What about the rainbow nation?

Bram Vermeulen, not the singer, but a South Africa commentator wrote a book in Dutch in 2009: Help, ik ben blank geworden.

Being published in 2009 the book gives recent information on the South African situation. Most of the information is embedded in personal experiences of the author. He says about himself that he ‘became one of the black people, studied a lot about the country, learnt the Zulu language’.

Most striking for me – I thought I had already noticed it here – is the clear separation between black and white. You can see it in the where, the how, the what. White people live and work in other places. White people have different functions. Most of the time white people are in dominant positions. White people drive a car, black people walk.

Twenty years after 1994, liberation of Mandela, that is what Vermeulen also writes, there is no much change. Too little change. Articles in the international press on the occasion of Mandela’s death  confirm this. At some universities a movement like September National Imbizo wants the blacks to learn how to empower themselves.

In big cities there is a lot of rage, fear and hate. Twenty years after 1994 Vermeulen writes about rage. Rage of the blacks because the Dutch invaded their country in the 17th century, rage of the Dutch and the blacks because the English invaded their country in the 19th century, rage of the poor against the rich.

Fear goes together with rage and hate and violence and crime. Violence and crime in all social groups. The higher the social group, the worse the crime is. The more precious things are, the harder the fights are. There is gold and platina. Money, gold, women, everything you can have a trade in and people can be killed for. It happens throughout the world and in some towns more than in other ones.

I could summarize and say that it could be a matter of haves and have nots. I have the impression that have often equals white, and have not often equals black.

In this surrounding I already see publicity for the coming elections. Among pictures of male candidates I also saw one woman. I have the impression that African women can be strong and clever enough to be a member of the government, even to become a president.