Why black Africans are considered savages.

[Jaybang]

Firstly I think I owe it to you to explain that I am not residing in South Africa. I am south African however, and left home to travel when I was 20 yrs old, please I stress I never ever left because of the political situation or because of crime, I was just a young person who wanted to travel and see the world, and that is exactly what I have been doing for the last 10 yrs. I have worked and travelled, and surfed my way around the world, but always coming home every year and a half to see family and visit home, because I love the country and miss it very much.

You know how when you are involved in something sometimes, you cant get a clear understanding of the situation or at least the broader aspect of the situation because you are submerged in it, but when you remove yourself completely from the situation or environment, from a distance you are able over a time to get a clearer perspective and understanding. Being a person whose passion has grown infinitely for my country, I have pushed myself to read and learn quite a lot about the history of all south Africans, and in doing so have brought myself that much closer south African and its people. I have always been positive, as I know it is our only way forward if we all truly want a South Africa to be proud of and one that we can enjoy and our children can enjoy in the many years to come.

Now this may be the way I am, but when I talk to my family and friends who all live back at home, they speak with just as much passion and excitement at how much things have changed. My mom, can hardly hold back from reeling off every bit of positive news, she sends me newspaper clippings, and government articles, the works… and you know when I got home, time and again, I can see a huge jump socially, from 10 yrs ago. Go and to any nice bars, and restaurants in Durban, and youl see people of all races dining out or drinking after work. You may not notice a lot of the changes because maybe to you it doesn’t seem much in 10 yrs, but its there, and its awesome.

The energy my and outlook my friends and family has is contagous, maybe because we now choose to socialise with people who have the same outlook, but what ever it is, there is a buss in the air, south Africa is different, and were all adapting. You speak about being made to feel uncomfortable as outsiders when moving into white areas. Your probably right, but then again not all areas are like this. I know for a fact on the Bluff, in Durban, the attitude is relaxed and friendly.

I cant speak for your experiences, only from mine, but id like you to know, that there are many white people, who are making positive contributions. I cant ask you to understand or believe this, but I think if you continue to generalise and group whites negatively, I think then that that may be the only whites you find coming into your life. Even if you meet just one white person and I meet just one African, and we give them the benefit of the doubt, we will both be taking steps towards a unified positive future. Sure we will encounter bad people, who will make us both want to lose faith in having a positive approach, but we have to remember to see people for what they are as individuals, and not group all people together.

Not everyone can accept change, and it seems to me, even you are having difficulty in accepting the change in South Africa, im not saying your fighting it, I just mean, it seems to much for you to believe that white people want to learn from there pasts. It’s a stigma that we as white south Africans will carry for us for ever, but its not something I created, it is something that I was born into, but I grew up and took control of my own life, and found my own way into the world, and built up my own conception and understanding, and now I am a positive force, with a positive influence, so I disregard that stigma, I don’t feel the burden of it, but I accept that when I meet people they may just assume my character based on the fact that I am a white South African.

The good thing, is that I can see the energy in others that I feel in myself, and when I bump into or meet people on the same wave length is like we erupt into this excited ball of energy, its awesome.
I hope that somewhere along the line you can meet some people like this, and maybe you will see the truth in there smile.

Ill be arriving back home in four weeks, for two months, and then will either settle down permanently in Durban, or as my plans are to head to London for just one m ore year to save some pounds so I can come home and buy a house and settle down in the country that I have missed for way way to long. I left home time and again to travel and explore the world, and now my yearning, and passion for south Africa, is so great that I cant live happily anywhere else. I even begrudge having to go to London for another year, but it makes sense and means Ill be able to recoup some of the money I need to settle down with. In the ten years I have been overseas, I have travelled the world, and surfed most of my dream destinations, but I have nothing to show for it but photos and memories, and a clearer understanding of who I am, and where I my soul lies, and it lies in south Africa, that much I know.

