To Reconcile, or Not to Reconcile – That is the Question!
With apartheid termination in South Africa, the government was finally negated from discriminating against its colored citizens solely based on the color of their skin. This was primarily due to the valiant efforts made by Nelson Mandela and his campaign, allowing it so that racism was mostly expunged from their society. Due to this change, many black South African’s feel like the change imposed on their nation was not enough. Many of those who were victimized to the highest degree directly and indirectly feel like they deserve some sort of compensation – or reparations. However, the question her in lies – if South Africa qualifies to be granted reparations, what kind of reparations should be given for the discrimination that were presented during the harsh times of the South African apartheid?
Apartheid in South Africa was a policy of system of segregation or discrimination on the grounds of race. In this case, the split was between the colored and the white people of South Africa, the colored bring the ones discriminated. Trevor Noah who is now a successful political comedian, was one of those who was affected by the laws that discriminated against people of color back when apartheid was at a rise in South Africa. Noah explains in his interview with the Breakfast Club that, “apartheid was basically a system of laws in South Africa; a system of laws designed to oppress people of color, and all people of color” (Trevor Noah Talks Tomi Lahren, Donald Trump, Racism In America & More). It is critical that we understand what apartheid was before discussing the potential reparations that may be distributed to those victimized by this system of laws. These laws did not only target those who were black, however targeted anyone who wasn’t white. I believe that this key point is often missed when talking about apartheid, for many we believe that only the black population was targeted. This style of targeted aggression, often leads to activists pushing for reparations for the group(s) that were victimized, but many of those activists fail to understand the kinds of reparations that can be granted to reconcile the split groups.
Reparations can come in many shapes and sized. Meriam-Webster’s definition of reparations says reparations is the act of making amends, offering expiation, or giving satisfaction for a wrong or injury (“Reparation” 1). This means that monetary reparations, or reparations given purely as money, is not the only way to compensate for one party’s wrongdoings. This opens the board for a whole array of reparations that can be granted to the colored people of South Africa. The South African government can issue services instead of monetary compensation if it proves to be an adequate form of reparation. It would be hard to understand what the victims of apartheid wanted, for there is such a large population of them and different people within want different forms of reparations. However, when it comes to the general vote, it doesn’t matter what they get so long as it truly symbolized the effort made by the South African government to reconcile with the victims of apartheid.
Many from the South African government believe that the reparation should be handed out in the form of money. Monetary reparations have been a solid way to compensate the second party for the first party’s wrongdoings. A very popular way to compensate the second party is to use a percentage of the tax money paid by the first party as a form of a monetary reparation. Henri E. Cauvin’s article, “Taxes Are Helping Right Some of Apartheid’s Old Wrongs”, presents this form of reparations concisely. Henri E. Cauvin is an affiliate to the New York Times and the Washington Post and often writes about incidents that involved public crimes. Cauvin’s article is very thorough in the issue of how wealthy taxpayers are not following the systems rule to further aid the government in compensating the people victimized by apartheid. In one of his lines, Cauvin expresses a large problem that is preventing further compensation of the colored people effected greatly by apartheid: “The wealthy are finding their assets scrutinized as never before. Investigators armed with newly acquired software, for example, are cross-checking individual tax returns with home and car ownership records and turning up lots of people living beyond their declared means” (Cauvin 1). From this you can see that the rich have been dodging the proper ways to pay taxes, in which those taxes could have been used as a form of monetary reparations towards the victims of apartheid. If the wealthy had paid their proper amount of taxes, it would be way easier for the South African government to use that tax money to instill a plan that compensated the victims of apartheid. It is as if the people on the other side of apartheid, does not feel an ounce of remorse for the victims. Can reparations be even attainable with this kind of attitude exhibited by the side that was not victimized?
In certainty, actions or words of some cannot represent an entire population. Just because a couple of people may feel like reparations are not need, doesn’t mean everyone thinks so. However, reconciliation is the goal here even if it means that the reparations are minimal. To reconcile means to restore friendly relations between two parties or people. Reparations play such a large part in that because, “the people of South Africa who were effected negatively believe that without seeing real material transformation in their lives, “you can kiss reconciliation good-bye”” (Thurow 1). This means the monetary reparations are not the only method of reparations the South African government can grant. Services may prove to be a fair way to compensate for the wrongs of apartheid. Roger Thurow has written for the Wall Street Journal many of times. In Thurow’s article, “Truth & Reconciliation – Healing Pains: South Africa Shows Just How Tricky Is Reconciliation’s Path – A Truth Commission Pried into Apartheid Horrors, But What of Justice’?” he brings up a group called the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC). This commission was formed to deliver justice to those harmed by apartheid, and judgement to those who dealt that harm. This brings up the question, what impact did the TRC have on the continuous effort to grant reparations to the victims of apartheid?
