South Africa’s grey areas

• White farmers under a black president

The matter of right and wrong is sometimes obscured in hundreds of years of historic process. Similar is the plight of white South-African farmers. These farmers are getting their lands confiscated by a government hurrying to implement land reforms without any plan for compensation. For the majority black population of South-Africa these white farmers are the remnants of colonial oppression and the injustices done during the Apartheid. The white farmers on the other hand have known no other life since generations, and farming and South-Africa both come to them as natural as breathing in fresh air.

The native black tribes of this resource rich nation suffered a great deal at the hands of white colonial forces of Dutch and, later, English origins. In this part of Africa, in classic European colonial fashion, with bible in their left hand and gun in their right, the white population enforced their language, culture, and the Christian religion that they had started calling their own after they had only recently, in historic perspective, left their caves and pagan beliefs as a consequence of interacting with the civilised world of religion and culture. While the colonial footprint in South Africa can be traced back to 17^th century, it was only under British flag in 19^th century that the discovery of diamond and gold meant that the civilised Europe’s hunger was to spread its evil tentacles further, and for longer, to form a complex, multi-racial society in what we now know as South Africa.

Before the discovery of the precious stones and metals the most sought after resource in today’s South Africa was the trade of black men, women and children. War lords among the black tribes rose to the level of kings and conquered land and people to get the maximum out of this opportunity by selling the fellow humans to the white European buyers. Since there was a demand for human commodity hence the control over human catch was highly lucrative and initiated conflicts among black power groups which sometimes translated into decades of wars.

Through most of the colonial history of South-Africa there was a vibrant demand for the slaves from North America where Europeans were working hard on ethnic cleansing of native population, devouring their lives and liberty. Therefore, slave trade became an important economic tool for whites in South Africa. Since they always ran a surplus of trade goods, resultantly, white population could enjoy having many slave girls at their disposal which gave rise to a population of interracial “coloured people” who call South Africa their home to this day. Hitherto, Europe had not started preaching human rights, the prohibition of child marriage, and human trafficking etc, to the rest of the world. It was later in 20^th century that Britain was not only preaching these moral standards but was showing to rest of the world the horrors of such heinous acts in their own human laboratory called South Africa — true to the spirit of scientific experimentation.

Not surprisingly, less than 35 years after the end of apartheid, white farmers cannot see being handed over a clean sheet and being allowed to continue on their merry ways

Recently, Theresa May was pictured inside Nelson Mandela’s prison cell. Mandela was the proud occupant of this cell during apartheid. Ironically, when Mandela was locked up in that cell Theresa May’s party called him a murderer and a terrorist. Such shameless hypocrisy has always been a hallmark of colonial and post-colonial Europe. Anyone who comes in the way of their hunger, whether it be for oil, diamonds or gold, has always been termed a terrorist!

Apartheid, a system of segregation of black and white population, continued for almost 50 years in South-Africa ending in 1994. Under apartheid black and coloured population of South Africa would sometime have less rights than the pets of their white masters. End of apartheid was the start of a new era for South-Africa. The black South-Africans were now free to keep beating the drums of success in a democratic setup as they could now vote a black man into office, courtesy their majority. On the other hand, gold and diamond mines were left in the hands of white-dominated multinationals along with most of the farming land. As a result, to this day, industry, commerce and trade in South-Africa is controlled by white population. A hollow victory of black majority was never going to hinder the economic superiority that whites enjoyed, as a race, over the black population. The white population could keep most of what they had amassed during a long era of oppression and barbarism and could collaborate among themselves to increase their fortunes. Today, white South-African farmers cannot alienate themselves from the fact that they occupy the farming lands as a direct result of brutal, oppressive and racist colonial and post-colonial regimes of the past. Under these circumstances, land reforms in South-Africa have made its black president a terrorist in making. Despite the end of apartheid, if blacks can be punished for displeasing whites then it clearly shows that black population is still under a post-colonial modern slavery enforced by means of economic strangulation. Such punishment is visible in the form of currency devaluation and proposed trade sanctions. Perhaps, this is why the South-African president feels a need to empower black people in agriculture sector, for a start, so that blacks become the masters of their destiny and do not fear displeasing their white masters.

Not surprisingly, less than 35 years after the end of apartheid, white farmers cannot see being handed over a clean sheet and being allowed to continue on their merry ways. If the economic and social segregation was to end with the apartheid, these land reforms should have been initiated much earlier. One wonders if Nelson Mandela had insisted on the same, could he ever come out of his prison cell. One thing is for sure, had Mandela demanded land reforms and independent economy in its true spirit, Theresa May’s party would still be calling him a terrorist and an obstacle in the peace process which could end the misery of black people.

While blacks have suffered a lot at the hands of white colonial forces, still, the land reforms cannot be synonymous with land grab and white farmers should ideally be compensated with some part of the land that they occupy or an equal monetary settlement. Also, land reforms should not take place in a hostile environment where both life and honour of white farmers is at stake. Moreover, it remains to be seen if the white economic cabal in agriculture sector is replaced by an equally disastrous select minority of black beneficiaries or that the South-Africa’s poor benefit from these land reforms.