I will not try to restate the entire history of Johannesburg, South Africa, Soweto or Apartheid. If nothing else, I'm sure Wikipedia has good stuff. I'm just sure I couldn't state it all well. I'll just try to briefly(-ish) and inadequately explain it this way:
South Africa was home to many great peoples before Europeans came.
Europeans came and were convinced they were the greatest gift God ever gave to South Africa (or, well, Africa...and most places they went...)
There was money to be made off of the resources in South Africa.
The Europeans wanted the money. Also some of them didn't like other people telling them what to do.
A very small minority of Europeans (some by then who had been born in South Africa and didn't consider themselves Europeans any longer, but who didn't think they were at all like the natives either) gained political, military and economic control of the native peoples. And the resources. All the resources.
The Europeans (I'll start calling them whites now, since because of the above, "Europeans" stopped being who they considered themselves to be) decided they rather liked telling other people what to do.
Irony. So much irony.
The whites in South Africa carved out their own areas, and gave choice jobs, which included jobs in the gold mines, to whites. Now, of all people, West Virginia folks probably get that mine jobs may not be the best jobs ever, but they ain't bad either, and when that's the game in town, well...
Gold prices were fixed. The only way to increase (or really, make any) profits was to cut costs. The best way to do this was hire native Africans.
Now, the government wasn't thrilled about this. The entire approach to their country relied on separate areas for whites and blacks (we'll make that switch now). Blacks working in mines meant they'd have to be in white areas.
Money won over (racist) principles.
Blacks were brought in from outside of Johannesburg to work in the mines. Where is took 8-10 tons of rock to get 1 oz. of gold. Yeah, I know. This wasn't a gold rush.
Cue decades of trying to figure out how to do this, namely, make the blacks do the dirty work without having to see or interact with them, or you know, recognize their basic human rights.
This led to slum townships with inadequate housing, separating men from families, and requiring all blacks to carry passbooks which, due to the fact that you had to visit many government offices to get all the stamps, and no one could take that much time off from work--virtually EVERY SINGLE BLACK lived constantly in violation of.
One of the areas blacks were forced to live in was Soweto (short for South West Township). Today, it is 80 square miles and home to several million people.
Soweto was also were much of the resistance to Apartheid was born.
After WWI, and due to many circumstances, the whites wanted people to blame. The blacks seemed as good (if not better) than any. Right wing, radical, racist whites used many means to come to complete power with the same sort of racist ideology made famous by Hitler and the Nazis against the Jews. I mean, the South Africans were anti-Semites too, but they mostly hated the blacks.
These radical, racist whites were voted into power.
Even after the government committed atrocities, including shooting and killing over 600 youth who were marching to demand an end to racist policies in the schools (mostly involving language used in instruction--though that is way over simplifying it)--yes, even after this, the whites re-elected the same people.
As our guide, Kenny said, it's not like this was done by a military junta that took over the country. The whites voted them in. And when they had a chance to remove them, they voted them back in.
In the 1950s and 1960s some blacks tried to protest. Lots got killed and jailed. Mandela was one of them.
Blacks got scared. I mean, who wants to be jailed or killed? They mostly decided to lay low.
They had kids. Their kids were like, "What?!" Their kids weren't so scared of what the government would do to them.
In the 1980s, young people started turning the tide. This was helped by the world community. But mostly they were done with it. And many whites seemed less enthusiastic about Apartheid.
It was making lots of whites lose money. Some, including many clergy, also started (or continued) suggesting Apartheid was morally wrong. And always had been.
Many forces led to the release of Nelson Mandela, negotiations between whites and blacks, and the first democratic elections.
Okay so you should read the whole end of Apartheid stuff online. For me, this was the part of the story I knew best.
Mandela became President.
All was well with the world.
At least with South Africa.
Or not.
But it was better...we hope.
Keep in mind it was only in 1994 that Apartheid ended. 21 years.
Today, South Africa is trying to address many challenges, many which are shared with countries around the world.
They are trying to build a middle class, particularly a black middle class, at a time when most countries are experiencing a diminishing middle class.
The cultural structures that got the whites and blacks through Apartheid are still fresh, and still very powerful in direct and indirect ways.
One of the things I found most interesting was that 1990-1994, the period after Mandela's release and the period of negotiations leading to new elections, was the most violent and deadly of the entire period of Apartheid. It's like a Family Systems Theory case study. (Systems like stability and if you try to change something, even something to be more healthy, the system is likely to flip out)
I took 8 pages of notes on the tour today. I promise I didn't mean to. I took out my journal to write down one thing the tour guide said. Then I just kept writing.
And so, out of context, some other noteworthy findings and happenings from today:
Kenny (our tour guide) said people often asked him what would (before it did) or did happen when Mandela died. As if Mandela was this superhero who held everything together. He pointed out that this was the community that created and raised up Mandela.
"If you speak two or more languages you're bilingual. If you speak one, you're American." Touche. By the way, our tour guide knew 7 fluently. And said he could hang pretty well with the remaining 4 official languages of South Africa (there are 11).
The housing in Soweto ranges from what we'd expect in a suburb (not much of what we saw today at least), low income neighborhoods, government housing, and shacks made out of a variety of materials. But the people you see even in the poorest areas are generally neatly dressed, and there isn't a lot of trash around. As Kenny told us, "People here believe that poverty is one thing but misery is another."
"We may pride ourselves on having the most number of rocket scientists, but we still need those who will grow food." --On pretty expansive gardens located at a school, and the importance of those to the people. This hits home with me as I reflect on the great value of the agricultural emphasis of the area in which my church, Arden, is.
On whites and blacks, Kenny said, "We are all victims of the same system, psychologically." I don't think this removes blame. Or places it all. But I thought it also speaks to those of us in the US as we reflect on the continued racism and the history of racial oppression that still shapes us.
So this still ended up being quite long, but even at that, it fails to capture a large part of what we learned and saw today. I haven't even touched on our experience at the Apartheid museum.
But I'll stop here for now.
Tomorrow morning we leave for Zimbabwe, and Sunday many of us will preach in churches and and around Harare. We learned which churches today. But since I've written so much already, I'll just leave you hanging. :-)
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