OPINION | Kolisi shows us how we can live in racial harmony in this divided land

It seems  that most South Africans yearn for racial harmony. If the support for the captaincy of Siya Kolisi and his debut match as captain of a young diverse team of players is anything to go by, then this is a great desire for most South Africans.

However, the importance of Kolisi’s captaincy of the Springboks should be less about skin colour and more about witnessing the continued development of a stellar South African sporting talent.

It should be about the march of this nation towards making opportunities available for the development of human potential to the best of our abilities. It should be about perhaps the most important of African beliefs, as espoused by our ancestors from the San and Khoi people to the Nguni, that all human beings are children of the same blood.

At a time when European settlers touched down on the coastlines of this land, this dominant African belief was the foundation which made interaction and trade possible.

The old African idea of being hospitable towards travellers was extended beyond any of the imaginations of these early European travellers. They became settlers, welcomed in the same understanding, as children of the same blood.

So it is this most important belief that gave birth to South Africa, not the conquest of African peoples and their lands. It is not the might of the Dutch and English empires nor the guns of the Afrikaners, but the single idea of a singular human race which gave birth to South Africa.

That idea was beautifully expressed by Robert Sobukwe when he said, “... there is only one race to which we all belong, and that is the human race. In our vocabulary therefore, the word ‘race’, as applied to man, has no plural form.” This belief has been carried from ancient history, through our ancestors, to us. This is why we are repulsed by demonstrations of racism and racialism.

At the same time, this is why we are excited and elated to witness racial harmony or any harmony for that matter. It is something which agrees with values that have been ingrained in us over thousands of years. This is why we insist on sharing this idea and establishing it beyond doubt in everyone who claims allegiance to South Africa.

This is the essence of Ubuntu.

I was impressed to learn that the Springbok captain, Kolisi, looked across the skin colour divide to find a wife, a partner and a soul mate; and is raising a beautiful family as we speak. His leadership therefore is demonstrative. His inspiration is living inspiration. It is not shouted on podiums, but lived day-to-day, as he and his beautiful family continue to develop and fulfil their potential. Which brings me to another old age African method to create harmony.

One of my uncles (utatomnci) constantly reminds me of this method every time we meet. African communities, nations and tribes were very strong on intermarriage as a means to quell conflict among communities, tribes or nations.

This also was underlined by the recognition of the supremacy of being human over other considerations. He consistently maintains that racism will be eliminated once intermarriage across skin colour becomes a common South African feature!

I am starting to take this suggestion seriously. Maybe we need a national campaign to get young people to marry. This will possibly allow us to strengthen families as the building blocks of society. But as we do so, maybe we should deliberately encourage young people to marry across the skin colour divide. When more people are related in this manner, especially seeing that South Africans value ukuzalana (being related), we might see the back of racism and racialism possibly within a decade!

It is these thoughts which make the EFF’s insistence on being racist, abrasive and confrontational in their endeavour to garner favour among our people abhorrent. The recent attack by EFF’s Floyd Shivambu on deputy director-general Ismail Momoniat, simply because he was, “not African”, is itself not African! It is bigoted, racist and has no place in our society! It is in the same boat as AfriForum CEO Kallie Kriel’s twisted delusion that apartheid was not a crime against humanity! We cannot allow racists and bigots to run amok threatening the very society we are trying to build! This country must build on the age old recognition of mankind as one race, full stop!