We fail to treasure our own history

Sonwabile Mancotywa: The article, "ANC founder's home haunted by neglect" (March 14), should indeed shame us all.

The house of the ANC's founding president, John Langalibalele Dube, at Inanda was declared a heritage site in 1995, but seemingly not much has been done to preserve its value.

Fundamentally, this shows scant knowledge of the import of heritage in society, if not lack of appreciation for our own history. South Africa is awash with grand monuments that celebrate colonial conquest, but has very few to show of monuments that remind us of the activities and people who led us to recovering our humanity. What we failed to appreciate was that part of our objective was to re-orient how people related to one another. April 1994 set us on a march to creating a society free of racism and patriarchy, yet we omitted to build a foundation upon which to start constructing our ideal society.

That foundation lies in our heritage. Changing people's mind-set requires a demonstration of the feasibility of what is demanded of them. Dube's life is such a magnificent example of how possible it is for our society not only to re-imagine, but also re-create itself.

The Dube family was among the first to create interracial spaces, spearhead Christianity and to pioneer formal education within the African community in Natal.

Born at a mission station at Inanda in 1871, Mafukuzela, as he's known among his kinsmen, straddled African and white societies.

Essentially, Mafukuzela - back in the late 19th century - was living and envisioning what would eventually become post-apartheid South Africa. His was what Steve Biko, writing almost 80 years later, referred to as joint culture: a culture made up of both white and black experience and history, reflecting the racial diversity of its population.

Dube's life, as the lives of many of his peers, showed that individuals are multi-dimensional. While white missionaries were agreeable to the idea of Mafukuzela's father, Chief James Dube, becoming pastor at the Inanda mission, they couldn't fathom the idea of him doing so without white supervision. They couldn't trust a black man to be in charge.

Mafukuzela not only learnt from his father's experience, but also emulated his mother, Mayembe. Her husband had died and her in-laws insisted that she be remarried, to her deceased husband's brother - a customary practice called ukungenwa .

Mayembe refused to be forced into marriage against her own will, to a man she did not love, just because it was tradition. Rather than suffer that, she severed all ties with her people for life among white missionaries. That was 1849, way before the age of feminism.

Dube refused to submit to white paternalism. He went on to establish his own mission, churches and schools, independent of white tutelage. It was a snub to the hypocrisy of the white missionary establishment, which had made their black brethren believe that they were all created in the image of God and, as such, were all equal - while in reality, white missionaries simply could not bring themselves to treat their black colleagues as their equal.

Dube refused to be part of that charade, but never became hateful. He kept the faith in the dream of a non-racial society.

Such is the history embodied in the house that is now left to deteriorate.