It has always been my assertion that the phenomenon we call human intelligence is as real as Santa Claus, leprechauns, tokoloshes and a politician’s conscience. Yes, yes, I’m generalising, but I think it’s a fair generalisation if it is true for the rule. Bugger the exception.
One feature of human beings that illustrates this is our propensity to hold ourselves up to much higher standards than we are capable of living up to — and then we spend inordinate amounts of energy beating ourselves up over our inevitable failure to live up to said standards. It is behaviour that almost certainly leads to deep unhappiness and misery. Recent developments in our midst have moved me sufficiently to get an uncontrollable urge to repeat an assertion I have made a few dozen times (yeah, yeah — generalising again):
1. Human beings are irrational idiots.
2. Human beings are racists.
I have always felt that these features of the human race do not need to be specifically stated. I personally just take it for granted that when I meet people, they are dumb and racist. And these two features of human existence are intricately intertwined. There is a predictable intellectual limitation associated with people who hate others because of the concentration of their skin pigment. I personally try to hate people for more rational reasons, such as whether they are arseholes or not. Yes, yes — of course you don’t think any this applies to you. This is because God, in Her infinite wisdom, blindsighted you to your own paradigmatic idiocy. It’s the same principle that makes the skunks and halitosis sufferers among us unaware of their aromas. I’m no exception either.
Granted, these are not the sort of facts that are always top of your mind. That would be like walking around all day reminding yourself that your limbs will end up on a maggot family’s dinner table as “leg of human” one day. But I’ve always assumed we were all aware of this. Or so you’d think. The history of this country since around 1652 has been one long orgy of retarded racism. In fact, a case could be made that prejudice was here long before those high-calibre occupants of the Dromedaris with impressive beards ever docked off the Cape of Good Hope. (Note: prejudice/racism = tomato/potato.)
So it is with perpetual befuddlement that I always read people’s reactions to the sporadic racial skirmishes we have from time to time. In recent times we have witnessed:
1. The head of the World Cup organising committee passionately describing someone’s actions as “behaving like a kaffir”.
2. Black journalists stretching “freedom of association” principles almost to breaking point.
3. Other black journalists taking other black journalists to task for calling them coconuts.
I call these the good times. These times give us the opportunity to look at ourselves in the mirror and ask some tough questions. When life gives you lemons, pour yourself a double gin, lemon and soda, I always say.
I take it as a personal challenge to reduce seemingly complex matters to their simplest level. But I take it as an even greater challenge to try to argue strongly from a contrarian view on any issue. You’re about to witness me dazzle you with my impressively simplistic ways.
Fikile-Ntsikelelo Moya wrote a piece in support of Irvin Khoza that I thought was even more passionate than Khoza’s original emotional outburst. He makes a very compelling argument in defence of Khoza. Fikile essentially argues that it is the responsibility of black people to avoid behaving in a manner that will make white racists “feel vindicated” in their racism. He may well have a point. But I’m struggling to agree with him.
The basic tenet of this argument seems to be that there are certain behaviours exhibited by black people that are peculiar to them. This has to be the premise. Only black people are called “kaffirs”, right? I mean, if other races also engaged in exactly the same behaviours, it would surely be disingenious to call black people “kaffirs” when they did the same. Fair? Okay then. Let’s take a closer look at the examples Fikile cites, shall we?
1. Bantustan leaders oppressing their black subjects to please their bosses in Pretoria.
2. Black people who believe that having sex across the colour divide enhances their self-worth.
3. The Umoja creators who apparently reinforce the stereotype of the “we sing and dance when we’re happy and sing and dance when we’re sad” darkies.
I’ve been sitting here staring at these “kaffir” behaviours and I can almost feel my notorious ignorance blocking my view. I’m struggling to see it. All I can see here are universal human behaviours. What I see is:
1. Arse-lickers doing their damnedest to please their colonisers. Human history is littered with examples of people collaborating with their colonisers at the expense of their own kind. I feel kinda silly posting this link — but how many of these Nazi collaborators were kaffirs?
2. Once again, under the yoke of brutal and sustained colonisation, it is just part of the human condition to start to believe that the coloniser is superior, isn’t it? You don’t suppose that Agamemnon, the Greek goat herder from Athens, didn’t sit under a tree dreaming of Roman vagina in 150 AD, did he?
3. This would make Mario Puzo and Francis Ford Coppola kaffirs, then, for perpetuating the whole Mafia stereotype among the Italian-Americans with the Godfather movie trilogy.
