Contribute to History

[gwendolyn131]

I am compiling a book of factual S. African history with personal perspectives and introspectives from teenagers in S. Africa, and in America living with S. African parents in regard to the South African experience. All submissions are welcome in essay, poetry, short story, or other formats. Please send to gwendolyn131@yahoo.com and include your name, age, and complete contact information. Thank you!

Schisms between social and ideological groups are divisive within countries and families, and I feel that the search for understanding of the opposite side of the argument is the first step to healing and peace on every level.
In the 1960's my father and his family emigrated to America from apartheid era South Africa.

All of his life my dad seemed to remain more a member of South African culture than of American, which distressed me from an early age. Understanding that South Africa was home to institutionalized racism, I grew up believing the coutry to be inherently evil, rather than the ideology of apartheid itself. I could not comprehend why my father continued to willingly associate with such a country.

Last year I decided that the wall between us needed to be broken down and I began to research the political climate before, during, and after apartheid to better understand my father's origin and therefor my own as well. I learned to differentiate between prejudicial behavior, in which my father did not take part, and true South African culture. I found that the beauty of the land and peoples of South Africa have long been marred by racism, as far back as intertribal warfare and enslavement in prehistory, up until hatred between the two "white tribes" of South Africa, the British and the Afrikaaners/Boers. Unfortunately, the country has always been a breeding ground for conflict, but I now understand that this is not a black and white issue.

Shedding light on the history of South Africa, the horrors of apartheid, and the beauty of the rebuilding in the decade since its abolition I have been overcome with the desire to express my experiences having embraced the wonderful aspects of my heritage, and growing from the atrocities rather than pushing them aside. As a result of a leadership program I attended in Massachusetts in early October I will be compiling a book in the next six months intertwining a brief history of South Africa with my own opinions and experiences as well as soliciting submissions from teens in South Africa, and those living in America. I want to educate others as I educated myself in order to understand me and themselves in hopes of spreading awareness and hope for the future, using apartheid as the Holocaust is often used to teach how far we have since come, and to learn from the mistakes of hate.

If you know anyone who may be interested in contributing an essay, poem, or any other form of expression to this project, please contact gwendolyn131@yahoo.com.

[philipperabot]

i read with interest what you wrote. your experiences as daughter of a south african emigrant in the states. the south african problem was and is not a colonial problem. there is not a good and a wrong side in our history with bad whites and good blacks. It would be a pleasure if you should have any conversation with me about this subject

[Christel]

Hey Gwendolyn
I understand and appreciate the fact that you show interest in your heritage.It is very refreshing to hear that someone who broke away so long ago has need to know "why?" not only why the split or fight began, but just "why".I would like to contribute to your book.I am a young so could "coloured" living in America, Michigan and I use to be a prejudice.And with good reason.Well talk again soon, right now i have to go.

[gwendolyn131]

Thank you for your responses thus far. I am hardly ever on this website, but you can contact me through my email gwendolyn131@yahoo.com, or you can talk to me on AOL instant messenger screen name Gwen7Dolyn. I look forward to your contributions!

[Tiger32]

I just hope your writings will expose the evil system of Apartheid and European colonialism, otherwise it will be totally useless to the rest of the world.

[gwendolyn131]

I agree with you wholeheartedly that the results of the apartheid system were evil. It cannot be denied that a system of institutionalized racism is hateful and destructive and apartheid was. I do, however, also believe that in healing from the wounds afflicted there is great beauty and potential.

Feel free to write an essay for me based on any viewpoint you may have because my book will be a wide range of the opinions I receive from everyone else. If you want me to include something, write it for me. Thanks, Gwen

[Tiger32]

Yes, I agree with you. But I believe that Africans are a very loving and forgiving people, this despite everything that has been done to them in the United States, their native land of Africa and in other places around the world. This to me is a true testament of the human spirit.