Apartheid & Oppression

Since I have been in South Africa, I have learned a lot about Apartheid and about the oppression that blacks experienced in the 1960s and 1970s. In addition to watching some of the documentaries in celebration of Mandiba's (Nelson Mandela's) birthday, I have been taken by my hosts to Soweto and the Hector Peterson Museum. The Hector Peterson Museum in Soweto commemorates the 566 people who died in the student uprising that followed the events of June 16, 1976. It is named for Hector Peterson, a 12-year-old boy who was the first person shot dead by police on the day that changed South Africa, and is located near a memorial to his death. http://www.gauteng.com/content.php?page=Hector%20Peterson%20Museum


After touring the museum we drove by the nearby homes of Nelson Mandela, Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Winnie Mandela. The Nelson Mandela home is being turned into a museum.


Today I visited the Sharpeville Museum and Memorial. The Memorial commemorates the 69 innocent victims who were shot by police, also known as the Sharpeville Massacre, when blacks protested over the mandate that they carry a pass (or something that looks like a passport) with them at all times . http://www.southafrica.info/about/history/sharpeville.htm March 21st, the day of the Sharpeville Massacre, is also known as Human Rights Day in South Africa.

I also saw the nearby stadium, also in Sharpeville, where Nelson Mandela, the first democratically elected President, signed the South Africa Constitution on May 8, 1996.

These are both important historical events and places for South Africans, as is Robben Island - the prison where Nelson Mandela and many other blacks were held for years. I will tour Robben Island when I'm in Cape Town on August 6th. The stories and the photos remind me of the National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis, Tennessee, where Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated. http://www.civilrightsmuseum.org/about/about.asp

We need to know and understand our history and our complicity in oppression of people who are different. Last week at the stakeholders meeting a report was being given about a failed attempt to persuade a local shopping mall to allow for 'health and information fair' of HIV/AIDS providers. The mall's marketing manager flatly refused to allow this event and was reportedly rude and abrupt to the stakeholders. From behind me someone asked if the woman was white. I paused and reviewed in my mind the images of the people in the room. It was then I realized that I was the only white person there.

Part of the challenge is that AIDS is unfortunately still considered a black person's disease in South Africa. While there are some white people with AIDS who have come forward, there is still a great racial stigma.

Still I wonder, how often do we make statements or ask questions that oppress the other? How often are we the one being oppressed?

We have so far to go and so much work to do to build a world where all people are treated equally and where the basic needs of people are being met. There is so much poverty here and around our world. We must consider our global family and begin to love our global neighbor as ourselves. We have much to share and there is so much need.

Please consider making a contribution to the AIDS Program at the Diocese of Christ the King. For more information please go to: http://www.christthekingdiocese-anglican.org/theme.php?id=57