Dear Organlearners,
Doc Holloway <learnshops@thresholds.com> writes:
> thank you, At. Your contributions since your return from wrestling with
> yourself in the wild have been especially thoughtful and creative. I
> frequently marvel at how beautifully dangerous our world is, and long to
> see those places I haven't. Your words bring some of those places to
> me--thanks!
Doc, thank you for your kind words.
We seldom see any relationship between a learning organisation and
ecology. While experiencing and trying to fathom the ecology of three
deserts (Kalahari, Skeleton Cost and Kaokoland), the though often
crossed my mind that a learning organisation is very much about
creating an "organisational ecology".
(snip)
> In this country, native people were empowered by removing them from their
> lands, denying them the old religious ways, prohibiting their tongues from
> the schools that the children were required to attend
(snip)
> Empowerment wasn't the sort of word used by the transcendentalists and
> existentialists. Nor will you find it in the political thinking of Thomas
> Paine, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison or Benjamin Franklin. These people
> were classicists familiar with the writings of Plutarch and Seneca who
> extolled the virtuous power that came from within; they were also familiar
> with native American concepts of personal autonomy and power;
Doc, in my account on the essentiality "associativity-monaidicty"
(wholeness) I mentioned the names of generals JC Smuts and JBM
Herzog. They fought side-by-side in the Anglo-Boer (AB) war
(1889-1902). They both became prime ministers of South Africa.
I also mentioned that Smuts was the "father" of holism. Smuts and
Herzog became political opponents because whereas Smuts became
extremely sensitive to wholeness, Herzog became extremely sensitive
to sureness ("identity-categoricity").
The AB war left the majority of Afrikaner people in the Transvaal and
the Orange Free State in severe destitution - economical, political
and social. (What you see in TV news about places like Bosnia had
been dealt to them also.) Poverty prevailed. Both Smuts and Herzog
struggled with the problem of how to "empower" the Afrikaners. Herzog
realised that one of reasons for their powerlessness was the fact
that their mother tongue (Afrikaans) had no economical, political and
social influence. For example, when Afrikaner pupils used Afrikaans
rather than English in school, they were forced by the British to
hang a banner around their neck with the words "I am a donkey".
A poem by Eugene Marais set the hearts of the Afrikaners into motion.
(I will end this contribution by this poem.) The next twenty years
Herzog struggled to get parliament to recognise by law Afrikaans as
the second official language equal to English. They had very little
help from the English speaking people in South Africa - the latter
rather tried their best to keep themselves and the Afrikaners apart.
Every Afrikaner was now free to use his/her language Afrikaans in any
capacity. The effect of this on the "self-powerment" of Afrikaners
(i.e. without the help of the English or the international community)
was immense. In merely one generation poverty among Afrikaners was
virtually eradicated.
But the next generation of leaders lacked the insights and visions of
Herzog and Smuts. Some of them began to fear the day when the black
peoples would emerge to the same level of power. So they designed the
ideology of Apartheid which became the official policy since 1948.
The main reason, in my opnion, why Apartheid fooled the minds of so
many people, was because of the very dichotomous meaning of the word
"empowerment". The majority of Afrikaners believed that Apartheid
will allow the blacks to come self to power in their own regions as
it has happened to Afrikaners. In other words, they thought in terms
of self-empowerment ("expowerment"). They frequently used the terms
"self-determination" and "separate development".
But a small minority of politicians have already tasted the
usurpation of the power so gained by the previous generation. They
began to use Apartheid to create fear among their own people for the
black peoples and to prevent the black peoples in having a choice in
their own development. They justified themselves in terms of two
things. Firstly, the increasing monentum of the segregationist
movement in the USA. Secondly, the cold war against communism (since
the ANC made communist countries their cohorts).
Thus from 1948 to 1968 Apartheid grew unchecked into a hideous
monster before the first cracks began to appear. In 1988 it became
clear to most Afrikaners that the days of Apartheid were counted.
It became clear to the usurpurers of power also - and they made sure
that they took as much as possible for themselves before the system
collapsed. We are now learning this painfully from evidence given in
the hearings of the Truth and Reconcilliation Commission.
Unfortunately, few have the insights and visions today of Smuts and
Herzog - to know what is necessary to promote the (self) emergence
into a position of power. Few believe like Herzog that self-
identification in terms of the mother tongue or believe like Smuts
that mutual interaction through wholeness are necessary for such an
emergence.
Here is the poem of Eugene Marais who lit the fire in the hearts of
his people after the terrible Anglo-Boer war. It was the first poem
in Afrikaans coming right out of the heart and not merely as a
mental excercise. At that stage there was not even a sensible and
accepted ortography for Afrikaans. But in one moment of genial
inspiration Marais even created an ortography for his poem - a
orthography which is used up to this day.
For those of you who know some Dutch, German, Low Saxon or even Old
English, I first give the Afrikaans version.
WINTERNAG
by Eugene Marais
O koud is die windjie
en skraal.
En blink in die dof-lig
en kaal,
so wyd as die Heer se genade,
le die velde in sterlig en skade
En hoog in die rande,
versprei in die brande,
is die grassaad aan roere
soos winkende hande.
O treurig die wysie
op die ooswind se maat,
soos die lied van 'n meisie
in haar liefde verlaat.
In elk' grashalm se vou
blink 'n druppel van dou,
en vinnig verbleek dit
tot ryp in die kou!
WINTER'S NIGHT
Translated by At de Lange
O cold is the windlet
and spare.
And bright in the dim-light
and bare,
as vast as God's mercy has bade
lie the plains in starlight and shade
And high in the ridges
spreaded in burnt ditches
are the grass plumes stirring
like beckoning hands.
O tune with grief laden
on the east wind's drone
like the song of a maiden
in her love made alone.
In each grass blade's fold
a drop of dew gleams bold,
and it pales quickly
to frost in the cold!
Best wishes
--At de Lange Gold Fields Computer Centre for Education University of Pretoria Pretoria, South Africa email: amdelange@gold.up.ac.za
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