Throughout my analysis of Born a Crime by Trevor Noah, I realized that the true key to understanding one of the most racist political systems in existence would be through the lens of the colonizer, the colonized and the land itself. Here are 5 questions through the postcolonial lens exploring apartheid, the roles every race played and the land they occupy, along with photographs and videos to deepen your understanding.
How did apartheid manifest, being as the whites are the clear minority in South African society?
It all started when the Netherlands invaded South Africa, bringing their military forces to shove the natives off of their land, killing and taking slaves from those who did not run. When Britain took over in the early 1800’s, they abolished slavery and instead used white labour, controlling the economy through fear and force. The greatest shift was during the Second World War when white South Africans were sent to fight in the war, forcing the government to employ black labour to make their military supplies. That was when the townships began, housing the rural workers outside the city and enforcing carding, where black people could only enter the city and work with the proper documentation. During this mass arrival, a drought struck the country and Africans gathered closer to the cities to be able to get to work faster. The government did not give them water nor sewage systems, reinforcing their control over the citizens they enlisted to work for them. Apartheid stemmed from the needs of both the colonizers and the colonized, natural disasters bringing the natives into the townships for some semblance of hope whereas the whites needed help to fight their war. Apartheid did not manifest from physical domination. Apartheid manifested from the mass financial control of the black natives.
Did the townships change how apartheid shaped South African society?
The short answer: Absolutely. But not how you’d expect. The long answer: Townships are a complex living organism. They’re a hotbed for disease, where poverty is commonplace and food can be scarce. They’re crowded, forced into land that is barren. They’re constantly evolving, houses being built closer and closer together. Despite all this, the most important part of a township is not the crowding, the sickness or the fertility of the ground. Because it is an organism, because of the crowding, because of how the hand they’ve been dealt changes their economic prospects completely, townships have created a tight-knit community of friends, of family, of people looking out for people. Apartheid has inadvertently brought together a society that had been divided, separated from their land. Apartheid created townships, and those townships created a force for resistance, a force that would take what was given to them and multiply it tenfold. They’re essentially the opposite of cultural imperialism, forcing black culture into such a concentrated area rather than the white government promoting eurocentric culture and tearing apart black ethnicity. They rejected hybridity and instead allowed modern black culture to form around the ideals that apartheid is the enemy and that black solidarity is the most important concept. They’re a monument of adaptability, a testament to how dedicated the oppressed are when their rights are stripped from them, how dedicated the oppressed are when their oppressors refuse to give them any leeway. They were the taverns, the houses, the marketplaces where riots, protests, organizations were formed to fight apartheid on a greater scale. Yet they are separated from the towns, still viewed as the dirty slums, the inferior citizens of South Africa, and their existence a reminder of the segregation and racism that still exists today. So yes, the townships definitely changed how apartheid shaped South African society during apartheid. They were the reason apartheid was abolished, but they are also the reason why apartheid still exists today.
How did the subaltern — in this case, black women — fight against apartheid?
When we think of the freedom fighters during apartheid, we think of Nelson Mandela, Walter Sisulu, Steven Bantu Biko, Oliver Tambo. We don’t think of the women who fought in the small ways, through small scale organizations allowing them to get involved with anti-apartheid politics, through the Defiance Campaign where they willingly broke the law along with hundreds of other black South Africans to block the criminal justice system and ended up in prison, through the 20 000 women who stood up in Pretoria and fought for their right to travel without passes, a form of carding women that was the only way to travel outside their designated townships without breaking the law. Women like Dorothy Adams, a young teacher who quickly realized how apartheid spread through the churches and schools and took up politics, becoming a household name for the resistance against apartheid. She was detained for sabotage and placed under house arrest, not allowing her to speak to more than one person at a time and travel outside the country without the government’s permission. She used her religious connections to gain a British citizenship and went into exile, but not without continuing her fight. She and fellow activist Albie Sachs created a new constitution, and when she returned to South Africa she continued her battle for a free South Africa for the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. Women like Victoria Mxenge, who, when her husband was killed, took up his place at his law firm and took on many cases of young black people mistreated by the justice system under apartheid. As well, she played a vital role in the defence against treason for the leaders of the UDF and Natal Indian Congress. She quickly took on an essential role in the National Organization of Women and as the treasurer of the UDF, never stopping the fight for justice. In a tragic twist, she was attacked and murdered in her own house at age 43. There are also the women who take up arms, like Nontsikelelo Nqikashe. She believed the only answer to apartheid was to fight, and now her regrets in how she fought lead to her becoming a military human resource officer. Just because we don’t hear about women doesn’t mean they didn’t fight. It means they won.
What was the role of white South Africans — the colonizers — during the fight against apartheid?
There were three very distinct groups during the process towards the abolishment of apartheid. Undoubtedly, the first group were those who were neutral. The middle class, well off white citizens who weren’t involved in politics, those who didn’t see the black neighbourhoods, those who didn’t have any firsthand effects after the abolishment. Most evidently, the second group were the white government employees, the major white politicians, the upper-class white minority who fought fervently to keep South Africa under the chains of apartheid for financial benefit and due to extreme racism. They are the villains in the resistance manifesto, the colonialists, the oppressors, those who forced the natives to change their entire lives because of their imperial interests. They are the iron fist. Finally, the last group were the fighters. The white citizens who desired an equal, fair South Africa, those who took a step and raised their signs on the picket line to raise their voices in a world where their voices were legally deemed the loudest. They understood their white privilege gifted to them during the colonization of South Africa, and they put it to work, somewhat gentrifying the fight for freedom yet contributing in a massive way. They used their extra leeway in the racist, white-ruled South Africa to pave a way for the black citizens to march, to allow those who were oppressed to reach out and seize what was theirs. But they are not the ones who are included in the story of abolishment, due to their race and due to that privilege that proved so useful. Race is not something that can be useful in one circumstance and then thrown away. Race is permanent, as shown by the long-lasting effects of apartheid, for both the white freedom fighters who threw away recognition for some semblance of equality and for the black freedom fighters who have their names engraved on a plaque for their sacrifice. Race determines your role in apartheid — the colonizer or the colonized, no matter what part in the play you acted.
Were native South Africans better under colonial rule?
Colonialism is not a simple concept. Now that apartheid has been abolished and South Africa is free from the holds of their invaders, it is to be expected that their liberation would be a breath of fresh air. But for the majority of black and coloured South Africans, apartheid’s parting left more of a bitter taste in their mouths. It’s hard to establish yourself in a township after apartheid, thousands of hoops hung to jump through. It has given them financial difficulty despite apartheid’s fiscal control over black citizens, especially establishing a business in the cities when they had it so easy in the townships during apartheid. Unemployment is increasing and racism is inflamed, white citizens dismayed that black people are allowed to move into “their neighbourhoods”, “their cities”, take “their jobs”. However, during apartheid, the races were so separate that their interaction was so rare, white and black interaction belonged to one of two categories: either violence, the infamous riots where black citizens and children were slaughtered, or out of respect, white protestors hand in hand with black protestors, or white citizens living in the townships alongside the black citizens. Nothing has changed in this way. There are people who celebrate diversity. There are those who lend a helping hand. There is racism. There is eurocentricity. There are hate crimes, violence in the streets. This intense xenophobia, these effects on quality of life for black people, are they worth the abolishment of apartheid? Are they worth the price that black citizens paid in blood and sweat when nothing seems to have shifted?
Sources:
https://narratively.com/nelson-mandelas-forgotten-freedom-fighters/
https://www.thoughtco.com/when-did-apartheid-start-south-africa-43460
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