Tuesday, March 19, 2024
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SOUTH AFRICA UP IN FLAMES: “THE BIRTH OF NEW BLACK APARTHEID MENTALITY”

By Adan Makina

For the past few weeks, some of South Africa’s beautiful cities were up in flames-not because they were attacked by an external invading force-but because irate black South African youths with seditious agendas yet to be deciphered by their state intelligence took up arms against black outsiders who have sought refuge in this economically prosperous country known for exclusive kraals, beautiful sceneries, extensive Velds, unique click languages and rigorous historical struggle against British and Boer minority rule respectively.

SOUTH AFRICA  IMMIGRANT ATTACKS
SOUTH AFRICA IMMIGRANT ATTACKS

Earlier this week, nationals of Malawi, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Nigeria, and Somalia were targeted by angry black youths who felt foreigners were taking up their jobs and business opportunities. Using crude weapons of differing shapes and sizes including machetes, knobkerries (wooden clubs), bottles, hammers and swords, deranged youths poured in to the streets of major cities in droves with the intention of driving out fellow Africans seeking refuge in their country.

Emboldened by dysphoria-a psychiatric condition that denotes to mean extreme dissatisfaction, indifference or emotional unease or perhaps jealousy of seeing fellow Africans excelling in social and economic aspects, marauding South African youth left nothing at their disposal to molest, burn and even kill fellow Africans in search of refuge and economic achievement.

South Africa, a rich and prosperous nation that just came out of the shadows of apartheid has been described as having the highest crime rate in the world. In the meantime, it is not just about crime-it is-as one influential religious figure put it, “the birth of new black apartheid mentality”. Harrowing incidents of innocent migrant victims doused in paraffin and set ablaze and the indiscriminate torching of their businesses kept the world gazing at what triggered such impulsive mayhem in Africa’s only hope and emerging economic power. Within days of the violence, over a dozen people died and thousands sought shelter in churches and in police stations. To better understand the history of South Africa, we need to reflect its past injustices. 

Hendrik Frensch Verwoerd: Architect of Apartheid

South Africa’s ‘architect of apartheid’ was none other than Hendrik Frensch Verwoerd.[1] Born in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, in 1901, he moved with his parents to South Africa at age two. In his childhood, Verwoerd lived in Bulawayo in the former Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) where, in 1913, he was enrolled in the famous Milton High School. In 1917, his family moved to the Orange Free State settling in Brandfort. The devastating Spanish flu epidemic delayed his matriculation exams until 1919.

Hendrik Frensch
Hendrik Frensch, South Africa’s ‘architect of apartheid’

Later on, he attended the University of Stellenbosch where he excelled in class and graduated with honors. A very bright student, Verwoerd completed his master’s degree in 1922 and was conferred on with a doctorate in 1924.   He is credited with writing several works that are still available at the University of Stellenbosch. In 1925, after completion of his doctoral studies, Verwoerd left for Germany where he visited the universities of Hamburg, Berlin, and Leipzig. It was while in Germany that he was joined by his fiancée, Betsie Schoombie, consequently marrying her on the 7th of January, 1927.

Upon returning to South Africa in 1928 with his new wife, Verwoerd became professor of psychology at the University of Stellenbosch while at the same time playing a great role in the re-shaping of the ruling National Party where he became editor of its sole newspaper, Die Transvaler, in 1937.

In 1950, Frederick Malan, who was then Prime Minister, appointed him Minister of Native affairs. Prime Minister Malan’s retirement from politics in 1953 opened a political path for Verwoerd. Following the death of National Party leader J.G. Strijdom in 1958, he was appointed Governor-General. Verwoerd’s predecessors and successors may have died of natural causes but what cut short his life at the mere age of 65 while holding the nation’s Premiership, may be hard to swallow.

On the 6th of September, 1966, after wrapping up a historical political talk with Chief Leabua Jonathan of Lesotho at the Union Building in Pretoria, Verwoerd entered the House of Assembly at 2:15 PM where adera a deranged ‘dark-skinned’ (colored) Assembly Clerk of Mozambican origin, Dimitri Tsafendas, who had instructions from a large worm in his stomach, stabbed Verwoerd four times in the chest only to be pronounced dead upon arrival at Groote Schuur Hospital.

The creation of Apartheid set the stage for the creation of homelands that were like concentration camps that restricted the movement of the black-skinned African regardless of national origin, religious conviction and political affiliation. It was Daniel Francois Malan who hypothesized the Bantu Authorities Act in 1951 resulting in the establishment of “homelands” that constituted 13% of South Africa’s landmass.

Read more: South Africa up in Flames

Adan Makina

Email: [email protected]


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