Thursday, 13 September 2007
Reasoning
Since the incident below, I am very wary of being out on the streets hand in hand with my fella. This is a very small town. It is also a very Afrikaans town. I don’t know if and when I’m gonna get a whole heap of abuse again and from who. It is a weird state of affairs to live like this when going out in public.
People have since said that it is just a one off, that this town isn’t normally like that, that it is just a small minority of South Africans who still have the attitude of Apartheid, that really it’s only been about 13 years since democratic elections put Mandela in power which in the grand scheme of things is a rather short time, to please not leave because everyone where we work rather likes us, to know that we are now the ones challenging people’s views on race and that we are an example of the new rainbow South Africa. Some are definitely valid points. Many guys came to us that night and said these guys were spoiling for a fight so if not us then they would’ve found reason with someone else to start throwing punches.
But I also think, I don’t want to be that couple who challenges. Black and white being together is not a new thing in this country; there are millions of what here they call “coloureds” who have one black and one white parent – where on earth do people think these people come from? Bloody fools.
People have since said that it is just a one off, that this town isn’t normally like that, that it is just a small minority of South Africans who still have the attitude of Apartheid, that really it’s only been about 13 years since democratic elections put Mandela in power which in the grand scheme of things is a rather short time, to please not leave because everyone where we work rather likes us, to know that we are now the ones challenging people’s views on race and that we are an example of the new rainbow South Africa. Some are definitely valid points. Many guys came to us that night and said these guys were spoiling for a fight so if not us then they would’ve found reason with someone else to start throwing punches.
But I also think, I don’t want to be that couple who challenges. Black and white being together is not a new thing in this country; there are millions of what here they call “coloureds” who have one black and one white parent – where on earth do people think these people come from? Bloody fools.
Moi has learnt...
That there are aspects of me in the “flight or fight”mode that I dislike. I will take flight sooner than I will fight. I will also stop my friends from getting involved with fights even if only to help out a mate. I must have been a bouncer in a previous life ‘cos I spent a lot of time physically stopping my fella from joining in. I will allow the metaphorical lamb to go to the slaughter if it protects a number of others.
Apartheid is a state of mind
Against our better (although slightly inebriated judgement), we recently ended up one night at Sovereigns night club. There was a nice group of seven of us actually all having a rather good time on the dance floor (which seems to have a near-permanent strobe almost enough to make you into an epilectic).
After a while, I go outside with my fella for a smoke break away from the crazy lights and rather enthusiastic use of the smoke machine… we’re just sitting down, his arm round me when a short non-descript, slightly monkey looking white bloke and his big fat friend start looking at us and then say something to me in Afrikaans. I don’t understand much of this language but got enough to understand the words “white bitch” and “kaffir” were in there.
I stand and apologise that I don’t understand what they’re saying to me because I am from England. They then start asking lots of questions about where I’m from, where the fella’s from and wondering why we are together. By this time an English guy who’s part of our crowd is also listening in… the conversation is very aggressive and these guys look like they are spoiling for a fight.
I go off and find one of our Afrikaans speaking friend’s in the hope that he may help to calm the situation. By the time he’s gone off outside to help I follow and see that my fella has just been smacked a good ‘un and has walked away saying he doesn’t want to fight, our friend starts trying to talk to monkey-boy and his side-kick and then three of them bundle in and start beating the crap out of our friend. The bouncers just look on while I have a hell of a time stopping my fella jumping in and fighting as well.
All the fighters eventually get bundled down the stairs, but it is our friend that ends up chucked out while the guys that started all the shite are still there. We are desperately trying to find a way out of the night club as it’s bordering on a full-on brawl. Another friend of mine convinces one of the bouncers to walk us out, but the bouncer takes one look at my fella and says that actually no, we can go down ourselves. We all peg it down the stairs, out the door and smack into the guys who hate out guts. More kerfuffle, more shouting and more abuse, we eventually manage to get the whole group together and get a lift home from some random who is hugely apologetic on behalf of South Africans for the behaviour us tourists have just witnessed. When we tried to talk to the police, they wanted to arrest our friend that tried to help for being drunk and disorderly. Nevermind that he just got assaulted and didn’t do anything wrong.
Did I mention that I am white and my fella is black? And all this because of two narrow-minded, racist pigs who took offence to us sitting together.
After a while, I go outside with my fella for a smoke break away from the crazy lights and rather enthusiastic use of the smoke machine… we’re just sitting down, his arm round me when a short non-descript, slightly monkey looking white bloke and his big fat friend start looking at us and then say something to me in Afrikaans. I don’t understand much of this language but got enough to understand the words “white bitch” and “kaffir” were in there.
I stand and apologise that I don’t understand what they’re saying to me because I am from England. They then start asking lots of questions about where I’m from, where the fella’s from and wondering why we are together. By this time an English guy who’s part of our crowd is also listening in… the conversation is very aggressive and these guys look like they are spoiling for a fight.
