Consult when researching
ALEXANDRA – Youth urged to be astute researchers.
Alex youth who are tracking significant historical moments and profiling individuals from the township were urged to be thorough in their research in order to provide the public with accurate and conclusive information.
This was said by Ben Mhlongo, a researcher and one of the township’s veterans. He was part of the students’ riots in June 1976 and is willing to share information on the township and country’s undesirable past.
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With a vast collection of information from personal and anecdotal memory, Mhlongo said this in response to a recent Alex News article Honour all youth heroes in Week ending 9 March on the formation of the Jappie Vilankulu Trust. Mhlongo said the information should have been more in-depth to show the Trust’s honour, understanding and full knowledge of Vilankulu. This, in addition to presenting him accurately for posterity, historical preservation and scholarly purposes.
“It’s important to do so out of respect, as many like him paid the ultimate sacrifice with their lives for a singular purpose, which we now enjoy. But it is still painful for the families who lost a loved one, and his friends who knew struggle aspects about him not known to the family,” Mhlongo said.
Vilankulu was killed in 1976 while leading Alex pupils to join their Soweto counterparts in a fateful mission against the apartheid regime.
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While commending the Trust, he said without detailed information about Vilankulu, its founders risked facing criticism through searching questions from those who knew him better. This could expose the Trust’s founding work as mediocre, which could have been avoided if they had consulted widely. Mhlongo also urged young researchers not to do such work from emotion. He said by doing so, they will lack an objective understanding of the collective contribution of the township’s heroes in the struggle, in different eras and from different social, political or cultural platforms.
“They shouldn’t rush but should rather seek help from those with more intimate but undocumented knowledge and information on their research subjects.”
Mhlongo further lamented a lack of detailed research and extraction of pertinent historical data on the township and the country from the elderly, who he said was a repository of the information but who often die without passing it on. “The information should be preserved for future generation so that they do not forget our dreaded past, remind them not to repeat past ills but repeat, refine and promote the good that can be drawn from past generations.”
Mhlongo also warned political parties against latching onto the names, lives and times of struggle stalwarts, and urged them to do so earnestly, not for political mileage.
