Reflections on South African Apartheid Anna Griffith Fillipo

South African Apartheid will forever scar the history of this country. Discrimination against blacks has always been theme throughout the white world, but the Dutch Afrikaners of South Africa took this discrimination a step further. South Africa was completely segregated, and whites took special precautions to ensure this, such as making separate homelands to force blacks into the bad parts of the country and away from whites. Anything that could be controlled by the white minority was, and blacks were forced into virtual slavery for nearly 50 years.
The effects of apartheid were felt across the world. This cruel oppression was an outrage and reason for protest for many people in Western countries. Apartheid had a huge influence across the globe, and its influence can still be felt today in not only movement for civil reform, but in culture.

A Personal Fight Against Apartheid: Interview with Alan Aderem
Alan Aderem grew up as a white in South Africa during apartheid, and now lives in the United States. He spent his youth in South Africa fighting apartheid, and had to leave for that reason. He remains involved as a proud supporter of the new South African Government.

Alan Aderem was born in Karoo, a smaller town located in the semi desert part of South Africa. When he was 12, his family moved to Capetown. His young childhood was spent with black friends because as he explained, when you are young you don’t notice color, but as you grow and become aware of social norms, the separation of races is noted. Mr. Aderem grew up in a family that was very anti-apartheid. His biological mother was a doctor with a black practice, and a black woman, who he considered his other mother, mostly raised him. His biological mother’s strong moral protest of apartheid and the fact that someone he loved was treated poorly by all society made him aware of the social injustice of apartheid at a very young age. Mr. Aderem explains that on the most crude, basic level, apartheid just meant that black and whites were not allowed to be together, and blacks received the short end of the stick.

Mr. Aderem noted that as a white child, he always had much better resources than the blacks of his age. Even before he understood the apartheid system, he noticed the segregation as soon as school began. Blacks and whites went to different schools, and the white schools were far better than the black schools because the blacks were poor, and the whites could afford quality. Mr. Aderem remembers going to stores that had two entrances, one for whites and one for blacks. Within the store, he notes, there was a fence separating the white side and the poor quality merchandise on the black side. He explained that even if there were twenty black kids and only one white person waiting in line to be served, the white person would always be accommodated first. Mr. Aderem said that as soon as he realized these things, he developed a social conscious.

It was this social conscious that prompted him to take up anti-apartheid movement when he was just sixteen years of age. He started by becoming a member of the National Youth action and met up with black kids from townships to make little anti-apartheid newspapers. He then became involved in more assertive public demonstrations, such as going into the streets with banners, spurred by some issue such as a seemingly unnecessary arrest. These demonstrations were risky as he was often arrested and beaten up. He decided to protest differently, and at the age of twenty, he was recruited and became a member of the ANC (African National Congress). In the ANC, Mr. Aderem was involved with starting trade unions, which would disrupt the South African economy as it relied on black labor. This landed him in a lot of trouble as he put it, and at the age of twenty-three, he was arrested and imprisoned for five years after a protest right after the Soweto Uprising.

His imprisonment was brutal. The first part was the interrogation but Mr. Aderem says it could be considered torture, as the white authorities were willing to go to any lengths to get information on anti-apartheid movements. While imprisoned, they were four to a cell and treated particularly poorly because they were political prisoners. Mr. Aderem witnessed many protestors killed in prison, no matter what their race. After he served his five years in prison, he remained under house arrest for another year. He was banned from leaving or from talking to more than one person at a time to prevent conspiracy meetings. After this, Mr. Aderem was asked to leave the country by the ANC because he knew too much and was at risk. From South Africa at this point, he escaped to a neighboring country in exile, and from there traveled to London and then New York.

When asked about how South Africa was separated from the world, Mr. Aderem replied with the obvious lack of trade because of global disdain towards apartheid. He also explained how South Africa sport was affected because of separation. Apparently, South Africa was good at a number of sports, but no South African sports team was allowed to play anywhere else, and other sports teams would not come to South Africa. As a sports fan, this ostracism was one of them most noticed global consequences for Mr. Aderem.

Mr. Aderem reports that back in the 1960s, not very many white people knew about Nelson Mandela, but he was informed because of his mother’s early involvement in the anti-apartheid movement. Mr. Aderem looks up to Mandela hugely, mostly because of his original leadership in the ANC. Mr. Aderem explained that the most effective step in ending apartheid was the decision instigated by the ANC to make the country ungovernable through people’s uprisings starting with the Soweto Uprising and leading throughout the 1980s. Whites realized that they couldn’t hold on to power and they began making reforms. Mandela was in jail at this time, and Mr. Aderem explained that he refused to come out of jail until the ANC was unbound. When it was announced that Mandela was to be released, Mr. Aderem flew to South Africa. Ever since Mandela became president, and blacks were given political power, a vote, and representation, Mr. Aderem has been an advisor to the South African government. He is very interested in the HIV/AIDS impact, and works with the government commission to equalize health care. He expresses his concern for the number of problems that remain in rebuilding South Africa, but was pleased to report that since Mandela became president, over ten million houses have been built in the poor areas were blacks used to be sent.