I’m always open to the possibility that my opinions are retarded and wrong. I’m wrong about things roughly 40% of the time in any case, and I could be wrong again here. But I have always just assumed that racists are people who, in the throes of their own cognitive dissonance, reject any evidence of equality in races they deem inferior and hone in on evidence that they think supports their bigotry.
The problem is not as much these negative behaviours as it is the quantum leap in logic that then leads racists to the irrational conclusion that stupidity = kaffirdom. I unfortunately have no inclination to stand on a soap box on Speaker’s Corner and pontificate due to my pathological laziness. But if I did, I’d probably join the Khoza-Fikile chorus and also shout: “Stop being dumb with all that oppressing your own people and hunting white veejayjay. It’s just dumb.” But I wouldn’t be able to come to the conclusion that this was kaffir behaviour. I’d just call it dumb behaviour.
As for Umoja reinforcing “the caricature of blacks who sing when they are happy and even when they are sad”, I don’t know. I saw the show and I liked it. Perhaps I was a bit blindsighted by the short, topless girl who was in the front row for most of the numbers. But I guess you could throw in Mbongeni Ngema’s entire career into that pot as well using the same criteria. Sarafina was just one long song-and-dance. Although once again, I can’t help but think of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s career. The people in his plays sing when they’re happy and sing when they’re sad. This is otherwise known by the term “musicals”, I think. Opera is the same — essentially telling stories (happy and tragic) through music. It just seems to me that something is amiss with the reasoning of the racist who stereotypes black people as singing-and-dancing buffoons when this is clearly a universal phenomenon. This is where I’d personally choose to expend most of my energy if I had soapbox inclinations. Or is there something different in the way that black people sing and dance?
My plan had been to tackle the Coconut Wars in this piece, but this is already 1 200 words long. I have listened to the voice of my racist readership accusing me of writing in the African oral tradition.
For my own amusement I’ll write up the coconut piece in any case. I might might not name and shame all the coconuts in the public eye. DJ Fresh should be ducking out of sight round about now. Bring on the Human Rights Commission if you want to.
silwanekanjila@gmail.com
I laughed like hell when you threw that punch at DJ Fresh. I was his boss when he started off his career in radio at a local radio station here in Gaborone. He has always been a coconut ! But then so are his whole generation and the current spoilt generation of brats we are raising here in Botswana.Listening to the local youth radio station you would think you are in the US. I thought we had beaten colonialism but alas we are still mentally colonised.
What has frustrated people for centuries, is the inability of black African people to rise above their own circumstances, to stand on top of the world and view history and to see things the way they really are:
The kings owned all the land of the people, they owned their labor. Scientific enquiry was squashed. There were no laws, no judges, judgement was the sword. Freedom did not exist. For 6000+ years since the dawn of civilization, African dictators, kings have kept their people in bondage. And it is this inability of black people to understand and take responsiblity and realise that their own kind as well as others, and war, disease is the cause of their lack of progress. And is at this point, where all the racism trouble begins, because those that only want to advance their own selfish agendas like the Forum of Black Journalists (FBJ) and the white racists, constantly exploit this weakness in black Africans: their inability to see who realy is exploiting them.
I think the biggest difference between, say, white people, singing and dancing, and their black counterparts, is that us whiteys usually leave it up to the professionals. Something in our history has made us terminally embarrassed about getting up and shaking it.
This always takes me to the US and their comedy pieces. There seems to be some acceptable trend that if you’re a ‘nigg*r’ you have some entitlement to use the term on other ‘nigg*rs’.
Now maybe the Iron Duke was watching Bigger and Black from Chris Rock and he thought he’d try that out over here. Unfortunately it didn’t work so well. The scud-missiles from Kaffirdom Defence Coalition zeroed on his dark derriere with rampant speed, with Thabo having sms’ed the go-codes from his state of the art Blackberry ( kaffir-berry is inappropriate).
Personally i feel sorry for anyone who still thinks kaffir gives them an upper hand over me. it just shows me how insecure they are about themselves, their pigment-concentration and generally about people they don’t know or understand.
Brilliant writing, most inspiring, I could not agree more, I especially enjoy the way the colonisers language is used ( I am not a native english speaker but I similary enjoy playing with words ). Very unfortunately Ndumiso eloquence is far removed from the live of many ordinary South Africans. My better half emanates from migrant labour system, and she still needs to submit to the coloniser ( her boss ) on a daily basis to feed her child, a situation that to her appears impossible to escape. We are a happy Rainbow couple, with a child that happily calls itself a coconut, trying to make a living in our post apartheid society, which is not easy. La luta continua !
