Ep 9: Advocate Muzi Sikhakhane SC: Being Black, Proud And Unapologetic.

Advocate Muzi Sikhakhane argues that South Africa and the African continent cannot claim true freedom while Black people remain disconnected from their languages, history, land, wealth and identity. He begins with language, recalling how he was stopped from arguing in isiZulu in court because the judge did not consider the language appropriate for that space. For Sikhakhane, this reflects a larger contradiction: South Africa recognises 11 official languages, yet indigenous languages remain largely absent from the institutions where law, power and economic decisions are made. This exclusion distances ordinary people from justice, government and meaningful economic participation. He calls for African literature, history and thought to be taught more widely in schools and universities. Black children, he argues, must grow up knowing that African people built cities, pyramids and centres of learning, and made important contributions to mathematics, knowledge and oratory. Education should restore identity and dignity instead of reinforcing the idea that African history began with colonisation. Sikhakhane also challenges racial inequality within the justice system. He questions why a Black boy found carrying drugs may be sent to prison while a white boy in similar circumstances is treated as someone who needs rehabilitation. This contrast, he says, reveals how race and class still influence who receives punishment, compassion and a second chance. On law and politics, he argues that law exists to protect society from those who seek to exploit or harm it. Yet those who threaten society often use politics to protect themselves. He therefore rejects the claim by some lawyers that they do not want to involve themselves in politics. Politics has always shaped the law, determined whose rights are protected and influenced how justice is administered. Lawyers cannot remain neutral when political power is used to undermine justice. A central part of his argument concerns African land and wealth. He maintains that Africa’s resources belong to its indigenous people, yet they remain among the poorest. African wealth continues to serve foreign interests, particularly those of Europe, while local communities receive little benefit from the land and minerals beneath their feet. He is equally critical of African leaders who fail to challenge this system because they benefit from it. For Sikhakhane, African poverty is not caused by a lack of wealth, but by the exclusion of African people from ownership and control. He insists that the land belongs to Black people and that its wealth must also benefit them. He places the Black woman at the centre of this injustice. Despite living on a resource-rich continent, the Black woman continues to be presented as the face of poverty. She carries the heaviest burden of unemployment, exploitation and social hardship. Sikhakhane argues that Africa cannot continue to be wealthy while Black women remain poor. For him, the time to reclaim African wealth is now. True emancipation will only happen when Black people build a country, state and society in which they genuinely belong and in which the wealth of the land serves them. Political freedom without economic ownership and control remains incomplete. Sikhakhane also examines the psychological damage caused by colonialism. He argues that colonialism did not only take land and wealth; it also took away African people’s memory of who they were. Black people were taught to see themselves through the eyes of those who colonised, despised and dehumanised them. Through anti-Black images and narratives, many developed a distorted understanding of their own identity, beauty and worth. This inherited self-hatred is often turned inward, causing Black people to treat one another with a cruelty they would not direct towards those who created the systems that oppressed them. His ultimate concern is that Black children should not grow up believing they are inferior. They must understand the greatness of the history they come from and be given the confidence to imagine a future beyond poverty, exclusion and shame. Across all these themes, Sikhakhane’s message is one of reclamation. He calls on Black people to reclaim their languages, memory, history, land, wealth, identity and dignity. For him, liberation requires more than political representation. It demands cultural restoration, economic ownership, equal justice and a renewed belief in Black humanity.