When Coloured South Africans like Jamil Khan go to school, they are educated in the white variety of the language, and taught to believe that it is somehow a better, more prestigious version of the language they grew up speaking at home. To some, the language still cannot shake off its association with the apartheid regime Credit: Getty Images.
Yet as film director Oliver Hermanus explains, the problem goes even deeper than just which language people hear when they go to the cinema. Coloured South Africans have no history of seeing their language, their lives or themselves represented in the media, in theatre or in literature, whereas white people do.
He says even when Coloured culture is represented in the media, it is often done so by white South Africans, and frequently misrepresented, yet goes unchallenged by the Coloured community. Orania is a small yet controversial, exclusively-white settlement of 1, Afrikaners where the language is held on to Credit: Getty Images.
Now, a few years down the line, he gets letters from people saying how they actually understand their gardener and cleaner better now because of reading his column. Most black South Africans do not speak Afrikaans, although many learn it at school. For older generations, the language still symbolises the brutality of apartheid regime and a time they would rather forget.
YouTuber Lasizwe Dambuza recently tried to draw a fresh audience to his channel of over , subscribers by releasing a series of comedy sketches about young black South Africans struggling to learn the language at school. He then launched a series of sketches in which he played a black woman struggling to date a white Afrikaans speaker. Lasizwe, whose first language is Zulu, now plans to branch out into other languages to continue to reach even more South Africans with his channel.
First it was Zulu, then Tswana had its moment, and now everyone wants to speak Xhosa, but I think soon it will come back to Zulu. White South Africans retain the vast majority of wealth and financial influence in the country and are an ethnic minority, making up just 8.
PJ Olivier principal Piet Snyders said he was angry that his school was referred to in the article without an attempt to contact him for comment. He suggested Dippenaar had found a few Afrikaans students who had bad experiences with English students. As such, these are sweeping claims, if not also harmful and irresponsible. Their effect is to dangerously homogenise people into blocs and create stereotype of these blocs. In essence, your journalist sadly perpetuates the very stereotypes that he claims exist at Rhodes, and which, if they do exist, must be cause for concern.
In the conversation with group D, something happened by mistake from my side but it revealed something else. This was the last group I had a conversation with, and they were talking about how black people were so much better in the old days and they were happy with minimal and not like today's black people who just demand. All other groups - A, B and C - invited Jesus in their conversation spontaneously, but for some reason my guard slipped and in group D I said, 'we will get back to that topic again later on when I am going to invite someone into this conversation'.
I assumed they wanted to talk about Jesus like the other three groups. I meant inviting Jesus, but all co-researchers thought I was going to invite a black person. At this stage, many bad things were said about black people, and they thought I was going to expose them in front of a black person. There was a physical reaction in all of them, moving chairs and sitting up straight with big eyes. I immediately realised my mistake and corrected it and apologised to the group for assuming a topic, but I was now curious about the reaction that took place in the room.
I then asked, 'I am curious as to what this reaction that just happened is saying to us? DM: 'I really thought you were going to bring in a black person and I was thinking about all the things we already said up until this point.
I got a big scare and I just realised something … [ pause for a few seconds ] … I am a racist. I talk behind the backs of people and play the game in front of them. I am scared now by realising how much I look down on black people. I thought I was okay, because in public I am okay and do not harm anybody, but in my core I am corrupt and racist'. DF: 'I agree; I now realise this more than I have ever realised it'. DM: 'I agree; I am actually shocked thinking back on what we said'.
DF: 'I feel guilty; I have the guts to say things behind the backs of people but not in front of them'. DF: 'This is as un-Christian as can be'. DF: 'Maybe inviting Jesus into this conversation is not such a bad idea after all. Maybe we are looking just too shallow on our own and need Jesus to help us look deeper into this'. DF: 'Jesus sees more than just a human being'. DM: 'Jesus doesn't see skin colour. I am now thinking of that poem that Bouwer Bosch wrote - Kleurblind [ colour-blind ].
Can I Google it and read it to the group? Researcher: 'You are more than welcome to do so'. DM: 'Here it is … ' [ Afrikaans poem ]. DM: 'So Jesus didn't die on a cross for the colour of your skin. I can't sit here and claim that I am a Christian and a racist. It simply does not resonate'. DF: 'I know you [ Researcher ] apologised for that [ introducing Jesus ], but actually we need to thank you, when D4 was reading I just realised the truth of all that he said.
I think I am racist and I want to do something about this. Yes, we can blame ourselves or we can tackle this issue and create a better world for all'. DM: 'That just blew me away, I don't know what to say now'. Researcher: 'What is the first thing that jumps to your mind? DM: 'This helps me; I got some distance from myself.
Looking at it from another perspective - God's perspective, perhaps. We are actually so well equipped as Christians to deal with these things. Why are we not dealing with this? Jesus guides us and we don't even see it. We just look at ourselves and miss him completely. We just went on and on in this conversation'. DF: 'This conversation made me realise serious things in my own life that need work.
However, I don't actually feel that guilty because forgiveness is what God is all about. I just have this urge now to live out that which I claim to believe - God's love. It is almost as if Jesus touched me now. I actually want to embrace God's love with all people.
That's what Jesus did. It's going to be hard though, but possible'. DF: 'I feel so much more aware now'. DF: 'I am not a racist, but they do still make me angry. I think a little different now'.
DF: 'Some of us whites are actually very stupid, I can't believe I said that of blacks. I want to make a difference but I don't know how. I will sit with Jesus like D4 said and I believe he would guide me in this'. DM: 'I agree; one needs to address this'. The assumption I made during the conversation with group D fortunately turned out to be something real and made all of us realise how objectively, rather than subjectively, we could look at people.