So that is the answer to your question: why do people use the terms ‘kaffirs’ and ‘coconuts’
You only have to look at the agenda of each to understand why they use those terms – they want to exploit the ignorance of poor African people.
The Forum of Black Journalists (FBJ):
To hide the fact that there is a lack of service delivery.
That is why they use the term ‘coconuts’ to censor the views of those that want to expose black leadership’s failure to deliver services in SA and Zimbabwe.
Dude – that was great. You hear it so often: anyone from another race group cuts you up in traffic, then he’s a (derogatory word for anyone from that race group) – but if he looks like you, then he’s just an @$$hole.
But let it be said: there are many of us out there who are aware of our tendency to be human and try not to perpetuate it.
Take it easy and indicate before turning!
Hey, you can’t say Ka*f*r.
Ndum-dum
3 points
1. “Bugger the exception” you say. Do you know what this truly means – to bugger?
2. Your two algebraic equations have a natural conclusion: Therefore racists are irrational idiots
3. This “hunting white veejayjay(may i adopt this word?)” got me thinking – mebbe THIS is what motivated my move to Qwaqwa
I attended a lecture of Victor Frankl a long time ago. In this lecture he said that the truly decent people of this world, will always be a minority. Makes you think.
My contention is built into my own response to the UFS racism issue. I (Afrikaans by birth) send out an email condemning the incident and stating that I divorce myself from the institution and my previous involvement with them. I also ask these 50 odd middle class people on my email list to support me in my condemnation. Only one (a young black women) responds. Is silence the curse of the middle class?
“All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.” (Edmund Burke)
“…evidence that they think supports their bigotry.” – spot-on!
The one question that came to me upon hearing this was – exactly how do kaffirs behave, Mr Khoza Sir. And then Sandile Memela goes out of his way to try and put the spin on this whole thing with double meaning and all!
What is a man with a white skin and black on the inside called then…
Good piece!
You could also throw in the after tears parties. The belated after tears bashes on Youth Day. The singing of Umshini Wami at Zodwa Khoza’s memorial.
I am one who believes that Shaka was a hero based on the standards of the day the same way to a section of the British public that Cecil John Rhodes was a hero. General Pretorius was a hero to Afrikaners trying to rid themselves of the British yoke and deserved a city named after him. They may all be barbarians by today’s standards. I believe that the history of man is the progress of ideas.
what is distasteful is when others monopolise for themselves the understanding of what enlightened thinking is and more so when they prevaricate answering straight forward questions by bringing the race issue (if not white then a coconut). What this entails is that Mr Khoza needlessly went on the offensive (best form of defence is offence)thereby defeating the whole purpose of the press conference. In other words he thinks because he is black he should work beyond scrutiny. In other words if I as black person were to see the world cup as nothing but conspicous consumption I would be thinking like a kaffir.
On the other hand. What would the government’s answer be to what is it they are doing to ensure the safety of the fans and the fans’ property in 2010? The answer will not be based on programmes to drastically reduce crime by 2010 but will read “we have hosted the Rugby World Cup and the Cricket World Cup and secured them why no questions and concerns about that”. There is no word about scale of event and number and mix of visitors or unprecedented opportunity for all sorts of crime and whether to really secure the world cup we must first drastically reduce crime between now and 2010. In other words I am thinking like a K****.
Sorry what about striking workers. They sing and dance telling us that the money we give them is not enough for food.
One guy remarked the other day that the demonstration by kids from the model C schools was awfully quiet. He suggested that had it been our township kids we would have had singing, dancing and a kwaito concert to boot preferably featuring Brickz of Matric fame. So where is the stereo type
I also found the journo’s piece quite confusing. I must say you have a way of putting things in a fresh perspective. For that, I admire you. Mind you, as a human being yourself, I think you’re an irrational idiot who is racist…
Mike
I concur with you.We are rasing not coconuts but black kids who are not African (meaning they do not exhibit tribal traits) but simply that Black. The problem is that I have issues with the term African Culture as it is a colonial term of implied homogeneity.
