A while ago I was speaking to an African-American friend who was visiting South Africa. He told me that he found it strange that when he is in the United States, he is considered an African-American, but when he is in Africa, he is only an American.
I thought about this comment last week when I presented a lecture to journalism students at Stellenbosch University and one of the students asked me why only certain people could be called “Africans” in South Africa when all of us are Africans and should be allowed to use that title.
I must admit I used an expletive in my response, because the racial categorisation of South African society is driving me crazy, to put it mildly.
I had to agree with the student that the term “African”, as we use it in South Africa, is really confusing, especially to non-South Africans and more especially to people from other African countries.
I have been fortunate to interact with many people on the continent in the past few months and I still don’t know how to explain our racial categories or identities to them.
“So, you mean the term African refers to people who were born in South Africa and who would normally be called black. However, you can’t call them black because legally blacks include coloureds and Indians and now even Chinese? So how do you guys refer to us, people who come from other African countries?” is a response I’ve had a couple of times.
Of course, I had to tell them that some people refer to people from other African countries by the derogatory term “amakwerekwere” but then I also said we sometimes use the term “Africans from other African countries” or “foreign African”. And sometimes we refer to people who would normally be considered black by the term “African black” or “black African”. In the same way we sometimes refer to other people as “coloured black” or “Indian black”.
The term “African” is one that should be urgently reviewed by government or whoever reviews these things. All people born on the African continent can legitimately call themselves Africans, no matter what their colour or complexion.
Maybe there is a need for a commission or a national discussion on how we define our national identities.
Of course, the term “Indian” could also be problematic. How can you attach a foreign national identity to people who have lived in South Africa for generations? Surely, when South Africans of Indian descent visit India, they probably also encounter what my African-American friend discovered: that in India, they are considered to be South Africans.
In fact, I have been amazed when I travel overseas and we are all just considered to be South Africans, because that is where we come from. However, as soon as we return home, we again attach our various identities. So then we become African or African black or black African, coloured or so-called coloured, Indian, Chinese (or black), white or in the minds of some people who would like to perpetuate apartheid, European.
We disintegrate into Xhosas and Zulus, Tswanas and Pedis, Vendas or Sothos. We become Tamils or Hindus, Muslims or Christians or Jews. I am not saying that there is something wrong with all these multiple identities but when we use our identities as a weapon against others, as we tend to do in South Africa, then I think there is a problem.
Apparently, in Namibia, they deal with this issue by saying someone is a Herero-speaking Namibian or a Nama-speaking Namibian. Ultimately, I believe that we need to move to a situation where racial categories no longer apply in South Africa and all of us just become South Africans.
Of course, what then happens to the redress and the reparations that have to happen in our society? That still needs to happen but is essentially a separate issue.
I sincerely believe if we create an environment in which we acknowledge each other as South Africans and not by strange racial categories, we might be able to unite our nation in an unprecedented manner and develop a sense of patriotism that is sorely lacking throughout society.
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65 Responses to “In search of a South African identity”
I’m a member of several research panels based in the USA and we communicate mostly online. This situation has become so bad that even the categorisations of Hispanic are now broken down into eight sub-categories, there are 14 for Christian, eight for sexual orientation, six for Native American and the toxic term you began your blog with, Ryland, “African American” has become so loaded it has lost meaning. Then don’t even go near age, dietary preferences or current work status. It’s all making something of mockery if not an exercise in futile fragmentation to conduct surveys and research along conventional lines.
Can you imagine what your business card would look like if you had to be specific in defining yourself?
“Balck Americans” should decide whether they are Africans or Americans, they can’t be both. Likewise “white” South Africans must decide if they are African/South African or European - ditto they can’t be both.
Do not, repeat do not leave it up to the politicians to do the deciding.
Well said! I’ve always considered myself to be South African and have no need for any other ‘classification’. I find the the desire by some whites to be called ‘African’ a bit tiresome. There is nothing is wrong with being (just) a South African? This is my identify (with no qualification) and I think we should all be doing much more to foster a national South African consciousness. Mandela made a start in the mid-1990s (perhaps all dewy eyed we thought it was all done forgetting that this is a generational project), but lost ground during the Mbeki years.
Bill Cosby feels strongly that there are no African Americans, only Americans. No Chinese Americans, Indian Americans, Italian Americans, only Americans.