Mr. Aderem stated that the end of apartheid was a great role model. He feels that the success of South Africa greatly rests in the amazing leadership skills of Nelson Mandela. This dismantling was extraordinarily important to the developing world to see that a country could be free. The relative peacefulness of the break down of apartheid (no war was fought to end it) demonstrated that radical political change could take place peacefully, he explained. The way South Africa was able to come together after apartheid, through the Truth and Reconciliation Commission was a good example for the rest of the world to follow, showing that things could be straightened out between major powers peacefully. Mr. Aderem also said how the constitution that was adopted after apartheid was very progressive and should be taken as an example for its liberal views on women’s rights and gay rights, aside from the obvious racial equality. In all, Mr. Aderem stressed the large effect that the end of apartheid had on people fighting their own freedom battles, and that they can overcome a stronger power with perseverance.

The major point that Mr. Aderem thinks should be taken away from the end of apartheid and the reconciliation of South Africa relates back to the basics of doing what is right and following your moral compass. He feels that the apartheid being overcome exemplifies the ideal that no matter what odds, an underdog can win, and no one should ever fall into something just because everyone else does, “do the right thing.”

Listening to Apartheid: Interview with Beverly Mendheim
Beverly Mendheim is a performer who is very familiar with African culture, music, and dance. In this interview, she expresses the effect that apartheid had on South African culture. We learn of apartheid's resounding influence on music across the world.

Ms. Mendheim started out by stating her extreme displeasure at never having personally visited South Africa. She would have liked to at some point while she was employed, but that was unfortunately during apartheid, and she didn’t want to support the South African economy while visiting. She also didn’t feel comfortable as a black person, visiting.

Ms. Mendheim started out by explaining the historical context of two major indigenous black groups that make up South Africa. These are the Swazi and the Sotho. She explained how these large groups of indigenous people were able to form their own nations during the height of apartheid, based on the “homelands” that were within South African borders. In 1966, Lesotho was formed by the Sotho people, a country entirely within South Africa, and in 1968, the Swazi formed Swaziland, a small country between South Africa and Mozambique. Both are recognized by the United Nations as countries. She explained that there was some debated between black and white scholars about the languages spoken in these areas. It is widely agreed however, she stated, that the languages the indigenous Khoi-Khoi spoke were Bantu, the largest groups being Xhosa and Zulu, along with Tswana, Ndebele, and Venda. Each of these language groups has a distinct culture, condensed by an apartheid made homeland, she informed me, and she happens to own a dance costume commonly worm among the Venda.

Traditional music across all homelands included no drums, rather a clapping or tapping of a shield. Ms. Mendheim explained, however, that the Dutch likely introduced drums from other parts of Africa, and then these Bantu speakers began to follow the commonality of drum use. String instruments are apparently very common, made out of traditional items such as a bow and arrow. Like the Dutch the Porteguese had European influence in South Africa, and they introduced the guitar. According to Ms. Mendheim, the guitar, along with drums, is a main theme in South African music now. One of Ms. Mendheim’s favorite musicians is South African, Miriam Makeba, and she preformed traditional songs of the Xhosa and Zulu peoples. South Africa is also famous for its choral harmonies, exemplified by the work of the Lady Smith Black Mambozo, who took traditional Bantu music and has now globalized it.

Perhaps the most famous example of the effect of homelands on traditional tribal music is that of township jive, Ms. Mendheim said. Township Jive directly reflected popular jazz music of the 1920s and ‘30s around the world, like Duke Ellington and Ella Fitzgerald. However, the people of the townships preformed this music in their own language. The jazzy undertones to their music developed into a new kind of music characterized as marabi or kwela. The Mahotella Queens, originally created in 1964, but still around today, one of Ms. Mendheim’s favorite groups, combined rock with the township jive as western culture began to seep into black South Africa through blacks working in the cities and returning back to their homelands. Ms. Mendheim explained that the wide spread of this new sound gave South Africa a new type of indigenous music that many Americans are familiar with today.

Apartheid directly affected the music scene in South Africa aside from the highly developed musical identities of the homelands. Ms. Mendheim proved this by listing off popular South African songs. The South African national anthem began as an ANC song, “Nkosi Sikelele Africa,” which translates as “God Bless Africa.” This song was originally an anti-apartheid protest song, which is how Ms. Menheim learned it in the 1980s. Another song she brought up related to apartheid was “Shosoloza.” Ms. Mendheim believes that this song is indirectly linked to apartheid because it talks about working in the mines, a job that blacks maintained with their apartheid-stunted education. Many other famous songs have come from South Africa, such as the “Wimoweh” song in the Lion King, which is in fact preformed by South African folk singers, right at the time when Nelson Mandela took power. Since the end of apartheid, South African folk singers have become abundantly featured in popular music all over the world, and Ms. Mendheim sampled a few of these songs in her own voice.

