SAFAR 1435 l DECEMBER 2013
Vol. 27 No. 12
The ten layers of oppression when you are black and poor in South Africa GILLIAN SCHUTTE & SIPHO SINGISWA PPRESSION, when written about, is often reduced to one layer of suffering. Yet, when one unpacks the lives and narratives of the poor, it becomes clear that their struggle to survive takes place under many layers of oppression.
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Layer one: the history of racial oppression The most obvious layer of oppression is that of a history of colonialism, labour and apartheid. Colonialists created ‘race’ as a way of oppressing the colonised. This race construct was created on the myth of the ‘inferior other’, the primitive dark man whom the white man could tame, pacify and put to work ‘for his own good’. It is the poor black majority who still carry this historical burden because systemic
damage was so deeply etched into the fabric of their society that little has changed for them.
Layer three: discursive oppression and an anti-Black media
Layer two: enduring racial hierarchy
Many myths and beliefs about blackness abound in the white imaginary, none more rife than that of the savage black male. Black men have become the monster under the bed of our society. The black male, and more specifically the poor black male, has become the scapegoat for all the woes of our country. He is the rapist, the murderer, the tsotsi, the hijacker, the conman, the baby killer, the wife beater, the child rapist and the rapist. While statistics show that more women are killed at the hands of their intimate partners in South Africa, the myth that it is a black male stranger that is more likely to kill white women, is pushed ardently by right wing and even mainstream media. The media continues to present
What endures in postapartheid South Africa is the legacy of racial classification and hierarchy – white, indian, coloured, and black. This is the taboo topic that no one wants to touch because it is complex and sensitive territory. Blacks, coloureds and indians were historically oppressed by the white supremacist system. But within this oppression, coloureds and indians were given more economic privileges than blacks. This meant that blacks were at the very bottom of the social hierarchy and further ‘othered’ by both indian and coloured folk, most of whom did not want to be associated with ‘blacks’ and considered themselves to be superior.
a biased view of South Africa and it is largely black people who are presented in a bad light via stories of corruption and criminality. The corruption of the white corporate echelon is largely overlooked.
Layer four: the repression of Black women Black women are the most marginalised group in South Africa. Black women are at the forefront of the struggle for a life free of all categories of oppression. This includes the experience of economic oppression, the oppression of patriarchy, the oppression of sexually violent crimes, the oppression of environmental degradation and the oppression of not being able to nurture their families in environments conducive to family living. CONTINUED ON PAGE 4
GUEST EDITORAL - PAGE 3 Nabeweya Malick The keynote address was delivered by IPSA’s principal, Shaikh Ighsaan Taliep. Shaikh Taliep’s address focused on the need to rein in the sectarian forces that have been unleashed in the Muslim world, especially in light of Sunni-Shia conflict. According to the shaikh, this needed to be done by applying the following principles: understanding that differences are divinely inevitable; a courageous leadership that proposes new ways of managing difference; tackling the incendiary curriculum that is taught at certain Islamic institutions of learning; and the continuous maintenance of courtesy in argument, tolerance and mercy – these being hallmarks
THE 5th Annual Wasatiyyah Symposium, convened by International Peace College South Africa (IPSA), in association with the Shahmohamed Trust, was held on Saturday, November 23. From left (front): Dr A K Toffar, IPSA Vice-Principal; Dr Auwais Rafudeen, senior lecturer, Department of Arabic and Religious Studies, UNISA; Shaikh Ighsaan Taliep, IPSA Principal, who delivered the key-note address; Mr Fadl Nacerodien, Chief Director: Policy, Research and Analysis Unit, Department of International Relations and Cooperation; and Dr Hisham Al-Alawi, Ambassador of Iraq to South Africa. Photo NAZIER BREY
of the Sunnah. - page 7 5th Annual IPSA Wasatiyyah Symposium