Even when a history major makes a mistake, she's still spectacular.
Wendy
Sarah wrote:
Date: Thu, 23 Dec 2004 10:29:11 -0800 (PST)
From: Sarah
Subject: South Africans
To: Wendy Murphy
Doh. I just realized that he said SOUTH Africans.
Feel free to forward this CORRECT response since I only saw the word Africans
there and not the word preceding it. Duh.
There were several revolts in South Africa under apartheid that did turn
bloody. There is a film out there called "The Fourth World War" that spends a
good deal of time discussing apartheid and the forms of resistance the South
Africans took against it. Even in the early years of colonization (the early
1900s), wars broke out between the native Afrikaners. The Transvaal "claimed
not only the right to self-government but also the sovereign right to conduct
its own international affairs with regard to the development of the gold-mining
industry." (Birmingham, 72) Because Britain would not permits the blacks to do
this, war broke out in 1899 between the native Afrikaners and the British
(Anglo-Boer war).
What about the revolts and wars between the Hutus and the Tutsis in Rhodesia
during apartheid that led to some 800,000 genocidal deaths? What about the Zapu
and the Zanu who led revolts against the colonizing British with guerilla
warfare in the 1970s? (Birmingham, 76) How soon we forget. In the latter part
of the decade when the Zimbabwean war of liberation got a bit too out of hand
with thousands of people dying, South Africa decided to bomb the guerrilla
bases to put an end to the struggle while the Europeans called for the
Zimbabwean leaders to be taken to another peace conference. (Birmingham, 77)
You can't tell me that in these wars, Europeans weren't killed.
Let's have a look at Mozambique. What did they do to combat colonialization?
While it might not have been nearly as bloody as open revolt and suicide
bombings, they cut off trade routes and shut down the railway system. This
eventually led to its own decline, as there was no trade going out, and none
coming in as well.
Now down to Cape Town. In the 1960s was when the revolts in Cape Town began to
happen due to blacks not having equal rights as their white counterparts. The
Afrikaners were outraged by the British who all but told them that they had no
idea how to govern themselves. (Birmingham, 81) So... when the "Pan-Africanist
Congress organized a mass demonstration against the pass laws that controlled
all aspects of black life, the police at Sharpeville decided, whether through
panic, premeditation or political instruction, that they could not allow
themselves to be overwhelmed by lawbreakers who wanted to be arrested in order
to overpopulate and burst the prison system, They therefore opened fire with
live ammunition and when people began to flee they went on shooting until 69
people were dead." (Birmingham 81) In other words, bloody revolts were
happening on both sides of the spectrum with the South Africans practicing
guerrilla warfare and the Europeans opening fire on people practicing civil
disobedience.
Schoolchildren in Soweto "rioted when they found that their schooling was
preparing them for dead-end jobs, or no jobs at all." They were hunted down by
South African commandoes and killed. (Birmingham, 82)
So as you can see, there were plenty of revolts and guerrilla wars and whatnot
going on in South Africa as people fought for their indepence. While they may
not have been actively participating in such radical and devastating forms of
resistance such as suicide bombing, Africans were actively taking part in
guerrilla style warfare to protect their rights.
-- Sarah
"...But if one night mad lightnings slash the sky,
Rip off the roof, rend my home asunder,
So loud the hell we raise, my drum and I,
I fear I won't hear the raging thunder..."
-- Veronika Dolina (translated by Tanya Wolfson), from the poem "I Bought the
Loudest Drum Down at the Fair"
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