African Wind
Chapter22
January 2010 Another Face of South Africa
South Africa － the hosting country for the World Cup happening in June next year. As Japan team quickly confirmed their involvement to the competition, this southern-most country of Africa is grabbing the global attention in various ways. In Japan, TVs tend to cover news that give bad impressions about the country such as “ the world ' s most dangerous country, ” but when you actually step into the country, dangerous areas & safe areas can be clearly seen, the whole country is trying to stablize the security & safety considering the up & coming World Cup. And moreover, all the people in South Africa are trying so hard to make this global event a success, people you meet are all extremely friendly, I ' ve been to the country for 7 times now, but I have never encountered any dangerous situation in any of my visit.
Of course, you may be raided if you walk on dim streets with tons of jewelries, but that doesn ' t only happen in South Africa. Just remember that common sense in Japan is not necessarily the common sense out in the world, be moderate, and try visiting South Africa that ' s in a transition of a big change as the hosting country of the World Cup.
Now, one thing that you can ' t avoid when talking about South Africa is the Apartheid. I was able to interview and hear about the Apartheid & the post-Apartheid period of the country to one of my Rastafarian friend of my age group that lives in a slum/ghetto called Gugulethu in Cape Town, so would like to share it with you in 2 consecutive issues. This first part of the feature will be about what my friend had experienced during the Apartheid period.
FYI, Apartheid was a system of legal racial segregation, and from its enforcement commencing in 1948 until its termination in 1991 (the complete termination was in 1994), the white National Party legislation classified inhabitants into 4 racial groups, a period when racial discrimination was done by government, legally. They segregated residential areas according to the racial classification by means of forced removals, everything was segregated between Whites and non-Whites, from transportations, restaurants, schools to public bathroom, practically every public facilities in the country. If a Black person step into areas for Whites, that person will immediately get arrested, even shot to death at times. It is a policy of Whites in supremacy. There is also a film depicting the realities of the Apartheid period called “ Cry Freedom ” which is a must!!
Q:Please give us your name, occupation and tribe.
B.Z. George. I am now 49. At the moment I'm unemployed. I'm just selling peanuts at a local store. I'm a Xhosa.
Q:What was Apartheid to you?
Apartheid to me was the evilest system ever. It was really a tough situation. You couldn't go to any shop freely. Some shops were Whites only and some were divided to ‘Whites only' and ‘non Whites'. Also the education system was very bad at that time, they would teach children nonsense and waste their lives away.
Q:What were you doing during the Apartheid?
I was still going to school during the Apartheid. The riot started on June 16 1976 and I had to leave school. Unfortunately in 1978, my father passed away. My mother was not working at that time and my eldest brother was always drinking, so I had to work and support my family.
Q:What was the most striking or memorable incident you experienced during Apartheid?(Sighs) Too many… The worst incident was in 1976 or 1977 before my liberation activist father passed away, we had to change our original Xhosa sir name. Otherwise the White police would kick the door of our house open and arrest us because we were the PAC. So we changed our name from Bolani to George. My father didn't want us to suffer after he's gone. My name is still George, but my original sir name is Bolani. And ‘Gugulethu 7'… I can never forget that incident. I will talk about it later.
Q:What were the thoughts you had when Apartheid ended?
I thought education would change and be free. The education in South Africa then was to keep us Black people down and make us end up to be laborers of the so-called White people. I thought there would be more jobs too. They applied a new system called ‘publitization', but it was bad and not good for us. So the system they applied didn't suit us. To get a job now, 15years from when Apartheid ended, is still difficult.
Q:When Nelson Mandela was released and a new Black administration was born, didn't you have hope?
Oh yes! Very hopeful. We all went to the parade when he came out the first day. We were very hopeful. We thought, “We are free now!”
Q:It's been 15 years since the end of Apartheid. Is everything the way you thought they would be?
The answer is no. Not everything was the way we thought it would be. Some things have become better, but there are more to be worked on. They need to work more especially on education.
Q:Please tell us about the incident that happened in 1987 during the Apartheid, “Gugulethu 7”.
Gugulethu 7, they were my brothers. Rasta movement started here in Cape Town especially in Gugulethu, and it spread out to other townships. These brothers, we were together. We used to dance together as Rastas. We were all Rastas, but the only thing that they differed from us was the way to fight our struggle.
They were more on the physical side and they wanted to fight as freedom fighters. Whereas most of us as Rastas believed in spirituality. We were like, “NO, we fight the Babylon spiritually because God is always watching. God sees everything” So these brothers decided to fight physically and take up arms and fight the White system. We couldn't do it, you know?
At one night at a gig, those brothers came to the dancehall to recruit soldiers. But all the Rastas were refusing because we all believed that the system would go down eventually, we don't have to take up arms. We believed in peace… It is very sad about what happened to those brothers.
Q:What did you think when that incident happened?
That's when I really realized how coward the Apartheid system was. That operation was planned originally by eight or more brothers, not just seven. But when the time came for the operation, some were not there. Maybe they had tipped off to the police because as soon as they approached their hiding place, all the police were waiting there. The police were hiding behind the trees and bush. So they were ambushed.
The Gugurethu 7 threw the guns down and put their hands up. The police came right on top of… I think it was Jabu (one of the Gugulethu 7)… The police came on top of him and shot him to death. That was very cowardly. I will never forget.
Q:How many people died?Q:Were the White police arrested?
No! No! They didn't go to jail.
Q:Why?
I don't know. There was ‘Truth and Reconciliation Commission' by Mr. Tutu and people who were there reported the incident, and even the parents of those victims cried but nothing happened.
Q:Were any Black police involved in the incident?
Yes, Black police and white police were there. I think they were ordered to ambush by the high class White police.
Q:I hear that ‘Gugulethu 7' incident is starting to get forgotten… Is that true?
Yes. Their statues built in the main road are not even covered. They're exposed to rain. People here in Gugulethu are hungry and don't have money so they go out at night and cut out copper from the statue to get money. They can't really see who's who because they're hungry… It's very sad.
Q:Do you think that racial discrimination still exists?
Yes it does. Racial discrimination still exists big time. I'm not going to lie to you and say it's one sided. It exists on both sides. Whites do it and Blacks do it. Here in Cape Town there are so-called Colored brothers who were also victimized by the Apartheid. Whites were the first class citizens and the Colored were like the second citizens. We Black people were the last. Not all of them, but some of the so-called Colored people still regard Black people as the outcast. There is still a distance between the Blacks and the Colored. The relationship between us is not healthy. But I've got a child that is a Colored girl, to show that we Rastas don't discriminate. People are all equal. We are one. You cut your skin, red blood comes out from all of us. We are all same human beings.
Too be continued…
Interviewed by: Noriko ASANO / Translation: Masafumi KAJITANI
It has only been 15 years since the end of Apartheid.
What was I doing 15 years ago…? I looked back on myself.
KRUSH break the ice into the world, I was also producing special TV programs, traveling all over the world, it was one of the highlight of my life. It was the time when I made my first step onto the continent of Africa.
The people in South Africa who have lived through such realities regardless of the fact that we born & lived in same period, on this same planet Earth, is now awaiting for this global festival filled with promises called World Cup.
I cordially pray that this global festive to be a great success for the country.
On the next issue, I would like to share with you what he told us about the problems that South Africa is currently facing.
African JAG / Noriko ASANO
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