In group D and through an honest mistake, the moment of I-Thou walked in. Similarly to other groups, the co-researchers willingly chose to walk into the I-Thou moment, which meant we were on our way to 'the return' being an I-Thou. Buber's I and Thou present a philosophy of personal dialogue, in that it describes how personal dialogue could define the nature of reality see also, Friedman Buber's major theme is that human existence may be defined by the way in which we engage in dialogue with each other, with the world, and with the God.
If one is to analyse a subject, it is no longer a subject but rather an object. This implies that there is no fluidity between subjects anymore; for example: Mistrust takes it for granted that the other dissembles so that, rather than genuine meeting, conversation becomes a game of unmasking and uncovering unconscious motives.
Buber criticises Marx, Nietzsche and Freud for meeting the other with suspicion and perceiving the truth of the other as mere ideology. In the same sense, as Buber accepted the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade, 'Genuine Dialogue and the Possibilities of Peace', Buber argues that the precondition for peace is dialogue, which in turn rests on trust.
In mistrust, one presupposes that the other is likewise filled with mistrust, leading to a dangerous reserve and lack of candour. We need to understand human existence as a dialogue of fluidity with each other, the world, and with the God.
If we are to understand and analyse the Trinity as three separate entities, for example, we would completely miss the unity and fluidity and dialogue of this subject-to-subject-to-subject.
Many people would refer to God as love. Love, as a relation between I and Thou , is a subject-to-subject relation. In this relation each other's unity of being is perceived. Love is an I-Thou relation in which subjects share this unity of being. Love is also a relation in which I and Thou share a sense of caring, respect, commitment and responsibility.
The I-Thou relation is an ideal relation; the I-It relation is an inescapable relation by which the world is viewed as consisting of knowable objects or things like racism. The I-It relation is the means by which the world is analysed, controlled and described.
However, the I-It relation may become an I-Thou relation, and in the I-Thou relation we can interact with the world in its whole being.
It is possible that we as a diverse people can thus interact within the whole being of each other. The I-Thou relation may have either potential being or actual being. We saw some movement from I-It to I-Thou during conversations with co-researchers in above sections.
The ship was clearly sinking in an ocean of racism backed by traditions of interpretation inherited within the Afrikaner culture. It seemed, however, that before all was lost the awareness of life rafts saved the day and gave us hope for a new life. The fact that we are on life rafts through awareness raises the following question: Whether this is just a 'moment' in the I-Thou that would soon fall back in to what seems to be the default mode of I-It , or is it truly the beginning of an I-Thou 'attitude'?
It is important to differentiate the I-Thou 'attitude', or the dialogical, from the I-Thou 'moment'. The dialogical is not the same as the moment, as the word 'moment' suggests only something briefly that came and went by.
According to Hycner : 'An I-Thou encounter is but one moment, or dimension, of an overall rhythmic dialogical approach encompassing the alternation of I-Thou and I-Thou moments'. This moment, although exceptional in its living experience, could have the effect of an over emphasised or inflated I-Thou experience.
It is especially true if a person makes it a goal to achieve this I-Thou , something that we saw happening after the moment of awareness, the co-researchers wanted to make it a goal to achieve and fix the problem. The irony is that it becomes an I-It encounter.
Buber was very clear on this, as already mentioned, that one cannot just decide to have an I-Thou encounter, one needs to prepare the ground for when it might occur.
The reality is that we can only be as present as we are in an encounter and we cannot enforce this on ourselves nor on any other person to engage in genuine dialogue. This unfortunately is completely outside our control: 'The Thou meet me through grace, it is not found in seeking' Buber Genuine dialogue is mutual. It can't be forced. It can't be held onto. We need to be open to its ebb and flow Buber :. It does not help to sustain you in life, it only helps you to glimpse eternity. The reality of this is that we need to be open to, and want this experience to occur, yet not trying to force it Hycner One needs to get into the life raft, ready to encounter the ocean and wanting to survive, but a life raft can't be controlled like a ship with a rudder.
Perhaps the ocean can take us along, not forcing our way. This could be an option for us to abandon our ships called racism , and perhaps 'grace' can meet us there in the ocean streams. Racism is alive and well in South Africa and does not exclude the so-called 'freeborn'; yes, it needs deconstruction, and this research wants to put a way not the way forward in advancing one step closer in achieving this. Deconstructing racism lies in the efforts of individuals and systems to become bridges to truly connect with 'others' I-Thou.
This should encourage us to physically and mentally leave our comfort zones and find life in the uncertain terrain of otherness where diverse people contribute to each other's humanity I-Thou. On this journey we need awareness and the courage to change some of our de facto beliefs and attitudes. This research indicates that if we sacrifice our 'little will', which is unfree and ruled by things, and drives to our 'great will', we move away from being determined to find destiny.
In essence, this research shows that our greatest enemy in this life is small-selves false-self that we usually think we are. Through Buber's philosophy, this research amounts to an incisive critique of the systemic imbalances and pathologies that run through many of our Afrikaner adolescents, but it also offers the paradigm of a powerful and compelling alternative to us. Perhaps in the final analysis the central question is whether in our way of life where so much draws us further and further into the world of 'It' we can nonetheless find within ourselves the sensitivity to detect the opportunity to enter into a real relationship with each other and then have the courage to actively do so - a question that plays out across our lives both individually and socially.
The author declares that he has no financial or personal relationships that may have inappropriately influenced him in writing this article. The author obtained research ethics approval for the research of his doctoral thesis as described and quoted in this work. The author declares that he observed the ethical standards required in terms of the University of Pretoria's code of ethics for researchers and the policy guidelines for responsible research.
This research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors. Data availability statement. Data sharing is not applicable to this article as no new data were created or analysed in this study.
The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated agency of the author.
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