Skip to main content

South Africa still singing struggle songs


Reconciliation, according to google dictionary is defined as 
”the restoration of friendly relations," 




or “the action of making one view or belief compatible with another”. I was watching the TRC (Truth and Reconciliation Council) sessions, from the SABC YouTube channel where they had the old archives tapings of the sessions. Listening to some of the stories, made me cry, both white and black came with their own stories, of the pain caused by the system of Apartheid in South Africa.

I could not help but focus on the white people more, I listened to some of their stories, of how they lost their loved ones as well. My heart bled as I listened to their stories, but I didn’t shed a tear, instead I questioned the motives behind those killings. Black people had suffered so much loss, pain, hurt, hatred and anger. They turned and did the same to the man who was oppressing them and killing them. Was the black mans killing justified?
 I watched a movie called “In my country”, a movies based on the TRC sessions. One scene in that movie caught my attention, when the first victim spoke and burst into a crippling cry after hearing the truth about her son’s death. While she cried no one else in the room cried except the white journalist and the white man who was confessing the truth, instead the black people in the room sung a struggle song. An American journalist asked, why they were not crying, the response was, “ see black people have cried so much, they have gotten use to it.” This statement made me cold, how bad was it, that the tears of mans pain were normal, not insignificant, just normal?

I found this moving, I cried, not because it was a black persons pain, but it was the pain of people who have never been given the right to feel pain, to feel human. Looking at the faces of the men who killed and brutalized innocent people, I looked at the remorse of some of them, but then I saw faces that were not genuine, men who just wanted to be granted amnesty, they were willing to say whatever to get out of being charged with murder. These are men that knew how to walk away free. The TRC might have worked for some people, but I don’t see how it helped those who lost their breadwinners, their grandfathers, sons, husbands, sister, mothers and fathers. Most of them still live in the same or worse conditions they lived in.

I have questioned the application for amnesty for these men, how can you ever justify killing, torturing and dehumanizing people, how can you grant amnesty to a man, who lacks remorse. I believe in forgiving, but I believe in forgiving a man who asks for it, not because he is afraid of being thrown in jail, but because he can not sleep at night thinking about what he did, not a man who woke up the next morning and killed another person. I still don’t agree with some of the approved amnesty applications.
    
The New South Africa
I look at South Africa today; there are many positives and many negatives. It seems like we moving backwards with this government we have now. I asked how the TRC helped, I remember during the Mandela and Thabo government, you could see how black and white was coming together, a process never the less, but it was happening, poor black South Africa had faith in their government, not because of promises, but because they could see visible change, in their lives and in the economy. The rebuilding of South Africa was not going to take 20 years, no one expected that, but in these 20 years, there should have far less, poverty, homelessness, unemployment, health care problems. The Public sector, should be in full operation. There should have been a glimpse of hope, not lack of hope.

The a struggle song I love, a very emotional one called “ Senzenina?” “ what have we done”  “our only sin is being black”. I feel this song is relevant at the present situation of South Africa. With the black rich elite, getting richer and the poor getting poorer, billions of rands each year going into corruption. The black (colourds, Indians) majority and the new white minority of poor South Africans are suffering more.

Maybe the ANC has forgotten those stories of those comrades who died, thousands and thousands of South Africans, ordinary and comrades, black, Indian, colourd and white, who died in the name of freedom, who died in the name of equality, of a better life for all South Africans. Maybe the ANC needs to go back to the TRC archives, just to remind themselves of what happened. Not just the ANC but also every ordinary South African. Listen to the stories, the pain, the hurt and the brutality that was endured for a better life for all. Think about the current government , are they honoring these lives, which were lost for them to be in the positions they are in right now? No one denies that they too fought for our freedom, but they survived to see the new South Africa, to enjoy it; but they have a responsibility to every South African victim, who lost family, to take care of them. ANC is the party of the people, but the government is not the government of the people.
I don’t know, I’d rather have a government of the people rather then a party of the people.

“As the elections approach, remember your vote determines your future”

I’m neither DA nor am I ANC, I am a liberal. South Africa belongs to all its citizens. I am angered more then saddened, that so many people died only for the benefit of a few. Maybe we need a TRC for our current government and the people. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A Balck Woman in Corporate

 While we fight for equal pay amongst women and men, we need to separate the category of women; there are black women, then there are white women. Within these categories, there are clear wage gaps and clear value of the one, over the other, with the other being black women. I have come to realise that white people do not realise their privilege and supremacy complex, there fake fading smiles when you walk past them, almost to say, “What are you doing in my space”. I don’t think they realise  that we can see right through those half baked smiles. There coldness and uninviting energy makes you self-aware and reminds you, that you are in the wrong place, this is not your space and as long as you can remember that, you will be okay. However white people are not the only problem black women face in corporate, black men also contribute to the demise of black women in the workplace. I worked for a company that was ran by black men and fell victim to the corporate abuse that b...
Post a Comment
Read more

Dear Beautiful coconut black girl

It took time for us to realize that there was power in our skin colour, we grew up in towns and went to schools that did not value our skin tone or our languages. We grew up trying to emulate whiteness because our teachers and white schoolmates respected us more when we sounded like them and acted like they did. There was a desire to be like they are, to live like they did, our parents seemed to smile more when we spoke “perfect” English, their kids were like the white kids, they too could be at the same level as the white parents, sit in the same room at prize giving and have pictures of their kids in a classroom full of white kids and a white teacher. What was better than your child being like a white child? We are models of our parent’s dreams, we are the example of “freedom” for them. We too did not understand the enormous responsibility that was handed to us. This responsibility to prove that we have defeated the system, that the ANC government led by the former late ...
1 comment
Read more

She Is My Mother

4:00 am every morning she is up, she leaves the house at 5:00 am to open up shop at 6:00 am, when everyone else wakes up or when they leave the house. She has to make sure she is there early for those who too are early, she needs to make sure all her products are on display for the morning crowd. I wake at 6:00 am like the rest of the working class; I get ready for school, prepare my books and make porridge. I make my way out of the two-room tin house I share with my mother and two of my sisters. They too get ready the same time,  my sister and I  walk to the bus stop and make our way to Bryanston to school, while the other makes her way to Lonehill. Alex seems like a faraway reality from our school lives. We might not have much at home but no one knows it here, I have a new blazer and shoes, my old ones were getting smaller, I gave them to my sister. They were still in good condition, we have to make sure they are, we don’t know when we will afford to buy them again. M...
Post a Comment
Read more