Ms. Mendheim informed me that apartheid had a great impact on the musical development of South Africa. She explained that there was very little radio in black South Africa until after World War II. It wasn’t until 1962 that there was actually widespread radio, when the government made Bantu Radio. This radio was propaganda to enforce separate development of Bantustans. For Swazi and Sotho people this was effective, she explained, because they stayed to themselves and managed to make separate countries. For Zulu and Xsotha peoples however, the issues of Bantustans made it hard for them to work in the cities, so the white culture diffused into the connective homelands.

Ms. Mendheim was very familiar with and introduced me to resources in the Seattle area where South African music can be heard. For instance, Mondays from 6-9pm on KEXP is a pop Africa radio show, and on KBCS from 6-9 there is often South African music. The most important thing that Ms. Mendheim wanted me to walk away from this interview with was music in other countries had a singular traditional sound, but the combination and condensed nature of the apartheid-forced homelands allowed South Africa to develop different musical and cultural identities across the entire country.

Apartheid Across the World: Interview with Drew Fillipo
Drew Fillipo is an American citizen and Quaker who has always been interested in African affairs. In this interview, he expresses the effects that apartheid had in the United States. As a Quaker, he reflects the outrage that peace and equality groups had towards this institution.

Reflecting on the impact of apartheid on the United States, Mr. Fillipo remembers the general outrage that was towards this institution. Mr. Fillipo reflects the demeanor of most Americans that it was appalling that 120-130 years after the United States’ own civil war against slavery, that the blacks in South Africa were still being treated like slaves. Equally appalling, he said, was that even after the United States’ recent civil rights movement, where blacks were a minority fighting for equal rights, in South Africa, the black majority still suffered severe segregation and oppression.

According to Mr. Fillipo, apartheid in South Africa caused continuous protest in the United States. As a college and grad-school student, Mr. Fillipo participated in many protests. He and many other students took special care to ensure that universities divested any support to South Africa. The goal of most Americans aware of the apartheid issue was to pressure the United States’ government to more strongly protest the South African government. With his university, and with many universities across the country, students like Mr. Fillipo encouraged their schools to give scholarships to black South Africans to be taught in the United States. This would give black South Africans a chance at education never presented in South Africa. By bringing kids to the United States, universities supported the leaders of peaceful protest in South Africa.

Explicitly as a Quaker, apartheid was an especially upsetting concept for Mr. Fillipo. As a group, Quakers are dedicated to achieving equality and peace, and this violent oppression of an entire race of people, led to many protests. Quakers were a large part of the National Anti-Apartheid rally held in October of 1985. Although Mr. Fillipo was not a part of this particular rally, his meeting discussed in great deal protests and some members did attend. In general, apartheid was a huge energizing point in the Quaker community to band together to support black South Africa, as apartheid embodied almost everything that Quakers were against.

In Mr. Fillipo’s non-political life, apartheid played a role as well. Mr. Fillipo refused to buy a diamond engagement ring because he was aware of the oppressed blacks working in the South African diamond mines, and he refused to provide economic stimulant towards the terrible conditions that black South Africans had to work in the diamond mines. Without education, mine jobs were the some of the only jobs they could achieve, and Mr. Fillipo expressed his disgust at the thought of encouraging more mine work by purchasing a diamond. Mr. Fillipo had visited Africa a few times in the 1980s and ‘90s, but once given an opportunity to work in South Africa, he turned it down. He wouldn’t be working in black hospitals, as those were paid with black taxes and very poor, and if he wasn’t directly helping the black people, Mr. Fillipo decided that he couldn’t support South Africa under apartheid. By working and living there, he would be aiding South Africa economically and just generally aiding a concept he believed was just completely morally unjust. Instead, Mr. Fillipo took a job in Kenya instead.
In this post-apartheid era, Mr. Fillipo is very impressed by black South Africa’s rise to power. He attributes this successful rebuilding of a government to Nelson Mandela. Mr. Fillipo says that Nelson Mandela coming to power was the greatest positive political event in his life. Mr. Fillipo reflects on how before Mandela became president, he was completely dismayed at how decades of struggle against the oppressive government had taught black South African’s violence, and left South Africa with extremely high murder rates. Mr. Fillipo says that without Mandela, no one could “expect people who have been denied basic human rights to know how to run a government,” but with Mandela as president South Africa was able to peaceably rise to a true democratic government.

Since the end of apartheid, Mr. Fillipo has traveled with his family to South Africa. He noted how economically solid South Africa is, and how well the government was able to sustain white economic value. Mr. Fillipo was glad to note that although black homeland areas are still impoverished, they have improved, and will only continue to in the future. He worries, however, for the South African identity. He noted that all place names are in English, Dutch or Afrikaner, with no Bantu or traditional African names. He does concede that it would be very difficult to completely develop a new country, and he only hopes that South Africa will be able to get back to some of its African roots.

Although he has nothing positive to say about apartheid or any of its repercussions, he notes that black South Africans who have moved to the United States from homelands have a “vibrant culture with wonderful music and dance,” that will now diffuse and become part of American culture.