The second church offered deep analysis of the scripture, which my mom loved. The first church offered jubilant praise of the Lord. The reason we went to three churches was because my mom said each church gave her something different. My childhood involved church, or some form of church, at least four nights a week. If you’re African and you pray to your ancestors, you’re a primitive.īut when white people pray to a guy who turns water into wine, well, that’s just common sense. My whole family is religious, but where my mother was Team Jesus all the way, my grandmother balanced her Christian faith with the traditional Xhosa beliefs she’d grown up with, communicating with the spirits of our ancestors.įor a long time I didn’t understand why so many black people had abandoned their indigenous faith for Christianity.īut the more we went to church and the longer I sat in those pews the more I learned about how Christianity works: If you’re Native American and you pray to the wolves, you’re a savage. To which the native replied, “Well, we do need to be saved-saved from you, but that’s beside the point. The white man was quite stern with the native. Like indigenous peoples around the world, black South Africans adopted the religion of our colonizers. My mother was-and still is-a deeply religious woman. I know it was on a Sunday because we were coming home from church, and every Sunday in my childhood meant church. I was nine years old when my mother threw me out of a moving car. Getting thrown out of a moving car hurts way worse than that. Whenever I see that I think, That’s rubbish. Then they come to a stop and pop up and dust themselves off, like it was no big deal. The person hits the ground and rolls for a bit. Sometimes in big Hollywood movies they’ll have these crazy chase scenes where somebody jumps or gets thrown from a moving car. Then apartheid fell, Mandela walked free, and black South Africa went to war with itself. The Xhosa played chess with the white man.įor a long time neither was particularly successful, and each blamed the other for a problem neither had created.įor decades those feelings were held in check by a common enemy. We’ll understand what the white man is saying, and we can force him to negotiate with us.” Instead of being resistant to English, let’s learn English. “Let’s see what tools they possess that can be useful to us. “These white people are here whether we like it or not,” they said. The Xhosa waged a long war against the white man as well, but after experiencing the futility of battle against a better-armed foe, many Xhosa chiefs took a more nimble approach. The Xhosa, on the other hand, pride themselves on being the thinkers. The Zulu were slaughtered by the thousands, but they never stopped fighting. When the colonial armies invaded, the Zulu charged into battle with nothing but spears and shields against men with guns. Perhaps the starkest of these divisions was between South Africa’s two dominant groups, the Zulu and the Xhosa. Then these groups were given differing levels of rights and privileges in order to keep them at odds. Then white rule used that animosity to divide and conquer.Īll nonwhites were systematically classified into various groups and subgroups. Long before apartheid existed these tribal factions clashed and warred with one another. You separate people into groups and make them hate one another so you can run them all.Īt the time, black South Africans outnumbered white South Africans nearly five to one, yet we were divided into different tribes with different languages: Zulu, Xhosa, Tswana, Sotho, Venda, Ndebele, Tsonga, Pedi, and more. The genius of apartheid was convincing people who were the overwhelming majority to turn on each other. To prohibit illicit carnal intercourse between Europeans and natives and other acts in relation thereto.īE IT ENACTED by the King’s Most Excellent Majesty, the Senate and the House of Assembly of the Union of South Africa, as follows:-Īny European male who has illicit carnal intercourse with a native female, and any native male who has illicit carnal intercourse with a European female…shall be guilty of an offence and liable on conviction to imprisonment for a period not exceeding five years.Īny native female who permits any European male to have illicit carnal intercourse with her and any European female who permits any native male to have illicit carnal intercourse with her shall be guilty of an offence and liable on conviction to imprisonment for a period not exceeding four years….
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