Apparently the buzz word among my darker skin fellow citizen is white privileged. As I understand if you don't understand the concept you are brain washed by White Supremacist. Well I am thinking and I take my life in revue.
I grew up in Zululand. We owned nothing and for many years my father had to work night shift at Score Metals. 12 hour shifts with out any union backing nor any financial aid. There was not enough money for us to stay in a flat. My father rented a room with an old lady with very smelly feet and me and my mother was locked up in the room most of the times because the lady hated children. I had one toy to play with and it was a cast of Jan van Riebeecks Head.
For Four days a week my dad slept in the car on the parking lot because he did not have money for petrol to come home between shifts and he was mostly to tired to drive after a shift. It was not a good life. It was not a fair life, but we had to live the hand we where dealt.
After a year or so my father was burned out and we moved to the next stop. Richards Bay. Here he tried to make a living with selling food from a VW Fleet Line bus to the Construction and Factory workers in Alton. My mother use to get up early in the morning and cooked the food that was sold during the morning and she prepared the food that was sold over lunch time while the Combi was out on the road.
It was during this time that my Good and Bad Experiences with life started. The Driver was a Zulu man with a heart of Gold. The School was a "white privileged" school and the teachers always laughed at me when I had to fill in school forms and had to write " Fathers Occupation: Self Employed" Why this was a disgrace I could never understand, but after school and weekends I had time to spend with my mentor and friend. He Drove and I dished up and Sold the food.
All seemed well but my father was arrested many times by the local authority for not adhering to the Richards Bay Municipality By Laws. So eventually we had to move to Empangeni where the bay laws was a little more lenient and my father started a Ice Cream Vending Franchise.
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| Hubris - The Destruction off Man |
It was during this time that my Good and Bad Experiences with life started. The Driver was a Zulu man with a heart of Gold. The School was a "white privileged" school and the teachers always laughed at me when I had to fill in school forms and had to write " Fathers Occupation: Self Employed" Why this was a disgrace I could never understand, but after school and weekends I had time to spend with my mentor and friend. He Drove and I dished up and Sold the food.
All seemed well but my father was arrested many times by the local authority for not adhering to the Richards Bay Municipality By Laws. So eventually we had to move to Empangeni where the bay laws was a little more lenient and my father started a Ice Cream Vending Franchise.
Sad that we all grew up in this beautiful part of Africa but made to feel guilty for being privileged. My farther grew up when being white and Afrikaans counted against you and all Afrikaans people were considered backward only good for the menial jobs. They survived by working and trying and eventually getting there. We worked on the farm, lived on what was found in the garden when money ran out because of too much rain, not enough rain, lowering of prices etc. I am privileged that I had the opportunity to grow up in South Africa, not because I am white, but because I am part of Africa.
ReplyDeleteIt is true Estelle. Very Sad that we want to make a difference, not necessarily because of guilt, but because who we are givers.
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