In England there are no English Pakistanis, English Poles, only Englishmen.
Or we could just drop race as a concept and move on from all this BS once and for all? Imagine that. No categories at all. Outlaw the lot of them. Just men and women and even those we could look into sincethat no longer matters either except medically and there are inbetween versions too.
In a lighter vein, it reminds me of that Obama joke.
An African American on holiday in Kenya is having a political discussion with a Kenyan colleague.
The American tells the colleague how happy he is that Obama was voted president and that he was particularly happy that at last the USA have their first black president. He feels sure that the Kenyan colleague can relate to this but speculates about how things could have been similar had Obama grown up in Kenya. No doubt such a great man would have become president of Kenya. But he is flabbergasted when the Kenyan colleague agrees that the circumstances would have been simular in many ways, not least because Kenya would have had their first white president.
You are only African when you are of African roots. That is, when your roots cannot be traced to any other part of the world outside Africa. For me, South Africans of Indian origin are Indians (as we call them), South Africans of Chinese origin are Chinese, South Africans of European origin are European (although we prefer calling them only as whites), etc, etc.
Thank you for a very thoughtful column, Ryland. You’ve hit on something - African-Americans are not regarded as African on the continent because they have lived for so many generations in the USA. Overseas, they don’t call me a European, but a South African, because I was born here of people who were born here - how can I be anything other than South African?
Recently, I read some research done in Asia which showed that ‘ethnicity is language’ - people who were virtually indistinguishable on the score of DNA yet divided up into clear groups on the basis of language. This is not the sole factor governing ethnicity, of course - there’s culture, religion and so on. But TV shows like Where Do You Come From? (is that right?) show that people who have very clear senses of ethnicity - a man who sees himself as Xhosa, for instance - can be something quite other when you dig - eg, the Xhosa man turns out to be a mixture of San, Malay, German and a dash of Xhosa. How come he identifies as Xhosa, then? Because he grew up speaking that language in that culture.
If we are ever to get past the race identifiers that do such cruel things, we need to rethink the words and labels we use very seriously.
I think you should consider that this issue lies in how people live their lives and the practices and symbols they use to give their lives value not just where they were born or live…For example:
Look in Cape Town, basically the entire city centre and most surrounds might make a visitor to the country wonder why this looks so ‘unafrican’ and in certain cases so similar to their home country? (presuming they are from affluent western nations).Why are there so many boutiques and trendy little coffee shops?..Why so many cocktail lounges with gorgeous sunset drinks?…I don’t believe it is inaccurate to say this stems from a desire amongst some people to try and create something ‘unafrican’ in ‘africa’ (for which ever reason)…So sure we could apply the term ‘african’ to these people becoz they are born and live on this continent, however if their lifestyle tries to negate most ‘african’ things (if there ares such things) should they still then be included in the term ‘african’?
It would seem as though ‘african’ is a valuable tag and indeed makes those who are considered ‘african’ to feel quite included…however its more than just where you were born and live..its about your lifestyle, the customs and practices that give your life meaning, its about the language you use etc…
These are all terms of reference, the problem emanates from what individuals attach to these terms of reference. in the USA calling Black is derogatory but Coloured is acceptable, it is not the word Black that is problematic but the association it receives drawing from history and other sorces. Attitudes must change, words are merely that, words.
I sometimes wonder why an identification has got to be racial firstly and why we allow ourselves to be confused by meaningless descriptions. Who holds the monopoly on the description of an identity and why should we not challenged it through a simple argument. You are african because you come from and african continent. You are south african because that is the origin of your NATIONALITY. One of the founding provisions of our constitution is non-racialism and non-sexism. I find no contradiction in that. Hence when we continue to falsely argue for a racial identity we are in fact challenging our constitution. The other problem is that ANC has used the blacks in general and African in particular when discussing redress. That is a direct contradiction to the constitution but can it be argued that it a a fundamental acceptable contradiction. Such as the argument of fair vs unfair discrimination. My conclusion is that we are simply reluctant to relinquish a description of human beings along racial lines. We are failing to disabuse ourselves from talking in racial terms. We are after all the custodians of our constitution. Hence it begs the questions; Why are we not defending our constitution as vigorously as we literally became the policemen of an apartheid state?
I agree with Greg, white, black, Indian and whatever else South Africans are South African no more and no less than the other. African doesn’t necessairly refer to South Africaness, why are these terms used as if it means the same thing?
