The original article under this title appeared as a postscript under the “Ngekubuka Kwami” article in 2018. It is here being reproduced, with very minor edits.
The discussion on bunkhundla is meant as an introduction to an issue which all revolutionaries and democracy activists must always keep in mind and grapple with as they struggle for freedom in Swaziland.
The tinkhundla system is nothing but a royal dictatorship [rooted in capitalist exploitation]. As Mswati said back in 2013, it is a ‘monarchical democracy’, that is democracy that serves the interests of the monarchy. It is democracy by the ruling monarchy and for the ruling monarchy. That distinguishes it from People’s democracy.
To implement and deepen its rule, the tinkhundla regime has built a network of state institutions. There are of course the obvious institutions such as the police, army, intelligence wing and the different government departments that daily instil fear and distribute patronage among the people. Others include the chiefs who implement royal rule and ensure obedience.
The tinkhundla regime, like every other regime which has to sustain its rule, has created and spread within society some beliefs and ideas to ensure voluntary obedience of the people. But spending millions in monies to force the people to obey the regime’s rule is unsustainable. The regime thus has to spread some beliefs among the people. Using various means, the regime has been spreading so many pro-tinkhundla beliefs which have coalesced into the tendency known as bunkhundla.
The deepening of every system necessarily creates tendencies and beliefs among the ruled people, and every system creates ideas for its perpetuation. As the system strengthens, so do its ideas. During feudalism era, it was totally unthinkable that a leader of a state could ever be elected by the people in a national electoral process – universal suffrage was not thought of. The most ‘natural’ thing was that a leader was born with some ‘divine right’ to rule over everyone else. Only through a revolution, which in Europe took the shape of the bourgeois revolution, was this ‘natural’ law defeated and proved to be the fable that it was.
When a system has therefore been in place for a long time it creates and deepens the cultures, tendencies and beliefs held by many members of society to such an extent that those cultures, tendencies and beliefs are then conceived as natural by a greater majority of that population. Individuals and organisations emerging from that system also, to a certain degree, mimic that system in their daily engagements. It is partly for this reason that Vladimir Lenin argued in his classic The State and Revolution that the early epoch of a socialist society will still contain many of the tendencies that are key aspects of capitalism.
If it is agreed that the individuals and organisations that sprout from a well deepened system also mimic the way that system operates, to a certain extent, then it should be true for Swaziland as well. In the context of Swaziland, the tinkhundla system would then give birth to a tendency that would exist among the people, known as bunkhundla. This means that the individuals forming part of the organisations of Swaziland have, to a certain extent, bunkhundla within them, first because they have been tutored by the tinkhundla system all their lives and, secondly, because the organisations under which they belong are constituted by people who have the bunkhundla tendency and thus causing those organisations to also have bunkhundla.
The bunkhundla phenomenon must be studied thoroughly to make a clear distinction between those organisations which can be classified as ‘revolutionary’ and those that can be placed under the ‘reformist’ and/or conservative or reactionary categories. It is important to reiterate that all the formations from Swaziland inhibit within themselves some degree of bunkhundla (due to some of the individuals constituting them), only that some have more or of this tendency whilst others have less and continuously work to eradicate it. Combatting bunkhundla is best done through regular and consistent political education and practical revolutionary work. Those organisations which ignore political education only help to deepen themselves more into the bunkhundla pit and soon become, willingly or unwillingly, consciously or unconsciously, agents of the tinkhundla system by their various acts.
Bunkhundla is easily identified among individuals and organisations by observing their practical actions, including written works, and their attitude towards the tinkhundla regime and bodies that fight against the tinkhundla regime. For instance, the tinkhundla system has continuously oppressed the people of Swaziland whilst at the same time teaching them to raise their complaints with utmost respect, ‘like Swazi children that have been raised with respect’, as the royalists usually say. Is this not what happens among some of the democratic forces of Swaziland? A fight against the Mswati regime must be revolutionary. It must be aimed at ‘changing everything that needs to be changed’, in the words of Fidel Castro. But some of the leaders have scolded those comrades who use words and phrases like ‘overthrow’, ‘Mswati is a criminal’, ‘Mswati is a rapist’, etc., in a word, those words and phrases which violate the command of the tinkhundla regime to raise issues ‘with utmost respect… like true Swazi children’. Too many times leaders spend their time shushing especially young comrades from using ‘strong’ language against the regime and the monarch. In the end, anything against the monarch is itself condemned by these leaders. The ultimate result is a disillusioned youth who do not know whether to fight the Mswati regime or to simply go down on their knees and beg for freedom.
Bunkhundla must be
combatted every day. Those organisations which are daily imbuing its membership
and the communities of Swaziland with revolutionary material are the ones that
can be trusted with real change in Swaziland. Such organisations can be
properly classified as revolutionary. They teach against all the norms and
values that have been created and taught by the regime in the schools and
churches, among many fora, and are at one and the same time purging themselves
of any remnants of bunkhundla that exist. An organisation that
stops purging itself of bunkhundla can only evolve into one
which aids the tinkhundla system. Thus, just like the process of learning, the
fight against bunkhundla must be continued and be sustained
even during the era of a democratic Swaziland. The struggle against the tinkhundla
system must therefore also involve a continuous struggle against bunkhundla!