Now that we know the two prominent types of reparations that can be granted, let’s dwell into the groups or committees that devote themselves to help aid the minority that was targeted by apartheid. Ron Krabill, a professor at the University of Washington, wrote “Symbiosis: mass media and the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of South Africa” and explained the impacts of this group. He expressed that “the TRC has become the symbol and lightning rod for the ‘new’ South Africa’s attempt to both look back and move forward” (Krabill 1). This sounds like great news; however, no real part of the government has developed a symbiotic relationship to the TRC as strong as its relationship to the South African mass media. This is because mass media plays such a large roll in securing any hopes for the South African government to reconcile with the victims of apartheid. Mass media offers TRC a platform in which they can effectively broadcast victims of gross violations of human rights (Krabill 2). Aside from mass media within South Africa, mass media that is broadcasted outside of the country’s borders also play a crucial role in strengthening relations between the colored and white people.
Krabill suggested in his text that without the help of the media, groups within South Africa such as the TRC would have had a harder time broadcasting the effects of apartheid to the rest of the country and to the rest of the world. However, this begs the question – if the atrocities of apartheid were being broadcasted to other nations, why was the world late to respond to the segregation that was happening at the time in South Africa? Trevor Noah in his interview with the Breakfast Club brings up a really interesting point, “I think most importantly the thing that a lot of people don’t realize is – apartheid essentially was perfect racism. The South African government actually setup a commission to go around the world to study racism, and America was once of the places they came” (Trevor Noah Talks Tomi Lahren, Donald Trump, Racism In America & More). I believe that this is one of the reasons why the world (particularly America) stood still when apartheid was at its prime. Narrowing it down to the United States, America as a nation was also at the time recovering from the end of their own era of slavery. For America to immediately give their insight on South African apartheid, would have been out of place. More importantly, those who criticize whether victims of apartheid deserve reparations or not, are even more out of place because those who make that statement most likely have not experienced the harsh reality those who were victimized have.
Knowing is half the battle. Informing ourselves of the harsh realities of apartheid in South Africa would grant us insight on why those who were victimized deserve reparations for what they experienced. A magazine called the Christian Century, wrote about apartheid testimonials on the human right violations committed during the time. The article wrote about the TRC and their hearings in which many gave testimonies about the atrocities committed during apartheid in South Africa. An example of such a testimony would be:
“Another witness, former Robben Island prisoner Singqokwana Malgas, wheelchair-bound, gave a sobering account of three decades of detention, harassment and police torture. His son died after acid was poured over him. During the testimony, Archbishop Tutu dropped his head on his arms and wept openly after Malgas himself broke down. The archbishop was unable to voice the closing words, and his deputy quickly ended the session” (Century 1).
This was only one testimony out of about a thousand that was heard during the TRC’s hearing. These atrocities aren’t to be taken lightly, and can be considered in violation of human rights.
Alongside with the police brutality and unethical abuse, practical actions such as interracial marriage was against the law. What is even worse is if the two involved in the interracial marriage have a baby. Trevor Noah puts it as, “being a crime for being born” (Trevor Noah Talks Growing Up In Apartheid | The View). Apartheid was so prominent and perfect, that it even segregated the black population among itself. On his interview on the show The View, Trevor goes into detail on some of the incidents he had faced when traveling with his mother. Trevor states, “apartheid wasn’t just about separating black and white – it was convincing that black and black were different from each other and that’s what hatred is based on, blaming other people for the ills of society” (Trevor Noah Talks Growing Up In Apartheid | The View). He brings up the example of a taxi ride him and his mother had gotten into and the black man who was driving the taxi threatened his mother, telling her she should be killed for having an interracial marriage and a son on top of that. Shortly after, he and his mother barrel rolled out of the taxi for the driver didn’t stop at any point post conversation. For the colored to survive, not only did they have to dodge the judgements of white people, but black people as well. It is almost as if a part of the colored population sided with apartheid to avoid radical changes and/or punishment for siding with the group opposite of pro-apartheid (victims). Even if you wanted to fight apartheid, print media made it very hard to have your voice heard.
The role of the print media during apartheid played a large part during the apartheid era. A strong characteristic of all state propaganda is its ability, as ideology, to legitimize and validate itself. The system of apartheid rested on the notion of ‘separate, but equal’ where the separation was justified. The role of apartheid propaganda was to continually assert separation as a legit necessity to hide the inequality with distortions and myths which would aim to satisfy all South Africans. Edward Bird, who has written about and critiqued the TRC and its policies also wrote the article “The Role of the Print Media During the Apartheid Era.” He states, “for most South Africans, their own lived experiences very quickly taught them the hollowness of assertions of tribal and racial separation, cultural difference and educational equality” (Bird 2). This shows that it was very difficult to grasp the fact that they were in fact being segregated, and nothing was equal, even though the government made it seem like the ‘separate but equal’ policy still existed. Bird’s research also identified ways in which the unequal status of blacks and whites in South African society was articulated within the press coverage. Print media used to desensitize the people of South Africa of the violence that was happening towards the black population. The media would often report on the deaths of white people, and leave the deaths of the black population as a statistic or a number, reducing them to an unidentifiable mass. The media also overexaggerated the apartheid protests, often labeling those who were protesting as mobs in various manifestations which continued to threaten the social order. The media worked to maintain the position of black South Africans, fighting for their basic human rights, as a subversive and dangerous force. Knowing all of this, it seems like the media and the state had one goal in mind – to try as hard as they can to make it seem like the black population was a bunch of bigoted individuals who only wanted things done their way, thus criminalizing them.