There is also to me an element of cruelty in saying people of African descent in America or people from the Carribean and in Europe must decide whether they are one or the other, most of them have a history of being forcibly shipped out of Africa, they lost a connection to much of their history and heritage not by choice, is it so wrong for them to feel they have a connection to Africa and they continue to acknowledge that heritage even though their nationality is 100% USA, Brazillian or whatever?
This is by far the best, most well thought out and expressed TL blog of the moment. Thanks for raising the bar, Ryland. It was in desperate need of some raising.
During the struggle against apartheid, principles such as democracy and justice were bandied about.But now most erstwhile liberationists have stepped onto the slippery slope of identity politics, and it’s a race to the bottom. Pun intended.
It is still appropriate to address racial issues, but in terms of the different historical experiences which have shaped those categories, not in terms of their supposed essences.
Hogwash, this is all just smoke screen. This is just a plan to elimanate Affirmative Action. I’m all for unity, but we shouldn’t be afraid of our diversity with black people, there are Africans, Indians and Coloureds. An African is a person of African descent or a person born in Africa, there’s no confusion here all words are contextual anyway.
I agree that we should all be South African, however I disagree that anyone born in Africa is an African. I am black African, if I emigrate now to Asia/Europe/South America, my great grandchildren will not be Asian/European/American.
“African” is a racial/cultural identity, not a geographical one.
The issue of Africannes or otherwise, has to do with peoples origin - in anthroplogical sense. The world over people of a darker skin are of African ancestry. Wherever they find themselves in the world that is how their origin is ‘determined’.
Being a South African is something different. For it has its meaning in citizenship. That applies to all the peoples of the world. American because u r citizen of America, Korean Beacuase ur a citizen of Korea, Spaniard because u r a citizen of Spain.
Citizenship goes with allegience. There should be no problem identifying themselves as South Africans as it should not be for Zambian, Gongolese, Kenyans etc.
@Malusi: On what do you base your statement that your descendants will not be integrated wherever you emigrate? While it’s true that there is racism in Britain, most people there accept that there are now Asian-descended and Caribbean-descended British, and people of those backgrounds see themselves as British; they are interbreeding freely with other British. And this in less than the 3 generations you suggest.
It was interesting that the notable Africanist Thabo Mbeki was happy to trumpet that Mark Shuttleworth was the first African in space.
Racial categories are used pervasively in the US mainly to take advantage of the laws and social programs to uplift disadvantaged communities. Just like Obama identifies himself as African-American, so do numerous other racial groups that from the “melting pots” across the world. Piet Opperman is called Caucasian, because as a white South African American he is not discriminated against to the same extent as Barack Hussein Obama is. This my friend is a sad fact. Its changing slowly and even though the US elected its first black president it still has a way to go in eradicating the side-effects of many generations of racism in America.
Many SA whites have developed a bad case of amnesia and now want to do away with racial categories simply because they oppose AA for selfish reasons. This is the same dispicable tactic used by the US neo-cons to oppose AA in the US - Llewellyn Kriel spouts the same garbage. Its impossible to overcome centuries of white supremacy within a few generations. When the cancer of racism disappears, so too will racial categories naturally disappear. Here in SA however, we have a long way to go in enforcing AA to uplift blacks (Africans, Coloreds, Indians …) who suffered discrimination for centuries of white AA. Its that simple brother!
@Mphatjie - You say that only people with African roots can be called Africans. Well, herein lies the dilemma - ALL of our roots are from Africa - every single person on earth. I am of African descent. and more recently (about 400 years ago) my family returned here. So I have as much claim as any black reader in this forum to my roots being from Africa.
Our common ancestors are probably turning in their graves at the divisions you are trying to justify.
C’mon people, let’s be realistic. In an idea world yes we can drop that asap and scrap all these AA, BEE, land redistribution, racial clissification and just start cross breading and live happily ever after.
[…] Thought Leader » Ryland Fisher » In search of a South African identity www.thoughtleader.co.za/rylandfisher/2009/10/06/in-search-of-a-south-african-identity – view page – cached A while ago I was speaking to an African-American friend who was visiting South Africa. He told me that he found it strange that when he is in the United States, he is considered an African-American,… (Read more)A while ago I was speaking to an African-American friend who was visiting South Africa. He told me that he found it strange that when he is in the United States, he is considered an African-American, but when he is in Africa, he is only an American. (Read less) — From the page […]
People have multiple influences or aspects to their identity.
