The ANC's Campfire Songs

5/...		.../Letter
AN ANC luminary who must carry considerable responsibility for engraving on impressionable Black minds the idea that murdering White farmers was both an acceptable and, indeed, inevitable ANC requirement is former ANC Youth League leader and now Environmental & Tourist Minister, Peter Mokaba. An undistinguished Minister, Mokaba is best remembered for his energetic prancing at pre-1994 election rallies, whipping up vengeful Black anger with his primitive, inflammatory chant, "Kill the Boer! Kill the Farmer!" Whatever he chose to say later, that chant was unambiguously clear in its message. Coming under repeated opposition attack at the time, Mokaba said if the De Klerk government of the day intended charging him (for inciting violence) "it could go to hell." This is a transcript, published in the Johannesburg Star, 25.4.93, of a speech he made to Black students: "They are complaining that in our songs, in our chants, we have been saying ‘Kill the Boer, Kill the Farmer.’ I repeat: "Kill the Boer, the Farmer, Kill the Boer, the Farmer. Shoot to kill - nyamazano" (the prey). "Whether they like it or not, this is our chant. This is our song. This is our tradition. This is our culture, whether they like it or not..." Later, rebuked by the ANC itself, he claimed the "song" was merely a chant, "not a statement of intent," just "a camp fire song." That may or may not be so.		Unfortunately, other similar "songs" were also chanted by the ANC’s revolutionary forces in seeking mass mobilisation of the people by raising political tempers. Many of these specifically targeted the Afrikaans farmers: "Hamba kahle mkhonto we Sizwe, Tihna Abantu bomkhonto Sizimisele Ukuwa bulala woma lamabunu" - "We members of Umkhonto are prepared to kill all the Boers." "Khwela phezukwendlu Ubutshele umanishaya Ibhunu umama vyajabula." "Get on the roof and tell them that when I hit the Boer my mother becomes happy." "Amabhunu ahlupha abazali Ekhaya bathi ziphi Izingane zabo Sizbashaya nge Nge bazooka" "Whites and Boers are troubling our parents at home: we are going to hit them with our Ak-47’s and bazookas."
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