Скачать или смотреть Prof Simphiwe Sesanti: Violence as Deviance — The Language of Power in South Africa | BTMWS Ep 9

⚔️ “Whenever the mercenaries of Africa have not gotten what they want, they have resorted to violence as deviance — as the best way to show government what rules, what power, and what they want.”
— Professor Simphiwe Sesanti

In the quiet decay of democracy, Professor Simphiwe Sesanti reminds us of an ancient truth:
Power only listens when people refuse to whisper.

This is not an endorsement of chaos — it’s a study of cause and effect.
When justice is delayed, when promises are betrayed, when the poor are spoken to only through campaign slogans — violence becomes communication.

🕯️ The Context
Across postcolonial Africa, the same pattern repeats:

Governments rule by neglect.

Citizens protest to survive.

Elites respond with tear gas and press conferences.
And somewhere between the streets and the State House, the meaning of democracy dissolves.

Professor Sesanti’s words echo the frustration of a generation no longer pacified by speeches.
He speaks of deviance not as disorder, but as defiance —
as the moment when the oppressed reclaim agency from a government that has stopped listening.

💣 The Grammar of Resistance
In South Africa, every wave of unrest — from Marikana to July 2021 — is written in this same alphabet of anguish.
It’s not mindless destruction; it’s the scream of a people left unheard.
When the social contract collapses, rage becomes the only remaining dialogue.

🎙️ In Burning The Mic With Steaze Ep 9: The Ballot Is Broken, Blaq Steaze 5170 traces this moral and historical line —
from the ballot box to the barricades.
He asks the question no one wants to:
What happens when the language of protest becomes the only language power understands?

📊 Themes in This Reel:

Political deviance as social communication

Government failure as catalyst for unrest

The transformation of resistance into rebellion

Africa’s cyclical dialogue between power and pain

Sesanti’s reflection isn’t a justification — it’s a diagnosis.
He reminds us that societies built on silence will always be broken by sound.
That when the powerful fail to act justly, the powerless are forced to act loudly.

💭 “Deviance,” he says, “is not madness — it’s message.”

📍 Watch the full episode:
👉    • The Ballot is Broken: Why South Africans F...  

🎧 Written & Narrated by Blaq Steaze 5170
🎙️ Featuring Prof Simphiwe Sesanti
🕯️ Produced by Ambidextrous Chats With Steaze Network (ACWS)