Malik Arafat
My response to the Foreword to the book, “Timol: A Quest for Justice”, by former President of South Africa Thabo Mbeki.
It certainly shows how much of a genius Thabo Mbeki is with words, but also with his personal – and struggle – sentiments for Ahmed Timol. He captures both Timol the comrade and their times together and separately in a brilliant way. He again places Timol and broadly, Indian Muslims, into the centre of the issues of this land. The identity crisis. How Timol defined his Africanness, by sacrificing his time and life. Amazing stuff indeed.
This lesson needs to be learned by many who still see the other in themselves, who haven’t emptied their suitcases nor burned their boats.
We are all in Africa, with all its nuances, yes, we choose to be African and indigenous by inhaling the breeze of its heritage, by acknowledging the struggle for land is real and ongoing.
We pledge our allegiance to its people by transacting in its wealth and assets while finding pleasure and joy in its luxuries.
That Muslims who were imposed on this land as slaves, migrants, labourers, prisoners, and exiles by imperial colonialists, have also found roots in its valleys and mountains.
That as they stand shoulder to shoulder in prayer with the indigenous Muslims, they are both faced by the same challenges of life under the African sun.
Do you choose to stand in this land and be entrenched in it by burning your boats like what Tariq bin Yazid did when he crossed the Mediterranean into Spain to become one with the Andalusians? What was once Iberia, became Al-Andalus in the same way what was imposed as South Africa will return to be Azania.
I am an Azanian, what about you? I am an Azanian Muslim, indigenous to the core and rooted in the heritage of this land. This ancient name with its root word in the Azaan, summons us to prayer and success. It reminds us both, me the indigenous and you the migrant, to adopt this land as our collective heritage and Call its people to the Divine Oneness.
That we should stand shoulder to shoulder, behind a common leadership.
That we are a brotherhood in prayer, success, and togetherness.
That our Common Agenda is to live and die with the shahada in our tongues.
That we should aspire to share the same shahada with all the people of this land.
My Azania, your Azania, our Azania.
