The Timbuktu Syllabus part 8

Social Defeat

How Black SA men became violent

(Crime, GBV, Rape)

Before European settlement, tribes had scuffles that lasted a few hours.

Seldom was life lost in these conflicts. If ever life were to be lost, serious dialogue was due.

"What great is a disagreement worth taking a life?"

Life was overvalued. Only to be taken by the Ancestors.

The bantu tribes taught their young boys responsibility, bravery n respect.Protectors of tribe

In 1809,an English man came across a herd of 200 000 cattle in the bantu regions

He later discovered that the entire herd was left overnight under the supervision of an 8 year old boy

Later in life, they were to undergo the ritual of Lebollo, which would transform them into men

Life lessons for the African boy. Similar to the US boy scouts initiative.

As men, they now qualified to choose a queen, pay magadi, and then settle to start a family together

This was the black family structure.

However, with the settlement of European influence, the structure fractured.

THE BROKEN BLACK HOME

1886, Gold was discovered. SA was to change forever.

For the white family, this was all for the better. For the black family, not so much

Most tribes were self proficient.

They were good at working the land. Their harvests were folds greater than those of boere farmers. Yet they used minimum land.

So upon the discovery of gold, most tribes refused to work for the whites.

They preferred their way of life.

To put in context, most just wanted white people back into the sea, as life was much easier before their arrival.

So factors had to be implemented to force black tribes into labour submission.

To the Xhosa, the Nongqawuse propaganda prophecy was used against them (see part 5)

The prophecy led to the slaughtering of half million Xhosa cattle. Crops were burnt. Which resulted in extreme Xhosa poverty.

Hut and poll taxes were then implemented.

This was to force the black men to abandon their homes and go work for the white farms and companies.

The 1913 Land act was another key factor.

Most of the black tribes' land was taken away from them, forcing many into informal settlement.

This also contributed to a huge resettlement into the cities, especially by the black men forced into menial labour.

Mine owner's dependency on black labour exploitation was a huge investment.

The workers were put in barracks, fit enough to house animals.

Policies refused them to bring their wives and children here.

To make things worse, the salary paid to them was survival salary.

Their salaries could barely feed and house a family.This led to a "Joburg Dad"

The disasters faced by the Joburg Dad, far away from family, working under dangerous conditions, poor living conditions, no social/political rights were complimented by the establishment of SAB Miller

In 1895, SAB was founded. It advanced onto Mineworkers' salaries.

This very era was the gilded ages in USA

US activists where fighting for the banning of the alcohol destroying their societies. US alcohol ban took place in 1920

And so did many countries years later. But not SA

The new middle class white family's demand for house labour started to grow.

Migration of the black women began, off to become the "Domestic Workers of Joburg"

In most parts of the early 1900s, male black workers were put in mens hostels. The hostel system caused many to father

children in Johannesburg. Children raised by Joburg single mothers.

While this black family started to fracture, the white family remained intact.

Throughout, the white man migrated with his wife and children. Earned a good salary that allowed him to feed and house his family

During World War 2 (1940-45) the colour bar on urban migration was relaxed. This led to another influx of black migration into the cities.

But neither government nor the company offered housing to these workers

High rent, low salaries, led to new Squatter Camps.

The single mothers started raising single children. These kids became "the joburg children". Grew up in either townships or the squatter camps

Children that were to live the most dire lives of all

Before 1953, most black youth went to missionary schools. Uncompromised education

Most which were attended by the Xhosa people.

In 1878, the last of the Xhosa Chiefdoms, the Gcaleka, were defeated British and then incorporated into the Cape Colony.

Starting from 1860s, in the wake of mass defeats and dispossession, a mass conversion into Christianity...

by the Xhosa took place.

This led to a relatively westernized elite that became the founding fathers of black SA nationalism.

About 30 years after the last Xhosa Frontier war, the ANC was formed.

The Xhosa spent 100 years fighting the British (1779-1879) physically...

making it easy for them to confront him politically as well. They knew the white enemy very well.

Also, they were one of the most educated of all the tribes. Most mission schools were built in the Cape.

Allowing Xhosa's an intellectual prominence in the liberation struggle

Black intellectualism posed a threat to the Apartheid government. Many were too smart for the boere nationalists.

So Bantu Education was introduced and all mission schools were shut down by force

Biko, Hani, Sobukwe, Mandela, Tambo, and many others were all missionary educated

In 1953, Bantu Education was introduced.

The idea, to make them "stupid" through that very education. Bantu Education, a cancer that haunts black intellectualism to this day.

Whites had taken away the black man's family structure, his traditions, his land and now, his mind.

18years of Black Chaos (1976-1994)

The teachings of Steve Biko's Black Consciousness inspired a new resilient uncompromising black youth.

These became the June 76 youth

This was the turning point of SA demonstrations, from peaceful to violent. No more dialogues, only action.

But the youth protests were retaliated upon by a firing squad, leaving an estimated 700 dead.

A whole 18 months of protests, burning of schools, public property, cars and public assualts broke out. This was to redefine black demonstrations forever.

The country started burning.

Evident to this, in September 1976
Credo Mutwa's home was burned down and his wife raped by students.

Workers were getting assualted. Those who bought groceries in the cities were attacked. Most got robbed.

Criminal behaviour was now on escalating.

SA statistics show crime started rising during this time (1980s)

1980 was 20 years after the Sexual Revolution(see part 6). The black informal settlements were now contaminated with immoral misdemeanor

Also SA was now facing sanctions.
The economy was suffering, many lost jobs

Gangs started to form in the informal areas.

Many were left to do crime at will by the apartheid government, in return, they'd help the boere cops demolish squatter camps.

Crime's in informal communities was mostly ungoverned. It barely affected white people.

Vigilante violent groups were formed. Black soldiers working for the Apartheid government got necklaced.

Askaris and informants got necklaced.

Violence was no longer a demonstration, it was now becoming a culture.

The life once valued so dearly in the tribes, meant nothing now

1990s saw the wake of the Inkatha Massacre. Chaos continued.

Family seperation, mis-education, land exploitation, labour exploitation, racial oppression, sexual revolution and poverty changed the SA black man forever.

He was no longer the same as he left the tribe.

The 18 years of Chaos plus factors from before, destroyed the SA Black man's moral guard.

The queen he cherished so dearly in the tribe, was now nothing more than a victim of the violence he inherited.

Since the hostels, the value of woman to him started to fracture.

Violent resistance was necessary. For he had to fight a stubborn brutal government. But now the violence was him.

Same as the US gangs founded in the 1950s to fight oppression through violence. Today they use the violence against each other.

For the SA black man, violence was now cultural. The defiance was now evident even in art

In 1994, Arthur Mafokate pioneered a new genre, Kwaito. The rebellion was evident in his very first song, "Ek sé neé bas, don't calll me kaffir"

while in USA ,1988, NWA released...

"f*ck the police" pioneering gangster rap

Defiance culturised crime

By the 2000s, Yizo Yizo escalated the popularity of criminal behaviour

Schools were vandalised. Windows broken. Yizo yizo written everywhere

And for women, what was once a queen in the tribe,became "mabebeza"

The violence can be defeated.

It's all part of environmental education now. Communicated from generation to generation through social behaviour.

All that needs to be done is change the environmental language. Recreate a new form of environmental education.

End of part 8