From da Gama to the Afrikaans

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this post are those of the authors. As such, this writing reflects their perspective alone; historical errors or discrepancies are also their own. Names have been shortened or changed to protect individual privacy where necessary.  Note: the interviewee's words appear in red.

“When the missionaries came to Africa they had the Bible and we had the land. They said, "Let us pray." We closed our eyes. When we opened them we had the Bible and they had the land.”

― Desmond Tutu

"Africans: A people of beastly living, without God, law, religion, or common wealth”

― Richard Hakluyt

"Differences are not intended to separate, to alienate.

We are different precisely in order to realize our need of one another.”

― Desmond Tutu

           

From the excursions of Portuguese captain Vasco da Gama in 1497, to the footprints of the Dutch native Boers in 1652, apartheid would slowly begin to develop in the womb of the “unknown,” and in the name of the “undiscovered,” stretching itself across nearly a five-century period.

Now, what exactly is apartheid?  A term with Afrikaans origins, apartheid, or “apartness,” is the political system of racial segregation peculiar to the Republic of South Africa.  This policy was officially included in the Afrikaner Nationalist Party (ANP) platform in 1948, catapulting the ANP to power for the very first time. 

Cassandra M. Bruyns, a native of Cape Town, South Africa, born in 1947, and a Freedom Fighter against the apartheid system, sat down with Team Freedom Fighters, students from ------, ---------, ---------- NY, to explain what it was like being a South African against injustice and segregation in the age of apartheid.

At this monumental time in South African History, the Chinese were considered “white,” Japanese were called “non-whites” or “coloured,” darker skinned peoples of any ethnicity were considered “black,” and caucasians were thought to be superior.  They were divided into many different classes, and the country was totally overtaken and controlled by a regime that established a system wherein race and ethnicity was the cornerstone of all social and political life.   

Was apartheid a political strategy, or was it a call for genuine separate development?  We may never know, but its original purpose was separation of all races.  Apartheid held no bounds.  This meant it not only included a separation of whites from nonwhites, but also nonwhites from each other as well as from Bantu peoples (9 groups of native South African blacks who make up 75% of the population).  No intermingling of “colors” in a sense.  

“You could not mix with other races, you were kept apart in homelands, you were kept totally apart.  You had to go to separate schools…they used to have two bridges going over a railway, one for the whites, one for the nonwhites, and that was not a choice that was law,” said Mrs. B in regard to the different elements of apartheid.  To be more specific, those who were distinguished as nonwhites were widely known as Coloured, (people of mixed black, Malayan, and white descent) and Asian (mainly of Indian ancestry).  Blacks and Coloureds were denied entry into many public places, were unable to live in areas where whites were the “majority.”  Their areas of employment and residence were limited and blacks were also unable to vote or own land.  The destruction of African family occurred very rapidly due to privileges and unfair treatment amongst siblings and parents who were all different skin colors. Mrs. B expressed a time when apartheid hit home: "My mother was a mixed woman but she was very white.  I have a brother that looked like her and a sister that looked like her and along came a bus…my mother got on the bus with my brother and I couldn't get on.  I was not fair skinned enough…and I have been fighting it ever since."     

Born in the heart of this oppression, Mrs. B explained a firsthand encounter with the horrors of her own homeland, “Where the bus came along, there was a black old lady standing with crutches with one leg and it was hot!  The bus came along and they used to have these bus inspectors.  They were checking what the drivers were doing and whether they were keeping the law, whether they were letting the right amount of people on…This inspector was related to me, he jumped off the bus, this inspector, and he wouldn't let that black lady on the bus because there was no space…she had been standing there for hours and hours.  I wanted to take her crutches and hit him.  And that's when they had a big scene and I had to leave because I got that angry.” 

        

A young well-educated political activist, and lawyer, born the son of a highly placed tribal advisor in rural Umtata, Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela began campaigning in the public eye for the rights of Blacks in South African, as early as 1944, when he joined the African National Congress.

