Apartheid reverberations

I HAVE SPENT the last three weeks in South Africa. The experience has been at once exhilarating and unnerving. South Africa is an extremely beautiful country. Yet, it is the people of South Africa that astound me. Like ours, their history is a most brutal one. But it is their recent history that chills one to the bone. Walking through the streets, one sees reminders that apartheid existed up to 17 years ago! That is in my children's lifetime! If I were a South African, until 17 years ago, I and my children would each have had to walk with a pass that gave me permission to be in certain parts of any city. We would be barred from other areas. If my wife got a job, I could find myself in a position where I could not visit her because I did not have permission to go to that part of the city. I would risk being beaten and thrown in jail if I attempted to do so.

Astonishing reality

Black people have now been in control of the government for the past 16 years. The restraint of the Mandela-inspired government, their willingness to forgive and move on, is astonishing in the light of the reality of the recent past. This is even more so because there are pockets of whites who make no secret of their bitterness at their loss of power. While I was there, there was a demonstration against a young African National Congress official who had been accused of corruption by the white press. Even though the claims were being investigated, these demonstrators carried placards which clearly revealed their hatred!

The white press also keeps undermining any achievements of the government and this is lapped up by adult whites - all of whom were educated during the old regime. So one of our white tour guides sneered at the stadia built to stage the football World Cup as 'white elephants', belittled the Cricket World Cup and scoffed at the government's plans for improvement, while the other claimed that she had had no idea that blacks were suffering because she had lived a sheltered life on a farm! Even more disturbing was the penchant this guide had to describe the history of the places we passed through, purely from the perspective of the white settlers - it was as if the blacks who populated the areas did not exist! When we visited places like Robben Island, Kwazulu Natal, Llanga township and Soweto, the tour guide subcontracted articulate and knowledgeable young blacks to do so, as she admitted to knowing nothing about these parts of her country.

Horrific conditions

During apartheid, the conditions in which the blacks who came to work in the mines and on the estates were forced to live were so horrible it makes the blood curdle. It is heartening to see the efforts of the new democratic government to change these conditions and, although the fruit of their work is evident, the vast expanses of ghetto reveal how much more has to be done. A visit to the Robben Island prison, where political prisoners like Mandela and Sobukwe were held, and a talk with an ex-prisoner, gave one pause.

It was at this point that I thought of the 'rebel tour' of our cricketers. It was undertaken despite the pleas of the Mandela-led ANC. This tour was used by the apartheid government of the time as part of a South African effort to 'whitewash' the horrors of the regime. In fact, I remember when, maybe for extra cash, Richard Austin was reported to have 'found' relatives of his in Kwazulu, hundreds of thousands of miles away from where his ancestors were captured and sold into slavery in West Africa. Poor Danny Germs!

While thinking of it, I was made to wonder at the insensitivity, the crassness, the utter lack of respect for the people of South Africa and all members of the black diaspora that was displayed by our cricket board when they named a pavilion in honour of the leader of this hateful tour. I have decided to make my personal protest by never attending any cricket match at Sabina as long as there is a Lawrence Rowe Pavilion.

Keith Noel is an educator. Comment to columns@gleanerjm.com.