On Identity

On Identity
It was one of those almost rare occasions when the students had taken over the discussion: it was about reconciliation and the role of the church especially in South Africa.[1] I was not in the chair and could just savour the moment. We had quickly moved from reconciliation to the question of identity. Steve Biko had been quoted, among other things his statement that “the black man was an empty shell”. This empty shell has to be filled and it could be done if that man (or woman) only realized his or her own humanity. One student felt that the more communal aspect was missing, as the African way would be to deliberate and negotiate together about a thing like the common humanity.
While I was listening I was just struck by the fact that identity just now is the very thing that everybody is talking about; and rightly so. The course we are having now is the going on its third year and it is becoming more and more relevant as time goes on. What strikes me more this year than before is that there are a number of unresolved conflicts or circumstances that become actualized while we are following the trail of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission etc. Students are concerned on a very personal level. One student has for example witnessed the American student Amy Biehl being killed in Gugulethu (1993) and had lots of inside information but also personally not had the opportunity to be debriefed on his experiences.
What I want to say is that everyone seems to be struggling with his or her identity because a country in transformation requires a continuous rethinking of who we are. I hasten to add that I also am struggling with the same question. But why is it so? The light that I saw flashing by at this rather rare moment of students having taken over the discussion had however little to do with South Africa; at its best this is how South Africa works, it triggers off a reflection that is a common truth for all humankind.
This was such an occasion. What struck me, and I saw the light for a very short moment, was the fact that identity now is the real global thing. It is not at all restricted to any particular group or place. I could imagine, even if I am not quite sure, that young Swedes who travel a lot and many do, also end up in the same predicament: new impressions and new chances of new experiences just add to the problem. It is not that easy just to return home to old Sweden – but also not so easy to identify with another particular environment.
Our students in this course are from South Africa, Angola, Congo (Kinshasa), Nigeria and Sweden. It means very enriching comments when these come. But I was thinking of something else: all the leading thinkers who have taken on themselves to tell us that identity formation in the end has to do with the ability to relate to the stranger: philosophers like Hans-Georg Gadamer and Jacques Derrida, theologians like Miroslav Volf and leadership moguls like Stephen Covey, all stress this aspect. It is the in thing to say now. And it is right. Could we also do what these people say and we would come a long way in making this world a better place.
What disturbed Steve Biko was that white people always want to tell black people how things should be understood and how a problem should be dealt with, in a subtle patronising way of course.[2] Biko, not least having white liberals in mind said the following: “though whites are our problem, it is still other whites who want to tell us how to deal with that problem”.[3]
It stands clear that Biko’s writings are more discussed than perhaps ever before; strange to some, very logic to others. The question is of course whether there is a change in essence, in terms of consciousness, Black Consciousness being the philosophy he developed, not only among blacks, of all sorts, but also among whites. The empty shell figure somehow does not go away, even though some want to let you know that it is something of the past. Too many are still literally in that predicament of not having overcome the legacy of apartheid. It stands to reason that many have, but the actuality of Biko can only be understood if you believe that there still are people who recognize themselves also today, right now when he says:

Powerlessness breeds a race of beggars who smile at the enemy and swear at him in the sanctity of their toilets; who shout ‘Baas’ willingly during the day and call the white man a dog in their buses as they go home. Once again the concept of fear is at the heart of this two-faced behaviour on the part of the conquered blacks.[4]

The exiting thing is that identity formation has to do with the other or the stranger. That will be the case even for a Steve Biko or anybody else who has challenged oppressive regimes and racists. In the end this ‘finding one’s self in the other’ will eventually be what could save us. Tomorrow at 09h00 I will preach in Eureka Lutheran church in Elsies River on the theme “You are a letter from Christ: on identity”, text: 2 Cor. 3.3-9.


[1] I together with Professor Antjie Krog run a post-graduate course this semester on ”The South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission and its Theological Perspectives”.
[2] The same thing happened apparently as late as earlier this week in Hammanskraal, north of Pretoria, where the Uniting Reformed Church had its synod. The moderator of the Dutch Reformed Church (white) professor Strauss conveyed greetings and made two mistakes which caused an uproar in the synod: he tried to explain why the white DRC did not want to accept the Belhar Confession, as if the synod did not know already, and then criticized the synod’s moderator for having talked critically to the press about the DRC.
[3] Steve Biko, I write what I like. Johannesburg: Pan Macmillan, 2006 (N M Biko, 1978), p. 99.
[4] Ibid., p. 86.