GREAT WHITE TREPIDATION - FINDING UBUNTU

It’s been at least sixteen years since the dawn of our new democratic dispensation; thirteen years since we saw the sun rise into the birth of our so-called ‘Rainbow Nation’ in South Africa. When Nelson Mandela walked out of prison (after twenty seven years), on February 11th, 1990; black South Africans welcomed the newly formed Democratic State, after a long fought palpable battle of hatred in the struggle for emancipation from the dark hands of apartheid.

People started realizing what this freedom meant to them; both in the peripheries of the country, over mountainous borders and beyond the sea. In countries were numerous freedom-loving South Africans where imprisoned and exiled by the Whiteman’s intolerable heart for the indigenous people of this country. Those who went to exile during the traumatic, treacherous period in South Africa, suddenly realised that the great wizard had wiggle his magical wand and the call for the great trek back to our motherland was thus summoned to end white domination. And begin a new balanced, fair, unbiased path for our nation. Is our nation truly emancipated?

Taking a walk in the suburbs, one could sense the fear that still lingers in our country, in our streets, in our house-holds, and our hearts; particularly within the white community. In business and in pleasure white South Africans are still fearful of a black face. Thirteen years into our democracy the greater majority in our nation still has to reel in the unwilling minority into understanding the meaning of ‘togetherness’.

We live in a country that is divided by the notion of our pigmentation more than anything else in the world. There are those minority whites who are trapped in thinking that, their skin colour is superior to that of a black man; white people who will never patronize black businesses, other than those of their fellow whites. A white person that will never hire an equally qualified black person into his company and that will never pay an equally deserving salary to a black person, thus creating what I call an ‘Economic Segregation’. It seems to me; black people are needed more to create wealth for the white race and keeping the white global investment mechanisms functioning properly. It’s a give the crams and keep the pie, game. We blacks know all-so-well through the hardships of our past. This is mainly through ignorance of the white race.

In many of my conversations with my college peers, I find my self dumb-founded by the knowledge my white peers have about black culture and living standards in the townships. Black teens in contrast know so much about their white counter part’s westernized living standards, culture and dialect through going an extra mile of tutelage in white created indoctrinating disciplines and by burning the midnight oil to understand their world.

Every time we have these ‘enlightening’ conversations about my white peers’ ignorance, the more I come to a realization that white people are not willing to compromise their position or stance in life to understanding the servitude and suffering of blacks in this country. That job is only left to the black race. Beat them or join them.

How many white people do you see walking around the township on a daily basis? How many black people do you see walking around the suburbs on a daily basis? For white people to understand their country as much as black people do, they’ll have to be willing to merge with blacks on an equal footing without trepidation. It is human nature to fear that which you do not know, however knowledge breathes understanding and understanding breathes contentment, thus killing fear. If blacks leave the townships (black settlements created by apartheid), everyday of their lives to patronize white businesses in the big cities and little suburbs, why can’t whites leave the suburbs to see how life is like in the townships? Whites must feel the agony of standing in long, unbearable queues every morning, hoping to make it in time to your destination.

White people in this country need to comprehend the danger of self isolation from their own country and the danger of the inability to know your fellow countryman’s dialect and culture.

Black people in South Africa must seize promoting ‘black inferiority’ within the white community. The spirit that united black people during the struggle is needed to expunge the deep sited fears that envelopes the Whiteman’s mentality in this country. We must reach out to our communities and rebuild what is lost with pride. We must rebuild the essence of ‘Ubuntu’ and open our townships to all and sundry.

Whites need to acknowledge that the problems that transpire in this country are not all to be blamed on blacks, only. They need to take responsibility for the role they play in their own trepidation.

To bridge the great divide in our country, we as South Africans, need to overlook the colour of our pigmentations and work together towards the betterment of our nation and future. We need to create a country that supports South Africans from every level and sphere. Patriotism means loving your country and your follow citizens. Acting towards that love to alleviate poverty in your follow citizen’s livelihood and making sure that everyman has the basic needs in his country before dusk summons darkness. This must be done not mainly through curiosity, but through love for our fellow human beings.

WORD TO THE NEW REVOLUTION!