White Skin, White Mask
Qalandar Bux Memon

 

Yes, yes the 'why's' but more so the 'how'.   My friend, the why is apt to circle itself (that dog chasing its own tail), the figure of the 'why' is indeed Rodin's thinkers – poised in slumber.  Praiseworthy but static.  Aime Cesaire gives us another figure: “And more than anything, my body, as well as my soul, do not allow yourself to cross your arms like a sterile spectacle, for life is not a spectacle, for a sea of sorrows is not a stage, for a man who cries out is not a dancing bear…”

It is the 'why' that very soon craves an imaginary position outside of time, society, and into the decks of the library and those boorish questions – and only these questions – of TIME IN ARISTOTLE… - that why of disinterestedness.   

The 'why' is the chief weapon of the child against the adult, it can undermine any given assumption, and for this we admire it.  However, what does it build?  The 'how' forces open another page.  Turn your why – when you are ready – into a how and see:

Why should I live? 

How should I live? 

Assert. 

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“To educate man to be actional, preserving in all his relations his respect for the basic values that constitute a human world is the prime task of him who having taken thought, prepares to act”.

Frantz Fanon


On the third of January I visit an Antillean poet friend and we go to a pub in Edgware Road.  Irish songs are sung and, rooted in this atmosphere of immigrants, he tells me of his recent visit to South Africa.  He begins his story of one night beginning with the words, ‘you think Apartheid is over?’, let me tell:

we went, over the hills,
a big house, nothing much else around,
our flash-light landed on a guard,
he said, 'what are you doing here - you got no business here
you know what this place holds, they are ‘whores',
interesting words but undeterred we went in,
upon reaching the entrance, sizzling in a green gown,
a Garbo frame, she came, a real Madame,
"Gentlemen, how can I help you',
-'what are the rates, we inquired?’
-'500  for half hour',
-' where are the ladies'
- 'this way please',
we followed - perturbed we asked,
and so are they 'all white'
she said, 'well, of course, no black girls here'.

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A month previously, irritated and frail, with hung shoulders (true) I board a train.  In front of me is a young black person – youthful, imperious and magnificently athletic – he gives no quarter or sign of deference and I utter under the slavish breath – ‘Savage’.

----

Two weeks ago in reaction to the festive indulgence I venture for a jog, I don’t go far before I hear a child’s voice: “Paki”. 



What I am pointing to are instances that constitute the continued manifestation of Racial prejudice. It lies at the heart of our 'collective un/consciousness' and is continually being reinforced by academic practices (we are given Mill, Hegel, and the whole of the Eurocentric world view without so much as that warning as legislated by Wole Soynika: 'WARNING! THIS WORK IS DANGEROUS FOR YOUR RACIAL SELF-ESTEEM), by shrivel but effective news coverage, by our gaze at the Other, in our words…in our poetry…in art.

Racist pruderies do not end with de-colonization and they don't just come from one-side.  They form part of who I am. And be warned: They surface – the 'hidden' becomes 'actional'. They surfaced when a young Brazilian got off a London bus and calmly walked to get the tube – for this leisure he got 16 bullets.  They surface when a dark skinned French person who rolls his ”RRRs” goes for a job interview.  They surface with similar wanton consequences when undiscriminating bombs are sent to 'shock and awe' or when peace-campaigners are kidnapped and be-headed.

And this is the danger, to be actional – to utter, to draw, to sing, to create – is at the same time to leave a mark, to change, to move – we possess, if only we would see it, irreducible agency.  And who can be sure of one's song?  'Why' then risk action?  But let us rather ask, 'how' then to be actional? Listen again to Fanon: “while 'preserving in all his (our) relations his (our) respect for the basic values that constitute a human world”.  The way is dangerous, true - and we must move carefully with ever an alert gaze, but it must be travelled. 


'Was my freedom not given to me then in order to build the world of the you?

My final prayer:

O my body, make of me always a man who questions!'

Frantz Fanon.