Nothing wrong with so-called “second great Boer trek” from South Africa

For Africa to move forward out of stagnation means Africans all over Africa should move beyond pettiness and babyness. The world is changing and with the change is the reality of integration and intermingling of the races. This new age integration and intermingling of the races especially Black and White has always been in existence previously. It started with the moving into Africa by European adventurers in the 13th and 14th century.

The moving into Africa of these Europeans and the subsequent intermingling of Black and White was characterized by animosity and such hatred such that the Europeans abhorred the Africans in such a way that they called them Monkeys and Apes. The reduction of Africans by Europeans to animalism eventually let to Africans transported like donkeys to Europe and America's as slaves.

The integration also took another form that of bigoted view that Africans can not rule themselves therefore they need to be run by the Europeans - and this factor let to colonialism, (the Scramble for Africa) and the idea that Africans being subhuman have no mental capacity for accumulation of scientific knowledge. In South Africa Speaking in Malmesbury in 1926, the founder of the National Party (NP), the Boer General JBM Hertzog, then Prime Minister, told the supporters of the NP that:

"Next to the European, the native stands as an 8-11 year-old child to a man of great experience - a child in religion, a child in moral conviction; without art and without science; with the most primitive needs, and the most elementary knowledge to provide for those needs. If ever a race had a need of guidance and protection from another people with which it is placed in contact, then it is the native in his contact with the white man."

Societies change and people also change. Throughout the 19th and 20th century Africans rose against the bigoted perception of themselves by Whites all over the world. There was an ideological revolution to upset the status quo, to make Whites to realize that are not called upon by God to run the empire of the world as they alleges. That they (whites) are human par excellence and the others are nothing but animals. And the battle was eventually won. These all white governments everywhere and all progressive whites’ movements and organization accept as fact that all human races are equal. Not only so but that the have formed organization and movements to entrench this view.

The idea of equality of the races was to found embodiment in the progressive African people centred liberation movement in South Africa called the African National Congress (ANC) which now is the government of South Africa. The ANC embodied this new age integration of the races into the concepts of non-racialism multi-racialism. The South African leader Arch bishop Desmond Tutu colourfully took these concepts further and called them Rainbownism.

We in 21st Century, a Century that is characterised by globalization of the races and a requisite of highly skilled manpower imbued with initiative. And if Africans, who were marginalised economically will need support. They need highly skilled people to watch them, practice what they are doing. Model them. Copy and imitate them. Most whites who now live in Africa, in fact all over the world have no hatred for Africa. And if they do not have hatred why should we Africans have hatred? For what? We can not continue complaining of the past. We have to acknowledge that whatever happened, happened because it did happen and then move on. Many African commentators fail to accept this fact because their minds have slipped into a dark vortex of hate which they can not extricate themselves, or move out of. Our fear of white people is threatening our survival.

The move of the so-called Boers from South Africa into Africa should be celebrated and encouraged. If there is anything an Africa need it is the so-called Boers from South Africa. Seriously. Recently a study was made in South Africa that "It is becoming increasingly clear that white Afrikaners' (so-called Boers) emotional, psychological and material relationship with Africa and South Africa differs from those of other white people.". The study also found that "There are many signs indicating that Afrikaners are embracing the new South Africa and Africanism more readily than English-speaking whites." The study also found that "Afrikaners were "breaking out" of their self-imposed cages".

The New National Party (NNP) (the political party of Apartheid) Secretary General, Daryl Swanepoel, said: "The NNP is of the firm conviction that the best way to secure a united South Africa is to ensure inclusivity in decision-making; and to achieve this, it is crucial for black, white, coloured and Indian to join forces with the ANC (predominantly black political party)."

Obviously this statement communicate a very powerful message about the extraordinary ability of our people to give real meaning to the goals of national reconciliation, unity in diversity and non-racialism, and a common nationhood. It would confirm the gift we share as a people, regardless of race and colour, practically to communicate the message to ourselves and the world, that we are, together, human beings who belong to one common humanity, regardless of our different histories.

PAMBAZUKA NEWS RESPONDS: I feel this response misses the point of Shivji's article. Without speaking for Prof. Shivji, my interpretation was that he was giving expression to the suspicion on the African continent of aggressive South African capital, which often functions to the detriment of local markets and people. Witness in the last week, for example, the Human Rights Watch report on Anglo American's activities in the DRC. I didn't see the term the "second great boer trek" as referring only to white Afrikaner farmers, but more as a reference towards a particular type of South African capital expansion on the continent and the links between this and previous systems of exploitation. - Patrick Burnett, Pambazuka News