Monday 27 March 2017

They say: Apartheid is gone, get over it.....


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.