Yup guess who is back to pay all you lovely people a visit J.
Man its been a long time. I have started and stopped this blog almost every
week since the last one but I was unable to complete it because I keep
thinking, man you have written about this before or nah man that blog is wack,
yes I know what some of you are thinking, it hasn’t stopped you before J
anyway lets see if I will finish this one…
Trust the universe has been treating you all kindly and if
not, I hope you take some comfort in the fact that nothing lasts forever, not
even your troubles…For those who care, personally I feel absolutely blessed
with this existence I have been granted ;)
Since I last wrote, there has been much fun and games in
this lovely land of ours, South Africa, Julius got expelled from the ANC, which
is quite an interesting dynamic in itself because there are now growing
tensions between the youth league and the mother body. The much-maligned
e-tolling systems got a kick in the nuts, this tells me that this country and
its constitution works. This is Africa, citizens cant go take government to
court 1 and 2 they cant win the case… we take such things for granted, but it’s
a function of the great future this land of ours COULD hold. Since the 2010
FIFA SWC, this e-toll saga has been the only solitary time that in my mind, the
people of this nation have been united. Which brings me to this weeks email.
This week we have 2 random 20 year olds making rather
inflammatory racial slurs in public space. For 2 such insignificant souls (in
the greater scheme of this country and its other concerns) to have the nation
in ruptures tells me that we still have some deep wounds that is on the verge
of developing into a fatal septicemia. Now in my mind racial slurs of any type,
delivered in any medium have no place in the society we want to build or live
in. A lot of people have condemned these ‘fools’ because they verbalized what
many of us internalize or spew forth when we are at a braai or chisanyama with
those we consider of a similar ilk. Now in my mind us cowards who think these
things are just as bad if not worse than us fools who speak them out loud.
Anyway so these kids are roughly 20 years old now right, so
they would almost be classified amongst the born free generation, they were
born in 1992, apartheid I guess officially ended in 1994, even though Tata was
released in 1990 and the unbanning of political parties etc. was happening in
the years between. A few days ago I watched a movie called Otelo burning which
was shot during the bad old days in a township called Lamontville, it reminded
me of how little I knew of what really went on in South Africa, then there are
these youngsters who go off mouthing racial slurs because they think they are
the bees knees. And then there are those who constantly try and remind me that
it has been almost 20 years when is this BEE and affirmative action crap going
to end.
You tell me what progress we have made in the past few years
since the end of apartheid as a spoken of system? I say spoken of system
because the term may not be used publicly to divide us, but in many of our
minds it still reigns supreme. A white guy with a mediocre business proposal
doesn’t get a contract they feel they deserve, they blame it on backhands being
paid by their black counterparts, an average black guy doesn’t get the
promotion he thinks he deserves, he says ya neh its because I’m black. One
person tells another you are a fool, you damn racist is the response. We have
not progressed at all! We have glossed over the cracks like the lady who uses
base to cover her blemishes on the surface but deep down those blemishes still
exist and are playing on her mind, eating away at her like a cancer.
Our biggest issue is we have never reconciled. As a society
we are soo fake and so divided, we don’t even speak about Cape Town because in
my mind that place is the most Narniac (think I may just have created a word, I
am trying to say its a fantasy world) place on this continent, we all know I smaak
that place stukkend, but visiting this European African city baffles me no end.
It’s the most segregated place in this country…that I have been to. People
might be oblivious to it, but to someone who observes quite a bit, its quite
evident in its ‘intimidatory’ exclusion of certain race groups, well mainly
black people in the urban culture. I dare you if you live in Cape Town,
Thursday, take a walk to Jade in Cape Town, there will be some ‘big’ di ck
brothers with a bottle or 2 in the VIP area, draped in model types, then there
will be my brother (if he decides to take a night off study) my cousin Emmanuel
and the help maybe one or 2 others, but no more. Then you take a stroll in
Camps Bay on Saturday afternoon, take a walk up and down long street on any and
every day, or go to Rafikis, same same. Tuesday go to Asoka Tiger Tiger, Tin
Roof, St Yves you name it. That’s because only 5.6% of the population in Cape
Town is black African, wow, in this country of 50.5mil of which 71% are black
African as it were, but I digress…
We haven’t reconciled, we haven’t taken ownership of the
issue, its like an elephant in the room, a big fat white one with glitters all
over it asking to be notice, yet we all look past it. I will be the first to
admit that growing up in a homeland like Umtata, sheltered me from a lot of
what was South Africa, except when we had to leave to go and submit our
passports or get a visa to enter the Republic. I had a reunion of sorts with
some of my classmates, some of whom I have known since 1984 and it was such a
diverse mix, 2 white people, one indian, one coloured and blacks we were. We
caught up on the old days spoke pooh about life now and those who had families
(all of them except me J)
etc. Now isn’t that what we should all be doing? But we acknowledged that we
knew nothing, good thing and a bad thing, good thing in that we were allowed to
grow up as kids, bad thing in that we were oblivious to the suffering that many
like us endured. Only in 1994 when I moved to CT to study did I start to see
what this place called South Africa was all about back in the day, but I still
didn’t really know…now I have more of an awareness, but I still doubt I am able
to fully comprehend it all.
