By Takura Zhangazha*
It was recently falsely reported that one of America’s leftist intellectual and media giants, Noam Chomsky has passed on. It has turned out that his wife quickly dispelled social media rumours that had spread like wildfire.
What had been reported in progressive mainstream and social media is that Chomsky has been unwell for a while.
Many progressives from both the global south and the global north were quick to also panic on the assumption that it was true. Myself included.
What is not really anticipated is that there would be an evident link of Chomsky with the global south. Or that intellectuals and activists from the African same can have some sort of immediate reaction to his work.
The reality of the matter is that if you consider yourself a progressive from the global south and in particular from Africa, and if you have not encountered Chomsky in one form or the other then perhaps you could easily be accused of faking your ‘wokeness’.
Or if you are an educated journalist who would be more conservative and neoliberal without encountering Chomsky’s progressive views, then again, you would be in the American turn of phrase, ‘winging’ it.
When we as Africans consider the opinions of progressive comrades in the global north we tend to sort of have an evident admiration of either their radicalism, their education, or their political positions in their own societies.
In this we assume, with our progressive global north colleagues, a given universality of our equality that should historically since the formation of the United Nations in 1945 be an easy political and intellectual given.
Except that in the years that have interceded since then, there have been multiple ‘liberal interventions’ that reflected a global political and world order that essentially served to remind cdes in the global south and in particular the Middle East, Africa and Eastern Europe of their general lower and dehumanising placement in the world.
Wars based on the Cold War between the Soviet Union and the ‘West’ left a trail of human destruction that always makes one wince when they read history books.
But moreso when we read Noam Chomsky. Even with the limited access we have had to his intellectual work in the global south. And in particular in Africa.
And I may have to explain this a little bit further. Noam Chomsky, as a left leaning intellectual came onto our quasi intellectual radars in post graduate school. Like Edward Said’s “Orientalism”, his seminal work on ‘Manufacturing Consent’ that he co-authored with Edward Herman sent us into some sort of slight shock that in the age of the expansions of CNN, BBC, there was a progressive counter narrative intellectual that could and would talk back to the dominant media hegemonies of that time?
In our own Zimbabwean media freedom activism we looked at the structure and intent of how our own media ‘industry’ structured and used Chomsky’s analysis to sort of see how either we make it more organic (Gramscian) or we lose out to nascent media oligarchs (we have at least four).
So Chomsky still, for most of us who were eager to understand how the global north understands the global south, is a key intellectual reference point. Not only because he speaks a progressive language similar to ours on the historical global left but also because he gives it detailed nuances and infused it with a globalized and historicized humanity.
Reading, watching or listening to Chomsky from as far away in Southern Africa, Zimbabwe, Harare, is always to seek an understanding of a critical approach to the global north’s foreign policy positions on the global south. And in particular Africa's placement in it.
But more significantly, with hindsight he informs us, by default, a critical approach to how we even in the global south should view international relations and its historical, imperialistic, neoliberal and cultural dimensions. And how to avoid being part of ‘manufactured consent’. Dead or alive.
*Takura Zhangazha writes here in his personal capacity (takura-zhangazha.blogspot.com)
Many progressives from both the global south and the global north were quick to also panic on the assumption that it was true. Myself included.
Upon crosschecking, again online, I realised that either way, the man desrves that recognition of him as a living intellectual giant. Based on his influential work on not only either the personal consciousness of many but also the global impact his ideas both in academically written form or as a media pundit have had beyond America's borders and global perspectives on what the media is and what it means.
What is not really anticipated is that there would be an evident link of Chomsky with the global south. Or that intellectuals and activists from the African same can have some sort of immediate reaction to his work.
And on this, I can attest to having African friends who are extremely skeptical of assuming solidarity between global north and global south cdes. Mainly because they cite the fact that populations in Europe, North America are increasingly turning to the right, which can also be read as becoming more racist.
And we can crosscheck recent racialised developmemts in Ukraine around African migrants, war and emigration.
Our global north cdes are also losing every other new election (see the recent EU election results) and are expected to lose more this year.
The reality of the matter is that if you consider yourself a progressive from the global south and in particular from Africa, and if you have not encountered Chomsky in one form or the other then perhaps you could easily be accused of faking your ‘wokeness’.
I prefer to refer to it as “consciousness”.
Or if you are an educated journalist who would be more conservative and neoliberal without encountering Chomsky’s progressive views, then again, you would be in the American turn of phrase, ‘winging’ it.
When we as Africans consider the opinions of progressive comrades in the global north we tend to sort of have an evident admiration of either their radicalism, their education, or their political positions in their own societies.
Even if we do not have a full picture of the latter and how in the present even the progressives are losing to either the radical/racist nationalists or to dogma around immigration and assumptions of their own national being's superiority complexes.
In this we assume, with our progressive global north colleagues, a given universality of our equality that should historically since the formation of the United Nations in 1945 be an easy political and intellectual given.
Except that in the years that have interceded since then, there have been multiple ‘liberal interventions’ that reflected a global political and world order that essentially served to remind cdes in the global south and in particular the Middle East, Africa and Eastern Europe of their general lower and dehumanising placement in the world.
Wars based on the Cold War between the Soviet Union and the ‘West’ left a trail of human destruction that always makes one wince when they read history books.
But moreso when we read Noam Chomsky. Even with the limited access we have had to his intellectual work in the global south. And in particular in Africa.
And I may have to explain this a little bit further. Noam Chomsky, as a left leaning intellectual came onto our quasi intellectual radars in post graduate school. Like Edward Said’s “Orientalism”, his seminal work on ‘Manufacturing Consent’ that he co-authored with Edward Herman sent us into some sort of slight shock that in the age of the expansions of CNN, BBC, there was a progressive counter narrative intellectual that could and would talk back to the dominant media hegemonies of that time?
In our own Zimbabwean media freedom activism we looked at the structure and intent of how our own media ‘industry’ structured and used Chomsky’s analysis to sort of see how either we make it more organic (Gramscian) or we lose out to nascent media oligarchs (we have at least four).
We understand the importance of actual objective journalism based on Chomsky’s analysis of his own North American and other societies’ and explanations’ of the causes of American led/instigated global wars.
Especially after the tragic September 11 attacks, the invasion of Afghanistan and Iraq and the re-emergence of a new version of the Cold War in the internationalized wars in for example Syria, Sudan, Ukraine, Mali, Burkina Faso, Palestine and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. We would never pass Exclusive Books at OR Tambo international airport without crosschecking if he has a new collection of essays or even a new book out.
So Chomsky still, for most of us who were eager to understand how the global north understands the global south, is a key intellectual reference point. Not only because he speaks a progressive language similar to ours on the historical global left but also because he gives it detailed nuances and infused it with a globalized and historicized humanity.
Reading, watching or listening to Chomsky from as far away in Southern Africa, Zimbabwe, Harare, is always to seek an understanding of a critical approach to the global north’s foreign policy positions on the global south. And in particular Africa's placement in it.
He helps us understand how we are viewed largely as foreign policy pawns by the global north as did the also now late Australian journalist John Pilger.
But more significantly, with hindsight he informs us, by default, a critical approach to how we even in the global south should view international relations and its historical, imperialistic, neoliberal and cultural dimensions. And how to avoid being part of ‘manufactured consent’. Dead or alive.
*Takura Zhangazha writes here in his personal capacity (takura-zhangazha.blogspot.com
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