[31-05-1961]

White people have lived in South Africa much longer than blacks. There have been White settlements in South Africa for over 300 years, about the same length of time Europeans have lived in North America. Even 150 years after the first colonies around Cape Town, at the beginning of the 19th Century, there still were no Blacks within 500 miles. The Blacks wandered in from central Africa later on, possibly fleeing the slave trade or due to famine. So before you just decide to follow the popular view that whites are so evil for taking the Africans' land, get the real facts. Oh, and before you say that whites ruined Africa when we conquered and colonised the continent, ask yourself : Ruined what? there wasn't anything to ruin, that 'something' only came with the technologically advanced white settlers and their mission to modernise and convert their colonies. Without us and our colonisation Africans wouldn't have roads, schools, hospitals... nothing remotely modern at all in fact. So stop trying to make whites appear so evil to cover your jealousy.

[Edward Williams]

Originally Posted by Malayamerican

people like the person who started this thread are the reason SA is how it is. dumbasses like that are the reason SA is getting worse and worse and dumbasses like that are the reason hardly anyone likes white people.

Malayamerican,

Are you a white person?

[voltaire]

Are you, Eddie?


V

[ches]

Originally Posted by 31-05-1961

White people have lived in South Africa much longer than blacks. There have been White settlements in South Africa for over 300 years, about the same length of time Europeans have lived in North America. Even 150 years after the first colonies around Cape Town, at the beginning of the 19th Century, there still were no Blacks within 500 miles.

WHAT?
Your history books are somewhat distorted, and I wager they are dusty old apartheid history books.

The Khoi Khoi were living happily in Cape Town when Vasco da Gama came past and for thousands of years before that.

Furthermore, the writings of early Portuguese sailors confirm encounters with "black" Africans in parts of South Africa long before Van Riebeek arrived. Not to mention, the clicks in the Xhosa and Zulu language were adopted when Khoi Khoi and San people were adopted into the Xhosa and Zulu tribes.

Originally Posted by 31-05-1961

The Blacks wandered in from central Africa later on, possibly fleeing the slave trade or due to famine.

The Bantu migration began around 300AD and Bantu people have lived in South Africa since around 900-1000AD.

Originally Posted by 31-05-1961

So before you just decide to follow the popular view that whites are so evil for taking the Africans' land, get the real facts.

I think you need the "real" facts yourself.

[Edward Williams]

Originally Posted by voltaire

Are you, Eddie?


V

Voltaire,

I could be a white person. I don't know. Every white person I've spoken to tells me I'm not a white person. The interesting part is every white person I've spoken to will not tell me what a white person is but they tell me I'm not one. This is the reason I don't know.

You have told me, Voltaire, that you are a white person. If you can tell me what a white person is and everything a white person does that nobody else does I can answer our question. That will give me the inoformation I need to know, definitively, whether or not I'm a white person.

What is a white person?

What does a white person do that nobody else does?

[31-05-1961]

Originally Posted by ches

Your history books are somewhat distorted, and I wager they are dusty old apartheid history books.

I didn't get that from Apartheid history books, but read it somewhere on the internet, can't remember the site.

Originally Posted by ches

The Khoi Khoi were living happily in Cape Town when Vasco da Gama came past and for thousands of years before that.

What I should've said was 'no Bantu-speaking' blacks (Nguni, Tswana, Sotho etc.) lived anywhere near Cape Town and this is the point I was getting at, in response to Bantu Africans' claims that whites took their land. They in fact took the Khoi and San lands in Natal and the Transkei area (Please correct me if I am wrong). Thus the Khoi were driven towards the Cape and in turn into the Kalahari. So it is them who in fact should be most vocal about land claims etc, not other black Africans, as 'their' land (according to their views on white land ownership) is not 'theirs' but the San people's. I will agree with you that whites originally took the land of the San, but that the eventual occupation of 'Bantu' lands was just a another case of one peoples' want for territory from another people, as had happened amongst African tribes and peoples for centuries and in Europe amongst whites for centuries. It could've been the other way round, with black Africans colonising parts of Europe, but unlike white Europeans they didn't have the capability of travelling across oceans.

My post was mostly written out of frustration as a result of the continuous attacks aimed at whites for their robbery of the black man's land, even though we brought with our colonising technology etc. which blacks all gladly use without question. I agree with you that perhaps white colonisers went about their business the wrong way (ie Apartheid, racism etc) but their should be some credit given to white Europeans and the positive things they brought with them. After all the attacks on white South Africans for Apartheid and colonialism i believe it is fair to acknowledge the white man's positive contribution to SA society.