TRC was a start, but in truth it was a farce, because some
of the known atrocities were unearthed, but no one took true ownership, feet
were washed, tears were shed, it made news, we all put a cloth over it and
pretended it wasn’t there. Some of us are like, ok, so it happened, lets move
on now shall we. You go and tell someone who’s mother, father, brother, sister,
mother, cousin, neighbour…was taken to Vlakplass, tortured and burnt alive or
buried alive, shot in the back, run over by a Casper, to move on. You go and
tell someone who was incarcerated because they said screw this nonsense, this
too is my land and I deserve a right to make a decent living here too, to move
on. You go and tell someone who was driven off their land and forced into some
hovel to move on…now lets just imagine for a moment that person was you being
told to move on….
For us to truly move forward, I believe, we have to
recognize that these ills were performed by us. We have to accept that we are
fortunate that there was no bloodshed, and even though Madiba may have ‘sold
out’ many in the name of peace and reconciliation, those same many, are still
bleak and we are lucky to be where we are. We need walk a mile in each others
shoes so we can truly understand the plight of Auntie Betty who has to leave
her home at whatever time so she can get to my house by 7 so I am not late for work,
work her bum off for R150 a day when I make R2500 a day, going to meetings,
having fancy lunches, sitting in an air conditioned car/office, because I was
fortunate enough to escape the educational restraints of apartheid. No one must
move on. Ask Jewish people if they moved on? Perhaps they have, but we all know
about the holocaust and woe-betide if you trivialize it, as it should be. Many German
people that I have met both there and here and everywhere seem truly remorseful
for the roles of their forefathers in the ills that befell the Jewish people at
their hands. The same can’t be said in this country, and in my mind that air of
superiority of one over the other and the victimization of another is still
very dominant. I too have had the mindset of guys lets move on too, but I too
have not fully appreciated the rocky foundations on which this potentially
beautiful democracy of ours is being constructed. I too am flawed in my
thinking. Much wrong was done to a vast sector of this population. This mindset
cripples us a united nation daily. For example the ANC will rule the roost for
a while still because inspite of their perceived or real mismanagement of this
country, the only alternative is the DA and even though their one and only
municipality is evidently well run, the 70% odd of this country’s people will
never vote for them because even though they might give me better roads,
government, water, housing etc., they are still white…
I really believe that this rape issue we have in this
country has a lot to do with the emasculation of men in SA brought on by the
doctrine of apartheid. Now lets put it firmly on record that I am no
psychologist/psychiatrist or social worker, just a guy who thinks he might be
onto something. So the ‘doctine’ renders me useless as a man really, my dreams
are squashed, my life entails carrying a dompas everywhere, brutalized and
assaulted by the baas, hustling to work in some underground pit, or in
someone’s garden, I cant be anything but that. I come home, the place where I
will am the darn king and make my escape through the help of my quart or plenty
of black label or good old ol brown sherry, I get home and the woman of the
house gets it in whichever shape or form she gets it cos I want my way. Little
Vusi, this is his reality. Now he is a ‘man’ and what does he do? I haven’t
done deep research but I am sure the majority of these sexual crimes are
occurring in the townships, the communities that most epitomize the remnants of
apartheid.
For us to move forward, we have to engage more and on a
sincere level man, don’t do it because you feel you have to, do it because you
want to. We need to reach a stage where we first see people as equal humans
deserving of respect and dignity. And if a man incarcerated for 27 years for wanting
to live an equal life can truly overcome his prejudice and bitterness, you tell
me who the hell you are that you cant?! We need to take responsibility for what
our forefathers did. Understand that we are where we are because of what was!
We must show remorse as opposed to entitlement for the status quo to remain. We
need to find ways to meaningfully make a difference to the disenfranchised,
even if it means just merely giving some clothing to those in need during this
approaching winter time, spending time in THEIR communities as opposed to just
wanting them to come to ours all the time. We need to engage to overcome our
own fears.
Its our problem, not Government’s, there is no lets not talk
about it…its still manageable now, but people lets not be fooled, a few more
years of this and it will become unmanageable. Empathy my dear friends, lets
put ourselves into the shoes of someone who doesn’t know better nor does he
have anything to lose and you tell me…
To end I quote from the master Robert Nesta Marley: “That until there are no longer first class
And second class citizens of any nation, Until the colour of a man's skin Is of
no more significance than the colour of his eyes, Me say war”
Birthdays
I have missed plenty since my last one but I think I personally
wished you a happy happy. List is pretty long so I will just write this weeks
birthdays
6th Tarin
7th Shakira, Claude, Bishnen
9th Nana S
10th Adjoa, Keith
11th DPH, Liesel, Shireen
12th Dear mother and Nomi
Stay blessed people and take some time out to know each
other
Plenty respect as always
Y
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