South Africa: The Facts

I am a white South African living in the U.S. and I was born during Apartheid. Growing up in the U.S. during the the 1980's, when it became common practice for the average American to protest the domestic policies of other nations, was a very difficult reality of my childhood. The anger began welling up in me at a very young age when I was first slapped in the face with blind ignorance at the hands of a schoolmate who called me a "bleached bushmman."

Now I am a woman with a zealous interest, even a passion for my homeland. The province of my birth was called Natal at that time, it is now called Kwa Zulu. These types of name changes are evident everywhere--just check out the Johannesburg International Airport for example. The need to change these Dutch and English names to African ones is important in that people have a desire to move beyond the past and embrace names that remind us of the great achievements against hate and seperation. At the same time, the decision to change these names is a grevious stripping of the history of my people. Whites are told to stand by and watch as our monuments are torn down and our forefather's achievements burned from the pages of history books in the name of affirmative action. We are being disrobed of our postion as a People. Finding work in South Africa has become so difficult for whites, and fear of racially motivated crime cripples all from living freely.
Sound familiar?

When my uncle first started teaching me about South Africa, he told me something that I've never forgotten, "Apartheid's fatal mistake was in its becoming official." Apartheid is a Afrikans word that means "separateness." Separation is a natural human response when cultures mix, but official separation is unnatural and stops progress when it is right. My fear for my home country is that the same mistake is being made again. It won't be called Apartheid, but in time, it could have a Xosa word with a very similar meaning.

The result of this tug-of-war is a humanitarian crisis the likes of which none of us have ever witnessed in our lifetimes. The facts in the video above are very real. The ethical debates, the bitterness and fighting over a place so beautiful are nothing in the light of the tear-stained faces of hundreds of thousands of new orphans or the pain of a person suffering, unmedicated, from the ravaging affects of HIV/AIDs. Politics, and ideologies aside, our purpose is to try to ease the suffering of others. It's no coincidence that those that suffer, do so in a land riddled with corruption, crime, poverty and one being propelled violently by revolution.

South Africa is truly in need. Does anyone else ever feel so helpless that it hurts?