Apartheid

In Wednesday's class we learned more about the history and legislature of apartheid. I cannot believe that laws such as the Group Areas Act (restricting different races to different living areas) or the Mixed Marriage Act (prohibiting marriage between races) could ever be passed. Unfortunately, South Africa is not the only place where such horrible racism has been displayed i.e. the Holocaust, or slavery in North America. But the apartheid of South Africa took place much more recently and since I am going to be living in a city where people still live in the separate areas forced on them during apartheid, it has a lot more meaning to me. Heather asked us to think about how this history of apartheid is going to affect our time and projects in South Africa. Some of the questions I have when thinking about this: Will black or colored people be less willing to help me because I am white? What is the feeling towards Americans in general? Besides just an unwilling or mistrusting attitude, do black or colored people feel angry towards white people? Do they actively try to hurt or be rude to them? Are white people still racist towards black/coloreds? Do white people/Afrikaans have a sense of guilt for what white people did, even if they were not involved? I know that I feel a little guilty, and I was not even born when most of this was going on! Maybe guilty is not the right word, but I definitely feel like I want to be kind and respectful towards colored/black people and show them that white people are not all rotten. Now, I know that black people were also killing black people during apartheid...revolutionists went after "informers" or those aiding white people. Does some of that anger still exist? I mean. that is on top of tribal disagreements that were going on before!!! Wow, there are so many more complexities to relationships there than I have ever experienced living in the United States.

So, how will all of this influence my project? Obviously, if black/colored people still feel anger towards white people, it might be difficult for me to work with conservation organizations or the zoo or lion park. Oh! If I am kind to black/colored people, will white people be less willing to help me? What a mess. That would certainly influence my project too. Are these questions ridiculous....I mean do South Africans as a whole even think about them? I guess it was only 18 years ago that apartheid ended and a democratic election allowed all races to vote. There are definitely going to be people who were alive and in the middle of things when all of this was going on - so how many of the old attitudes still exist? Do parents teach their children anger towards that one family because they helped whites during apartheid? What do the schools teach about apartheid? Ha, I would do a field study on apartheid, except I don't have the guts...it would be too depressing and horrific. I guess I need answers to these questions in order to know how apartheid will really affect my field study and my time in South Africa, but it seems like best way to answer many of these questions is by going there and talking to people....so I'll just have to wait and see!