A sad thing here is the very insulting, anti-Black American offense South Africans are taking at being linguistically compared to African Americans, refusing to accept that theyโre *at minimum* bilingual. Just open revulsion at being likened to people they look down on. Awful.
You sit wherever you are in Zambia, tweeting about our history as if you lived it. You lecture us about apartheid what we endured, how we fought, who helped us. You reduce our struggle to a "cartoon version" of history. But you were not there. You did not bleed. You did not bury. You did not fight.
Let me educate you๐คYes, we acknowledge the support of frontline states. Yes, sanctions and international pressure mattered. Yes, the global anti-apartheid movement played a role. But do not diminish the sacrifices of our people. Do not erase the children of Soweto, the martyrs of Sharpeville, the soldiers of Umkhonto we Sizwe, the mothers who marched, the fathers who disappeared. Apartheid was not defeated by speeches in London or resolutions in New York alone. It was defeated because we refused to surrender. Because we fought on the streets, in the courts, in the prisons, and in our own hearts.
You speak of "cartoon history," yet you reduce our suffering to a script. You mock Sarafina!, a film that captured the spirit of our youth, the fire of our resistance. You call it poor education. But let me ask you, where were you when we were dying? Where were you when we were protesting? Where were you when we were voting for the first time?
If African people ever decided to protest face their own government if they ever choose to march against corruption, to demand accountability, to overthrow the thieves who have stolen what is rightfully theirs, South Africans will support them. We would stand with them. We would amplify their voices. Because we know what it means to fight. We know what it costs. But for as long as you donโt see your hypocrisy and dishonesty, African will remain where it is. That is not South Africaโs problem.
But until then, do not teach us about our history. You have not earned that right. You have not paid that price. Stay in Zambia and do what you people do in Zambia.
South Africa will eventually have to draw the line somewhere.
If African governments say they donโt have the resources to even repatriate their own citizens, then the real question is: what is their long-term plan for those people once they are back home?
If a state cannot fund transport for a few thousand people today, how does it expect to provide jobs, housing, healthcare, and basic services tomorrow so those same people donโt end up returning to South Africa out of necessity?
South Africa cannot indefinitely absorb the consequences of governance failures elsewhere in the name of ubuntu or regional solidarity. At some point responsibility has to sit where it belongs: with the governments of those countries.
We need to start being honest about how we have normalised bad leadership, incompetence and corruption on the African continent, and how South Africa has had to bear the brunt of poorly governed nations for decades now.
But at some point, South Africa will also have to stop playing the role of enabler.