THIS week at work I came across a 78-year-old British man who was born in Cape Town, South Africa and grew up in Johannesburg.
He told me that his British great-grand parents migrated to South Africa towards the end of the 19th century when there was a mining revolution in South Africa.
I was expecting him to tell me that he emigrated from South Africa after the country attained her independence because of violence and crime.
But his response was least expected.
“I was born and bred in South Africa, but I decided to come to the UK in 1964 when I got married,” he said.
“I didn’t want my children to be born in South Africa and for them to grow up in apartheid.”
He told me that although he grew up as a privileged white boy among poor black South Africans, he knew that apartheid was not sustainable and the marginalisation of black people would lead to most of the social ills affecting South Africa today, such as violence and crime.
“Any liberal-minded white person like me could see that the system (apartheid) was not sustainable, and that it would create violence,” he said.
“South Africa is not violent because black people are (naturally) violent, it is violent because we created the violence through apartheid.
“We saw it (violence and crime) coming.”
He told me that he last went to South Africa nearly 20 years ago, soon after Mandela was released from prison.
He is not interested in post-colonial South Africa either!
A lot of white South Africans I met before blame crime and violence as the reason why they are emigrating to Europe.
Unlike this 78-year-old, they think most black people in South Africa are lazy and resort to crime and prostitution because of laziness.
But this 78-year-old man blames most problems affecting Africa today largely to colonialism, although he admits that poor governance is also a problem.
“I didn’t like what my people were doing to (black) Africans,” he said.
“I don’t like what our countries are doing to Africa.”
My conversation with this man got me thinking.
Coincidentally, when I came home (after my conversation with this man), still playing the conversation in my head over and over again, I came across a very interesting post on facebook, posted by the UK-based Lloyd Msipa.
Lloyd is urging people to read the thread.
It is purported to be a conversation between a guy called Ronald Stanley Peters, who was the Homicide Chief for Matabeleland in the 1960s, and someone called Mr Bopela, an ANC/ZAPU guerilla captured during an operation in 1967 in Hwange area in 1967.
I took just a bit of the thread.
I don’t know its authenticity, but I thought I should share some of its contents with you.
“So, you think you have won everything Mr Bopela, huh?
“I am sorry to spoil your happiness sir, but you have not won anything.
“You have political power, yes, but that is all.
“We control the economy of this country, on whose stability depends everybody’s livelihood, including the lives of those who boast that they have political power, you and your victorious friends.
“Maybe I should tell you something about us white people Mr Bopela.
“I think you deserve it too, seeing how you kept this nonsense warm in your head for 13 hard years in prison.
“Now listen to me carefully my friend, I am going to help you understand us white people a bit better, and the kind of problem you and your friends have to deal with.
“When we planted our flag in the place where we built the city of Salisbury, in 1877, we planned for this time.
“We planned for the time when the African would rise up against us, and perhaps defeat us by sheer numbers and insurrection.
“When that time came, we decided, the African should not be in a position to rule his newly-found country without taking his cue from us.
“We should continue to rule, even after political power has been snatched from us, Mr Bopela.
“We started by changing the country we took from you to a country that you will find, many centuries later, when you gain political power.
“It would be totally unlike the country your ancestors lived in; it would be a new country.
“Let us start with agriculture.”
He goes on to explain how Africa would be dependent on Europe for centuries to come, or neo-colonialism.
“We do not need to be in parliament to rule your Zimbabwe,” he told this Mr Bopela.
“We have the power of knowledge and vital skills, needed to run the economy and create jobs.
“Without us, your Zimbabwe will collapse.
“You see now what I mean when I say you have won nothing?
“I know what I am talking about.
“We could even sabotage your economy and you would not know what had happened.”
True to his narrative, the Zimbabwean economy has been sabotaged for nearly two decades.
Although much of the narrative between this Ronald Stanley Peters and Mr Bopela bordered on racism, it is clear that when Europeans colonised Africa, they planned to leave it in tatters and ungovernable after their departure.
Africa is a long way from real independence.
Perhaps too, apartheid intentionally created a post-colonial South Africa that would be riddled with crime and violence.