A comment I received on my previous blog brought to mind an interesting question that had not been addressed by any of our lecturers or by our visits to sites. During Apartheid people were classified into a massive number of groups but something that was not seen by us was that the government classifications. People were not called white coloured Indian and Black. They were White Coloured Malay Indian Oriental Xhosa Zulu the list goes on. Now people talk about Africans of South Africa including all people but they also talk about the history and put an interesting divide. They call the groups as I mentioned in the first group by colour names. Even Dr. Foster did so and my question is why? Why have they lumped all African ethnic identities into one group?
This is not my only question. I feel that we have gained great knowledge from our experiences here and the lectures we have been to. However I want to know how you start to reconcile. Professor Keasley brought up many points today in his lecture to us and clarified many things about the theoretical and even the practical aspects of reconciliation. However I still see a huge barrier to true reconciliation in how does one start the process? I have tried putting myself into a South African mind set I have tried putting myself into a Scandinavian mind set or even Chilean. I still feel that were I like Tabo, a man working at DACPM (the Direct Action Centre for Peace and Memory) who told us of his time in MK (the militant arm of the ANC) and what he has done to find peace in himself and to bring that to others, I would have had the hardest time stopping. I am not a soldier and so perhaps I cannot understand but I believe in ideals that are worth giving everything for, but I have not been tested.
I brought this up earlier, however I think it bears repeating, that the issue of land has yet to be resolved. I do not think that we will see a generation at peace with itself in South Africa until this is addressed. Addressed not in the rural areas only but in the cities where South Africa grew up. Giving land to a man and saying farm does not make him a farmer. Giving houses to people who are starving does not put food in their mouths. RDP is a failing program and the land return is not equitable to anyone involved. Dr. Ntsebeze, when we spoke briefly, believed much the same as has anyone I have spoken to about this issue. However not a single one of us knows what to do. My thought had been to provide free training in agriculture however this is only one small thing and does not address all the issues that are present.
These are three questions I had there are more in my mind and I will take them back with me to ponder and search for answers. I think that the lesson I have taken from this is that we must continually seeking the answers to questions even those we do not know yet.
Hamba Kahle! Until we meet again Ryan E. Hardman
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In the Apartheid era, the division into so many categories allowed the government to even claim that the there were more whites than any other group! There was a recent program here in the US where they checked the DNA makeup of people to see which ethnic group they most closely resembled. It stunned a lot of people- some who thought they were "black" had DNA more like Caucasians- and some who were blond and blue eyed had significant "African" DNA... If everyone had this kind of information about their DNA, it might stop a lot of ridiculous statements.
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