The maiden speech given by Honourable Naledi Nokukhanya Chirwa in the 6^th parliament of South Africa has sparked interesting conversations around the country, particularly on the existence of feminism in the EFF. This is indeed a good sign, as conversations on the liberation of women and the role of women in politics has always been disregarded. Therefore, ‘sparked conversations’ are proof that society is starting to comprehend that there is no revolution without women.

While the speech carried out consciousness to the public, it also highlighted the obliviousness of characters such as Ntsiki Mazwai. In one of her tweets, Ntsiki Mazwai wrote “I wanna see EFF women take over leadership and have Julius and Floyd listen to THEM…not endorse them and bestow them as feminists. We are tired of women chosen by men”.

This tweet is a clear indication of wanting to enumerate feminism in the EFF while also utterly erasing its existence. The use of words such as “endorse” and “chosen” suggest that women who are in leadership positions in the EFF do not deserve to hold their respective positions. It further suggests that these same women do not have the ability to lead without men in the structure. The biggest prejudice of this tweet is that it erases the presence of feminism in the organisation. It cancels out the work done by black women in branches and structures of the EFF who strive to economically emancipate the societies that they reside in.

In addition, the tweet questions the intelligence of women in the EFF. It reduces their politics to those that do not have substance unless they are legitimized by men. It places feminism in the EFF under a persistent spectacle of being tamed and presents an image of a lack of agency from the women of the EFF. Consequently, undermining the movement completely.

To avoid such acts, one should remember that the EFF is an organisation that draws inspiration from the Marxist-Leninist tradition. In the book titled The Emancipation of Women, compiles speeches and writings by Lenin on a revolutionary women’s movement. Lenin reflects on women’s active political struggle and participation in the organisation of the Soviet state. Lenin states that, “the energy, willingness and enthusiasm of women comrades, their courage and wisdom in times of illegality or semi-legality indicate good prospects for the development of our work…” this statement emphasises the character of women in politics. It also emphasises the acknowledgment of women by Lenin (who is one of the theorists that the EFF draws inspiration from). Like the acknowledgement of women by Lenin, the male leaders of the EFF acknowledge the work done by women in the EFF. This however should not be confused as an endorsement or bestowed feminism.

Lastly, the engagement on women or feminism in the EFF indicates societal consciousness to an extent. However, engagement that is not well informed must never be mistaken as genuine.  The EFF has a hefty amount of black radical feminists nationally.  These women work endlessly and tirelessly for the emancipation of black women. The failure to acknowledge this by both women and or men is in itself a form of oppression and marginalisation.

This year’s June 16 event signalled 43 years since the Soweto Uprising freedom heroes and heroines made their mark in history.

The unappeased generation. A generation that was full of questions. And importantly, a generation that stood for an idea greater than themselves, and as a consequence to that paid the ultimate price which saw a full apartheid state hydraulics senselessly unleashed on them. At a time when many were in their youthful and school going age.  

But importantly, when we think about how to memorialize revolutionary events such as the June 16, it is crucial, and also in our own advantage, both theoretically and programmatically that we gather from history all intellectual materials and a constellation of discourses that feeds into a thoroughgoing conversation of events of such nature and their specific reference in relation to the National Question.

I argue that in so doing we’re able to appreciate how those learners took an active and a deliberate part in politics during the 1970’s, a period during which the apartheid state machinery, through education, the media, popular culture and other forms of indoctrination had gradually begun to tighten control of the country’s cultural life by moulding it behind a Afrikaner ideological image.

In recognition of this landmark event in mind, the purpose of this article therefore is to place the 1976, June 16 Children led revolution within history, as one of the Uprisings that was theoretically conceived and planned as we dwell on its contemporary relevance, this, notwithstanding its own stream downs.

The overarching aim here then is to place the June 16 event within the context of a protracted Nationalist Liberation Thought and put it at the epicentre of all contestations in the unfolding liberation landscape for purposes of drawings the ideological imperatives that shaped and inspired the famous 1976 June 16.

Therefore, as argued in the preamble that the 1976, June 16, was among the most critical uprisings that was theoretically conceived and executed according to a plan. 

And it was this theoretical comprehension underlying the 1976 Uprising that explained its sweep across the length and breadth of the country, the enormous energy it generated amongst the youth, the profound political instability it wrought in South Africa, and importantly, the extent to which it threatened the very existence of the apartheid state machinery at the time. 

Arguably, unlike the early uprisings like Sharpeville, Langa and Uiteneng uprisings and many others before it, the June 16 is certainly not what its detractors often suggest, namely, a spontaneous uprising by impatient school going kids.

It was not an uprising for the sake of, a “revolution is a wonderful thing, so let us have a shot at it” kind of a distorted logic. 

On the contrary, it was, as already indicated above, based on a precise theoretical assessment of apartheid’s dialectical development of contradictions, and on a development of this theoretical comprehension to a level where, to borrow from Steve Biko’s own reflection about it; 

“The June 16, Soweto uprising was the black consciousness philosophy’s significant contribution to the national liberation agenda of the black race”.

Moreover, I argue that this theoretical comprehension underlying the June 16 Soweto Uprising developed in stages. 

And two stages are of particular importance.

The following stages are understood based on the theoretical formulation of a popular Italian Marxist intellectual, Antonio Gramsci. 

