Union (AU) and will soon be the Southern African Development Community (SADC) Chair, much to the displeasure of some blacks.
Articles were written in the so-called ‘independent’ media condemning the African organisations for recognising President Mugabe.
Perhaps it is as Wayne Lee and Vince Musewe write in their book Black Hope and White Fear that black people are ‘blessed’ with a forgiving spirit that sees no evil.
This was a colonial perception that black people hardly get angry or emotional as they were often infantilised and said to possess spirit of children who harbour no grudge and are obedient.
Black Hope and White Fear was co-authored by black local columnists Vince Musewe known for his rabid attacks on President Mugabe and white South African real estate businessman Wayne Lee.
The two authors’ book attempts to deconstruct the white psyche and realise black potential.
Lee’s chapters are more appealing as he gives insight to what really white fear is all about.
“White people’s biggest fear was that if the black man had a word like kaffir for the white man which elicited such hatred and condemnation, and the political power as well as a population advantage, the white man would be in big trouble,” he writes.
His book explains why even after President Mugabe stretched the olive branch to the white community after independence, they did not take it.
Lee highlights this by noting how few white people invest in the African country they claim to be their home.
White ‘Africans’ would rather invest their money offshore than at home and yet claim they love and have hope in the country they are living in.
The book sheds light as to why President Mugabe is such a threat to white interests and their race in general.
“The white peoples’ biggest fear is that the black people have been taught the hatred that white people were taught in their homes during apartheid,” he writes.
While Lee is clear, Musewe’s chapters leave one confused as to what his position really is.
Musewe writes as if the world operates in black and white, right and wrong.
While he gives credit to President Mugabe for his achievements from which he is a recipient, he is also quick to adopt the popular anti-Mugabe rhetoric.
He employs words popular with anti Mugabe circles like ‘dictator’, ‘delusions and power hungry’.
This then goes to cloud his reason where it is needed.
The black brother writes, “Nowhere have we seen any concerted efforts to change the colonial capitalists systems that existed in the past.”
This is a highly offensive show of ignorance on the economist’s part.
African history and everywhere in the developing country is laden with examples of leaders that have tried to change this capitalistic systems only to be overthrown in coups arranged by the West and Europe.
From Ecuador to the DRC, the pattern remains the same.
Any leader that begins to speak of empowering the masses by changing the capitalistic system, their fate is death.
Thomas Sankara, Patrice Lumumba and Colonel Muammar Gaddafi are among those that lost their lives after such attempts.
Musewe should remember that any leader that attempts to empower his people thereby reducing the coffers and profits of the West is quickly branded a communist and tarnished or murdered.
Colonel Gaddafi was agitating loudly for one Africa, one voice and they let his body rot in the desert sun.
Interesting to note is how Musewe then mimics President Mugabe’s words that it is time to look to ourselves as a continent for solutions to Africa.
“Economic solutions derived from Western philosophy and thought have resulted in the increasing wealth gap between the developed world and Africa.”
In fact, Musewe is basically calling for the adoption of every ideology that President Mugabe has been agitating for in the last decades.
What I find disturbing is how the black voice in the book follows the pan African script with regards to us being masters of our own destiny while denigrating those that take that stance.
Writers like Musewe claim to be for Africa, but will squeal when they are needed to take a stand, afraid that if they speak too loudly in the Western sponsored corridors where they hang around they will be branded a ‘Mugabe lover’, a very bad thing in the West.
So they hide in the shadows echoing ‘pan African’ sentiments where they feel they will not draw the ire of the West but keep quiet when they think the white world will be offended, even if they are right.
“We in Africa cannot continue to blindly follow policies that do not work to solve our problems,” Musewe writes.
It is disturbing how the writer appears to be of the notion that Africa’s problems are solely of an African origin, a lack of wisdom on our part.
At least Lee acknowledges the ‘advantages’ wrought by his white skin.
Musewe duly concludes that ‘we are victims of our own foolishness.’
The foolishness to believe that what Obama reads in a speech prepared for him by his white benefactors regarding Africa is the golden truth.
The foolishness to believe that our salvation will come from the EU now that they are seriously contemplating removing sanctions and the blood sucking American crafted ZDERA.
When we realise the fact that we need to band together, then change will come albeit with inconvenience to others.