Give the Forum for Black Journalists a chance

Why is it that critics of the FBJ keep mum about the existance of other racially exclusive groups, such as the Afkikaners-only community of Orania?

By Madibeng Kgwete: posted on 28 February 2008

Pity the chairperson of the re-launched Forum for Black Journalists (FBJ) and political editor of the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC), Eddie Makue.

The poor Makue found himself and his organisation at the receiving end of criticism following the exclusion of white journalists from the meeting of the FBJ where African National Congress (ANC) president Jacob Zuma was to deliver an exclusive address.

The choir of critics, made mostly by white journalists and members of the black media elite, have criticised the re-launch of the FBJ at a time when the country is supposed to be consolidating the gains made in racial tolerance.

Interviewed on SAfm recently, Makue apologised for the exclusion of white journalists from the said controversial meeting, saying he does not condone the alleged racial behaviour by members of his organisation, directed at white journalists at the beginning of the meeting.

The most influential voices in our media, including the likes of Max Du Preez and several newspaper editors, seem to agree that the country does not need a racially exclusive club of journalists. There are two main arguments against such a club.

Firstly, it is argued, as Du Preez does in his article, “Welcome the world’s first jellyfish president” (The Star, 28 February), that the club will promote “racial exclusion”.

Du Preez dismissed the FBJ on the grounds that its members “feel so insecure and inferior about their own abilities that they have to go and seek solace in a racially exclusive little club.” Other critics of the FBJ share similar views.

The second argument upon which the FBJ is criticised is that its members, by allowing Zuma to deliver an exclusive address to them, have voluntarily submitted themselves for political indoctrination.

Both arguments against the re-launch of the FBJ ignore the fact that other racially-exclusive clubs are allowed to operate without condemnation. Such clubs include the Jewish Board of Deputies, the Afri Forum and the Black Lawyers’ Association.

Members of the FBJ, including its chairperson Makue, must learn to stand their ground and continue to build the club so that the matters it was formed to focus on are given necessary attention.

Racism against black people is a global phenomenon and black people must organise themselves to tackle this. Blacks may be the majority in Africa, but, on a global scale, the black race is a minority race. The black race is also an underdog race.

Anywhere you go, from the United States, Britain, France, Germany, New Zealand, Australia, black people find themselves having to assert the fact that they too are human beings and deserve to live under conditions similar to those accorded to other races.

South Africa must give the FBJ a chance to re-launch and concentrate on matters that its members believe are of particular concern to its members.

In the free country we live in, no one stops white journalists from forming their own Forum for White Journalists, as proposed by Cliff Saunders in his letter, “Forum for White Journalists has much to talk about” (The Star, 27 February).

I’d like the critics of the FBJ to explain why the country must reject the blacks-only forum whilst the same country remains silent about (and at times even celebrate) the Afrikaners-only community of Orania.