The trouble with being today's South African
is that often, we today live in a way we as Africans-white and black-never
chose. It was chosen for us by our ancestors who no longer now care about the
mess of life they left for us.
Life with good neighbors is sweet;
life with bad neighbors is bad but life with indifferent neighbors worse. You
do not know where you stand with them. South Africa and indeed southern
Africans are a divided people. There is this thing they are calling social
cohesion(in South Africa) but this thing is-if at all working-rather too slow.
To some of us and especially me, it is an even stranger animal than the
segregation (apartheid). The problem is not really that I am bred-as some would
put it-to hate my European neighbors. Rather, it is that I am afraid of them
because I, as a person, do not know where I stand with them.
I do not fear their rejection of me as
an individual but I find it hard to stand in front of them for if I do stand in
front of them, I as a person-the most intricate part of me will be judged and
the judgment will scale my being as somehow very lacking.
To me, my skin color should be very
unimportant. My lips and my buttocks shape should not be a bother. The shape of
my hips and penis' measurements should never be a thing of question. What I
miss about apartheid is that I knew where I stood in their eyes. Yes it made me
angry but at least my anger was not unjustifiable because I and my white
neighbors knew the reason. There was no elephant waiting to crush any person in
the room.
In today’s southern Africa my being is
the source of my every day fear. I as a person am forced to, every minute of
every day evaluate my own value against theirs. It is as if they are normal and
I am somehow inadequate and as such must strive to fit or be ejected.
The advent of social media and TV is
to my dismay only helping to make things worse. The white neighbor called Penny
Sparrow is a good example of this. The woman, somebody’s mother, actually went
onto facebook and posted the whole thing (she called black beach goers monkeys).
What bothers me is that this happening made me ask myself “am I still so much
less in the Europeans eyes?” Do these people, our own brothers (1640 is a long
time ago) still believe in this social programming…Were their long dead
ancestors so thoroughly brain washed that it is effective even today?
The USA has been free from racism for
over fifty years now-well at least that’s what you would be led to believe if
only your country’s US embassy had its way. Look at the news however and you
will soon discover how racially charged the USA is. South Africa is no better
and they keep quiet about the whole thing only to raise it up again come
elections. The Afrikaner supported Afriforum speaks as would a highly censored convict.
Everything they say must be clean of racism and racial undertones. They
represent not just the average white South African but the Afrikaner. And that
is itself the beginning of their greatest of challenges come elections.
The EFF being young and all has the
luxury being the only clown inside the ANC palace. They are therefore not at
all shy and can point every other person’s flaws and never get punished for
doing it.
The ANC and the DA are the main
contenders. The DA represents both white and black-well at least that’s what we
are told. They speak out very boldly against the ANC but their angel status is
falling apart. This is because Lindiwe Mazibuko’s departure from parliament
left many questions in our minds. The girl was no fan of Zuma but she latter
begun to be not so friendly with Helen Zille. ANC was once a god but that day
is long gone. They speak for blacks but we do occasionally hear Britain
speaking. The Guptahs made matters worse. We have long suspected a third force
in the country but we did not for a minute think they would be powerful enough
to bring the ANC such an embarrassment.
What bothers me however is not what
happens in parliament but rather the ignored mess that we face because of it.
Twenty one years from 1994 we South Africans are still verily a divided people.
I have for years dreamt of going into
a white suburb and be accepted there as a person not just as a legal entity as
is currently the case. My way of life allows me to go over to my neighbor’s
house ask and be given a cup of salt whenever I find myself lacking. It is not
that I cannot do that here. It is rather that I cannot afford to do it. The
risk is too much. You see, my being in the suburbs means that I am now an
ambassador on behalf of every other black man a white man who is my neighbor will
meet out there. My going over to ask for salt will not serve any good to bring
us together past our geo-location. What it will do is rather to reinforce an
over a century old stereotype. You see we blacks are thought of as a people who
cannot take care of themselves. This is a half a millennia old false stereotype
and asking for salt from my white neighbor in today’s South Africa doesn’t help
remedy the belief at all.
What’s even more depressing is that
being white in black South Africa can be even much worse.
Did you know there are white squatter
camps in South Africa? I know there are some of you who believe this thought.
You even go so far as to even ask why not? Well I’ll tell you why. Being a
white person in South Africa means being rich, period. A toilet cleaning Indian
South African is toleratable but a white person doing the same thing is plain
right depressing. Very depressing. There are a number of factors that could
explain why this is but the most obvious one is the perception whites inspired
back when they made themselves a better people than the black man. They were
elevated over us black folk and the result is a divided people to such a degree
that even though a poor black brother can go ask salt when in lack a white
brother cannot. The white man who happens to be poor is frowned upon. Even by
the people he deems his own. The misfortune of being a poor white South African
is not viewed as a matter of misfortune but is taken as a sign of personal
failure. Failure not born of ill luck but rather lazy born of failure to take
the chance at wealth apartheid afforded the white South African at before 1994.
How then can I being such a person be able to ask my black brother to help me?
Social racial separation in South
Africa is everywhere. It is not institutionalized-there is no need for this-but
is rather psychologically ingrained in our psych. It is able to automatically
show itself in almost everything we do and everywhere we are. The sad part is
that those of us who grew up seeing segregation will go on seeing it even when
there is no need for us to see it any more. We-both black and white-grew up
being taught to see it. Perceive it even in its subtlest form.
I have had the rare chance of being in
to a University. They are on the main still very much segregated to an extent
but I have seen the hardest crossover take place right in front of me. I have
seen black boys go up and pursue the heart of a white woman and actually win
it. I have seen them marry and have seen them integrating into each other’s
families with no major hiccups. You might think I am a sucker for white men’s company
but I assure you that that is not really the case. I simply do not hate them. I
love them as would any other man love his fellow citizen. I do not want to see
the obliterated or chased away from their country just because some hateful man
sees not fully African enough. I would also hate to see my child being denied
an excellent western education just because the color of his skin is not pale.
If we go on harboring the sentiments
of color will not ever get to realize the fruits of the peace we South Africans
enjoy. We will never see the end of White privilege and we will go on hearing
foul cries over the presence of policies akin to Affirmative Action. Black
privilege will rise and South Africa will fall into a war of the races. I do
not want to see this. What I want to see is a country bound by common interest,
interests that will advance the peace and the beauty of this country.
Playing pick-a-booh with the sentiments
of color will not help us. What will help us is to have our politicians stop
raising up the race card whenever things fail to go their way. This is the main
reason we fail to truly reconcile with one another. The day we remove such
politicians is the day we will move forward and prosper peacefully as a nation.
The present day South African never chose to live like this. Why must we not throw it away.
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