You can for instance be a white South African, that listens to reggae music, practices Buddhism and subscribe to liberal politics.
You yourself determine the saliency of your multiple identities and these can all play out differently depending on the context. Your liberal identity taking over in a political discussion or your south african identity when travelling abroad.
However, identity is inherently relational - one defines oneself, our groups define themselves, in part by who belongs and, as important, by who does not belong.
Because of group dynamics and the nature of social interaction others will often define you according to their own expectations, perceptions and frameworks.
You might for instance be perceived as an African when representing South Africa at a UN meeting and as South African within the African delegation. You might consider yourself African but some black South Africans will see you as white/European. You yourself might see yourself as Western and African in terms of cultural and geographical identity.
I personally just see myself as an individual with elements of many group/social identities (many which I just partly conform to - for instance Afrikaner in terms of language but not NG or Afrikaans music fan).
In terms of this debate I am simply South African, because it is the lowest common denominator and the least restrictive. Although in my personal saliency hierachy South African is not my first.
@Mphatjie:
So is it all our roots, 90%+ of our roots, 50% plus, 25% plus, or is it sufficient to have a ‘modern’ African (Nama and related or Bantu-speaking) ancestor within the last 300 years? The last definition would include the majority of Afrikaners, and a sizable portion of the RSA white English.
The relevant genetic studies are available online, although Die Burger had an article a few years ago on that subject - 6% of white women in Cape Town were found to have so-called San group mDNA… Of course, other African genes also show up frequently among RSA whites - the whole (apartheid) notion of us being pure Europeans (or at least more European than the Portuguese) is laughable - remember: Genes don’t spread by mere social contact
There are three groups of people in the whole wide world. We are South Africans with out roots being one of Caucasian, Negroid or Mongoloid. Malawians, Namibians and others call themselves that. They don’t call themselves Africans!!! We must get over this nonsense and be proudly SOUTH AFRICAN!!!! We cannot call ourselves African because we don’t live in the whole of Africa - we were born, raised and live in SOUTH AFRICA!!!! Maybe when they change the name one day we’ll all be Mzanzian.
Mphatjie,
You wrote… ‘You are only African when you are of African roots. That is, when your roots cannot be traced to any other part of the world outside Africa’. So, taken to its logical conclusion we are ALL africans, since the first humans walked out of Sterkfontein? Wouldn’t you say? See how fragile your claims are?
Afrikan is an IDENTIY, South Africa is Nationality - like the flag, can be changed.
I don’t know whats confusing with African, the writer seems to hang around some very confused and ignorant South Africans judging by his observations. An African is anyone who can trace his origins or roots to Africa. I think there is only a problem because most ‘white’ South Africans like to claim that they conquered this continent so accepting their European heritage will make remember the crimes committed killing our cultures, governing systems and way of life so we could become laborers for their religion and industrial economies in the past.
The African is not confused about who is an African, only those inserting themselves in the bosom of Africa are confused. The African Americans are a brave people that’s why the conscious ones claim their heritage and return to Ghana, Ivory Coast and the Western Africa where they can trace their history and find peace with their heritage. On the other hand I don’t know if ‘white’ South African even embrace their ancestors journey into Africa. Now that is why they are eager to be ‘labeled’ African-People who don’t even speak African languages or accept African ways of life. White South Africans do their best to run away from Africa but want the tittle of Afrcan? That my brother is the confusion!
In the UK if you are a citizen people describe you as British. Where you or your ancestors originate from is not referred to. You would specifically have to ask someone who you thought originated somewhere else where they came from. Mostly they will reply “Wolverhampton (or insert British town here). It is amazingly refreshing!
Why do many highly-educated coloureds prefer using “so-called coloureds” while ordinary coloureds are very happy self-referring as “coloureds” or “bruinmense” without any of that “so-called” in front of it?
A very interesting article indeed! What is puzzling to me is; a white African settles, and becomes a naturalised citizen, in America. Is he then an African-American?
This business about identity is all rather confusing, however we as humans generally like organisation and categorisation, so I suppose that explains it. Or does it?
I often have fun when people hear me speak and ask me where I am from. This happens in ever corner of the world including those where I have lived in most of my life.
