“Ma, kan Ma dan nie sien dat ek aan die brand is nie?” Enkele opmerkings oor wat ons vandag is

Abstract

The current national crisis in Higher Education in South Africa, set against the backdrop of a corrupt national government incapable of providing any leadership in this regard, compels philosophers to undertake an incisive analysis of our present, a task that has always been a crucial and inherent part of philosophical discourse. The formidable nature of such diagnostics of the present forces one to try to make sense of the senseless violence, the irrational politics, and the disintegration of society that typify our time. In an attempt to devise sense, the article starts out with a thought experiment of sorts, in which our country, South Africa finds herself on the proverbial psychoanalyst’s coach in discussion with the author-therapist. In the course of the therapy session, Freud’s well-known dream scenario comes up about the dead child whose shroud caught fire and the dream that the parent had following the tragic incident. In this essay, the dream with its burn-motif is linked to the prevailing conditions in South Africa, which newspaper headings describe as a country burning with rage. In an attempt to make sense of the present, the Freudian dream is first and foremost closely analysed from a Lacanian perspective. In contrast to Freud’s contention that all dreams are wish fulfilments, Lacan argues that it is not the dream that offers an escape from the reality of the child’s passing. In actual fact, the child’s terrible accusation in the dream that the parent had failed him/her while still alive was experienced as far worse than the actual death of the child. It is the same accusation seen in the eyes of our children having fallen by the wayside, going hungry, burning to death in their shacks, left behind and to their own devices. The essay continues by investigating why the fury of the youth is so fervent at this particular historical juncture. This line of investigation puts the author on Mbembe’s track, specifically his contention that the fundamental question regarding the restoration of social bonds that had been destroyed by human trafficking (slave trade) and endless wars has been neglected by the postcolonial discourse on the identity of the African subject. Instead the African subject has primarily been conceived as passive victim of forces beyond his/her control. This has divided African societies against themselves and it opened the way for Africans to participate in the victimization of their own people. Throughout the blame had been laid before the door of the external Other while failing to acknowledge the repressed trauma of the original fratricide, which played an important part in the slave trade. It is argued that the repressed trauma is the reason why the present trauma of the born-free generation has led to so much fervent protest and violence. What is being repressed is the fact that the African subject has not only been violated by European imperialism, but also by his/her own people in the form of African slave traders and more recently a self-elected government in blind pursuit of selfenrichment rather than the empowerment of its citizens. If the born-free generation is indeed subject to an original trauma to which all subsequent traumas owe their impact or amplified potency, and which results in irrational, emotionally driven reactions, how can we possibly hope for an outcome that is not predetermined by the same regressive spiral of us and them, of violator and victim? The author turns to Lacan in the hope of finding an answer to this question. Lacan is adamant that a minimum yet recalcitrant measure of choice remains at our disposal, which is capable of breaking the chain of historical predestination. In the end it is found that this supposed freedom of choice is anything but a straightforward or simple solution to the dilemma.

Die huidige nasionale krisis in tersiêre onderrig in Suid-Afrika, gesien teen die agtergrond van ’n korrupte nasionale regering wat geen leiding neem om die krisis te bestuur nie, noop filosowe om ’n indringende analise te onderneem van ons tyd. In ’n poging om sin te versin begin die artikel met ’n soort denkeksperiment waarin ons land, Suid-Afrika haar op die spreekwoordelike praatbank bevind in gesprek met die outeur-terapeut. In die loop van die terapie-sessie kom Freud se bekende droomscenario aan bod oor die oorlede kind wie se doodskleed aan die brand slaan en die droom wat sy/haar ouer op basis van die tragiese gebeure het. In hierdie essay word die droom met sy brand-motief gekoppel aan die heersende toestand in Suid-Afrika wat deur koerantopskrifte beskryf word as ’n land wat brand van woede. In ’n poging om sin te versin word die Freudiaanse droom sorgvuldig vanuit Lacaniaanse perspektief geanaliseer. Vervolgens poog die essay om na te speur waarom die huidige woede van die jeug op hierdie spesifieke historiese tydstip so vurig is. Die speurtog bring die outeur op Mbembe se spoor en spesifiek sy oortuiging dat die fundamentele vraag rakende die herstel van sosiale bande wat vernietig is deur mensehandel en die eindelose oorloë nie vooropgestel word in die postkoloniale diskoers rondom die identiteit van die Afrika-subjek nie. In plaas daarvan figureer die Afrikaan primêr as passiewe slagoffer oorgelewer aan magte buite sy/haar beheer, onbewustelik geteken deur die onderdrukte trauma van die broedermoord wat mede ten grondslag van die slawehandel lê. As die vrygebore generasie in die teken staan van ’n oorspronklike trauma wat alle daaropvolgende traumas hulle trefkrag gee en wat irrasionele emosie-gedrewe reaksies tot gevolg het, hoe kan ons hoop op ’n uitkoms wat nie vooraf bepaal is deur dieselfde regressiewe spiraal van ons en hulle, van geweldpleger en slagoffer nie? Op ’n hoopvolle wyse wend die outeur haar tot Lacan om die vraag te beslis. Lacan dring aan op ’n minimale dog weerbarstige keusevryheid wat die historiese voorafbepaaldheid kan deurbreek. Daar word bevind dat die sogenaamde keusevryheid allesbehalwe ’n eenvoudige antwoord op die dilemma bied.