Lesson for the real world

I was not a particularly good high school student. Mum says it's because I was bored and she is right, I just didn't find much of the content all that interesting or consider it particularly relevant for my future. So by and large, I tuned out. But there was one lesson that I do distinctly remember, it is still clear to this day and it's relevance has become much deeper over time.

It was just another ordinary school day sometime in 1984 and I am sitting in the auditorium next to the library. I recall being towards the back because there was a TV on and the lesson was to watch the program BTN (Behind the News) and write our thoughts about it. The back was where I usually sat but on this day I was drawn to what was on TV and had to move to see it in more detail. They were talking about this thing that was happening in another part of the world, where white people and black people all lived in the same place but they had two sets of rules. The whites could do whatever they wanted to but the blacks were not allowed. There were suburbs only for the whites and the blacks had to live where they were told to live, and the thing I remember the most was that there were white buses and black buses and the blacks were not allowed on the white bus and the whites didn't want to go on the black one. At the end there were lots of questions and mostly around whether it was ever going to change, with the sentiment that day being that it wouldn't. White people are the superior skin colour and thats life. This was my first introduction to Apartheid and a lesson I would keep in my mind indefinitely. As a 13 year old all I remember thinking at the time was thank god I am white.

Fast forward to another ordinary day in August 2017 and I find myself on Constitution Hill in Johannesburg. It was here that Nelson Mandela spent part of his prison time but also a place where ordinary citizens were imprisoned and dished out regular punishments in accordance with their skin colour. The white prisoners were protected and fed well, the coloureds and Indians (thanks to Mahatma Ghandi) had half the rights but the black Africans were publicly humiliated and starved. Long periods in solitary confinement were common with no real crime being committed. To pass the time and make their lives easier they created artworks out of their blankets and the guards would judge the art each week with the winner being provided with a little bit more food.

Nelson Mandela was a strong freedom fighter for his people. Much has been documented about the Nobel Peace prize winner and his long and tiring fight (or walk) to freedom. He deserves every accolade he has ever received and there would be few people who have lived that have made such a significant contribution to human rights. But today it occurred to me when I saw a young white school girl put her arm around the shoulders of her black friend, did even Nelson Mandela have any idea that he was not just liberating his own people but everyone who would live in the future South Africa? I am not sure even the great man himself could have foreseen that outcome.

So to my class of 1984, actually things did change. Apartheid was abolished in 1990, there were 4 years of civil unrest where more people died post Apartheid than during that period and during that time there was a change in the government leadership which resulted in Nelson Mandela being released unconditionally and taking a seat in parliament. The peace negotiations began and in 1994, the ANC lead by Mandela won the first democratic vote in South Africa. He finally saw his dream to lead the country and the benefits can been seen clearly today. That is not to say that there isn't still a divide but it's no longer legislative and really it's still early days.

Oh and one final thing. Nelson Mandela didn't win the Nobel Peace Prize on his own. He shared it jointly with the white leader FW De Klerk who stood bravely to reject the ways of his people in order for all South Africans to experience freedom. He deserves a notable mention too.Read more