Submitted by Unathi Kondile
Early last week, one of my United States editors asked if I had heard of the race incident at the University of the Free State. I said I hadn’t, and didn’t make much of it when he elaborated. I told him it was probably one of those African fables that are usually concocted to amuse US citizens and further reinforce their preconceived notions on Afreeka.
The next day, reality dawned. When I was growing up my parents tried their best to get me acquainted with the white man’s world. Heck, they’d even take me along when they visited some of their white friends and I’d be sent on trips with the little Johnnies and Matthews. I’d watch the little Johnnies tell nanny Mavis: “Run, run, damnit, I want my ball!” and naturally old nanny Mavis would run to get their ball. “Mavis come here! Get my shoelace from under the bed!” and Mavis would kneel and get the shoelace.
I remember all this vividly because I once tried it too. One day I got home and told aunt Madlamini (our domestic assistant then): “Run, run, I’m hungry!” She wasn’t impressed. The second time around I told her: “Madlamini, come here, damnit!” Let it be known that I have never been slapped that hard in my life.
But what has always fascinated me was: Why didn’t little Johnny get slapped when he ordered nanny Mavis around? It didn’t stop there. As I was growing up, I kept on seeing classic cases of history repeating itself. This time it’s still old black women bowing their heads down to their young masters, or any white person, well after 1994.
All of this reminds me of an article I once wrote about Cape Town and its submissive blacks. And now I guess it’s safe to say Free State (what an ironic name) is probably filled with submissive blacks all kneeling and being fed urine day in and day out.
There is something inexplicable in this behaviour. Part of me wants to blame the four young boys — the Free State Four. There is something about black people who grew up in the days of apartheid and were directly affected by apartheid — especially those who were not in a position of empowering or educating themselves. I really can’t put my finger on this behavioral pattern. It’s embarrassing, really.
Drawing on bad old General Smuts, I’d say the manner in which those people think when they are confronted with situations that involve white people is quite child-like. They freeze and any sense of pride and dignity vanishes. They submit themselves to their masters and bask in the ignorance of thinking they are indeed of an inferior breed.
They say you cannot teach an old dog new tricks. But I doubt these people are dogs and I’m sure they can at least start to embrace this Mandela freedom and unlock themselves from the mental prisons of being inferior-complexed — “decolonise their minds”, as Ngugi wa Thiong’o would put it. It is these very same people that end being called “kaffirs” by the likes of the Iron Duke. Because really now, how can one be stuck in such ways of thinking? You obviously still see yourself as a “kaffir” even to begin to think and act that low. And I too, if I were the Iron Duke, would never apologise for calling a spade a spade.
“Don’t piss on my back and tell me it’s raining,” said an irate customer I once tried to calm down.
Now many people have been left speechless by this recent “act” by the Free State Four. In fact, some political parties and many liberals refuse to see this as a racial act. They see it as a gross human rights violation. Yes, I agree it’s a human rights violation, but we also have to admit that it is race that played an integral part in the conceptualisation of the “Fear Factor” incident by the Free State Four.
Where are those idiots who continuously say “let’s move on and forget about the past! We can’t be stuck in the past, we need to heal”? Heal, my foot! How can we heal when our children are still bitter about not having reaped the benefits of apartheid? “Oh, it ended too soon mommy! *sniff*” How can we heal when our children are still locked into “I am superior to them” mentalities? How can we heal when our children are still locked in “they are stupid” ideologies? Yes, the parents are still grooming racists. How else can you explain a child behaving in this way (a prime example being the Free State Four and Skielik’s gun-blazing young bastard)? Parents shape those children’s ideologies.
I guess what I’m trying to say is that I’m not angry with the Free State Four — I’m angry with those Free State Fear Factor old black “actors” who willingly obliged to master’s instruction, and still managed to pull off a smile and a laugh and then kept quiet about if for almost six months. Now we feel outrage on their behalf. Ask yourself this: What were they (the black actors of Free State Fear Factor) thinking for the past six months? Were they outraged as much as everyone else is now? Or did that bottle of whiskey they were awarded after the shoot quench their grievances and potential world outrage?
Thank goodness one of the Free State Four members broke up with his girlfriend. Yes, I heard that the only way this video seeped out into the public was through a bitter break-up, which led to the disenfranchised girlfriend spilling the beans. In isiXhosa we say: isisila senkukhu sibonwa mhla liqguthayo (you only see the chicken’s bare ass during heavy storms and winds).
Unathi Kondile is a blogger, radio journalist, writer, reader, drinker and self-professed introvert troublemaker, hailing from the Eastern Cape — eGcuwa (Butterworth) — and currently based in Cape Town
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