Meredith on separation

The word ‘separation’ has many different connotations.  Some things in life are supposed to be separated.  Oil and water for instance.  Those two things just don’t mix and they never will.  They aren’t supposed to.  Natural separation though is a completely different concept than forced separation.  These two types of separation might as well be polar opposites because they are so completely different.  While living in South Africa for the past two months we’ve studied separation, seen separation, and experienced separation in a first-hand approach.  Though separation may seem more prevalent here in South Africa, the truth is, there is probably just as much separation in America.  The difference though is that in South Africa, separation is still on the surface making it easier to spot.  Growing up in the bubble that is a quaint New England town, I never really noticed separation being a problem in society.  Equality is still a concept newly on the surface of South Africa so now separation is brought to my mind quickly in almost every situation.  The other night for instance we went out to dinner at a Thai restaurant.  Within five minutes one of my housemates pointed out the fact that there were all white people eating in this restaurant and every single one of the waiters was either classified colored or black.  The reason why this separation is still seen is because the new democratic South Africa is still just a teenager.  Fifteen years old to be exact.  People are still dealing with the transition from apartheid to equality.  This past week we went to the Apartheid Museum in Johannesburg.  The visuals that the museum offered further strengthened my understanding of apartheid along with strengthening my disgust for the word separation.  I can’t even fathom how the overall consensus of white South Africans thought that it was there God-given right to have power over other human beings.  That they were supposed to separate from them as if it was the most natural steps they could possibly take.

        We watched the movie “Color of Freedom” the other night and one scene truly stuck in my mind.  A little girls asks her mother why they have to be separated from the black and classified colored people and the mother responds by saying that it is the natural order of things.  She proceeds to explain, “that we don’t see two different species of animals together.”  This mindset disgusts me.  I don’t understand how one side of the struggle could have felt that this separation was natural, just like oil and water, when the other side clearly felt this separation was completely forced upon them.  How could common, white South Africans believe that this awful separation was completely natural, when on the inside government was doing as much as they possibly could to resist coming together?  With this much resistance, how could this separation be viewed as right?  I just can’t even understand it.  It all started when the National Party came into power in 1948.  The National Party became obsessed with the supremacy of race, classification and separation.  The party started getting so nervous that anyone who did not speak Afrikaans would try to seize power so they literally started doing everything they could to make it unachievable.  In school systems for example government would only allow English to be taught.  By teaching them English it would make it harder for them to adapt to this new language.  So they used language as a tool to weaken everyone who wasn’t white.  Does this sound like natural separation to you?

       How about the fact that if you were a black person in 1959 you had to carry around a passbook, a means for the ownership of power white people held to show complete dominance over South Africa.  With these passbooks, blacks were not allowed to go to specific areas at specific times.  Sure it held power over the black people, but overall the government’s main reason for the passbooks was separation.  The government was so terrified that classified colored and black people would come together and rebel against the government so they weakened them with law after law.  During our trip we went to the Union Building in Pretoria and I remember our Professor Vernon saying how it felt peculiar for him to even be there.  When I asked why he explained that he wasn’t allowed to be there in the past based on the color of his skin.

        Now living in Cape Town, I have noticed that there is clear separation that still exists.  It isn’t just Whites and Non-Whites.  It’s Whites, Blacks, and Classified Colored people.  There are townships that are literally three minutes away from each other but that would never associate with one another based on the language barrier that they face.  Walking around Cape Town, it really shows how in the past the government did a relatively good job forcing separation based on the divide that is still clearly shown today.

            Separation is such an interesting concept that comes in so many different shapes and sizes.  It can engulf a country, or it can affect a single person.  When I was at a market in Johannesburg, I was haggling with a man for a beaded figurine and we got to talk about life.  He asked me how long I’ve been in South Africa and I explained that I’ve been here for about two and a half months.  He asked if I missed my family and friends and I explained that I missed them all incredibly but I still have a means of communication with them so it’s manageable.  He then asked how I would feel if I couldn’t see them for six years. He went on to explain that his family and his sweetheart live in Kenya and he hasn’t seen them in six years.  I can’t even imagine that kind of separation without any form of contact with my loved ones.  Though he would rather be in Kenya where he belongs, he made Johannesburg his temporary home so he could raise support for his family.  His love for them exceeds the notion of separation.  I thought that was really admirable and on a positive note, he went on to tell me how he was traveling back in January and how excited he was to see them.