ACADEMIC BOOK ON APARTHEID PTSD
AN ACADEMIC from the Cape Flats has published a book about violence and trauma which also puts the spotlight on slavery, racism, oppression and forced removals.
In her book, Disrupting Denial,
Sarah Malotane-Henkeman argues that slavery, racism and forced removals led to the trauma communities are experiencing today.
Henkeman is an academic who grew up in Heideveld and Manenberg.
In the book, contributors talk about the violence and trauma they experienced. The stories range from experiences and memories of subtle and explicit racism, institutional racism and forced removals.
The book is also about “posttraumatic slave syndrome”.
“Post-traumatic slave syndrome exists when a population has experienced multi-generational trauma resulting from centuries of slavery and continues to experience oppression and institutionalised racism today, as defined by Dr Joy de Gruy, an AfricanAmerican scholar. In South Africa we suffered under colonialism, slavery, apartheid and uninterrupted economic inequality,” she said.
Irvin Kinnes, a criminologist, said at the launch: “I grew up in a household of 13 children. She (my mother) protected us against violence and taught us to pray in the face of danger. And not to tolerate injustice. She was a remarkable and strong woman who cooked for 13 children every day. We lifted ourselves out of our circumstances because of her great spirit.”
Abeedah Adams, a community worker on the Cape Flats, tells her story about water and dignity. She says her mom grew up close to the Newlands spring. She remembers the stories her grandmother told her about their profession as washer women.
“They would take bundles of washing and wash it in the streams running through Newlands. They were moved to Lansdowne and surrounding areas in the 1950s. My mother still maintains this was the first forced removals. My grandmother, like many others, ended up renting a council cottage in Hanover Park during the late 1960s. There were no natural springs in Lansdowne. They had to walk long distances to get water.”
She said her water was once disconnected.
“Three generations later, we still have the same struggle for water and dignity. Without water, we cannot have dignity, we cannot have justice.”
At the launch of the book, Trauma Centre director Valdi van Reenen-le Roux said in the context of gangsterism on the Cape Flats, generations of boys had been exposed to it.
“During apartheid our mothers also endured a lot of trauma, but there is a denial of it. This book has taken us out of the denial we are in regarding the trauma and violence we suffered.
“You can no longer look at violence in its physical form. But you also get femicide, where women and children are killed almost daily.”
Three generations later, we still have the same struggle... without water, we cannot have dignity. Abeedah Adams Community worker