South Africa: Book
Portrays the Dynamics of the Transformation Process
by Annette Walker
"I am optimistic about the future of
South Africa," said journalist and author Donna Bryson.
As an Associated Press reporter based in South
Africa on two occasions, she has witnessed that nation emerge from the
brutality of the apartheid system to governance by peaceful elections.
She was there in 1994 for the historic campaign, election and
inauguration of Nelson Mandela as that nation's first African president.
Since then the transfer of power to his
successors (Thabo Mbeki and Jacob Zuma) has occurred through democratic
elections.
"The period from 1993-1997 when I was
there was one of euphoria and hope," said Bryson. "The need to
respond to voting was tremendous and even today the voter turnout is still
good," she continued.
When she returned in 2008 South Africa was
engaged in working out the complexities of the transition process. There
had been much progress. Some manifestations are symbolic, such as naming
the airport in Johannesburg for Oliver Tambo, the renowned leader of the
African National Congress (ANC) and lifelong friend of Nelson Mandela.
There are also concrete manifestations.
"When I arrived in 1993 the customs and immigration staff at the
airport was all-white. Now they are primarily black South African," said
Bryson.
However, in 2008 South Africa was attempting
to recover from a negative incident at the University of the Free State (UFS)
in the central section of South Africa. It is also the heartland of the
people known as Afrikaners who established South Africa's apartheid system of
separation of the races Their language is Afrikaans, not English, and which,
until recently, was used exclusively at the University of the Free State.
The Afrikaners are descendants of the Dutch who began settling in South
Africa in the 17th century.
In 2007 four white students opposed to campus
integration produced a video in which they harassed the Black janitorial staff.
Known as the Reitz video, it was posted on YouTube and went viral. The university, the province and the nation
was shocked and embarrassed since this incident challenged the idea that
progress in race relations was taking place in South Africa.
Upon initiating routine journalistic
investigations, Bryson discovered that race relations in South Africa were
complex, and she was driven to engage in more profound analysis.
"I had the privilege of engaging in many
long talks with people of all ethnic groups who cared deeply about their
university and their country, and who believe that change is a challenge to
which they are equal," she continued."
Bryson also contends that the subject of race
relations is often discussed in easy cliches, and that everyone most guard
against backsliding into suspicion, fear or stereotypes.
She conducted numerous interviews with
students, faculty and other individuals in the Free State province.
Bryson disagrees that race relations in the
Free State and its university are the worst in the nation. "Like the
rest of the country, UFS and the Free State province are attempting to
transform to become a place where blacks and whites live and learn
together," she said. "It is a microcosm of what was happening
in the rest of the country."
Her extensive interviews allowed her to
juxtapose two realities present in South Africa: 1) The action of the
four students represented a desperate attempt to cling to the past of white
superiority and black subjugation; 2) Actions of other students and faculty
represent a commitment to creating a multi-cultural, multi-racial educational
institution.
Her book It's a Black-White Thing, consists
of stories of the transformation process taking place at UFS. There are
white students who refuse to speak Afrikaans because of their concern that
black students will feel excluded.
Other white students are learning Sotho, an
indigenous South African language, to be able to communicate with some Black
students. South Africa has 11 official languages.
Bryson emphasizes the crucial importance of
the black and white leadership at UFS and documents the programs, policies and
changes they initiated. Equally important, she shares aspects of their
personal stories that impact the challenges of creating a new South Africa.
She recounts a former white rector's response
to the Reitz video crisis. He realized that the ghosts of apartheid were
present on the campus as well as the nation. "Transformation never
stops," he told Bryson. "It goes on and on."
South African still has major problems, many
of them economic in nature. The wealth gap between blacks and whites
remains.
Bryson, however, believes in that South
Africans have the capacity to ". .be imaginative in finding
solutions for the future" and that the nation possesses ". .a sense
of the possibility of reinvention and determination to turn history of hate and
racism into fuel to empower those committed to change."
(This
article originally appeared in the January 2017 issue of the Denver Urban
Spectrum)
