LEWE NA APARTHEID: LIDMATE SE NARRATIEWE VANUIT 'N ...

Hoofstuk 4: Die verhaal oor apartheid – teenswoordige tyd
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imens of human beings, what an alteration there would be if they were
brought under Anglo-Saxon influence.
Dit was egter nie net die Engelse wat so ʼn houding ingeneem het nie. “We know that
the Dutch held such views [oor rassemeerderwaardigheid] in Batavia and they seem to
have had an even more contemptuous attitude toward the indigenous inhabitants of
Africa from the day they landed (Sparks 1990:29). Hy gaan dan voort en verwys na ʼn
ene Wouter Schouten wat in 1665 oor die “Khoikhoi” skryf:
Although descended from our father Adam, [the Khoikhoi] yet show so
little of humanity that truly they more resemble the unreasonable
beasts than reasonable man... having no knowledge of God nor of what
leads to their salvation. Miserable folk, how lamentable is your pitiful
condition! And oh Christians, how blessed is ours! (aangehaal in
Sparks 1990:29).
Dat rassisme, soos dit in Suid-Afrika neerslag gevind het in apartheid, alles met
menswaardigheid te make gehad het, is onontkenbaar. Wanneer swart mense skryf oor
hulle ervaring onder apartheid, is dit telkens die aantasting van hulle menswaardig wat
voorop staan.
Ewald van Rensburg (2009:181) haal vir emeritus aartsbiskop Desmond
Tutu aan wat pleit: “Genugtig, sal hulle hoor, sal wit mense hoor wat ons
probeer sê? Asseblief, al wat ons julle vra om te doen, is om ons as
medemense raak te sien.” Gobodo-Madikizela (2004:34) vertel van ʼn
sekere besoek aan Eugene de Kock in die gevangenis. Op pad huis toe
oorweldig die ervaring haar en sy begin huil: “My tears were for all those
years being denied the right to share a sense of pride about being South
African, and being relegated to a second-class citizen, even a foreigner,
in the country of my birth, and my parents’ and their parents’ birth. I felt a
deep sense of loss about this.”
Sy verwys ook na ʼn insident tydens ʼn internasionale konferensie van
psigoanaliste in Kaapstad in 1998 waar sy gevra is of Eugene de Kock
nie dalk besig is om haar te manipuleer nie. Voordat sy kon antwoord,
reageer die konstitusionelehof-regter Albie Sachs. “Sachs spoke about
how important it was ‘to see these men’s humanity,’ and how much our