I will use Gramsci for purposes of this article to give a theoretical and programmatic clarity which could assist us make sense of that popular political culture displayed by young black kids even in the absence of many traditional liberation formations at the time – the ANC, PAC and AZAPO to name just a few.

Gramsci produced the single most impressive theoretical account to date, of how society’s political consciousness develops. 

The two stages detailed in Gramscian thought formulation are: 

(1)War of Position, and,

(2)War of Manoeuvre.  

The former, Gramsci argues is when people are in essence still reading, writing and debating against the status quo in their attempt to resist being defined as “Subjects”. 

Subjects in the sense of being constructed by the powers at be as people who must simply adhere to the rules and ideals governing society, language and communication (“the symbolic order”) without majority of them fully conscious of this contradiction.

This stage, as pointed out by Gramsci is without any actions as yet. It is a stage of consciousness development, but a step necessary in the building of a clear subjective ideological resolve through a careful analysis of the oppressed people’s plight and what one must do in order to change it. 

Stated differently, the abovementioned stage in Gramscian thought formulation assist to give you a much more elaborate ideological understanding that will inform your understanding of the bigger problem in society.

By understanding the bigger problem, I mean a deeper understanding of the real power relations that control society and dominant ideologies that prevent society from realizing social and political justice. 

And in our context it was the white racist Afrikannerdom ideology that prevented black people’s social and political justice, and in turn insisted on reducing them into “subjects”.

Then the latter stage in this thought formulation, or what Antonio Gramsci called the War of Manoeuvre is even more critical, it emphasizes on the need to actively organize people for purposes of taking power, proper!

In other words, this stage involves the interpellation of subalterns into active revolutionaries who engage in decisive actions aimed at the reconstruction of society with new power relations. This is a stage that adds meat and blood to the empty bones of theory and planning. 

These stages must necessarily happen subsequently, one after the other, in order to strengthen cogent theoretical planning and assessment of the contradictions in society and political consciousness of the masses in relation to this contradiction. 

The June 16 Soweto uprising, a moment guided by a black consciousness ideological imperative, as was reflected in the popular slogans of the time, such as: “BLACK MEN YOU ARE ON YOUR OWN”, and, “BLACK CONSCIOUSNESS IS OUR SHIELD” was evidently a moment of theory burst into praxis. 

It gave full merits to Antonio Gramsci’s careful analysis of how structural consciousness develops.

All in all, it was a culmination of protracted active efforts in the politicization, mobilisation and organization of young people around the idea of imagining a different possibility of existence outside the apartheid power structure while a coward black generation stood in dread. 

Steve Biko, Abraham Tiro, among others, as the 1970’s ideological leaders, by sheer subjective will and their patience for politically educating the black mass inculcated in the school kids a radical attitude of black insolence against white supremacy and paternalism of nauseating proportions. 

This is what assisted in stirring every spark of consciousness even in young school kids and resulted in them turning their schools into hotbeds of political debates and incitement, co-ordinating regional, provincial and national efforts for that historical day of the Uprising, and in this working side by side with school teachers, parents and BCP leaders to ensure an all-around crackdown of the Apartheid Bantu education system.

It is therefore not too much to say the June 16 Soweto Uprising made South African come alive from a theoretical planning point of view. 

The business as usual order in many schools was disrupted as many of them swelled with the radicalism of Black power politics. The constant organizing of political support in communities and establishing of regional leadership under the banner of learner leadership for the event were all testimony to an appreciation of theoretical planning.

These concerted efforts of June 16’s political characterization are critical in the discourse about the struggles for freedom in our country, not as an intellectual hangover in us or mere nostalgia, I do maintain that South African youth needs to look forward post-1976 and only draw lessons from it in confronting the unfolding black Revolution. 

However, this article is not neutral, it is on the main part, unapologetically aligned towards a pro-1976 narrative, in a way, in a deliberate attempt to contest the liberal narrative of history which is considered an important part of the theoretical underpinning of the post-apartheid state and is often in many events and times financially funded when seen to be making what is dubbed “useful contributions” in our history. Universities are central players in this liberal project. 

In addition, this brief historicization of the June 16 is also by no means an attempt to present that event as a larger-than-life super-theoretical program exploding with ideas, it had its own shortcomings too, owing to a massive crackdown of political action by the apartheid state and the inexperience in the leadership of learns.

But for the clear record the article aims to demonstrate the event as an important moment that became an outcome of a theoretically formulated program by ordinary school going kids who whose only conviction was an unflinching dedication in galvanizing popular momentum through building solid instruments of political action and mobilisation, not as an end in itself, but as a means towards an end. 

The end as we know today was the heroic June 16, Soweto Uprising. 

Therefore both programmatically and theoretically the event is of significance to us in that sense, but significantly programmatically, because if the leaners that day not taken to the streets and confronted the apartheid state head on, it could well be argued that all their passionate radicalism and months of politicization and organization would’ve come to nothing.

Therefore, the year 1976 could probably best be dramatized as a spin-heading convergence of young black popular revolt and a draconian form of political crackdown.

Therein lies a fountain of lessons to be drawn from for contemporary struggles in South Africa today and in that sense as a young black person today I still feel obligated in memorializing and appreciating the event.

Here’s to the revolutionary spirit of the 1976 youthful generation, a landmark Anniversary replete with key lessons for today’s comrades. Aluta Contina!