‘DEAR WHITE PEOPLE’

Editor,

I would like to respond to the column by Nontobeko Tshabalala headed ‘Dear White People’ as appearing in the Swazi News on August  9, 2014. Tshabalala raises a subject that is long overdue for discussion, one which we can, I hope approach with a cool head and open mind.

Speaking as a white male from England, I am well aware that I arrived in Swaziland with all the usual opinions relating to my culture and place in the world.
I had attended expensive racially mixed schools, which was fine so long as everyone did things our way. Arriving in Africa, I soon realised that the world can be seen in many ways, strange? In my rural situation did my neighbours find my ways strange?

Why did they live as I found them and whose way was really better? Of course, being English, I usually assumed my way was best.
And here lies the root cause of racism. If I do things better than you (in my opinion) then it can follow that I begin to think I am better than you are. Now the matter of respect comes in. If I can think that you are not ‘as good’ as I am, then I may decide (I say may) that I do not respect you. Here I must state that the word respect has varying depths of meaning. I hope that we shall hear more about meaning.

I hope that we shall hear more about this. Now, having decided that I do not respect you as I could or should, the way lies open to all manner of abuse. WE may convince ourselves that we need not accord respect, or we may be taught, as in the past in South Africa, or in the earlier part of the 20th century, in Germany.

We may feel threatened by something – a black majority for instance. We may be afraid of something perhaps a snake. We may not understand something, such as a culture or religion.  The easy way to decide it’s bad, even to be destroyed. To embrace, to understand requires time and mental effort. Is racism an easy way out?

Experiences

During my 50 years in Africa I have had several emotional experiences in which i was the only white person present. In each case, I was simply accepted into this situation, as another human being. Not as the oppressor in Soweto, not as the ‘other’. Just as a ‘somebody’ there is a lesson there.

Most of the white people I know are happy here. Many love Swaziland. Can one live as a minority in a land where one has no respect for the majority, and be happy? I will close here in the hope that a lively discussion can follow. We all live in a small and lovely place, where I am sure we can speak without giving offence; with respect.   
 
Peter George         

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