Our kids are not trying to be white but they are trying their damndest to be Black. They do not listen to Peter savage or ColdPlay, Ronan Keating, James Blunt etc even the Celine Dion tour is not registering on the radar of our black Djs and presenters because it is not Snoopy Dogg or Chris Brown etc. When the likes of Rev. Al Sharperton, Oprah Winfrey, Rev. Jesse Jackson, Russell Simmons etc are trying to bury the Nigger and ho words this side our kids are trying their utmost to preserve them.
And last year a section of the Sotho community raised concern about the lyrics of one song, the radio station shelved it but the rest of SABC did not. It is the reason that SABC 1 will show silly Black American and violent movies but no clean Nigerian movies which is almost an exception on this continent. Is this the First Amendment haunting us.
It is unfortunate that whereas our brethren in the diaspora should be looking to us for cultural leadership we are instead worshipping the worst of their culture.
As Ralph Waldo Emmerson said “Imitation is travelling of the mind and travelling is a fool’s paradise”.
Do not necessarily agree with you, but I like your style. Was flying to George recently and happened on a 1Time magazine featuring DJ Fresh. The man admitted that he changed his accent to suit the environment he is. What a great idea. Why not hide who you really are, but adopting a colonised mindset. What is wrong with his own accent? I spent time in the USA and made so many friends with Americans as they were always curious to predict the origin of my accent. It is a shame that many of those I studied with adopted an African American accent in the same vane as our own coconuts (Redi, rings a bell) who went to model C schools. What is wrong with sounding African and genuine?
@ Hlakile – chocolate cake with vanilla icing?
Ever really looked at a coconut? Its not black on the outside anyway, its light brown and hairy!
To Braveheart:
I presume then that Hitler was a hero of his time, so was General Pinochet, George Bush. Surely, if someone’s morals were such that they did not respect human dignity, why pretend otherwise? You might find that Rhodes was a hero for people who did not care for the views of the majority, but for the majority of South Africans, he was never a hero. On the other hand, a majority of Germans and a majority of whites worshipped Hitler and Verwoerd. Are they now heroes despite the untold misery they did at that time? Morals do change, but not over a space of 100 years, with a few exceptions. even in the time of Jesus Christ (if he existed), there was still common decency and respect for others regardless of nationality. You can therefore not claim that 200 years ago these morals suddenly disappeared and replaced by greedy racist bigotry of the Rhodes and Kruger era. No matter how you skin it, they were racist bigots who only saw opportunity for themselves and those that look like them. We are talking about a time when slavery had been abolished in Europe and there were revolutions where the ordinary folk fought against subjudication. Change the history if you wish, but do not decieve yourself that this makes it right
Black skin, muntu, bantu, abantu ,ubuntu, White mask
————————————–
Once upon a time there was a poem, the “kaffir and the beast”, written by Mongane Serote(?). The poem is missing.
One day, on my way to the fish market in Hanover Street I met a man, an imbongi.
He told us a long and winding tale, a tale with many loops designed to keep our interest. The tale, poignant enough kept us listening.
Unlike the imbongi of old who lauds, praises the chief and sooths the rest of the “tribe” into a deep slumber, inducing; dreams, sweet dreams, sleep walking us to the river, encouraging fetching the early and sweetest water then killing all the cattle for a mass barbecue followed by a post modern “umoja” in collaboration with foreign partners from a place where the sun sets, this imbongi dressed in a suit and tie and a self confessed connoisseur (pour yourself a double gin, lemon and soda) spoke of mirrors.
The sting, in the imbongi’s tail was, there are no “types”, only “dumb behaviour”.
And that part of our story entailed the inducement of false consciousness.
He reminded us, “We are living in good times”. And like a true sage advised us “these times gives us the opportunity to look at ourselves in the mirror and ask some tough questions.”
As the story unfolded, Sandile appeared, whispering, “In fact kaffirs do exist”, and hinting the “kaffir” is a “type” who self deprecates, due to centuries of colonialism.
“Boesman”, “Kaffir”, “Coolie”, were all terms used to inculcate inferiority and a negative self image to retain control and for groups of people to understand and appreciate their societal position.
Any human being can and should challenge (perceived) “racism” and condemned it as a collective wrong.
It appears, as if it is challenging as to how, we make meaning regarding the notions, of race, racialism, racism and anti racism. We need to be gradual as the interregnum lingers on.
The “k word” smells the same, to many anti racist South Africans, it is a pejorative term, with negative connotations.
