Day of reconciliation

The failure of the reconciliation project as a denial of justice

One of the many great failures of the transitional moment of South Africa, from apartheid to some kind of post apartheid, was the insistence on projects of reconciliation. Now, before I even continue, I want to say from the outset that I do not take the moment of transition and the negotiations that brought us to that moment lightly at all. It was an incredibly difficult thing to do, and given the international anticommunist and anti revolutionary pressure from the west, I think these failures exist within a context of extremely difficult choices. That said, the unending harm caused by the transition, and especially the reconciliation projects that emerge from it, must never be understated.

White supremacist history of reconciliation day

16th of December. In South Africa this day is known as the day of reconciliation. The holiday was first started as a day of remembrance for the battle of blood river, where a few hundred settler colonialists had fought thousands of Zulu, killing around 3000 Zulu folk in the battle due to the advantage of guns and gunpowder. It was central to the rallying cry for white supremacy and white nationalism in South Africa, centering a narrative of the dominant win by the outnumbered white nationalist settler colonialists as a vital factor in creating a new mythos of white descendants of the Dutch and their ruler status over South Africa. This is also part of the logic of indigenizing themselves, forcing themselves into the narrative of the land and nation as their own, by right, divine or otherwise. 

TRC

The TRC has an incredibly complicated and nuanced history for South Africa. In many ways, it is an important project emerging at a moment where South Africa is still reeling from what could have been one of the most catastrophic civil wars in the region. It was important for many people in the sense that it quelled a lot of the immediate catastrophic violence that was raging at the time. Many families complained of the fact that amnesty was granted before they even had the chance to seek any justice. Loved ones were killed, individuals tortured and maimed, but due to the structure of the TRC, many got away with their crimes against the black people of South Africa. In this list includes another Nobel peace prize winner, the final president of the apartheid regime, and one of the most ruthless deployers of death in the lead up to the transition, FW De Klerk. He never had to face any justice, despite the evidence of his involvement in the decision making and leadership in the murder and torture of thousands of South Africans.

RWC 1995 and pienaar/mandela

The 1995 rugby world cup, South Africa’s premier white supported sport, was seen as the perfect stage on which to launch South Africa’s public image into a phase of recovery, but at the same time, it was seen as a chance to make reconciliation on the grandest scale the country has ever seen. With Mandela rocking the springbok shirt, with thousands waving the newly established South African flag, with countless others still waving the afrikaner nationalist, ugly, racist flag, he shook hands with Francois Pienaar as they won the finals. The white captain of the springboks, the black president who led us out of apartheid, embracing on the world stage, surely this moment showed the transcendent power of sport at a time when the nation was still trying to figure out how to even begin mending and healing from 5 decades of the most abject racism, and 300 years of European colonization before that. 

National anthem and inclusion of die stem

The inclusion of the white nationalist afrikaner anthem, Die Stem van Suid Afrika, in the new national anthem, is just another example of this attempt at reconciliation. It is, to me, one of the ugliest reminders of the pasts and presents of apartheid and colonization. Under this anthem, some of the worst violations against people were committed. The racism of the symbol of the anthem is palpable, and having it so prominently a part of the ritual of nation making is emblematic of the failure of this reconciliation project. A vile, badly written, badly composed, soulless piece of music, meant to rile the afrikaner spirit and show its violent accomplishments on the Southern end of the continent. I hate it. I hate that verse with my whole heart. It is a vile and ugly reminder of the history and legacy and ongoing exploits of white nationalism in South Africa.

Tutu and the rainbow nation

Tutu is a beloved figure everywhere. He won the nobel peace prize for his antiapartheid efforts. He was staunchly against white supremacy and oppression everywhere. But to me, again, he represents the absolute failure of the reconciliattory project. For him, christian forgiveness was far more important than any justice for the people of South Africa. It was in large part due to his insistence that amnesty and reconciliation, instead of justice, were at the center of the transitional moment. We are still living with the violent repercussions to this day, with South Africa being one off the most divided countries in the world in terms of race and wealth gaps. The inequality is unimaginable, and in large part I would argue, much of the blame should lie at the feet of the people who insisted on this rainbow nation myth making that happened, the free black people happily embracing and forgiving their white colonizers. Go look up the Stellenbosch mafia and where they got their money, go look up Ackerman and how he and his family pilfered the exploited black masses, go look at the statistics around poverty and race in South Africa where young black women are the most at risk people. Nah, miss me with that reconciliation rainbow nation bullshit. We need justice and we need it soon. And to all people struggling against colonization, do not relent to the white desire for reconciliatory politics when you win your fight. A luta continua