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Saffas Speak Up

Wed, 12 Apr 2006 22:06:30 +0200

By Lamese Abrahams

We have had such a huge response to last week's feature article 'Gas the Saffas?', that we've decided to follow it up with comments from our readers.

Last week’s feature article in the South African, in which we highlighted a poll from the discussion forum on the Gumtree website asking whether Saffas (South Africans) should be gassed, has caused immense reaction from our readers and has appeared in a South African newspaper.

The Rapport newspaper published a story about the poll and highlighted the fact that posts exist by South Africans on other websites, that substantiate those posted on the Gumtree.

Of the letters we received following the article, many readers related experiences where they were targeted because of their nationality, with one reader revealing that he received death threats.

“I live and work in the south of England together with my wife and two children. In the two years I’ve been here, several people have treated us like aliens. We have not gained many friends and even at church you are treated as someone that should be kept at a distance.

“Recently my wife caught two teenagers stealing my bicycle and when she approached their parents, she was attacked by the woman while the man was screaming at the top of his voice that we South Africans must p*ss off back home.”

“They also said if they got her alone in the street they will kill her. We had to ask for police protection because of this incident,” the reader explained.

While this might be an isolated incident and we admit the rest of South Africans in the UK are probably not being subjected to anti-South African sentiment, it is however transparent that there is a problem in terms of the way South Africans are viewed and the way in which some South Africans, however small the group, are acting.

“The fact is the media in this country have absolutely defaced us as a result of apartheid. If you see anything on television about South Africa, it’s either a sob story, or hero story about black people, or a damnation of the whites involved in apartheid.

“In many ways South Africa has overcome racism in a much more constructive way because we have had to face our own racist feelings and work to change them. We must be proud of our South African heritage, learn our lessons while we’re over here, and try to educate people about South Africa where we can,” another reader Andrew stated.

A few also felt the poll should have been ignored and that attention should not have been given to it. It does however take a few bad apples to spoil the bunch with the ramification possibly being a ripple effect of generalisation that will not benefit any South African in the UK.

Another reader feels that because of South Africa’s history it makes for automatic targets but also feels that Britain is an extremely tolerant society.

“As upsetting as the forum is, it is best just to ignore it, get on with life and make sure we paint ourselves in a good light at all times. Our past makes us automatic targets, unfortunately more so than other nationality.

“Britain is an extremely tolerant country and most people I have met, regardless of nationality or ethnicity, have been the most friendly and accommodating,” she explains.

Another reader states: “Coming from South Africa, we’ve all had apartheid hammered into our faces, our noses rubbed in it, and it thrown, like salt, in our eyes. I’ve got friends who are white, black, coloured, Indian, black wanting to be white and white wanting to be black.

“Whilst I speak for only the minority that I can speak for, we are tired of this stigma. It seems that is not the South Africans who need to learn tolerance, but the rest of the world, for it is the rest of the world who keep bring up this issue of racism.”

South Africa like any other country in the world has its own share of problems, but what it has achieved in the last 12 years is something that most countries will never be able to do. The post in the forum, as well as the article in the Rapport stating that there are people in the UK on other websites promoting anti-South African sentiment, brings the reality to the fore that there’s still a minority out there trapped in the past.

The most striking result of the article is that the number of people who are proudly South African far outweighs those who are not, and those proud South Africans are firmly against anyone who condemn their homeland.

“I was perhaps not the proudest Saffa (South African) when living back home, but being here, I couldn’t be prouder of my country, of being South African. I feel very passionately for our people,” a reader discloses.

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