The Subconscious acceptance of poverty and underdevelopment by South Africans

In his award-winning book: Development as Freedom, Amartya Sen eloquently argues for a paradigm shift in the economic development school of thought when he writes: “[D]espite unprecedented increases in overall opulence, the contemporary world denies elementary freedoms to vast numbers – perhaps even the majority – of people. Sometimes lack of substantive freedoms relates directly to economic poverty, which robs people of freedom to satisfy hunger or to achieve sufficient nutrition, or to obtain remedies for treatable illness, or the opportunity to be adequately clothed or sheltered, or to enjoy clean water or sanitary facilities.”
Sen’s views are very relevant when one explores the state of the contemporary Afrika in general and South Africa in particular, which, as recently declared by United Nations is the most unequal society in the world.
This predicament of perpetual poverty and underdevelopment (coexisting with opulence) to which most Afrikan people of this country have been subjected, has become a way of life and an accepted lifestyle to many South Africans – both by the elite living in opulence as well as the economic downtrodden who experience major economic and social unfreedoms.
The coexistence of this “overall opulence” and the plight of underdevelopment and poverty in this country is not a new phenomenon; it didn’t start in the post-colonial era.

This subconscious acceptance of perpetual poverty by the downtrodden themselves has been, partly, caused by the fact that the elite living in opulence in our society have been enjoying this opulent living ever since the inception of the Union of South Africa in 1910.
To them, this has become the prototype of how life is meant to be – Afrikan (“black”) means poor and European (“white”) means rich!
Of course, the ruling elite have - ever since our attainment or political freedoms in 1994 - done little to reverse this. This is evident if we look at the quality of public services accessible to those living in perpetual poverty relative to those living is absolute opulence. Being it schools, healthcare, infrastructure and security services – 14 years later!
This acceptance of their state of perpetual poverty by the downtrodden is party due to the continued disrespect of their rights to better living conditions, spiritual, psychological and physiological development, better healthcare, basic education – among other things. The disrespect did not only exist during the period of colonialism and racial segregation in this country, it also continued after decolonization and is still happening. My conclusion for this continued disrespect and disregard of elementary rights is that, even the ruling elite has been indoctrinated by the neo-colonial tendencies in accepting that those in perpetual poverty were, inherently created for such living conditions and that those who have been – ever since the inception of this country - (and still) living in absolute and relative opulence were, inherently created for such living conditions.
In Afrika, particularly in South Africa, the neo-colonial indoctrination has entrenched itself beyond economics and policy making. Those of us living in perpetual poverty are – wittingly or unwittingly venerating languages, religions and/or cultures of the dominant elite living in opulence and absolute economic and social freedoms.
Furthermore, this point reminds me of the shock I had when I visited Germany. My first encounter of the working class there was rather strange. The gardens, waiters and waitresses, road construction workers, city cleaners etc, were “white”!! Being a South African who has been conditioned differently and who has never see, a “white” person sweeping the urban roads, it is not difficult to see why my experience was eccentric. That’s a neo-colonial indoctrination (a belief that a certain race is inherently superior that the other) at its best! I’d like to think.
Of course, it would be ignorant not to site the conscious (and subconscious) existence of superiority complexes – in terms of culture, languages and religion and the presupposition of inherent and ordained opulent living standards by the elite living in general opulence, who - in fact are in minority.
The continued insistence of the status quo by this section of the society serves as evidence to these superiority complexes. The continued elevation of the cultures, languages and religions of those living in general opulence at the expense of languages and religions of those economically downtrodden in every quarter of our country’s intellectual space, serve as evidence to this conscious (and subconscious) superiority complexes.
There is a plethora of examples that serve as evidence to this presupposition of inherent and ordained superiority and opulent living standards by this section of our society. Recently, the “Expropriation Bill” was withdrawn from Parliament for further deliberation after immense pressure from various interest groups – all emanating from the section of our society I have just referred to. One of the few corrective measures that seek to restore the dignity and rights of those living in perpetual poverty is “Employment Equity Act”. Some within this section of our society continue to resist this important corrective measure. Their argument is simply that it is racism in reverse. Now, in the plight of the abject inequality that the recent United Nations report elided to, I’d be forgiven to conclude that the section of our society that is opposed to this corrective measure, is merely suffering from the conscious (and subconscious) superiority and a further belief that, they were inherently created for opulent living standards while those who continue living in abject underdevelopment and poverty were inherently created for such conditions.

The point I am trying to make is, the improvement of the majority of people’s mortalities and quality of lives have been virtually postponed, mainly in order to pursue the “Washington Consensus” that ensures that the status quo of economic neo-colonialism is maintained.

However, It must be pointed out, that arguments for the “Washington Consensus” are very compelling and difficult to dismiss.
The “Washington Consensus” policy framework is meant to achieve economic growth through, inter alia, the attraction of foreign direct investments, which would later ensure higher GNP per capita. Therefore, it stands to reason that the blatant rejection of this policy framework mainly on the basis that it ensures the maintenance of the economic neo-colonial status quo would be a huge mistake.
But, what is very difficult to justify is the postponement of the provision of social services that would ensure that the economic downtrodden has improved mortality rates, access to quality health care, basic education and security services.
Countries like Taiwan and South Korea have achieved higher life expectancy levels through passionate and well coordinated provision of social services, this during the times when their economies were growing at very low pace relative to countries like Brazil and South Africa which, mind you, had relatively higher economic growth levels (and higher GNP per capita) but performed dismally is their human development and social upliftment.
The empirical evidence of this would be found in statistics conducted by the World Bank in 1994. The countries like South Africa and Brazil had higher GNP per capita but relatively lower life expectancy levels at birth. Countries like Taiwan and South Korea had very low GNP per capita but very high life expectancy levels at birth!
This provides a very interesting analytical perspective regarding the causal relationship between economic growth and human development.

For now the continued acceptance of poverty continues. The dream remains deferred. It continues to sag like a heavy load. Hopefully it does not explode like the one Langston Hughes imagined centuries ago!