Olifant

Through discussions I'm starting to see why there's a lack of communication between myself and others concerning black and white issues in Africa and mainly it is a lack of understanding of what the objectives of Apartheid really were.

In the United States (since most recognise their scenario better and Apartheid is wrongly linked to their history) segregation was enforced by law and sought to remove citizens of the United States from the political spectrum of the United States but keep them completely integrated in the US economy. For that reason it was blatantly racist because it effected unfair treatment of the Government to some of its citizens based on colour.

In South Africa the objective of Apartheid was not political domination though certainly the ineffective practice of the theory led to this.

In the beginning Afrikaners merely wanted to remove blacks from our country and to do this the theory called for separation of economy and freedoms. That is to say in perfect practice the Afrikaner government would have had no authority over blacks and they would not exist in South African society they would be in their own native lands.

This didn't happen for a number of reasons - first when it was begun the cities already were dominantly black - second Afrikaner nationalism was not popular even among whites and had an english government or the Smuts government retained power then Apartheid would never have begun.

Weighted by the problems of the fact that blacks had become well integrated into the economy of the cities once implemented there was no going back.

Afrikaner dominance of the nation we'd won at last (Afrikaners had been fighting for independence for 100 years by then) the management of Apartheid restricted Afrikaners to only one course.

To continue increasing its effects.

This proved impossible (obviously) because Afrikaner economics did not properly address the gap of labour when blacks were removed from white businesses and farms. Because of the theory of Apartheid (again seperate economies mean seperate societies) black areas were under developed due to lack of investment from wealthier european areas.

The result was that blacks ironically became dependent upon the white economy rather than independent from this economy.

Because Afrikaner power was now forcibly and directly linked to Apartheid, what began as an effort to separate society now became an effort to segregate society.

There was no choice but to either lose power or to maintain a racist policy.

Eventually international pressures collapsed the system pre-maturely, the Apartheid lasted only 20 years before it met resistence from even the staunchest Afrikaners, but it was another 30 years before Afrikaners could finally capitulate and even then it wasn't done slow enough.

It was a mistake in 1992 to have a vote for popular rule - the vote should have been held off or the vote should only have set a date for an intended integration.

Granting blacks equal citizenship by a set quota per year for a set number of years and then universal integration after that would have eased economic social and political burdens that have occurred now.

Now instead the country is upside-down and englishmen who supported the end of Apartheid since its beginning find themselves under the same boot as the Afrikaners.

If this will fade over time as integration continues or if it will get worse is yet to be seen...

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"The biggest failure of Democracy in Africa is that unsophisticated, illiterate, uninformed and easily influenced citizens can replace those that fully sustain them with others that fully impoverish them." -- Unknown