My accent is what I call a “cocktail” of languages. In South Africa, people wander if I am American, in CanadaI am immediately classed as a South African (mostly because I say “ja” a lot), in America people think I am Australian. In Russia and Australia people can’t make out where I am from at all.
Truth is, I was born in Russia, I learned English watching American TV and I am currently living is Australia where expressions like “no worries” are seeping into my vocabulary. I think I am truly from everywhere, but South Africa is where I lived most of my life and I consider it MY HOME.
What the heck does that make me? When asked, I call myself a South African.
“In the same way we sometimes refer to other people as “coloured black” or “Indian black”.” Who is WE Kimosabe? And who are these “coloured blacks” or “Indian blacks”?
No-one can impose classification on anyone who does not accept it; our country’s history has taught us this. Individuals will define their own identity and those who share it will gravitate towards it. Through that diversity, we will find our unity as South Africans.
I am South African first (proudly so) and African second. All other classifications that I choose (ethnic or otherwise) follow.
I was born in Malawi (1969) - lived in Zimbabwe (1970-1984) and then in South Africa (1984 to date). My parents were born in South Africa as were all four of my Grandparents and all of my great Grandparents.
I consider myself to be a South African, I have only ever know Southern Africa to be my home - I cannot obtain a Malawian passport or residency there (if I ever wanted to apply for one - I am white); neither can I obtain any other foreign passport or residency (if I ever wanted to apply for one) and yet I am not “African” enough to qualify as being suitable for many jobs/opportunities in South Africa and further to this, I read/see in the news media as to how certain politians would want me to “go back to where I came from” - I’m sure that this means a return to Europe, however I am a fourth generation “African” and my children are fifth generation “African”.
So, what happens now? - For me it’s either that everyone accepts everyone else as being South African (without racial classification) or the politicians that would like the “whities” to leave Africa should arrange European Union citizenship and passports as we no longer can due to our ancestors being away from Europe for over 200 years.
Really people, we need each other (the past is the past and should stay in the past) - no one has the right to be a racist (or sexist, ect.)
Po whats your point, Britain is not a continent the continet is Europe - an African living in Europe can be British as much as a European can be South African citizenship can be bought like Huntley tried to buy Canadian.
Now funny you tell us the british way is refreshing, ISN”T THAT WHAT THE BRITISH SAID WHEN IT COLONISED OTHER COUNTRIES
In pre-1994 South Africa members of the black population group were known by various names which successively fell into disuse, and sometimes even became derogatory - not because they were inherently so, but because they were imposed by members of another race group, and/or used in derogatory fashion by that race group. Other nations have had similar experiences: It may be hard to believe now, for example, but the American term n****r was once simply a regional variant of the then perfectly acceptible “negro”.
I can’t agree more! Since returning from the UK, the race issue is driving me somewhat insane. I wish we lived in a society where none of this mattered, where we all could happily say: “We are human and that’s all.”
The notion of an identity ‘marker’ that is tied to a territorial space is (as far as I am aware) linked to modern conceptions of nationhood. In the grand old days of antiquity, identity was language, religion and polis. In the pillared streets of Rome if you spoke Latin, dressed Latin and walked Latin you were Roman. But of course in modern times, we are far more civilized than that…
I think the fundamental problem here is not are people-who-live-in-South-Africa Africans, but rather that in this country we still have no sense of ourselves. We are still searching for some kind of unity, a source of identity that we can harness. Some resonance that will allow us to our fellow South African and say: “although we may be divided be language, religion, skin colour, dress and mannerism, we are united”.
And despite the romanticism of that Nelson-Mandela-moment back in the dawn of Democratic South Africa, we still haven’t come close to finding that singular thread of unity and identity. And until we find it we will remain a distrustful, afraid and unsympathetic of one another and.
I personally think a continuing failure to locate our common identity will have more dire consequences than difficulties in categorizing black South Africans from African South Africans.
During Apartheid the White group was most priveleged. But if you were Afrikaner you got more,if you were an Afrikaner male well you get the picture.
Now if you are Black,you get more. But if are Zulu or Xhosa you will geta little more,if you are ANC still more, if you are in the ANCYL a lot more, in Govt and Black a whole lot more. So you see everybody needs to know your race.
