Finding Truth

Nadine Gordimer is outraged at the atrocities that have taken place in Africa in the name of colonization. The short stories we’ve read focus specifically on the Apartheid, which were the heinous acts of segregation that took place in South Africa. Legislation was passed that laid out a system for racial segregation that was legal. People were separated based on one of four classifications: white, colored, black, or Indian. The category you fell under, determined everything about your life; where you lived, traveled, what kind of job you could hold, etc... Each person was required to have papers that stated who they were and where they were allowed to be. Breaking the rules was not an option. This system favored those who were white and greatly discriminated against those who were not. Gordimer, a white woman, was outraged by this, as everyone should be!

It makes me very sad that at almost 26 years of age, I am just learning about the atrocities that have taken place in Africa in the name of colonization. Many people would say that being industrialized is a sign of a great nation. This leads me to the question; what is a nation? Without people there is no such thing as a nation. Material possessions, giant cities with hundreds of skyscrapers, technological and scientific advances do not make a nation, it is the people who make the nation. People are not perfect and make mistakes. Through ignorance people can do some very atrocious things and truly believe that they are right. The beauty of being human is that we can learn from mistakes, whether ours or others, and become better people because of them.

When colonization becomes the focus of people they become obsessed with money and power, humans are completely lost in the background. In the stories, “Good Climate, Friendly Inhabitants,” “Amnesty,” and “Six Feet of the Country” Gordimer demonstrates the ridiculousness of the Apartheid and how out of control the system was. She also, shows the different types of people who lived during the Apartheid. First we have the two white Africans and the black African from “Good Climate, Friendly Inhabitants.” The two white Africans took advantage of people and tried to make their lives and Apartheid make sense. The black African treated people like fellow humans, even if they didn’t deserve to be treated so nicely. He remained true to who he was and did not try to become something else. In “Amnesty,” you have the hero focused on ending the injustice and make life better for all people. Then there are the women, who sit at home, patiently waiting for their men to come home. They are the unsung heroes of the Apartheid, no matter how hard it was, they continued on with life and remained the strength behind the men fighting. The last story, “Six Feet of the Country,” there is the racist white “farmer,” who was there to make money and use the Africans, the wife, who was a white person tried to treat people equally, and the Africans, who were stuck in this seemingly endless cycle of abuse. Sadly, these are all types of people that we still see in our world today.

A few days ago I was talking to an acquaintance of mine, he had asked about my classes and I started telling him about this one. Over the years, I have friends who have become very active in bringing awareness to issues in Africa. As a result, I am familiar with some of the difficulties of life there, but I don’t know enough of the history to really talk about it. So, I was pretty excited to actually know what I was talking about. However, my mood, quickly changed from excitement to complete and utter disgust! He is one of those people who thinks he knows everything and before I could finish describing the class, he cut me off and started talking. I wouldn't have really minded if what came out of his mouth was not complete arrogance and stupidity. He went on some rant about how the problems in Africa are their own fault and how that they enslaved themselves and brought everything on themselves. Yes, I am well aware that some Africans sold each other during the slave trade to the New World. However, that does not in any way at all, ever (!) justify what was done to the Africans! And the logic of his argument confused me greatly.  Essentially he was saying, "Oh! Well, these people are going to treat each other badly, so we might as well do it, too!" What?! This made me very angry for a little while, but then I felt sorry for him. He is a very educated person and is quite smart; however, he was still so ignorant. He has only learned what has been taught to him. I do know that he does a lot of study on his own, but it has all been spurred by what he already knew. He simply studied more of the opinions of others, rather than learning/finding the facts for himself.

In my sociology class we have been talking about how our experiences in life or lack of affect our view of the world. Ah... so true. If I never venture outside of my own comfort zone, then I will have a very limited and ignorant view of the world. When I lived in Taiwan there was an African-American girl on my team. The Taiwanese kids and sometimes adults were terrified of her. It took some time, but we convinced them that she was a really nice person. Slowly they broke past their fear of her and started talking to her. They quickly discovered that what they thought of her was very wrong and that she was indeed a normal person, like the rest of us, just with dark skin. Their lives were changed in a very unique way. They began to then question stereotypes they had of different races, wondering if those people were really like that, or if they were also, just normal people. They began to educate themselves and opened up their world view, rejecting the ignorance of what they had been taught and finding truth.