The news this week of the departure of the venerable American African and civil rights leader, Rev Jesse Jackson, swept across the world like lightning.
We mourn this giant of our time and wish to communicate our deep condolences to his family and church.
I was in high school in the 1960s when I first heard of what was called Operation Breadbasket, associated at the time with Rev Dr Martin Luther King Jr. We learned about it through a student political discussion group, following the stories of the USA civil rights campaigns of American Africans.
I learned for the first time of Rev Jackson as the Chicago driver of Operation Breadbasket.
When in 1973, I got involved with the Black Community Programmes (BCP) under Dr Ben Khoapa, the director, and Steve Biko, the branch executive in the Eastern Cape, I was attracted to the work done by Operation Breadbasket in the USA but learned from our US visitors that Rev Jackson was now operating it as Operation Push – People United to Save Humanity. We learned that this was a development building on Operation Breadbasket.
Black Community Programmes was not modelled after Operation Breadbasket, nor was it initiated at the inspiration of that initiative. It was created as a result of the partnership between Rev Dr Beyers Naude’s Christian Institute and the South African Council of Churches, through the Study Programme of Christianity in Apartheid Society, which produced several research and working documents.
These resulted in the formation of the nonprofit called Black Community Programmes, to champion black self-reliance and black solidarity where “Black” was inclusive of the oppressed communities – so-called Indians, so-called Coloureds and so-called Africans.
But the work of BCP as an actualisation of Black Consciousness had parallels with the work of Operation Breadbasket and especially Rev Jackson’s powerful message of black self-affirmation in the Operation Push of the early 1970s, “I AM Somebody”.
Rev Jackson was an American African who gave his all for the upliftment and dignity of American Africans. But he was more than that. He sought to transform the society of the USA to be a much more humane society.
It was to be in April 2013 that I would have the honour and privilege to witness South Africa invest this veteran model of civil rights dedication with the award of The Companions of Oliver Tambo, an award given to non-South Africans for their role in advancing the cause of freedom and democracy in South Africa.
It was a special pleasure for me because I was in the Advisory Council on National Orders, the body that makes recommendations of people to be honoured by the president.
In a way I participated in the lasting recognition that Rev Jackson experienced and enjoyed while still alive.
Today we dip our hats in respectful recognition of the power of his persona in our lifetime.
We are honoured to have known his work and felt his impact. It may sound like a cliché, but this verse in 2 Timothy 4:7-8 seems the most appropriate to put in his mouth as the last words of this servant of God in society: “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day – and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing.”
- Mpumlwana is a former general secretary of the South African Council of Churches