In the manner of the imbongi, he made me think and interrogates myself, ‘am I looking at my ego, am I looking at my image, is the mirror cracked, does it need fixing or is this all just an illusion ?.
When the fishmonger asked me what I wanted, I told him, ‘ you have to disconnect the past to connect the future; the African tale is not a linear story but allows for loops, interruptions, conflicting voices and deep moments of silence punctured with ululation’.
With his hands covered in scales and blood, wielding a panga like knife, he looked at me, saying,” three fish head, 6 gloves of garlic and some leeks will do for a soup broth. If you don’t have bay leaves try orange leaves”. It’s free.
I then asked him,” Why is it that one never see the stockfish heads”, he responded, “dus nog n lang storie” .
As I walked up Tenant Street, passing Williams Street and Hamilton Lane towards De Korte Street, I remembered, Once upon a time there was a poem, the kaffir and the beast, the poem is gone now?.
——————
I’ve always thought of a man who’s white on the outside and black on the inside as one of those sugar-coated easter eggs you get from Beacon.
found this very amusing:
http://www.hayibo.com/articles/view/718
Its issues like these that at time make my skin cringe. W.R.T Mr. Khoza’s statement I really did not have a problem with it, he should have however, chosen a better way to explain what he meant. As Darkies we generally don’t have a problem with referring to ourselves As Kaffirs, he must have been blinded by the number of African Journo’s that were at the press briefing to have made that statement .
I believe he meant to say “Musa uku cabangisa o kwe khafula” Zulu which is a phrase that we tend to use when we poke fun or try to address an issue raised by an idiot who knows too much about nothing. I believe he was simply trying to put some one in his place. Translated it can sound very bad.
Fuze, I love the manner you have expressed your thoughts in this piece. “HELL NO I AM NOT STROKING YOUR EGO” LoL. SLINDILE
Ya! most people still think that being white makes you superior of which is not true. The likes of Fresh talk as if they are kings and never want to grow up (what’s with the tatoo’s) and I think one of the reason Y-fm is loosing fans it’s because they are not real thing. People are so lost hence books such as “The secret” are best sellers. The ladies are full of Oprah in their brains and think that having a car means you have made it in life. There is lot to be done about stereotypes and the solution is people must thinking for themselves.
@ Lenda re: his definition of kaffir (just so I’m satisfied that my original point didn’t disappear like a fart in a storm).
What do you call a man of Japanese origin who (and I quote you) “believes that being who he is, is not enough. He has to do his best to embarrass his brothers to white individuals, believes he has to sound English in order to be heard and generally lacks confidence in who he is.”
I have a sneaking suspicion that most would say he’s just a Westernized arsehole [embarrassing people is not cool] of Japanese origin and leave it at that. Why can’t a black man who behaves the same way be just that when this is a universal behaviour?
My assertion is that characterizing people ‘kaffirs’ speaks volumes more about the person saying it than the subject.
[Ndumiso slips away to continue writing about coconuts.]
@hlakile
My teenage daughter, after accusing her friends of being coconuts was told that in that case she is a peeled litchi!
On another occasion – a bright white biker rally – the remark was passed “Kyk – ‘n wit kaffir” after she removed her beenie and they saw her braids. She was not offended, she was stunned – lucky girl had never met people like that before.
Hi Ndum
Many people think the only thing worse than a Kaffir, is me, a Kaffir-boetie. I’m wary of engaging what is turning into a fascinating authentic red hot Thai curry of kaffir lemon leaves and coconuts (standard ingredients – no offence) Even the greatest civil rights libertarian of all times, Mahatma Gandhi was alleged to have used the “K” word in a purgorative way, so why not Mr Khoza – who, in his own mind at least, is as mighty and righteous a man, as the ever humble Mahatma. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaffir_%28ethnic_slur%29
It worries me that Black people takes offence at the K word, but in my lame brained opinion, if you try and distil the opposite for the K word, in all these discussions, it would have to be the even more dreaded coconut.
Maybe I lost the thread of Fikile-Ntsikelo Moya’s argument , then tell me, who is not scared of whites? I say coconuts! All this airy fairy stuff about self actualisation of the black consciousness against the oppressor, colonialist, baas etc is nothing but admitting to suffering from some ill defined inferiority complex. I’m sure most blacks don’t aspire to having a kraal at Nkandla, six wives with herds of goats and Ngunis in the back yard. All I see is natty dudes in the latest western designer threads, driving the snazziest car and blinging the sexiest chick in the office, at some ANC freebie municipal or government music and food fest down at the soccer stadium. Most have never thought of gurus like Robert Sobukwe, Steve Bantu Biko or Frans Fannon (who was a self confessed white sugar junkie), except when they want to frighten whites into emigrating with inflammatory rant blogs such as by Sandile Memela indulges in… as part of his frantic job as commissar of the Dept of Arts and Culture. I’m sure he exceeds his 1200 word limit. He’s better than a Zopiclone overdose for insomnia.
