Students' Thoughts

Hi Everyone!

I came across a book yesterday that contained writings from students in the Cape Town area about their experiences, thoughts, and feelings about life from their perspective. So I'm going to share some things that they wrote. Now keep in mind that these are 11th grade high school students...


"Hope is Lost" by Deshandra Dass

We live in an age of tolerance, where the dilemmas caused by previous generations are being resolved. Everything you read in the press or see on television advertises the "new" South Africa as a place where no grudges are borne and everyone has accepted that all the people of the Rainbow Nation are equal, with the same rights. There is no longer any division of people by race or culture, creed or colour. We all live in harmony in the reborn land that is South Africa...Frankly, I think it's a load of codswallop.

I can't suddenly change the way I view a person of a different colour just because we are supposed to accept the views and beliefs of that person. How can we possibly hope to change decades of racial tension and social prejudice by pretending to change the way we feel toward each other? All my life I have been surrounded by my own kind. Enclosed in that cocoon, I never had to associate with "Whiteys" or "Blacks".

But suddenly, people of colour have a say. We are allowed into places previously reserved for Whites, we have democratic views, we can go to mixed schools, we can walk around without concern for police harassment. Because Blacks now have gained more power and an equal say, the Whites hope to be forgiven for the atrocities of their ancestors. Many of us have indeed managed to forgive and actually look to the future with hope. I am not one of these. For me, a member of the Indian minority, nothing has changed.

My people arrived in this country as indentured labourers, as slaves. It took hard work and an endless struggle for them to break out of that mould. But still we have nothing to show for our efforts. Apartheid saw to it that Whites were allowed to vote and had rights which Blacks could only dream of. Discriminatory action ensured that Whites got jobs, that Whites lived comfortably while people of colour toiled in a fruitless existence. In these times Indian people were not white enought to gain any special rights or privileges. We were treated in the same way as Blacks.

In 1990, all that started changing--Nelson Mandela was released from prison. Our first democratic election took place in 1994. Blacks and Whites now had equal rights and the era of unity had begun.

Then, no one acknowledged it, everyone knew it was happening: we were reverting back to the same old system. Only this time, in the opposite way. Black people are now given the jobs. Black people now have status. And once again, the Indian minority is left in the cold. This time we are not black enough. How can I be expected to live contentedly in a country where the colour of my skin is still a hindrance in spite of the promis of equality for all?

I respect the views of the people who look into the future with hope and pride. One has to admire their optimism. But I find it increasingly difficult to lose my cynical view on life in South Africa as I daily see bigoted practices which refute everything this country is supposed to represent. I long for the day when we can drop the charade and can truly say that everyone in South Africa is treated equally. Then I will be able to say that I am genuinely proud to be a South African.

But until that day comes, I will wallow in my cynicism, waiting.
Grade 11--Westerford High, Rondebosch, Cape



When one mentions the words "New South Africa" to foreigners, they probably think that everybody gets on very well with everybody else, and that Black and White get along very well indeed. South Africa is currently being presented as a country which has undergone a complete change. But foreigners don't know what happens to some of us Blacks in this country. We are still being treated as before--we are still being called vulgar names such as "kaffir".
Nomthetho Ntshoko
Grade 11--Westerford High, Rondebosch, Cape