I have a South African birth certificate, a South African I.D. book, a South African Passport, a South African driver’s licence which means I am South African!!! How many of you have read the writing on your passports. It’s states that I am a citizen of South Africa and will be protected by the South African government. It’s got nothing to do with Africa. I don’t qualify for any other passport, whether it be in Europe, America or Austrailia so when you tell me to leave the country, where do I go as I am recognised all over the world as South African. End of argument!!!!
It is truly amazing how everyone finds it acceptable for white people of Dutch extraction to call themselves (exclusively)Afrikaners-which, when translated to English, means African- and yet when an Indigenous member of the African continent calls her/himself African then suddely everybody starts throwing their toys out of the cot and making a song and dance about it! Lord, why don’t we just say that all white people should be called Afrikaners and Africans, coloreds and Indians be called, well, South Africans.
And Alto, it’s amusing how white South Africans go out of their way to claim Obama when HE himself refers to himself as a BLACKMAN, not colored or white. Kenyans are not stupid, they kjnow he’s African, not “white” or “colored”. Most people who are regarded as colored in SA don’t have a white mom and a black dad (or vice versa) but usually ‘colored’ parents, grnadparents and ancestors that go way back.
@Robin Grant (Marea, and a in a similar vein)
I agree with your responses to Mphatjie.
@Johan Meyer. Ditto. Interesting reference from a historical and sociological perspective. I have done a similar analysis to the author, a bit less scientific. My yDNA (male) is European, my mtDNA (female) is Indian. But DNA research is still in its infancy, it can only identify your direct male and direct female lineage – ie a fraction of the story, the rest requires archival research.
Ten generations ago we all had 1,024 ancestors. Like your author, I found
- a lot of European ancestors (several countries)
- many Asian ancestors (predominantly Indian, also Indonesian),
- several African ancestors (Khoi-San, West Africans (Guinea), and East-African (Madagascar)),
- and quite a few ancestors of unknown origin, born at the Cape.
- They were Christian, Muslim, Jewish, and Animist.
I am a racial and religious mix, and my language is a pidgin language (with European, Asian and African roots).
@Mphatjie: So my question to you: In the “new” South Africa, would I be considered European, African, or Asian?
Dutch-European I am clearly not. Still, the system had classified me white Afrikaner. To me this triple heritage (European, Asian, African) makes me uniquely South African, and race shouldn’t matter.
But fortunately I am living in Australia, a peaceful multicultural melting pot with no worries. Perhaps South African-Australian is the most apt. I am really lucky and happy not to have to put up with all this racial stuff!
@Ryland Fisher, very relevant blog, you are one of my favourite bloggers on TL.
@Carlton
In my experience the “African-Americans” in the USA (ie descendants of the original slaves) don’t get on that well with the recent (non-slavery) arrivals from Nigeria, Kenya and the like. Not quite as bad as the SA Xenophobia though.
Btw. I Canada I was seen as a South African Canadian, in Australia I am seen as a South African Australian. They don’t care about the details. Still, that “classification” is a bit tedious to me; after decades away from SA (and married to a local), I would prefer to be known here as just an Australian, especially since most Australians came from somewhere. Problem is my accent is a give-away whenever I open my mouth. My kids? Aussies/Canadians with funny names. Nothing else matters.
@ Shaun Kelly & @MuAfrika.
MuAfrika, you have a bit of a point (about “whites” wanting to leave Africa). But even assuming that they all wanted to leave, (which they dont); as Shaun Kelly said - until you could arrange EU passports for the so-called “Europeans” whose ancestors arrived up to 350years ago (unlikely), you are stuck with them. Better to work together.
@ Steven
Well said.
@ian shaw
I think the question is: what planet did Dave Harris come from and why?
@Philippa
Back on your anti-Afrikaner hobby horse I see. Heard the one about the pot and the kettle?
I am a 49 year old teacher in a “coloured” high school on the Cape Flats. I find it really frustrating that the Education Dept. provincially and nationally always demand of us to indicate a “race” on all forms that we complete.
Fvck man, the lame reasons for it just pis… me off. If you realise the absence of Non-racialism(it’s history and implications)in the curriculum, it actually make sense to me. I don’t think this gov. are really committed to it.
How can today’s learners even begin to make sense of a topic like this?
So black makes you African and white makes you European. I’m stuffed, I guess. Europe won’t take me and it seems Africa won’t either… Heck, when I go to the Netherlands, where, supposedly, I am from, they even mis-spell my name - every time. (I guess four-hundred years has been a long time.)