A common way of representing protest activity in the press was to criminalize it. Bird stated, “thus protesting students became marauding mobs and looters and strikers became intimidators, saboteurs and murderers. This can be linked to the state’s criminalization of black oppositional activity by legislating ways to contain and limit such activity” (Bird 3). According to this, the black population that protested all seemed like they were out only for themselves and to cause chaos. Aside from the black population being abused physically – apartheid attacked them by portraying them as savages, and people deserving of apartheids rules. This was an effortless way to let the world know why apartheid was being implemented. If other countries or governments questioned South Africa’s apartheid laws, all they would have to do is show them the media and use that to justify their actions, because the black population was portrayed very poorly. During this time, that black population needed the media’s help to get their message across, however the media failed to challenge and oppose human rights violations. The government’s aim was to starve the public of news and ideas which undermined and threatened the apartheid system. Bird made it very clear that this censoring of information, as well as the many other abuses of human rights had a direct influence on the functioning of the media and demanded that these infringements be challenged; in which they were by the TRC later in the apartheid era.
All in all, it seems logical now to grant reparations to those victimized to the high degree during apartheid. After reviewing testimonials and statements from those who have suffered for apartheids segregation laws and brutality, it has been made clear that those who claim to be victims of apartheid, aren’t just playing victim to reap the benefits. Cauvin’s idea of giving the oppressed people of South Africa a monetary reparation was a step in the right direction. Giving those who were not oppressed a slightly higher tax rate can help the South African government accumulate the money to distribute, to those who were victims of apartheids atrocities. If that methods proves to be inconsistent, South Africa can adopt Thurow’s idea of granting services as a form of reparation. In both ways, it would show that South Africa has interests to further reconcile with the victims of apartheid, for that is the goal. Reconciliation doesn’t however require reparations – but can be made way easier with them. I personally believe that this issue cannot be solved overnight. It is going to take a lot of people and a lot of will power to consider the path of reparations to be an effective one to reconcile the people of South Africa. Government groups like the TRC are working relentlessly alongside the media to try to help the victims of apartheid gain compensation for what they have suffered and sacrificed. If everyone is as proactive as the TRC, I am certain that reparations will be granted and the people of South Africa will be reconciled in good terms.
Citations
Bird, Edward. The Role Of The Print Media During The Apartheid Era. 1st ed. 2017.
Print.
Cauvin, Henri E. “Taxes Are Helping Right Some of Apartheid’s Old Wrongs.( South
Africa Revenue Service).” The New York Times. Vol. 151. N.p.: n.p., 2002. 3.
Print.
Krabill, Ron. “Symbiosis: Mass Media and the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of
South Africa.” Media, Culture & Society 23.5 (2001): 567. Print.
Little, Adrian, Sarah Maddison, and Fanie Du Toit. “A Broken Promise? Evaluating
South Africa’s Reconciliation Process Twenty Years on.” International Political
Science Review 38.2 (2017): 169-84. Print.
“Reparation.” Merriam-Webster. Merriam-Webster, n.d. Web. 21 Apr. 2017.
The Christian Century “Truth-telling in South Africa. (testimony on Human-rights
Violations during Apartheid).” 113.16 (1996): 503. Web.
Thurow, Roger. “Truth & Reconciliation — Healing Pains: South Africa Shows Just How
Tricky Is Reconciliation’s Path — A Truth Commission Pried Into Apartheid
Horrors, But What of Justice’? — A Blind Man Grows Restless.” Wall Street
Journal. New York, N.Y.: n.p., 2000. A.1. Print.
Trevor Noah Talks Growing Up In Apartheid | The View. Perf. Trevor Noah and The
View. The View, 17 Feb. 2017. Web. 21 Apr. 2017.
Trevor Noah Talks Tomi Lahren, Donald Trump, Racism In America & More. Perf.
Trevor Noah and The Breakfast Club. The Breakfast Club, 7 Dec. 2016. Web. 21
Apr. 2017.
Cover Letter:
While researching this topic to answer my intellectual problem, I found a lot of information that was very interesting to read. I now know the struggles and atrocities that victims of South African apartheid had to go through and found many reasons into why they deserve reparations from the South African government. When it came to peer review, my partners really helped me carve out a path that I can follow to ultimately answer my intellectual problem. With all my sources, I could properly grasp the magnitude of the situation that surrounded reparations and apartheid. My exhibit of Trevor Noah gave me a real-life example of someone who had gone through the harsh times of apartheid. It provides a reliable source to narrow my research down into even more angles. Overall, this paper was a pleasant experience to write and research about.