Ndum, all cultures are justly proud of their traditional dancing heritages, whats the beef with Umoja. Fresh can enjoy the sweet perks of liberation , only if Thabiso lets him get away with it. In the Commitments, the jazz band leader remarked that “the Irish were the “N-words of Europ”. That was before they lost the cultural cringe, chucked out the Catholics and built the fastest developing country and economy in the West
I’ve exceeded my response safety zone a tad, so I’ll shaddup now.
I missed the point here and don’t have the energy to write much.
If blacks in top leadership positions ape white behaviour — wear European clothes, drive European cars, read European books, eat European food, drink European drinks — they send signals to their followers (all leaders have followers) that the European way is the better way.
You’ll not see many white people aspire to living in an afrocentric way — living in a rondavel, eating and drinking African dishes and beverages, hardly reading anything at all, rioting when angry…
Does this make those white folk racist or does it make them civilised?
Yam’s lame chocolate cake with vanilla icing – and somebody else’s litchi! Why does everything have to relate to food? Sarah Britten actually thinks of Easter Eggs. I wonder about people like these. The only k-word this brings to mind is kopkrap. Billy C. who sounds so woefully misguided, is the only one to have the definition right. The word is k’ff’rboetie, for goodness sake.
Similar confusion seems to reign on the matter of accent – whether Model C or Model K (the only K-word that is used with greater frequency and has only three letters). The accent conundrum reminds me of a New Yorker asking me for directions to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Her appreciative comment: “Don’t you dare lose your accent – it’s beautiful.” My response: “Don’t worry, I’ve already lost it.” As if accent is the verbal equivalent of virginity! Bring on the accent police.
As for Mr. Ngcobo – shame on you for ruining perfectly good gin with soda and a chucked lemon. Try tonic and you’ll see that your column might even become addictive. Kalahari Doringboom
If you think:
1) All humans are irrational idiots,
2) All humans are racist.
Then do you think:
3) The Dalai Lama is an irrational racist idiot.
and
4) Have insulted an entire country and one of the world’s major religions on the basis of your offensive ignorance.
Incidentally, whilst making the racist assumption that everyone is either black or white, ignoring most of the rest of the world due to your ignorance, you also show no knowledge of your own country’s history, since you seem to be unaware of those who were called “Cape Coloureds”.
Or that the “contemptible litte brown man” that rescued his country from the British started with the Asian population of the Union of South Africa.
Or did you think the Mahatma Gandhi was an irrational stupid racist? Or not human?
Try not making the major mistake that most Black African Racists make and thinking in only two colours, then you might have some inkling of how to live in a multicultural society like we do in the UK.
And wouldn’t write such racist stupidity due to your ignorance of the rest of the world’s cultures and races, including the Brown, Red and Yellow ones.
Thanks, I needed to read some good use of words and it really put a smile on my face.
People
Please help our thought leader is suffering
from an identity crisis.
I really do not know where the ‘Coloured” term came from. But in the United States anyone who has ‘black blood’ in them was called a colored back in the day. For those who’s parents had or have an interracial relationship they now call themselves biracial. Some tend to lean towards their non-black heritage, because they detest or are embarrased of being identified as black and some ar trying so hard to prove themselves to be black( of which they are) becuase they are being teased of thier light skin tone or even their almost non-black accent. Of which is coplete nonsense to me.
Having Read your article. Today, I was disturbed no’ rephrase that I was enraged by the Video I saw on TV, that was recorded by those RASIST students from the UFS(university of the Freestate). Watching that footage of Afrikanner Boys illtreating our Mothers victimising them made me realise that, Some of our people still experience cruelty at the hands of ignorant/STUPID white people. I was disturbed by their(victims) reaction during this inhuman treatment, some of them were laughing at the top of their voices while they were made to drink a concoction of Urine and God knows what else was in there. The reality of the situation is that we as people need to stand up against such atrocities to protect the democracy which for fought so hard for.
