Often times when we think of great anti-colonial leaders, we usually go to historical figures such as Kwame Nkrumah, Thomas Sankara, Patrice Lumumba, and the likes – usually forgetting religious leaders who have also played a huge role in terms of how we have come to understand political institutions and the way in which they work today. One can even go as far as saying that the African democratization process in the 90s can also be attributed to the role played by religious institutions.

This past week, 24 May, marked the centenary of the tragic Bullhoek massacre where the apartheid South African police killed hundreds of members from Enoch Mgijima’s Israelite church on the 24^th of May 1921. Mgijima, knowing that he did not have a strong army against the apartheid state, was courageous and insistent that they would rather die than be removed by the government from occupying land. 

This came after the state at the time had a confrontation with the Church of God and Saints founder Mgijima and the Israelites, who were seen as illegally occupying land by the state even though they were landless and homeless. Mgijima and the Israelites fought against the apartheid legislation of land grabs using Christianity to say that the state could not take land from people in view of the fact that this was God’s land, and nobody can own it.

The brief historical background is that from 1913, after the Native Land Act was passed, black people could not acquire land as it was mainly distributed to whites. This Act ensured that blacks were dispossessed and attempts to take steps contrary to such laws were seen as undermining government. However, the desires of blacks to occupy land grew, as many began squatting and accommodating themselves in open spaces.

This revolutionary act of resistance by Mgijima and the Israelites can be seen in the same way as the 1960s protests in Sharpeville, where the carrying of pass books was rejected by the Black majority. As well as the 1976 generation of scholars who saw the teaching of Afrikaans in their schools as a hindrance to black people and their culture, and thus rejected it.

Sad to say, however, that 100 years after the Bullhoek massacre, the current government has still not decisively addressed the colonial and apartheid land theft which continues to put at a disadvantage, black people, and Africans in particular. Land has to be expropriated without compensation for equal redistribution so that even the poorest of the poor can be at the centre of their self-determination.

The Inkatha Freedom Party seems to have not moved beyond war thinking in their politics. Almost every criticism mounted against them by the ANC is interpreted as a potential past war trigger. The recent mourning at the Royal Zulu Palace has seen the Traditional Prime Minister, founder and emeritus President of the IFP, Prince Mangosuthu Buthelezi, occupying most of the news attention in the recent past weeks. While this is a role he had occupied for many years, it remains difficult to separate his role in the Zulu Kingdom and his role as a politician and “alpha and omega” of the IFP. This is because the two have been the two sides of the same coin for several years. In fact, the strength of the IFP since its founding has been dependent on the Zulu nation and its politicisation. Prince Mangosuthu still thinks he can continue to weaponize his relationship with the Zulu Royal family to fight his political battles as he has done over the years. 

The political war between the Inkatha Freedom Party and the African National Congress has left many people devastated to date. Many are still haunted by the traumas and experiences of war. While progress has been made in healing the wounds through a political solution, all these efforts of healing were geared towards pleasing Prince Buthelezi’s ego and his assumed importance and authority over the actions and thinking of the Zulu nation. 

Buthelezi’s blood relationship with the Zulu Royal family has played a significant role in the strength of the IFP. His politics have always been about politicising the Zulu ethnic identity to mobilize political support. He has done this under apartheid while pushing propaganda that the ANC wants to erase the Zulu nation and collapse the monarch. He also purported the view that the ANC wanted Zulus to be led by Xhosas referring to Nelson Mandela. 

This propaganda was a precursor to the Zulu people’s attitude in the 1980s adopting the phrase “We are waiting for Chief Buthelezi to tell us when and where to attack” the rest is history as we know it today, many murders were committed, and many families destroyed. The fact is if all tribes were to die today and replaced by common personhood with one ethnicity the IFP will perish. 

It should not be surprising that Prince Buthelezi, when addressing a media briefing to update the nation about Zulu Royal related matters, ventured unnecessarily on matters of political conflict between the IFP and the ANC. According to him, he was angered by sentiments made by the Provincial Secretary of ANC in KwaZulu-Natal Mdumiseni Ntuli. Ntuli had argued that the Prince was using the Royal Zulu family to mobilize political support in KZN, “his primary objective is to create an impression that there is no distinction between the IFP and the Zulu Kingdom” , said Ntuli. 

What Ntuli mentioned has been the strength of Prince Buthelezi for many years to marry the two as one. This is why the IFP continues to be a regional party. It also explains why one Press Conference was facilitated by the National Spokesperson of the IFP and Chairperson of SCOPA Mr. Mkhuleko Hlengwa. In his defense, Hlengwa argued that the Office of the Traditional Prime Minister does not have resources, laughable as this response is, it is proof that the IFP and Prince Buthelezi see the Royal Zulu household as an IFP household. It is laughable also because the Prince could have asked the Premier of KZN, a Royal family member, or any neutral person to facilitate the press conference. 

The obsession of the IFP with war is scary but not surprising as the party was built around war and the mesmerisation and indoctrination of the Zulu people. Prince Buthelezi looks at every political criticism as a trigger of war and all members of the IFP follow suit because he is the alpha and omega of the IFP. The recent press conference which echoed the sentiments of Prince Buthelezi on war is proof of the party’s obsession with war. The reduction of Mzala Nxumalo’s book to a mere fiction of insults against Prince Buthelezi’s family and by extension the Zulu Kingdom is worrisome, but it is proof that Prince Buthelezi is not a nation builder but an opportunist who enjoys petty ethnic politicisation benefits camouflaging them as preservation of culture. 

What Prince Buthelezi and the IFP do not seem to grasp is the trauma the colours and leaders of their party trigger to many people in KZN who lost their loved ones whenever they talk about the war. They always want to brush their failure to debate politically by provoking the brutal past they have helped to create. Prince Buthelezi and his IFP must engage the ANC politically without referring to the war of the past, Buthelezi does not hold the monopoly of violence presently. 

The truth of the matter is that the IFP and its supreme leader are worried about its relationship with the Zulu nation since the new King will no longer have  Prince Buthelezi as the Traditional Prime Minister. This means the moral authority of the IFP over the Zulu Kingdom will continue to decline. The Zulu nation must refuse to be used by the IFP for political gain.

Sbonelo Radebe also known as Star Radebe. He holds a Bachelor of Social Science Undergraduate Degree from UKZN, Bachelor of Social Science Honors (UKZN), BA Politics also from UKZN, and Master of Social Science in Political Sciences.