This is a piece of writing
I have planned and wanted to write for a very long time but tried with no
success to find a way to start it. Every time I hear people telling other to
"get over it" and most of the times these are people whom really have
no idea or lack comprehension of what the impact of Apartheid really is. Well
let me first start by saying, Apartheid was not a bar that one can jump over,
it was not an event, it actually was a system created deliberately to destroy a
certain group of people.
Now before you go instruct
people to get over it at least try and understand certain things that came with
this terrible system designed by those full of hatred then you may understand
why others act or behave the way they do. I will list a few things created by
this system:
1. Destroying family values: A scenario was
created where men were employed far away from their homes with no option of
bringing their families with, the political incarceration of men and women, the
exiling of many either as banished or through seeking military training
creating an environment where men started multiple families in various places
and becoming absent fathers to multiple groups of children, women moving on to
be with other men while married to absent husbands and at times bearing
children from other men other than their husbands. Today we sit with a
community that has less moral fiber and does not understand the impact that
absent parenting has and its contribution to the lawless society we now live
in. Children growing in homes that have no love, no rule of law and growing to
be violent adults who either commit hideous crimes or form dysfunctional
families. Now before one makes a comment about how much promiscuous the other
group is, perhaps one should consider how that was created and forced into the
lives of others.
2. A creation of a Violent
society: Today
South Africa is classified as one of the most violent societies with a high
statistics of violent crimes, black and coloured communities as the biggest
perpetrators. Now do you remember the time when young people were shot for no
reasons? The time when police could kick down your door in the middle of the
night and take young men to chastise them for apparent crimes they never
committed? A time were children, toddlers stood around burning corpse of an
individual who betrayed the community and turned an informant to a brutal
government? The era where people disappeared with no trace and family not even
afforded burial rights? Can we consider the fact that treating men like little
kids at work to even referring to them as "boys" and their women
as "girls" can cause them to be violent at home to those vulnerable
to their power? Do you still want to talk to me about how violent people are?
3. Creation of an unequal and
unjust society: from the time when the migration of men seeking employment
in Johannesburg begun, the work of separating and destroying unity amongst all
oppressed started. The classification of people into different groups with
different privileges was cultivated to ensure that these different groupings
never unite for the same cause. Areas were designated for all the different
people so they could remain separated, different classification with different
statuses given per group creating the type of society we see today. People were
forcefully removed from ideal locations to be place in high density areas were
they could be easily monitored as a group and enjoy no comfort provided by
other areas such as being closer to the beaches, amenities, etc. Stripping
people of dignity by pushing them into places such as Alexander and forcing
such quality of life to them.
4. Ushering of self-hate: after the
classification, segregation took place labeling groups of people with pejorative
names that did not only make others feel inferior but was also meant to provide
a false sense of preeminence. The so-called Blacks calling the so-called
coloureds "Boesmans" and visa-versa "Bantus/Kaffirs", the so-called
"Indians" although being born here called "Koelies", other African brothers and Sister "Kwerekwere", etc.
Somehow this names thrived because those using them felt that they were superior
than those carrying such tittles, with this the people began hating themselves
as these titles also carried some stereo-types of stupidity, violence, not
belonging, etc. while they so-called white meant superior, smart, beautiful,
etc.
Now perhaps before we talk
about apartheid being gone we should remember that the damage caused by it
still lingers freshly around in the character of all, whether through calling
each other names, believing we are better because of the colour of the skin,
etc. We should consider than while it may be gone on paper some of the family
members that had disappeared are still missing and those wounds not healed. Perhaps
we should realise that the land and belongings that were forcefully taken were never
returned to the rightful owners, so before you talk about how people should
move right along pass apartheid recognize that they might be unable to due to
the unsought comments on social media from those who "have black
friends" still trigger the anger of those who have lived through the
injustice of it.
So stop telling people that
apartheid has been over a long time and start acting like a person who
understands the damage it caused.
