The Timbuktu Syllabus (Part 5)

This is a thread for every black South African. Understanding how we got here.

"How Black SA Became Poor."

Before all this...

we were wealthy in our definition of wealth.

The bantu tribes of South Africa have always been known as Mixed Farmers (livestock and crop farmers) long before the Dutch arrived in 1652...

Now I always teach that no race or people are born greater than the other. It's all about experience.

Imagine Johann Rupert as a Zulu king. Or balance a bucket on a white woman's head.

Wealth is Eurocentric in modern world, hence, putting the European at an advantage.

Reason why I never overlook the privileges I had to start my business, that other kids didn't...

Transport
Tribal land
A market from Spar
A loan from parents

This is why I always advocate that other kids be afforded opportunities to build from. Instead of saying "do something"

1st economic defeat: Isolation

In about 2500 BC, the dessert in North Africa started expanding.

At the time, black people, being a people of livestock and agriculture

Started migrating southwards, in search for greener land, abandoning the north.

The dessert of North Africa separated us from European and Asian interactions and civilisation.

Secondly, the Congo Basin, the world's largest rainforest, a huge dark forest in central Africa many would seldom cross through.

Because of these two factors, we became isolated from most civilisations taking place in Europe, Asia and the Middle East.

This made us complacent in our oblivion.

Knowledge was transferred orally, instead of writing and recording our discoveries and studies.

For example, Scottish medical Anthropologist Robert Falcon, back in 1800s, witnessed an African tribe perform a perfect C-section without Western medicine...

This took place in Bunyoro, Uganda. Proof that Medical knowledge was a huge part of Africa. But never in writing.

Or the architectural magnificence of the Great Zimbabwe ruins...

A stone kingdom from a thousand years ago. A structure build without mortar, just stone.

To this day, no building can be constructed without cement.

But none of that science was written or recorded.

The VOC Dutch company that brought Jan Van Riebeeck to Cape Town...

was the founding company of the modern day stock market.

Their economy was already modernised. Ours traditional.

Another example of white lady with a bucket. Us being the lady in this case.

2nd defeat: Impoverishment

Some might know about the story of Nongqawuse...

The propaganda prophecy that led to the Xhosa people slaughtering half a million of their cattle

After that, many Xhosa people became poor and submitted to the British as domestic workers and servants

This is not new, when the British couldn't defeat the natives of America (Red Indians)...

They slaughtered their source of survival, the Bison.

Almost 30 million buffaloes killed, until on 1000 remained.

See if white people want to control you, they impoverish you.

The Xhosa King, Hintsa died trying to protect the wealth of his people...

Under the command of Sir D Urban, Hintsa's head was chopped off and sent to Scotland, after refusing to give 50 thousand Xhosa cattle to the British.

Today, Durban is named after Sir D Urban.

The 1913 Land Act set aside 7.5% of land for black people.

Also, all the good land was given to the white farmers.

In the 1960s, my Dad, 6 at the time, recalls how they were kicked out their home. They were told to go find a new place to stay. Their homeland became a farm.

3rd defeat: Privilege

after the Anglo-Boer war (1899-1902)

The Boeres came out of this war defeated and poor, referred to by the British as "the disgraceful whites"

A stigmatised version of whites.

The British mine owners didn't want them as workers, considered them lazy and unreliable. They preferred black workers instead.

This created jealousy and hatred towards black people by the boer, a jealousy which would later become Apartheid.

The Rand Revolt of 1922...

with the outcry "Workers of the world, unite and fight for a white South Africa!"

Black people were killed by whites during this revolt for occupying "white"jobs.

And as Afrikanerdom became more powerful, many black people were fired, their jobs taken by Afrikaaners.

The job reservations Act of 1957 aimed to raise the wages of semi-skilled white workers to a civilised level.

White people became underskilled as time would go.

Motive of Apartheid government, to offer black people a skill good enough to slave for the white man.

In business, black people were left out of the mainstream economy. In manufacturing, Commerce, Mining, etc...

It is for this reason why to this day all our cultural foods are still manufactured by whites.

E.g Mageu, Amarula, Mabele (by Rupert) Amasi(Danone)

5th: The mind

No job, no wealth (livestock/land), poor skills, no business experience....

was completed by Bantu Education

"There is no place for blacks in the white community above the level of certain forms of labour ... Why teach blacks science and mathematics?" -Verwoerd

Bantu Education was designed to subjugate us. All we were taught was to serve the white man...

To this day our parents say "funda, uzothola umsebenzi ebelungwini"

To this day bantu education continues in informal areas.

The unconscious mind of a black child today, oblivious to all these truths, only sees "white success", "black defeat"...

She goes to pursue everything white. Be it clothing, lifestyle, looks.

The whiter she becomes, the less black and defeated feels.

Democracy

The Group Areas Act of 1950 encourage seperate developments, mainstream economy for whites. Rural for blacks.

Then in 1994...

All the Billion Rand whites invaded the entire black economy, killing all black businesses

That's why Shoprite became rich after democracy.

End of Part 5

Till we meet again on another 9am for Part 6. Take care