Comments on: Yesterday, a short-lived war broke out between the US and SA

By: thuli

thuli — Tue, 28 Jun 2011 14:27:31 +0000

It took me two years to read all the comments hence my late response in 2011 LOL. Fergie needs prayer ) But two years have passed and I hope that she has been enlightened. Civilisation started with the Greeks? What about the Egyptians? Ethiopians? Somalians? Or is it simply that her highly regarded intellectuals refrained from writing this? And what is your obsession with being defined? Why must we be defined? I guess the misunderstanding we have is that Black South Africans were not uprooted from their ancestral line therefore we know who we are… Ask me who I am and I have “izithakazelo” ready for your ears. Our ancestral line existed before the Greeks (who influenced civilisation as YOU know it, not as I know it)therefore any influence they may have had on civilisation cannot define who I am. I do not need a social science (oxymoron) study to tell me who I am but I do appreciate and understand why you (Black/African Americans) need it. And I empathise. I truly do. @ Khaya, great read, great article

By: brandon

brandon — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 05:17:09 +0000

At least you made me laugh Khaya —”sometimes we have to get a little uncomfortable with each other”

Yeah – just ask our foreign South African refugees how uncomfortable it has to get! Images of burning human beings spring to mind!

By: Fergie

Fergie — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 02:36:38 +0000

@Mundundu, you got that wrong, up until 1865 it was illegal to teach a black man how to read and write in most places in the Southern part of the US. These black schools were not built until after the end of slavery. Most blacks in the US were extremely poor and live on farms as sharecroppers. The blacks that had any economical status were children of white fathers and black mothers. Many of these white with money gave land to these black women and they were able to make a living. Many of them sent their children to other states to be educated. However, many dark skin black through their church were able to go to school. The black church played a very important role in uplifting blacks in the US. Paul Robeson, Richard Wright and Mary Bethune were all dark skin blacks. The KKK treated dark skin blacks and light skin blacks the same way and they both join forces to fight racism. In SA the apartheid government were able to divide the dark and light skin and rule both of them. I founder of the ANC came to the US was with Du Bois who founded the NAACP. Sol Plaatje went back to SA and founded the ANC. I think you should read Du Bois “Soul of the black folk”

By: mundundu

mundundu — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 15:58:26 +0000

um, fergie?

god, the “black intellectuals” viz 1850-1930 in the united states believed that you needed to have either known to visible white ancestry to be part of the intelligentsia.

[have you ever seen a picture of homer plessy, of plessy v ferguson? how about the first black president of howard university, mordecai johnson? ... or how about most of the students at black universities in the united states until the 1960s? there's a reason that the "first" black students at the flagship southern universities were all dark -- they really were neither wanted nor welcome at the historically black institutions.]

but anyway, keep thinking what you want to think.

By: Fergie

Fergie — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 19:01:56 +0000

@Garg,Sol would not agree to the self hate that is being practiced in SA today. Speaking of hate by some of these comments about blacks in the US, a lot of people don’t know about the link of the ANC and the NAACP that exist in the US. Plaatji came to the US and was with Du Bois in London at the ant-colonial movement. Garg, I would like to thank you for this information however, the SA writers should be telling the young people about this link. This way these people can learn about the soul of the black folks.

By: Garg

Garg — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 10:17:45 +0000

@Fergjie “The black intellectuals in SA have not contributed very much in defining the black population in SA like the black intellectuals did in the US”

I don’t think that Sol Plaatje would agree.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sol_Plaatje

By: Ducci

Ducci — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 14:50:46 +0000

Dang! I thought people were over this, goodness. Didn’t this happen like a WEEK ago? People get over it! Now I’m sure Black Americans like to watch Boondocks? That show is all about Afro_American stereotypes, put into satire and it works. Now let’s just think it was an episode out of boondocks and we’ll be kewl.

By: Fergie

Fergie — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 09:00:25 +0000

@MuAfrika, most experts all agreed that the start of western civilization started with the Greeks. There was other civilizations but, the Greeks were the one that impact Europe. As far as Western civilization is concern with Africa, it was the west that brought black Africa out of it geographical isolation and change them for ever. When you reject something you have to have something better and right now that not the case. There was a lot of good, bad and ugly coming out of western civilization that they gave the world. Japan took from Western civilization things that could help their society and built an industrial country,on the other hand,the Chinese refused to do so and paid a heavy price from the Japanese. Now China is playing catch up for things they didn’t do in the nineteen century. The educated class of people are the ones that create Europe and the US and without them these societies couldn’t function. The learned people create the internet not the people hanging out on the block.
by the way did you read about Imperial Japan before world War Two?

By: Garg

Garg — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 11:21:36 +0000

Social scientist. There’s a contradiction in terms.

By: MuAfrika

MuAfrika — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 14:40:16 +0000

@Fergie I beg to differ, the Greek did not single-handedly start civilisation-lets just say when they combined what they found in Egypt with what they already had, they became powerful enough to assert in the pages of history their accomplishment as ‘The’ begining of Eruopean civilisation. Sadly my only interest in them goes as only as far as Wolfgang’s Troy or Howard’s Gladiator-anything else is based on who is telling the story – the case of who had the most advanced civilisation again belongs to academics-I am a worker.
You second example of the internet serves to illustrate my point. We need people who get up and do – The internet is a result of active participation not scholary engagement – even Ted Nelson is reported to have ‘used his experience as a filmmaker to model hypertext’ so again thats what am saying defines a people ACTION NOT THE OBSERVATION AND THE STUDY OF ACTION.

The biggest problem we have in this country is people thinking that education opens door- no it does not. It is meant to assist your God given talent and passion-it is meant to turn your talent into a skill. Society fails because of excactly what you are arguing for, which is putting the elite in charge of societys destiny -If the elite had it their way the internet would remain the military tool of communication!!!
Malema is a necessary voice in our development, just as Mokaba was. We need people like him.