Need to examine how we’re still affected by apartheid
THE story of Linda Steenkamp, who was transported in a cage on the back of a bakkie, has been occupying my mind to different, but consistently nagging degrees.
It was three weeks ago that the story of Steenkamp hit my orbit and I have to admit I was gobsmacked.
I had to read it a few times in conjunction with people’s subsequent commentary and think pieces around it just to steady my own shock.
One of the articles I read was by Adriaan Basson, who broke down the incident in an empathetic manner by asking, “Would you transport your pregnant sister in a cage?”.
He sought to create resonance by turning the tables around and applying it directly to particularly white readers.
However, the more I thought about it, the more I realised that this question not only applied to white people, but to all South Africans.
On my own social media timeline the silence was so resounding you could hear a pin drop from both white and black people.
I posted a status linking to Basson’s article that read, “White people, why do you need Adriaan Basson to explain why that bakkie/cage incident is abhorrent and racist?
“Why is it normal to you that a black person would be put in a cage?
“Our collective South African psyche is so damaged that each day we reach and accept new lows, we are holding on by a very fragile thread to our humanity. It hurts.”
You see, the commodification and degradation of the black being has been so entrenched in our society that even when an incident so obviously racist happens we still think its moral standing is murky and up for debate.
It does not have to be your family member or friend that you have to imagine being in that cage for you to understand the basic and outright inhumanity of that incident.
It is simple. We do not under any circumstances put human beings, black or not, white or not, in a cage, plain and simple.
That this is up for debate pains me to the core, it is unspeakably reprehensible.
By way of trying to explain and quell the perceived mass hysteria and “hypocrisy”, Professor Jonathan Jansen attempted to dismiss the sorry mess by writing that being transported in the back of a bakkie is a common occurrence in South Africa and that we had no reason to be as incensed as we were.
While blatantly skirting the glaring issue of Steenkamp not only sitting in the back of a bakkie while the front seat was unoccupied, it seemed he saw nothing wrong with a person being put in a cage.
He went on to specify that this “faux” consternation and outrage was hypocritical and that we needed to be careful not to apply progressive urban ideology within rural or small town contexts.
Of course this was in reference to the common practice of transporting workers on the back of trucks, lorries or bakkies.
He reminded South Africans all over the country that they, too, took part in this practice and had no right to challenge bakkie driver Johan Schoeman’s seemingly benevolent deed.
What really irked me about the tone and direction of Jansen’s assertions was that it seemed to me that it sought to silence voices that pointed out the unacceptable nature of the incident.
He sought to normalise the abnormal simply because it still remains the status quo in certain corners of our now democratic country, that black people’s humanity is debatable.
More than being incensed at this kind of thinking, particularly from an esteemed academic, it actually saddened me that the effects of colonial conditioning could play themselves out so evidently and unconsciously.
This is not uncommon and in effect plays itself out in our country to varying degrees from the most unexpected quarters.
There is a currency in protecting proximity to whiteness that affords people privilege that they believe elevates their standing, but also allots them a more enlightened positioning.
What really compelled me to make the statement, “Every day we reach and accept new lows” is that we don’t seem to have drawn a line beyond which we are not willing to go as a country.
Whether it is the corruption within our state and private institutions, the levels of incomprehensible violence we are confronted by daily, or the blatant and sanctioned effects of apartheid, we have little enclaves of spaces where people can get away with violating aspects of the constitution because well, at least they aren’t doing it in our faces or backyards.
It is because we accept that when we drive through the country especially as black people, that there will be areas where we are not allowed to go into/be served/called k ****** .
We accept that in some cities we need to have a white person in tow for us not to meet with physical violence just for being black.
That we need white people to vouch for our humanity for other white people to feel safe around us or deign to treat us with some semblance of dignity.
But is it dignity if it is negotiated and brokered by these white “allies”?
Does it really count if it is not seen as intrinsic, but in fact something to be bestowed and conferred by another white person? Are we participating in our own systematic erasure and violent degradation?
The argument that Steenkamp exercised agency by choosing to get into the back of the bakkie and subsequently the cage is disingenuous, taking into consideration the context of the relationship between farmers and farm workers.
It is a false argument in that it seeks to paint a picture contrary to the reality that farm workers exercise little to no agency and depart from a position of little to no power in regard to their principals.
Also why are we not alarmed that Steenkamp would accept that her place was in a cage?
Surely the natural response would be to seek to understand why a human being would “choose” to be treated as an animal.
Why are we too ready to accept that?
The systematic machinery of colonisation and apartheid is so insidious and insipid that even when you think you are in control of your own actions and thoughts, you’re not.
The damage that has happened to the black psyche is massive, but this extends too to white people.
Psychological conditioning is not easy to erase, particularly conditioning that you are not aware of.
It’s clear enough to deal with physical and crude manifestations of racism.
However, that is only the first layer that was dealt with during South Africa’s liberation.
What we face today is a lot more nuanced and as a result requires a different approach and, dare I say, differently abled combatants.
Generational gaps apply and affect all strata of our society.
It should not be underplayed that each generation has a different, but equally important struggle to wage against oppression.
If we do not depart from a position of understanding that privilege is invisible and does not need to be stated to be exercised, then we are at cross-purposes.
There are still relationships in present day South Africa that need to be examined through a constitutional lens and their legitimacy challenged, in this instance the farmer-farm worker relationship.
I would hope that this incident would spark a closer examination of the challenges our collective South African psyches face and that we not be waylaid by false claims of “free will” in inherently unequal relationships.
The commodification and degradation of the black being has been so entrenched in our society that even when an incident so obviously racist happens we still think its moral standing is murky and up for debate