Delving Deep into South Africa’s Bosom

I recently read Anthony Butler’s “Contemporary South Africa” (who is also my Policy and Admin professor) and through this book and a lot of my lectures, I’ve been able to get a better grasp of South African history and politics. It is really fascinating so here’s a bit of a crash course on the racially divided past of SA~

South Africa system of “apartheid” formally began in 1948 but had existed informally since British colonialism in the early 19^th C. The 1910 Act of Union embodied a racial politics, cementing an alliance between Boer and English-speaker by excluding non-Whites from political participation. Under this system of institutionalized racial segregation ended with SA’s first democratic election of 1994 when Nelson Mandela became president under the political party, the African National Congress (ANC). Apartheid in literal translation is the Afrikaans word for separation/division. This is the perfect way to describe the artificially constructed system of segregation that was used to divide South Africa into white and black zones. Black areas were called Bantustans and each Bantustan was a mini nation-state within SA. Africans were divided upon arbitrary ethnic and “tribal” lines that the whites in SA basically made up and put forcibly into these Bantustans. Whites remained in certain designated regions where land was more resource rich and the infrastructure was more developed. Only whites were accorded full South African citizenship rights. Blacks were given citizenship rights of their respective Bantustan (which remember, was COMPLETELY arbitrarily decided and imposed upon them by white’s conceptions and creations of African ethnicity, community, and tribe). It is actually highly contested whether African “tribes” are a realistic interpretation of the African community or if it is merely a European classification to make categorization of Africans easier. Butler states, “Africans were systematically ‘retribalized’, stripped of South African citizenship, their civic and political rights trampled in accordance with the ambitions of the architects of te Bantustans. Hundreds of thousands of people were forcibly removed to their ‘correct’ locations. The segregation of space and of public amenities were pushed to new extremes.” Black, Coloured (those who could not be definitely classified as either Black or White), and Asian South Africans were serviced by inferior administrations, which provided segregated public services and limited enfranchisement. Whites in South Africa are made up of the British colonialists who colonized the cape in 1806 and the Dutch Boer “Afrikaaners” who settled earlier beginning in the 17^th C because of Dutch trading posts in the cape.

Apartheid ended at the turn of the 20^th C when Nelson Mandela and then president F.W. De Klerk organized the first ever non-racilized election. In this historic election, Nelson Mandel was nominated South Africa’s president and he served for 5 years from 1994-1999. Mandela’s party, the ANC, has remained in power since and has a near monopolistic grasp on political popularity here. Thabo Mbeki was the president after Mandela but recently stepped down a year before his second term ended. South Africans are awaiting a new election in which the ANC’s candidate is Zuma who is a charismatic populist, who was also once charged with rape and corruption. However, people tell me that South Africans will still vote for him because its better than voting for “the National Party that supported apartheid”. South Africans need more political competition in order to have a fully functioning liberal democracy.

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission was created at the end of apartheid in 1996 with the mandate to investigate apartheid era human rights violations, to grant amnesty to admitted perpetrators who fully disclosed their actions, and to make recommendations concerning reparations. In hindsight, the most important role that the TRC played was to elicit and record the testimony of thousands of victims of human rights violations and to establish on the historical record the extent and nature of such abuses committed during this era. The ultimate efficacy of this commission, however, is contested. Even after a 7 ear truth and reconciliation process, citizens remain severely divided.

In Desmond Tutu’s words, South Africa is a ‘rainbow nation’ filled with diverse peoples, languages and cultures. This is manifested in the 11 official languages that SA possesses. This is why its so common to run into Africans here who speak 7, 8, or 9 completely distinct languages. The most commonly spoken African languages are Xhosa which is a clicking language and Zulu. Afrikaans is also used frequently- it is a creole language combining Dutch, German, and other African languages and mostly used by Boers and Coloureds here. Clearly, however, English and Afrikaans are the privileged languages here and most African languages are only spoken informally. Those who can’t speak English or Afrikaans cannot advance in the formal labor market and African children are profoundly disadvantaged by their need to acquire scientific and technical vocabulary through English. While most of the urban Black population speaks several languages, many are most fluent in African tongues, which do not serve as economic resources in the way that English and Afrikaans do.