Actually, this whole argument is leaving me speechless and while I will keep my passport so I can wag it at anyone outside of South Africa that keeps asking “but where are you REALLY from”, if the forms change to ask me to define myself as European, I might chuck even the passport. I am South African, proudly so. And I am African. I am white, not by choice, but similarly proudly so. It makes me no beter nor any worse than anyone else. Really, it is just a skin colour. And while we redress the racial injustices of the past, let’s leave them just there, in the past. Let’s go forward judging each other by no more than the colour of their hearts.
Ryland Fisher is a voice of reason in the wilderness. Perhaps because he has been skelled uit enough times to realise there is nothing to be gained from inculcating a racial identity, whether “coloured”, “black” or “white”. What do people who no longer fit into these neat categories do when confronted with another ethnic laundry list? There is something incredibly diabolical about our nations’ fixation with racial and ethnic classification. I long for the day when I can say, I’m a rugby supporter or music fan and not have anyone preface this with Jew or Muslim, or White or Coloured. I am what I am, not what you perceive me to be.
David Robert Lewis on October 8th, 2009 at 10:50 pm
Hi MuAfrika, my point is that in Britain they no longer feel the need to differentiate between black, white Asian, coloured etc. A black person can be European.
Trust me I think the process of colonialism is nothing to be proud of, I think it was barborous and wrong. But my point is that they are trying and are in the process of moving on from obsessions with race. Something South Africans are nowhere near being ready to do.
Identity like culture is not stagnant, it evolves. Citzenship is bounded like ethnicity and religion are. Yet some of the debates emerging sit in the transcultural discourse where heritage either is mixed with citizenship and tradition meaning South African’s may celebrate Christmas with the traditional Christmas tree, but there is no snow. The other side is African indigneous culture that is also transcultural, as herein the rites of passage are celebrated but necessarily observed and this is beyond tradition.
South African identity is citizenship, yet the African identity is based on geography and belief system where the rites of passage come to life. Africanicity is a culmination of traditions which can be seen in fashion for example South Africa.
Identity is identifying and determining the phenomenon of the adjective such as South African, European, African, South Pacific and others identities
Fear plays a huge role as persons thriving on affiliation, but identity affiliation is not a life sentence, but one that may change for example within the rites of passage where marriage occurs, hence the human being exists in personhood mobilised by ego and in agency mobilised by in the South African case: Ethno-linguistic identity which is further intersected by sexual orientation, classism, religion and other behaviourial “antics”. We as humans are all biology, the battle with ourselves begins when we give meaning to that biology and there is nothing wrong with that as it is all about contrast, dialeticism, and drama
Catergorisation will stay for a long while. Those that benefited from racial clasification all of a sudden wants them removed so as to benefit again intersting ain’t it. Identity mostly has to do with the individual and nothing else.
Lets just cut to the chase.Race has no real value in the 21st Century.People are now educated and are less ignorant.We in SA are blessed with the kind of cultural mix and diverse population.
To move away from any race issues its best we simplify the classification of people to : all people born in SA are South Africans-whether born during,before or after APARTHEID.The way people talk,walk,look.interact,eat etc just makes them interesting.
Now if only those WHITE people in Balito can respect all S Africans as people,not walk around as if being white is being above everybody else.
Thanks for the good debate - I was quite frustrated a while back with M&G’s use of the word African and am glad that the topic is raised.
It seems to me that there is a lot more at stake for blacks, concerns about AA, BEE, land reforms, etc., while for us whities it is more of a emotional thing of being politically and socially marginalized and feeling like a stranger in your own country and continent. I have sympathy for both arguments.
When I was in Kenya I found it rewarding to explain to my friends there that my parents and grandparents, up to how many generations back I don’t even know, were all born in South Africa. Yet walking around in the streets of Kenya with not another white face in sight and being called Mzungu (white man) by the children, I was very aware of and comfortable with my white-Africanness.
I don’t mind complex identities. When I visited Europe, something resonated with my own identity, as I suppose Africa does with African-Americans. Complex identities keep us historically aware.
I disagree with all the whities who want to keep the past in the past. And I disagree with the blacks who reject a common South African identity. If I must be a European-South-African, I am okay with it, as long as I am recognized as being part of this country - part of the problem and part of the solution.
