Dear Seb Stent I have been thinking about responding in length to your missive to me the other week. Ive been through it point by point more than once, and while the historical basis of your argument is one-sided and in some cases factually suspect, it was the panicked tone, the assumption that I was bitter or negative or wanted to chase white people out of South Africa that concerned me most. This is the last impression I want to give, but unfortunately, it seems I have not yet learnt to (or had the desire to) soften my tone in the limited space that is newspaper writing - often the nuance is stripped when we cut down. Hopefully this coming year I will figure out a way to transmit my intentions more precisely. What are those intentions? This quote from Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie kinda sums them up... “The consequence of the single story is this: it robs people of dignity. It makes our recognition of our equal humanity difficult. It emphasises how we are different rather than how we are similar,” she said. “Stories matter. Many stories matter.” Its from the below article, which I agree with in may respects. Im making this point in case you draw from my writing that I am only interested in a single narrative that is anti-white. And finally two historical points: 1: As to the Jan Van Riebeeck story, I suggest you try find yourself a copy of Leslie Witzs Apartheids Festival: Contesting South Africas National Pasts. Here is the summary... Apartheid’s Festival highlights the conflicts and debates that surrounded the 1952 celebration of the 300th anniversary of the landing of Jan Van Riebeeck and the founding of Cape Town, South Africa. Taking place at the height of the apartheid era, the festival was viewed by many as an opportunity for the government to promote its nationalist, separatist agenda in grand fashion. Leslie Witz’s fine-grained examination of newspapers, brochures, pamphlets, and advertising materials reveals the expectations of the festival planners as well as how the festival was engineered, historical figures were reconstructed, and the ANC and other anti-apartheid organizations mounted opposition to it. While laying open the darker motives of the apartheid regime, Witz shows that the production of local history is part of a global process forged by the struggle between colonialism and resistance. Please note this phrase, historical figures were reconstructed 2: Regarding the Mfecane... I suggest you track down a copy of The Mfecane as Alibi: Thoughts on Dithakong and Mbolompo an article by Julian Cobbing, in which Cobbings argument is that the wars and migrations of the period had primarily been caused not by the ravages of Zulu armies but, to put it at its simplest, by the impact of the expansion of the frontiers of European colonial settlement and commerce in southern Africa He also argues that the idea of the mfecane, that is, the idea that these upheavals had been caused by the violent expansion of the Zulu kingdom, was not simply wrong, but, in its origins at least, a deliberate falsification. It was concocted by slaving interests, particularly in the eastern Cape and Natal, to divert attention away from their nefarious activities by pinning the blame for the consequent violence and disorder on a convenient African agent. Again, this phrase, It was concocted by slaving interests. Here is a good summation of the debate around the Mfecane: web.uct.ac.za/depts/sarb/X0033_Wright.html In closing, you took much offence at the fact that I had failed to note, in a very small article that was about another issue entirely, the many nuances of the arrival of the Free Burghers after the advent of the first VOC settlement. That you know, that I know, that most South Africans know this period of history in such detail from high school history classes is precisely why I did not mention it, and precisely why we need to move beyond single stories, which is exactly what that small matter of the menu perpetrates. Remember history is written by the victors - it is this tendency of culture that I believe we should resist. Yours in decolonial love
Posted on: Wed, 24 Dec 2014 08:58:36 +0000