South Africa is not yet truly a “rainbow nation”, however, it is actually two nations- white and black (in the words of Thabo Mbeki), divided by culture, history and wealth. The inequality of South African society is striking. Almost all of the poor in SA are Black and almost all of the wealth are white. Changes in the labor market have resulted in an ever growing gulf between the wealthiest in society and the poorest. “…an asymmetry of power and walth still almost accompanies South Africans’ relationships across races. They often seem to be guided by racial stereotypes and the potential for politicization of racial difference is everywhere evident.” This is most evident in famous photographs of sprawling townships adjacent to vast golf courses as well as in the affluent suburbs and blatant consumerism. South Africa’s poor endure a condition that would not be out of place in some of the world’s poorest nations. The unemployment is 25% and this effects Blacks much more than Whites. Economy remains overwhelmingly dominated by white owners. In a ranking of countries per capita, South Africa is 52st place out of 173. In a human development index, however, SA is 107^th out of 173 countries. South Africa lies some 56 places below the ranking one would expect judging purely on income. This reveals much about the huge income gap in SA society and the inequity that plagues so many South African poor.  Almost half of the country’s people live in poverty in townships with no access to public services, modern sanitation, electricity, or clean water. In some areas, like UCT, the stark segregation between white and black is less visible and marked instead with a forced courtesy, But behind closed doors, blacks and whites are rarely more than acquaintices and do not mix socially. When me, a black friend, and a white friend were chatting on campus, someone who passed by said “Wow, that’s the most diverse group I’ve ever seen on campus…” The diversity I take so for granted back home is apparently a spectacle here. Inter-racial mixing is slow, but I believe with improve greatly over time.

With a large influx of refugees and immigrants into SA, the xenophobia in South African society has reached great heights. Estimates of this mostly illegal immigrant population is between 2-8 million. Mugabe’s repressive regime in SA’s neighbor Zimbabwe has caused many refugees to cross the border into SA. The infrastructure and economy of Zim is crumbling right now and this country is facing an enormous human rights crisis. This crisis is purely political, Mugabe’s regime is not at all accepting of opposing factions and political parties and there is huge violence and violations of civil liberties based on political affiliation. While I’ve been in SA, I’ve met SO many people from Zim who are studying or working here because of the Zim crisis. I’ve prob met even more Zimbabweans than even South Africans. The organization I’m volunteering with, PASSOP (People Against Suffering, Suppression, Oppression and Poverty) advocates for refugee rights and against xenophobia in SA. One of the most surprising things I’ve learned is that xenophobia is the fierest and most violent when it is directed towards other Africans. Blacks killing blacks… another sad similarity to the US.  Hopefully, I can learn more about the situation in SA while working here.

HIV/AIDS is a HUGE HUGE monolithic concern in SA right now. SA has the highest absolute population of AIDS victims of any country in the world with over 4 million infected citizens It also has one of the highest rates of infection in the world- leaping up to 32% or even 50% in some of the poorer of SA’s 9 provinces. President Mbeki recently stated that he wasn’t sure if the connection between HIV and AIDS was strong enough. He also called anti retro-viral treatments ‘toxic’ and said that it is not HIV that causes AIDS, but rather poverty. He makes an important impact of AIDS mortality and poverty but he misses the important connection between life-saving ARVs. Considering the level of sexual harassment in this country, I wouldn’t be surprised if a strong contributor to this would be rape. Gender discrimination is quite a problem in SA. Apartheid has effected women harder than men. Though less than half of the population lives under the poverty line, 71% of African women live under the poverty line. This means a lot of women-headed households and absent migrant worker fathers. Another interesting similarities to the poor black community in the states- many absent fathers. Obama’s absent Kenyan father was a strong shaping force in his search for his identity (read about this in Dreams of My Father). The cycle being that young boys with no father have no healthy role model to base their own fatherhood upon- thus perpetuating a never broken cycle of negligence.

The system of racial segregation in SA and white supremacy has even worked itself into conceptions of culture. Butler says, “The distinction between high and low culture is the product of western historical circumstances and it carries with it the assumption that the artist, poet, or composer stands at some distance from everyday society. It therefore doesn’t help us understand societies like South Africa in which oral traditions, dance, religious practice, music, and other cultural artifacts are deeply woven into and sustain ordinary life.” European settlers in Southern Africa used their economic and political power to enforce their own conception of cultural value. Typically high culture is understood as an attainment of whites, which gives rise to the cultural supremacy of European civilization. African art was see as products of static tribal cultures, only significant for their role in perpetuating tribal distinctiveness and division. After 94, however, African arts have been more encouraged and some genres like dance and singing have flourished. There is a far way to go before these stereotypes about culture are broken in the memory of history.

“Apartheid has left a residue of bitterness and suspicion. While some individuals transcended the segregation that blighted the twentieth century, generations will have to pass before race is no longer an impediment to trust.”