HI Noko
I never benefitted from Apartheid.I lived with many family on a Sugar Estate-Cornubia near Mt Edgecombe.My parents earned slave wages and we had precious little to keep body and soul together.The school I attended was stae aided and was no better that black or coloured schools. If we were given any books these I shared with my black frien Titus.
So you see I probably had less than you. But still I don’t want you to compensate me now.
That is what we need loss of denial and control and rather to celebrate what resonates with with our heritage whatever we decided that heritage to be. We often fight off exterior stereotypying (by others) yet we are the first to put ourselves in a box. Let the South African identity evolve, it is still too early to talk about nationalism in the South African context. We can start this debate once there is good governance and a better, healthy and stable welfare system. It’s only a shortcut if try to hide behind a South African identity that is still embryonic and now is the time that we will see who is pro-life on the matter.
Seems to me that the very European-ness that was the greatest asset to whites under apartheid, has now become the albatross that they are suddenly trying to shed. I’m no doctor, but I’ll wager that this is the primary cause of the severe amnesia of centuries of white AA, that has now afflicted so many white SAns. We gotta respect the Afrikaners for being brave enough to stick to their Afrikaner identity. Maybe the others will learn from this courage.
Racial categorizations will only disappear once our society reaches a point of stabilization where there is natural intermixing among races - after our apartheid indoctrination wears off and we accept each other as human beings from the same species and tolerant to diversity in all its forms.
Ryland Fisher opens up the discourse on identity in a refreshingly non-dogmatic manner. I have some points of convergence with what was said and some of divergence. In terms of the latter I do not think the problems that we have are about words such as ‘African’ or expression of national group sub-cultures, even although I agree that many abuse an array of words dangerously as weapons. Using identity as a political weapon is an extremely dangerous path to tread. Likewise, using notions of identity to create hierarchies of rights in national life establishes a fatal flaw in our quest to build a nation that will never again entertain anything remotely like Apartheid.
….I believe it would serve better to focus discussion on de-racialising our national state- endorsed race-based frameworks, rather than to attempt to socially engineer cultural diversity out of our lives and vocabulary….
…On the one side there was the elevation of race and ethnicity as the cornerstone of identity and as a determinant of human relations, social constructs and destiny. On the other side is the notion that sub-cultures and identities are undesirable and backward, and should be suppressed in favour of us being simply South Africans.
Thankfully in our constitution we rejected both of the kragdadig ideological approaches which lead to social-engineering, in favour of a South African identity that recognises our goal of national unity that nurtures and celebrates diversity. READ MORE @ www.cape-slavery-heritage.iblog.co.za
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Ryland Fisher is former editor of the Cape Times and author of the book Race. This is his second book, following on Making the Media Work for You, which was published in 2002. He is executive chairperson of the Cape Town Festival, which he initiated while editor of the Cape Times in 1999 as part of the One City Many Cultures project. He received an international media award for this project in New York in October 2006.
His personal motto is "bringing people together", which was the theme of One City Many Cultures. It remains the theme of the Cape Town Festival and is the theme of Race. Ryland has worked in and with government, in the media for more than 25 years, in the corporate sector, in NGOs and in academia. Ultimately, however, he describes himself as "just a souped-up writer".
Ryland's links
Book SA blog My blog on a website that promotes South African literature and authors
I am no apologist for Allan Boesak, who hit the headlines again this week after he resigned from the Congress of the People. However, I have known the...
I have to admit that I did not read the report on which the Cape Times based its "Cape Town is a racist city -- study" banner headline last Thursday (...
When I was editor of the Cape Times and decided in 1998 to launch a project called "One City, Many Cultures", I knew that I needed the best people to ...
The news came unexpectedly in a text message this morning (Tuesday 13 October 2009): "Bro Winston Mankunku Ngozi has passed on. Our deepest condolence...
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I’m a member of several research panels based in the USA and we communicate mostly online. This situation has become so bad that even the categorisations of Hispanic are now broken down into eight sub-categories, there are 14 for Christian, eight for sexual orientation, six for Native American and the toxic term you began your blog with, Ryland, “African American” has become so loaded it has lost meaning. Then don’t even go near age, dietary preferences or current work status. It’s all making something of mockery if not an exercise in futile fragmentation to conduct surveys and research along conventional lines.
Can you imagine what your business card would look like if you had to be specific in defining yourself?
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