MALAIKA MAHLATSI | Malema’s stance on xenophobia constitutes a majority of one

In the 19thcentury, a man named Henry David Thoreau was born in Massachusetts in the US. In 1638, Massachusetts had become the first English colony tolegalise slavery. In that year, the shipDesirebrought the first enslaved Africans to Boston, trading them for indigenous captives.

Slavery in the colony of Massachusetts was slightly distinct from the practice we often think about when speaking about the trans-Atlantic slave trade in that it was primarily domestic and for trades rather than large-scale plantations. In a twist of irony, Massachusetts would also become one of the first states to abolish slavery in the 1780s after a series of landmark court battles and the adoption of the Massachusetts Constitution, which serves as the foundational blueprint for the US Constitution and established critical democratic frameworks such as the separation of powers and judicial review. Being born in the state that would later become a major hub for the 19thcentury abolitionist movement shaped Thoreau’s politics, which are best reflected in his famous essay,Civil Disobedience, where he introduces a profound concept of “a majority of one”.

In it he states: “Any man more right than his neighbours constitutes a majority of one.” Thoreau was arguing that the one person who is on the right side of a question of justice counts for more than all the people who are on the wrong side of it. He defines a majority of one as someone whose moral convictions are stronger than the majority opinion, and argues an individual whose belief they are right is inspired by virtuous principles and has a moral obligation to act on that belief, even if it means opposing the majority or the “authority”. However, a majority of one is not simply about an individual’s belief in the correctness of their own ideas against those of the majority.

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Rather, it is about assuming the responsibility of forming such ideas on a foundation of moral principle, justice and equality. Over the past few months, South Africa has seen a rising and increasingly violentanti-immigrationwave. Recently, two Mozambican nationals were killed in a mob attack in Mossel Bay, and thousands of foreigners have been evacuated from the country.

The atmosphere has become extremely volatile, with protests across the country and demands for the deportation of immigrants, documented and undocumented. In this climate, politicians, civil society leaders and general members of the public have normalised inflammatory rhetoric, even as some conceal it behind what sounds like reason on the surface. Every failure of the democratic government — poverty, unemployment, crime and corruption — is being framed as a migration issue.

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