Apartheid: Let's Set the Record Straight

You set the record straight. This piece is quite late, and I hesitated to post it all those months ago because I doubted my words. I was triggered into confusion and oblivion hence the first draft of this piece was an emotional spiral and ignorant. This is a more thoughtful version, let's get into it.

We respond with insults, name-calling, threats, and rage. We address the person, not the points. We disagree in the fiber of our being, but we don't have the words. We overreact due to the frustration of not finding our voices, of feeling inadequate in defending ourselves, of feeling suppressed by the need for survival and life for our loved ones.

People are not stupid and are not unhinged animals, people are traumatized and bound by consequences. It is annoying for many people to hear this truth, yet it does not change the truth.

So... I agree with Vusi. That was hard to admit because like he said in the intro, I got triggered.

He didn't defend apartheid, he called it capable.

He called out white people who didn't want to implement BEE and transform their businesses. The man is basically saying that he condemns white supremacists as much as any other black person.

"By the way I am somebody with means. I have been able to pay my bail, I have an advocate and lawyer showing up for me in court every day. What about the justice of the people who can't pay bail? How capable is the state for the guy who can't pay bail, who lost his job at the Shoprite as a packer because he was falsely accused of a crime? Now he is sitting wallowing in jail somewhere because he can't pay bail. Where are the state and its capabilities then? Maybe that's the stuff you should be upset about", Vusi said.

And I am, I am in deep disappointment and despair at the knowing of our justice system. And really, that is what got Vusi into hot water which pushed him to make this video. If you missed it, Vusi said in an interview that the murderer of Keenen Forbes would have been caught quickly by the Apartheid police, if they intended to do so. Again, Vusi is correct.

We won the fight against apartheid. We put together international and intercontinental arms with our oppressors' knowledge and they still were unable to stop us. They knew which borders we crossed, they had spies, they killed and tortured and jailed, they raided our homes, they tried to poison our water, they brought AIDS and many other illnesses and diseases, and they still could not stop us from rebelling. They could not defeat our will and numbers. With all their skills, knowledge, and power, they were helpless against us. They had guns and bombs, and we had rocks and songs. They could not stop us. How can anyone possibly believe that people like that are incapable of ruling themselves?

No one should believe that. So what happened to our state?

What happened to our former struggle heroes turned elected politicians?

What happened to the force of the people who had the world discussing our circumstances in a world before the internet?

What did we do that led to where we are? More to the point, what did we not do?

We need to heal from our oppression because that is what is holding us back. Black South Africans are dwindling. We are separating. We are turning the other cheek. We are excluding ourselves from the problems of others as if they will never affect us. We are betraying one another as if another's suffering is our reward. We aren't creating together, anymore. Ubuntu hasn't been a mainstream community deed in a while. From our government to our homeless people, the issue has been mental, emotional, and spiritual. We don't believe in the good of thy neighbor, thus we don't believe in self, furthermore, we are creating islands out of ant hills. The story has never been one of an incapable black majority;

It is misery needing company.

It is suffering that needs to be brought to an end by any means necessary.

It is the fear of being pulled back into poverty.

It is the "life" lessons we had to give to one another. At first to foster community and then to foster individual and isolated success.

It is the religion we were forced to adopt and find solitude and spiritual rescue in.

It is the mines we walk into to gather gold for a family we cannot name or even point out in the newspapers.

It is the xenophobia we practice because we feel incredibly inferior to the real enemy.

It is the desperate attempt at generational wealth by selling out ourselves, our people, and the generations we are trying to save.

We are so used to survival that we do not know how to live. And I do not know how to make anyone understand that if they haven't experienced it.

And those are just the problems I know of and can verbalize. This well is infinite and as I wrote in a different post, we can't fix everything and sometimes, it's not for us to fix.

I checked out the comments under the Set the Record Straight video on YouTube, and it had so many white people admiring Vusi's words and claiming to follow him blindly into war if it ever came to that, my questions to Vusi are:

• Why did you feel the need to point out how the Apartheid police would've been better capable at finding Keenen Forbes' killer in the first place?
• Who do you fight for if the white population of South Africa sees you as a leader for them?
• How can they relate to you so much when you have never lived the white experience and do not know it at all?
• How are you serving them while serving the interests of the black majority?

Groups of white people in support of a dark-skinned black man make me uneasy, but I know that I may be wrong in my suspicion. Those questions stand as I am interested in a world where we are just the same people with different skin tones, and nothing more.

One more question: What am I doing about the injustices I witness?

I will have to get back to you on that one. Maybe I will write a letter, or a few letters to the South African Police Service, Department of Health, or Minister of Arts and Cultures. Or maybe something else

Comment below and leave a like to this post.

If you would like to watch Vusi Thembekwayo's video, the link is here.