The ugly face of racism: 32 years later

The Patriot

By Evans Mushawevato

IT seems in the last 32 years blacks and whites have been giving each other plastic smiles.  During that time we have not been bold enough to sit with one another, and talk. Last week’s lead story in The Patriot on the discussion between Ms Petina Gappah and Ms Alexander Fuller torched a firestorm showing that the two races still have issues to resolve.

But one wonders how the issue can be dealt with when some among us are quick to ‘defend’ whites or become apologetic when dealing with the issue. Colonialism was brutal to blacks.  They were dispossessed of their land and exploited for their labour. They were humiliated, degraded, belittled and dehumanised.

Prominent journalist Wonder Guchu points out in his contribution to the race debate on Facebook:
“I have heard it said repeatedly that blacks are bitter and angry about the past that they can’t forget and move on. You (must) realise that forgiving and forgetting is not easy and that it can’t be done in 20 or 30 years, it has taken Europe — the home of democracy and civilisation — more than 70 years to do so. Still Europe is not yet done with the Nazis. They will hunt them down and arrest them and charge them even when they are on their death beds. “Africa too is ready to move on but the same people who wronged Africa are still unapologetic. They still scheme to subvert and sabotage Africa. That’s why forgiving and forgetting isn’t easy,” he said.

Ms Gappah, despite her new found light, remains apologetic.  It seems she does not want to rock the boat, does not want to ‘alienate’ the white community, her friends. From her comments on Facebook, she seems to know and to have experienced racism. She says: “I have met whites who have assured me that they are comfortable with black people because they have black maids working for them. I am not kidding. “A lady in a shop recently accused me, or rather ‘you people’ of never choosing the right leaders, at which I wanted to say, ‘And Ian Smith was the right leader for you?’.”

The silence by Ms Gappah over what she wanted to say regarding Ian Smith – ‘at which I wanted to say’, is the root of our problem – the sudden powerlessness to defend our position before the white man. Why did she not tell the lady in the shop what she is telling us now on Facebook? What was she afraid of? “I completely understand the isolation and the terror of being in a white minority in a black country where you are outnumbered but in control,” said Ms Gappah.

While numerous forces might be at play forcing Ms Gappah to be ‘diplomatic’ and put on kid gloves, deep down she knows the truth and in her words wishes “that white people would actually acknowledge that Rhodesia was unjust, that it was wrong to restrict education and voting. It was wrong to stunt the growth of so many people.”

“That is all I ask for,” she pleaded.

“But instead, all I get is ‘that is all in the past. Move on, forget about it’. Either that, or I get the ‘Rhodesia was super’ stuff,” she moaned.
Wayne Armstrong insists that we have to let go off our past. “A nation that clings to the bitterness of the past will never move into the promise of the future,” he said on Facebook.

It has also been difficult to do away with racial tensions because others have attempted to sanitise racism or explain-it-away, where it has been experienced.

For instance, one Arthur Gwagwa says: “Attitudes within some of the white communities that you refer to might not necessarily be racism but socialisation. I would never deny that racism exists. True it originated from the white communities due to historical reasons but ‘an eye for an eye’ attitude stemming from misguided patriotism/nationalism has led to a sinister form of reverse racism.”

The Minister of Education, Sport, Arts and Culture David Coltart also contributed to the debate on his Facebook account. “The issue of our white tribe is a matter obviously close to my heart. I am often deeply troubled by the attitudes of many whites in Zimbabwe; attitudes which have been exacerbated by our failure to have an objective truth commission at independence… But as always it is wrong to paint any race or ethnic group with a single broad brush because there are remarkable white people out there who are deeply committed to the concept of a multi racial Zimbabwe,” said the minister.

Until underlying issues such as anger and feelings of frustration are resolved we will continue to give each other plastic smiles that do not mean anything.