A call to action!
Aren’t we all tired?
Aren’t we all fed up?
Aren’t we all sick of all these poisonous corporate lies?
You know, as I write this, I remembered something. The other day a friend of mine posted something like “I’m never eating anything else except halaal food” and that got me confused for a moment. I had two questions, if say we encounter an epidemic in food (Listeria — Lol), we as black people are basically fucked because we have no other source. Secondly, did the halaal community go through the same struggle of not being catered for maybe, and hence they came up with the halaal concept?
If this is the case, why can’t we do the same?
The challenge and the advantage
The problem with blacks is the majority thinking. Our numbers are largely a disadvantage, in as much as they are an advantage. This is because whenever there’s a movement, there will be one group pulling back, and luring others into believing that ‘the movement’ is nothing but bad.
So much to do right?
Here’s a universal problem with SA companies: adjusting is a problem. Oh let me rephrase that, catering for black is something else. This is because these companies were not built to cater such a market and now they’re busy reformatting, reworking, adding a couple of blacks here and there, but you can’t plant a banana tree in tomato garden can you?
Absa had to re-brand because their ghosts in their closets are a lot to deal with.
Steinhoff? Lies don’t lie, eventually.
Spur?
H & M?
Unauthorised debit orders…? The entire banking sector is actually quite creepy…
It’s Time for The New!
Creating brand new services, specific for blacks based on real black insights and models which are informed by the lived experiences of black people, is an endeavor which is completely attainable, and sustainable given that black is majority and therefore, is the largest consumer of these services. The next challenge and an opportunity in the conversation is creating businesses with high moral and ethical grounds. Something Steinhoff, H & M and the banking sector are evidently struggling with.
The new wave I am proposing is what Thomas Opong calls a higher-order cognitive process. “This process requires a new system. You figure out a new path. You give yourself time to reflect on the problem and come up with a new, even novel solution.”
This requires thinking, learning and emancipating. Black people have never taken the time to reflect and think things through, we are never given a chance to. If anything, we are being bombarded with politics, scandals so much so that our minds are occupied with nothing but fruitless ideas of what we think prosperity is.
“No problem can stand the assault of sustained thinking.” — Voltaire
If there’s ever going to be start-ups, a new wave of entrepreneurs to stand the test of time, they will have to dig deeper into their strategic founding position. The bigger question being, how do we hope to improve people’s lives and contribute greatly to their well-being?
I’m always weary of new entrepreneurs and I ask such bigger picture questions. Some get it, and some just don’t. Not only is this a challenge to overcome but it is an opportunity for the collective entrepreneurs to breed a new wave of companies that are not only morally driven but value giving.
Picture this for moment; the other day I heard there’s a bunch of multibillionaires that have come together and created the biggest company to ever be listed on the JSE. Guess what business it was? A lot of it had to do with lending, i.e. loans, and not just loans but insecure loans with high interest rates attached to them, and guess who’s the target market?
Yep, you know who!
My question is, what future are we modelling?
What nation are we building?
What are they saying about us black people?
What must happen?
Who is coming to save us if not us?
There’s never been a more perfect time to invest in black owned businesses than now!
Nelson Moropana
Milpark, JHB, RSA
November 2018
