This week, I shall explore the notion of hegemony. This refers to leadership or dominance, especially by one state or social group over others. Synonyms are supremacy, primacy, authority, control, power, sway and sovereignty. The dominance is often supported and sustained by legitimating norms and ideas. It does not require legislation but it cannot exist or succeed without some semblance of political osmosis.
A classic example of hegemony at work is seen in language as power. Many noted thinkers, like Andrea Mayr, maintain that hegemony operates largely through language. In contemporary society, Western countries set up educational systems, mediated by Western languages, in African countries.
This would be a blank cheque for the validation of hegemonic practice in politics, economics, religion and culture. In fact, the hegemonic demon functions in such a cunningly seductive way that it is often embraced by the very society against which it is arraigned.
Antonio Gramsci, the great Italian philosopher and politician, was always concerned that the media may serve as a propaganda tool to promote the ideology of power. Which is roughly where I feel empowered to make a contribution to try to clear the bush that blocks our way to clear insight at our next visit to draw the telling cross on the ballot paper.
My imperatives have always been driven by language, a tool unashamedly used to promote false supremacy. Nelson Mandela demystified the elitist subterfuge by suggesting that if you speak to a person, you speak to his head. But if you address him in his own language, you speak to his heart.
To me, this presents a tenuous but worthy route for the entire nation to explore in order to construe a meaningful and cohesive opposition and alternative to the blatantly flawed hegemonies (by blacks and whites) of the past number of years.
Racial and racist categories must be seen as soft hegemony as opposed to the hard hegemony of political idealism. Cultural hegemony could cohere into a national moral rearmament that reinstitutes respect for power, authority and the rights and need of others.
More specific actions could be to make a collective effort not to disband the ruling ANC, but reposition it as just a party with the numbers to effect an election victory. I base this on the truth that the ANC is pivotal and essential to the history of the Struggle against oppression. But it did not inherit the right to rule ‘til the end of time. Differences that are real need not be divisive.
We who are ostensible minorities could change our strategies, starting with the way we present ourselves. We need not act in the way we have been categorised or stereotyped. Race is a valid concept if preceded by the word “human”.
This is not enough to provide robust opposition. We need a mind shift on a national level that will exclude blame and substitute it with workable solutions. Cross-religious osmosis, language choice in educational processes, truths based on provable data should become the template for the recovery of the planet, our dignity and the future of our children which is dismal.
I am not naïve enough to suggest legitimate opposition can be achieved from aggrieved numbers of ANC dropouts plus the numbers provided by the motley crowd of smaller and/or independent parties to meld into a solid opposition. That is a pipe dream. But a collective kick in the pants of the present leaders is a start that is worth considering.
As an erstwhile inspector of schools suggested slyly to me once that some people need to advance by the inch, while others need to be moved by the foot. Do the maths.
* Alex Tabisher.
** The views expressed here are not necessarily those of Independent Media.
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