“When a man is denied the right to live the life he believes in, he has no choice but to become an outlaw,” said Mandela, in his autobiography, A Long Walk to Freedom. Being that Apartheid was a governmentally sanctioned decree, underground anti-apartheid groups such as Umkonto we Sizwe (Spear of the Nation) headed by Nelson Mandela, and the Anti-Apartheid movement of Canada (AAMC), were formed in an effort to combat this legal type of segregation. The majority of the opposition against the South African government was fought with non-violent methods, intelligent thought and peace.  However, in 1964 after Nelson Mandela was sentenced to life in prison for acts of treason and sabotage against the government, many Africans turned away from their peaceful resistance. 

“So when I came there (Canada) and there were people over there (South Africa), we were talking to them, and they started grouping in the streets and it became more violent and more violent and then it became so violent.  So many people lost their lives that the international community had to step,” said Mrs. B in the Team Freedom Fighters interview.  The government too became violent in response to the post-Mandela imprisonment revolts. In 1976, five hundred black students were shot during protests, and in 1977 and 1980 black leader Steve Biko (1946–1977), and trade unionist Neil Aggett were killed while in police custody.  By then, Mrs. B had already fled South Africa to Canada due to the governmental opposition, and many Africans who left the country at the time were issued “exit permits.”  Exit permits would entail loss of citizenship, and criminal penalties if the person returned to South Africa. 

Yet still, Nelson Mandela’s dedication and commitment to anti-apartheid during his imprisonment would later spark a political revolution out of which many leaders would rise against apartheids strongholds.  “I was angry, angry, until they had the truth and reconciliation and I thought, that's me, those are my people talking, Reverend Tutu is my people talking.  That is the only way to get over it, forgiveness. I was losing my faith yes, I still have moments where I get very angry because of racism, but I go back to that thought, forgiveness.  Forgiveness will always heal everything,” said Mrs. B.  Ideals of “peace as a weapon,” would again spring forth as religious leaders like Desmond Tutu were in the peripheral.

Desmond Mpilo Tutu was born on October 7, 1931, in Klerksdorp, South Africa.  He was born a Methodist, but later became an Anglican when his family changed denominations.  When the Tutu family moved to Johannesburg, South Africa, Desmond, now age twelve, met Anglican priest Trevor Huddleston, who was strongly against apartheid and became a role model to Tutu.  Their meeting would plant a seed within Tutu out of which would grow a deep passion for equality amongst all peoples. 

Thirty-five years later, Tutu’s recognition as a critic of apartheid became internationally know when he was appointed first general secretary of the South African Council of Churches in 1978.  Later, he was elected the archbishop of Cape town, making him the first black person to head the Anglican Church in southern African history.

“So Desmond Tutu and Mandela, along with others from the ANC started a big huge court case, it's called the Truth and Reconciliation case.  What they did is they tried all the white South Africans that they knew had committed atrocities and they healed it with forgiveness, it’s true, it's absolutely true…People give Mandela the credit but Reverend Tutu who did it…He was the one who rallied the people throughout the world…and this is something that we, as Christians, I'm catholic, but as Christians have to learn that forgiveness does work, it does work, all people are equal...”  Forgiveness became a force undefeated, developing into a powerful political committee known as the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), fully backed by Nelson Mandela and chaired by the archbishop.  

 

TRC was part of the political compromises made during the negotiations that ended apartheid.  Their job was to investigate the different cases of human rights violations that were committed between 1960 and 1994. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission was the first truth commission to offer amnesty to individuals who fully admitted their involvement in crimes that were view as being politically motivated.   

Desmond  Tutu and Nelson Rolihlahla Nelson had achieved the unachievable.  They had delivered the gift of peace to the doorsteps of the unmerciful through the political powers that be, to a country that has seen oppression age well over five hundred years before even being considered a universal immorality. “Forgiveness does work! It does work!” said Mrs. B.  And forgiveness covers a multitude of sins.    

“If we would only believe, that which we desire to achieve would find its way into our midst.”

 –Team Freedom Fighters