South Africa a Dis United Country

A country described in its laws as diverse and democratic. Surrounded by a past that seems to linger on and an interchange of characters brought on by fear of what had been. If you have lived in this country as long as I have, 22 years. Then you were born in a country where freedom was not a teaching but a privilege. I was born a month after Nelson Mandela was released from prison. Throughout my life I was reminded of this and that made me more grateful. However, it seems the more we as a country try to get away from the oppressive past the more we seem to get back into it and once again I say interchange of character. Today it is not the black people that are in fear of being oppressed but rather black people are doing whatever it takes to not get back into that brutal past. With false accusations and whenever there is a black and a white person caught in a disagreement it ends up being ‘racism’.

I remember from my History class in grade 4 our teacher always told us that the people who fought for freedom did not fight for any race to have an upper hand. The purpose of the fight for freedom was to give everyone regardless of race or gender an equal chance at life. Whether being a job or using a certain store or bus, or even expressing yourself to whomever you choose to date that is what the people who fought freedom were going for. It is also important to know that although black people were the most oppressed they were not the only ones who fought for the right to freedom. Indians, Coloureds and White people fought alongside other Black people for equal rights. Without this knowledge most people go around thinking that only black people were brutalised and so today it’s their chance to avenge and make sure that their future children do not go through that oppression. But really, what are the chances?

Are we reacting with fear of white people oppressing us because we are told to? Are white people pushed to think disgustingly of blacks because they are told to? These questioned are referred to the youth of today. If you are born between the years 1985 and 1994, can read, can write, have heard of apartheid are Black, White, Indian, Coloured or any other colour, live in South Africa and are able to make your own decisions please refer to the questions and ask yourself this if your are Black Indian or Coloured ‘Am I reacting with fear of white people oppressing me because I am told to?’ and to the While youth ‘Do I act disgustingly towards Black people because I am told to?’ I bet you the answer is yes in both instances. What if the History that we are forced to learn so much has put us in a position where we cannot get away from this oppressive past? Instead of it teaching us how to appreciate one another it makes us sit and wonder if that nerve won’t click in a Black or White persons mind and suddenly it’s back to apartheid.

Honestly I do not want my children to know of this, especially with what knowing about apartheid has done to me. I do not vote because I do not want to be put in position where I am basically being asked to choose between Black and White. You vote ANC you supporting Black people, you vote DA you supporting white people. There is no consideration as to what either party can do. It is as if we are living in limbo. I do not only speak for myself but also for the youth that consider logic above fear. Apartheid was or is not our war. It is being dragged into our future and soon it will influence our children’s futures. We need to take a stand and start building our own history. Filled with unity and peace; driven by intellect and logic or we will be remembered as a generation of fear