I go off and find one of our Afrikaans speaking friend’s in the hope that he may help to calm the situation. By the time he’s gone off outside to help I follow and see that my fella has just been smacked a good ‘un and has walked away saying he doesn’t want to fight, our friend starts trying to talk to monkey-boy and his side-kick and then three of them bundle in and start beating the crap out of our friend. The bouncers just look on while I have a hell of a time stopping my fella jumping in and fighting as well.
All the fighters eventually get bundled down the stairs, but it is our friend that ends up chucked out while the guys that started all the shite are still there. We are desperately trying to find a way out of the night club as it’s bordering on a full-on brawl. Another friend of mine convinces one of the bouncers to walk us out, but the bouncer takes one look at my fella and says that actually no, we can go down ourselves. We all peg it down the stairs, out the door and smack into the guys who hate out guts. More kerfuffle, more shouting and more abuse, we eventually manage to get the whole group together and get a lift home from some random who is hugely apologetic on behalf of South Africans for the behaviour us tourists have just witnessed. When we tried to talk to the police, they wanted to arrest our friend that tried to help for being drunk and disorderly. Nevermind that he just got assaulted and didn’t do anything wrong.
Did I mention that I am white and my fella is black? And all this because of two narrow-minded, racist pigs who took offence to us sitting together.
Saturday, 8 September 2007
Sovereigns
Sovereigns - nightclub from hell filled in the majority by narrow-minded, pig-headed, ignorant racists. And that's putting it politely. It's one of those late night places that people go to after a certain time, after a certain large number of drinks have been consumed and after all other options have been exhausted... ie. only when you're plastered enough to be desperate enough to go in there for another drink.
Downstairs is a usually empty-ish bar with lots of slot/gambling machines with gambling addicts hanging off them. Up the stairs is an extremely classy black and white floor, covered in stickiness of an unidentifiable nature, broken glass, ice cubes and alcohol. The bar is a small counter section manned by 2 people; one of which has to be the scariest woman I have ever come across in my life. There are no seats inside (too much like weapons perhaps?) but there is fixed seating outside on a balcony with the edge low enough to tip someone over it. Apparently someone was stabbed and died there a couple of months. Lovely.
As you walk in, the vibe hits you and the urge to run back down the stairs and out the wrought iron gates, past the security that frisk you with a beeper doo-dah for weapons and onto the relative safety of the street. It is male dominated, drunken, aggressive, confrontational and a cattle market kind of vibe... just the place you want to go to. Obviously.
The background...
This is the basic, basic version; hugely simplistic not guarenteed as accurate, sterotyped but close enough and typical-ish... Although I'm sure that most of the South Africans I know can pull holes in this larger than the missing ozone layer but ho hum, I stand corrected if anyone has an opinion!
11 official languages, 9 different tribes but those are the indigenous tribes. It doesn't include the white tribes, namely "English" South African and "Dutch" South African a.k.a Afrikaans. The Afrikaans ultimately descent from the Dutch settlers in the 1700's, the English pretty much came from England (funny that). The original Dutch had a bit of a hard time... they came with the Dutch East India company which set up compounds in South Africa in a land they thought uninhabited (duh) - all male. Some decided they didn't like it and set off on a mission across the country and became known in history as the Voertrekkers, hardy folk that fought the Xhosas, the Zulus and everyone else inbetween (having discovered that rather obviously it wasn't uninhabited which rather ruined what they thought of as a covenant with God in that they believed it was their God-given land) and of course by the late 1800s they fought the British in the Boer Wars... the Voertrekkers are the ancestors of the Afrikaans today who were also the grand architects of Apartheid - in English it means "apart-ness''.
During Apartheid, the ruling National Party would restrict freedom of movement on blacks and coloureds (those with one white and one black parent), institute night curfews, banish people to the countryside, provide sub-standard education that was geared towards a life of servitude or manual labour, make it illegal to have a mixed race relationship, restrict voting rights and god knows how many other things that they managed to enshrine in law. This only ended in 1994 with the election of Nelson Mandela as President.
11 official languages, 9 different tribes but those are the indigenous tribes. It doesn't include the white tribes, namely "English" South African and "Dutch" South African a.k.a Afrikaans. The Afrikaans ultimately descent from the Dutch settlers in the 1700's, the English pretty much came from England (funny that). The original Dutch had a bit of a hard time... they came with the Dutch East India company which set up compounds in South Africa in a land they thought uninhabited (duh) - all male. Some decided they didn't like it and set off on a mission across the country and became known in history as the Voertrekkers, hardy folk that fought the Xhosas, the Zulus and everyone else inbetween (having discovered that rather obviously it wasn't uninhabited which rather ruined what they thought of as a covenant with God in that they believed it was their God-given land) and of course by the late 1800s they fought the British in the Boer Wars... the Voertrekkers are the ancestors of the Afrikaans today who were also the grand architects of Apartheid - in English it means "apart-ness''.
During Apartheid, the ruling National Party would restrict freedom of movement on blacks and coloureds (those with one white and one black parent), institute night curfews, banish people to the countryside, provide sub-standard education that was geared towards a life of servitude or manual labour, make it illegal to have a mixed race relationship, restrict voting rights and god knows how many other things that they managed to enshrine in law. This only ended in 1994 with the election of Nelson Mandela as President.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
