It is surprising that the whites in South African are the ones who are mostly talking about forgetting the past and moving forward in order to rebuild the country. They are forgetting that the past shapes the future, if one forgets the past he is unlikely to be succeed in the future because he will repeat the mistakes of the past. It’s true that no one can change the past even God cannot change the past, but we can learn from the past and go forward and we can also rectify the mistakes of the past in order to be able to move forward. Black people were the victims of the very same past which the white people say must be forgotten, obviously it’s easy for them to say let’s forget the past because they were the beneficiaries of that past and are still benefiting even now. But it’s not easy for the victims to forget the past, especially if that past is still causing pain in their lives. And the white man is still enjoying the fruits of what he did to the victims and he is not even willing to share what he took by force from the victim. Apartheid beneficiaries have not even shown remorse for what they did, they emphasize that we must move forward and forget the past – how can we move on as a nation while black people are still in pain? It’s easy for the white man to say let’s move on because they are not in pain, but enjoying still the fruits of apartheid. I doubt that if it was the white people who were the victims of apartheid, having suffered in the very same way black people have suffered and still suffering that they would be talking about forgetting the past.
Black people were the big losers in the era of apartheid and in fact they lost almost everything like land, life, language, culture, religion, dignity, wealth, livestock, seed, homes, values, laws, holidays, ceremonies, calendar, food, medication, education and marriages; in fact everything about a black man was destroyed by the colonial powers. All the things that were stolen from the black men are still in the hands of the colonial powers, the only thing that a black man has been given is the right to vote every five years while remaining poor, landless and homeless. Black men are expected to move forward with their pain and forget all the things that were stolen by the imperialist, while the whites are expected to move forward whilst enjoying the fruits of what they have done to black people. The imperialists want to keep on enjoying the things that they stole from black people and that is what the white men called true reconciliation. It is easy for someone who has killed your parents to say let’s forget the past and look forward to the future, while he himself is still living with the warmth of his parents. Most criminals expect to be easily forgiven without restoring what was stolen from you. If a criminal that has hijacked your car, which you were using to generate income, comes and admits that he hijacked you and then says to you “forget the past” and does not give you back your car. Would it be easy for you to forget the past, while seeing that criminal enjoying your car and making money out of your car? While you are suffering with your children? I know that there are black people who are also saying the same thing, especially the so called clever blacks (stupid) – “The first black to have done this and that” together with those who have become white monopoly capital caretakers (the politicians).
This is the reason most of the white people are saying let’s forget the past and look forward to the future because they have benefited greatly from the past and even today they are still enjoying the fruits of that past, yet black people are still suffering from what happened in the past. White people in South Africa are owning almost 80% of the land yet they are the minority, the majority which is black people are landless and homeless staying in shacks and in places which are not suitable for human occupation. If the white people were the ones who were the victims in their own land like the black people are, they would be the ones today who are speaking about taking the land without compensation. After all if someone hijacks and steals my car then I do not have to compensate that person to get my car back. Otherwise that would be a way of promoting crime, that could lead to criminals hijacking us and saying they must be compensated in order to get back our cars. That would be complete madness, the hijacker can’t be compensated even if he upgraded the stolen car.
It is the same with land, even if they have developed that stolen land that does not mean they must be compensated. If white South Africans were realistic about true reconciliation; they would first restore what they have stolen from black people and admit that they were wrong when they stole from black people. Compensating people who have stolen from others would be the promotion of crime, because in the future other people can also invade other countries and steal their land then demand compensation after. Black people are considered an inferior race even today because they are poor as a result of colonial powers. They are still being segregated in many ways; when you travels around Soweto you will find black people utilizing any vacant land to produce food for themselves, they even go to schools to ask for a piece of land to plant vegetables; that shows that there are black people who are in need of land. In conclusion, we will continue hearing white people talking about forgetting the past and building a rainbow nation without them compensating the damages that they have caused in the past because they have benefited a lot with that past, they are where they are because of that past. Even if this generation tries to forget the past, the wounds of the past will continue swelling and paining them until they confront the past in order to rectify the future.
The are those traitors and sell-outs among black people who are also singing the same song of injustice, that’s why some of them like Mandela are worshiped by the whites because they conspired with the whites for injustice to black people. Today most of those black people are the ones who have turned Dingane`s day to be a day of reconciliation just to please their masters whilst destroying history.
Those Africans who like to talk about reconciliation between black and white people are living in the land of fairy-tales where people live happily ever after. Europeans have been living in Africa for over 400 years, most are born here but have never shown an interest in living in harmony with Africans. Most of them cannot even speak a single African word or even greet in our languages – they hate our language, our culture and also hate us. They want us to transform and do what they want. We have forsaken our languages, our culture, our spirituality, our education and our Monarchs and follow their democracy yet they still hate us with passion. They came here not to live in harmony with us but to kill, rape, enslave, dehumanise and steal our land and wealth. After they had destroyed us physically and spiritually they took our resources and made us poor, then they gave us democracy and right to vote. Even today black people are fighting one another just for the meatless bone which is democracy. In that democracy they are the ones who vote for the leaders who have already been endorsed by white monopoly capital who spends billions investing for those puppets to be elected. Poor people have no choice they vote for whomever the the media has channeled them to vote for. This thing of saying democracy is the government of the people by the people it’s just a fairy-tale. At the end even the government of South Africa is for the rich chosen by the rich for the rich. If democracy was good for us they were not going to give it to usus. Just like Christianity, if it was good for us they were not going to give it to Africans but they were going to keep it for themselves, same as their education if it was going to liberate us they were not going to give us. Those who think we can live in harmony and reconcile with Europeans need to go for mental check-ups, most of the whites hate us and there are those who tolerate us and pretend as if they love us. Blackman you are on your own. Today black people in South Africa are celebrating the so called day of reconciliation which in fact it is Dingane’s day, but those who want to change history have called it the day of reconciliation. Indeed a bird that was born in a cage will think living in a cage is normal, and could even celebrate it. A bird born in a cage thinks flying is madness. SIYINDUNA MAPOPO RAMPANE…NDAUWE