What is a man who is white on the outside and black on the inside called?
How about a litchi
“What is a man with a white skin and black on the inside called then…”
‘n Vrot Eier !!! Bwahahaha
“The reality of the situation is that we as people need to stand up against such atrocities to protect the democracy which for fought so hard for.”
Hang on a moment here … two or three things come to mind:
First – I have not looked at the video and would probably freak out, but I am a whitey and I have to tell you the amount of crap that I had to eat in high school and varsity residences (which also included urine … *gross* ) supersedes that of the video … that I can promise you … why they do that for a type of inauguration / “ontgroening” God only knows … but I myself HAD to go through it (A standard 6 ain’t saying no to a huge matric) … and I enforced it when I was matric (without urine that time, a bit morality only … a small bit) but as far as I understand and read the news papers … the workers had a choice and was doing it for a bottle of alcohol … now that is STUPID!
Second – Why do we react (me included) so heavily when “stupid %^&#” like that happens between races , but we fail to react that way when there are murder / rape between races? Why do stupid stuff get attention and not the important ones?
Third – Democracy is part of the problem … hang on … don’t flame me yet … read on … the workers “allowed / chose” it democratically, as did the students (Urinating in it was sick though!!!) … to protect our democracy we (me and you) need to make the right decisions, and if we make the wrong decisions, we need to take responsibility and not blame stupid stuff, yet reflect on our ability to make democratic decisions …
I would suspect calling the Japanese fella a “kaffir” whose lose the meaning to the Japanese since he cannot associate with the name. My definition (though removed) was more tongue in cheek, but a reflection of how it is now used. We are responsible for how others perceive us. If we jump up and down when called kaffir, then we obviously are going to have to jump up and down as people will continue calling us names.
Stop worrying about names, as language evolves. I would say that to me a coconut and a kaffir are one and the same.
I shamelessly used your name in vain in my latest blog
@ndumiso who said..
There is a predictable intellectual limitation associated with people who hate others because of the concentration of their skin pigment
When judging blacks (or anyone for that matter) I always remember Martin Luther Kings wise words…
“judge us (blacks) not by the color of our skins, but be THE CONTENT OF OUR CHARACTER..!”
This I have done, and yet if I were to say something like “with one or two tiny Caribbean island exceptions, virtually every black ruled country on the planet is a shambolic slum-ridden mess invariably mis-ruled by kleptocratic tyrants”..
Would you not slander me as a despicable “racist” for daring to bring these unfortunate unmentionable facts to public attention..?
That should get the ball rolling.
Another sacred cow hits the spit.
Listen. Most of us have to kiss arse to make a living. It is no less/more tastier kissing a different coloured puckered one.
What we can be thankful of is that we are free to discuss such issues without fear or dare I say prejudice.
Right or wrong is immaterial.
Death the political correctness.
@ Alisdair……dude you need to calm down!!
Im assuming that you are a migrant worker in London trying to earn a coupla pounds to buy your house on the Flats when you come back to Africa.
Nothing wrong there, but dont sit on the fence and comment on whats happening down, here. You seem to know alot about the peaceful guys, the Dalai Lamas etc of this world so Im certain that you know the infamous quote spoken by one peaceful guy after one hot beans bunny………but for your benefit I’ll repeat it here……….”Be the change you want to see in the world” – so on that note my brother…….come back, we have an oukapi and a black label on ice…..waiting just for you. LOL!!
.5
1.human beings are irrational idiots.the comments above attest to that statement.some people’s skulls are as hard as oMAKALABHA.
Come on Butt.
Let’s leave the whinging to the poms. Stop dangling and come home.
I agree whith the fact that all human beings are idiots. they are really
What about the word colonialist, that is a racist, degrading term, that is used freely by the same people who find the term kaffir degrading. Go Figure…
Ndumiso Ngcobo for president! Hehehe, what a brilliant and well-written piece. I wish more South Africans (of any colour) were this intelligent, articulate and witty.
I don’t think that we will able to reverse what happens to us. but it painful if we still able to distinguish between blacks and whites comments. But I son’t think that white can have a say on what we believe in as blacks and I don’t believe that blacks havev a say in blacks. White we know you are best racist ever, but I think now it a right time to change. You must stop to preach the black people as thugs, criminals etc. I believe in jugding people by their content not by their colour (as white did in South Afica and around the world). We must avoid to Think like white, we must also avoid to think like blacks. Then we will make a better country.