A Fordham student studying abroad at the University of Pretoria experiences protests at the university first hand. (Courtesy of Wikimedia)
By Caitlyn Vogt
Author’s Note: Throughout this reflection I have used the terms that South Africans commonly use to describe the different races of individuals in South Africa: white, black, and colored (a term accepted here to indicate mixed raced). I have used the terms throughout this piece to illustrate the way I have learned about South African history and politics.
After living in Pretoria, South Africa for the past few months I have recognized a distinct intersection between race, class and socioeconomic status among students and people living in the area. The city of Pretoria was historically an Afrikaans-dominated region and continues to be so today.
Afrikaans people are generally white individuals of European descent who settled in the area and speak the language of Afrikaans. The Afrikaans culture and traditions are particularly alive in the area. The University of Pretoria, where I study, was also originally founded as an Afrikaans university.
Within a greater historical context of South Africa, apartheid was the official segregation of white people and black and colored people. Although, it ended over twenty years ago in 1994, the effects of the long-standing separation and devaluation of one group of people continue to ripple through the social and political discourse.
After studying South African history in one of my classes, I learned during the apartheid regime, white, black and colored individuals were forbidden from interacting with one another. The black and colored people faced limited economic, political and social opportunities as compared to the white population, and they were pushed to the outer townships that lacked basic resources.
The African National Congress (ANC) political party spearheaded the fall of the apartheid regime. Since the instatement of democracy in the South African government, the ANC has continued to retain political power in the country.
Even though apartheid ended in 1994 and the democratic South African government continues to rule, the social effects of the apartheid regime are still evident in daily life. The rural areas or townships where many students in my program complete service on a weekly basis are still largely populated by black and colored individuals. Many of the people in the area are caught in chronic poverty, lacking the financial, educational and political resources to rise above the same social situation that their family members experienced during apartheid. Even beyond the townships of South Africa where both black and white individuals have more resources, people of different races are separated. For example, in the city of Pretoria, some bars are clearly “black” or “white,” even though these social expectations remain explicitly unstated.
Within the first few weeks of studying at the University of Pretoria, classes were cancelled for multiple days because of student protests regarding language policy at the university. The reasons for the protests varied depending on the students with whom I spoke and their own political opinions.
On the surface, many non-Afrikaans students were incredibly frustrated with the university’s language policies in classes. Because the University of Pretoria was originally an Afrikaans University, many of the classes are offered in English, the universally spoken language in the country, and in Afrikaans.
However, South Africa has 11 official languages, leaving many students unable to take a course in their primary language. The majority of the students negatively affected by this policy are either black or colored. Some of these students claimed that the Afrikaans students had an unfair academic advantage.
In response, student factions of political parties organized protests on campus, demanding all Afrikaans classes to be removed from the university curriculum. In response, some Afrikaans students reacted negatively, arguing that the Afrikaans culture and traditions were being unnecessarily attacked. Many Afrikaans students I spoke with during the protests felt that since classes in Afrikaans didn’t directly harm non-Afrikaans students, there was no legitimate reason for protest.
Needless to say, tensions were incredibly high on campus as the administration at the University of Pretoria deliberated on how to change the school’s policy in response to the protests. Eventually, tensions died and campus life resumed its normal activity, even though the university has not yet officially responded to the protests with an amendment to the language policy.
Fascinatingly enough, many students claimed the issues had nothing to do with race relations. To clarify such statements, some students stated that apartheid ended “so long ago” and that “everyone needs to move on and not talk about the past.”
I was shocked after hearing a similar sentiment from white, black and colored students from many different backgrounds. It seems to me that the social and political effects of the apartheid regime are clearly still affecting the daily lives of many people in Pretoria. To deny its lasting emotional impact seems unrealistic and unproductive in creating common ground amongst the groups of people. In the back of my mind, I continually see the similarities between the history and politics of the United States and South Africa, something that I was certainly not anticipating prior to my study abroad experience.
I am not from South Africa, and spending a couple of months in this country does not mean that I am qualified to have an opinion on the realities that I did not face. With that being said, the past few weeks of my study abroad experience have provided me with the hindsight to consider matters related to race, class, social justice and culture in a completely different context from home.
