Concept: Mandela in a Rari

“Fela in Versace, Mandela in a Rari, Rubber bands where you get em from? Motherland, Emzansi.” AKA and Kiddominant dropped their platinum selling hit back in 2018 for AKA’s album, Touch My Blood.

This collaboration, amongst many others between African artist continued to further the narrative of African pop culture driving the Pan-Africanist movement, as well as capturing the concept of Africa meets the world. The hook “Fela in Versace” refers to the Nigerian musician, composer, Afrobeat pioneer and human rights activist, Fela Kuti. Fela Kuti was also known for being very stylish hence the Versace reference.

I was watching an AKA interview which he did for a Channel O music show that was named Remix Studio. He was going to be performing Fela in Versace and before he could do so, he was asked what’s his favorite line in the song. AKA replied by say “Mandela in a Rari” and went further on to explain why. This line had me thinking, imagine a South Africa where Nelson Mandela would have been able to afford a Ferrari. What would have that meant for South Africa? I started to think about the economic implications it could have meant and Black South Africans and the fallacy of what if Black South Africans could afford such. Getting rubber bands here, eMzansi.

The ability for Black South Africans to create generational wealth was however stripped away from them in 1913 when the Native Land Act was implemented. This law established which territories were for Black People and which ones were for White people. White people took over 93% of the land as the minority and the 7% was left for the Black majority. This meant that Black people lost their ancestral land and their cattle’s which were their wealth. In 1940, the Apartheid system was implemented and with it came more oppressive laws for Black South Africans. The Bantu Education Act was implemented in 1953. This law focused of building an inferior education system that would teach Black students’ skills so they could only form part of the manual labor force. In the same year, the Bantu Labor Settlement of Dispute Act was introduced. This law banned the Black workers from recognizing and being able to negotiate with African Trade Unions. This meant that workers could no longer negotiate for higher wages. Job reservation law was also put in place and didn’t allow for Black people to get higher paying and skilled jobs.

South Africa became a democracy in 1994, and although the oppression is over, its effects still trickle in till this day and the land and economy has still not been returned to Black people. To this day, the South African Reserve Bank is still owned by White people. When we look at industry; factories and manufacturing companies are still owned by White people where as in contrast, Black people own taxies, funeral parlours and spaza shops (not to discredit the hard work of Black people). The government policy, BEE (Black Economic Empowerment) was created to help empower Black businesses economically but today we get some White business owners who have given their businesses native name and because of this, benefit from BEE. South Africa also uses the Roman-Dutch law which was introduced to us by the Dutch VOC and Jan Van Riebeek. I’m highlighting these points to showcase how Black South Africans are still economically deprived and how this so-called democratic system is simply just a rebranded and re-constitutionalized Apartheid.

Mandela didn’t get to drive a Rari and I don’t think that fallacy will become a reality anytime soon, for as long as we have leaders who still have an interest in white capital, global capital and the concept of Whiteness.