Last week we saw the second
anniversary of Nelson Mandela’s passing. Something I saw being mourned here in
the Netherlands, more than in South Africa. In fact, Nelson’s death anniversary
this year came a month after student protests hit South Africa. Protests in
which Mandela was called a ‘sell-out’ by students nationwide.
The student protests in
South Africa in October were for free education and against a hike in already
high fees. Succeeding in doing both, the students would make education
accessible to all and not only the privileged. As it stands, 97% of South
Africans cannot afford university fees. This, is in a country where 92% of the
population is black, essentially means black people cannot afford to go to
university at all. The circumstances of black people has not changed one bit,
despite 21 years of ‘democracy’.
Many
students are blaming the stagnancy of South Africa’s society on Nelson Mandela.
Upon release
from prison Mandela opted for
forgiveness and reconciliation, which is fair and fine but that meant that he
in turn had sold out the Freedom Charter and ultimately the revolution.
Economic Freedom Front (EFF) party’s president, Julius
Malema, summarised these sentiments
perfectly at Oxford University earlier this month. ‘The deviation from the
Freedom Charter was the beginning of selling out of the revolution. The Freedom
Charter is the bible of the South African revolution. Any deviation from that
is a sellout position. We normally don’t use phrases like Mandela sold out, he
was too old, he was tired, he left it to us. We have to pick it up from where
he left it. That’s why he said the struggle is not over, political freedom is
incomplete without economic freedom. I will say Nelson took us to a point and
left it to us to take it further’.
So the protests that happened in South Africa were a culmination
of feelings of frustration with not only current circumstances of black
students but also the failure of the country’s leaders to bridge the gab
between the majority black and minority white. So, for me to pick up a Folia
Magazine with the title: STUDENTEN PROTEST- In de geest van Mandela, you can
imagine that I was furious. A Dutch paper immediately associating any struggle
for equality in the country with their beloved Nelson Mandela. This is
especially infuriating because it shows that they did not even take the time to
understand the students’ rage, otherwise they would have known how misinformed
the title was.
I decided that,
I cannot let this slide and that this needs to be rectified because Folia is a
probably the only news source for many Dutch students about South Africa. I
sent a formal mail to the Hoofdredacteur, Altan Erdogan. I introduced myself
fully, so that he knows I am coming from an informed position as a member of
the movement myself. This communication was not met with much openess, but
resistance. His justification for the title was that it was decided on together
by himself and Niels, their South African correspondent who also writes for
Trouw.
Altan, after a
few emails asking for clarification as to how the protests were in the spirit
of Mandela, finally responded with a harsh email saying, ‘In my opinion all is clear now: I personally
am not in the position (nor feel the urge) to do more research on this theme’.
Interesting that he would fully
accept what a Dutchman reporting in South Africa is saying over someone that is
actively involved by the movement and who is actually affected by it, daily.
In this week’s issue of Folia there is an interview of a Dutch student who was in Moçambique for a while with the title ’64 Dagen Huisarrest in Afrika’. Africa is not a country and despite Moçambique being a very large country in Africa, it does not even amont to a 1/50th of Africa’s surface area. Two major blunders in one semester, both pertaining to stereotyping Africa. I think it is fair to say that Folia should, for the preservation of all readers and africans too, stop trying to write articles about Africa because according to them, they just don’t have the ‘urge to do more research’ on such themes.
In this week’s issue of Folia there is an interview of a Dutch student who was in Moçambique for a while with the title ’64 Dagen Huisarrest in Afrika’. Africa is not a country and despite Moçambique being a very large country in Africa, it does not even amont to a 1/50th of Africa’s surface area. Two major blunders in one semester, both pertaining to stereotyping Africa. I think it is fair to say that Folia should, for the preservation of all readers and africans too, stop trying to write articles about Africa because according to them, they just don’t have the ‘urge to do more research’ on such themes.
