Assignment 'reading circle'
For an assigment I read a book about South-Africa. The book is called 'Playing the enemy. Nelson Mandela and the game that made a nation'. It's a story about how Nelson Mandela used his time in prison to prepare and execute his plan to finish South-Africa's inequality. You can also read more about this inequality. It's impossible to imagine for me what happened between the black and white people. The plan Mandela had to change this, and his positivity and courage to keep working for it is impressive. On the cover of the book you see a sportsplayer as well. The team where tis sportsplayer belongs to had a big influence on 'making a nation'. The 'game' took place in 1995 during the rugby world championship. In the book you can read more about the inequality, the disadvantages black people had, the hell they must have gone through, the courage of Mandela and the way he worked on his plan, how he achieved it and ofcourse also about the big game in 1995.
I really recommend this book because you read the story through the eyes of different characters. Because of this you sympathize with the characters. This can be painfull, unfair, fun, strange and amazing.
Further on in this blog you can find the assigment I made.
Passages culture collector:
Difference: apartheid between the population in daily life. The book tells the story of the situation in 1995. Mandela first black president and wants to create a peaceful country. He wants to get rid of the inequality between black and white. In the beginning of the book you can read that there are still a lot of differences between the black people and the white people. When we take a look on discrimination in Belgium, we see some differences. The white people in South-Africa grown up for many many years with the idea that black people are inferior. People in Belgium didn't always have 'black' and 'white' people in their population. It is a new topic from the last years. Next to that: almost all white people used to discriminate the black population and it really was an exception if a white man did not discriminate. This meant that the discrimination took place on a much bigger scale. In Belgium, discrimination doesn' t occur on such a large scale. However: during the colonisation there were allready African people living in Belgium. The most of these people were born in Congo and Ruanda, because these countries used to be a Belgian colony. For more information about this colonisation and black people in the history of Belgium, you can take a look to this article:
Similarity: In 1995 South-Africa is the host of the rugby world cup. The national team, called The Springbokken, did really well during the tournament and reached the final. The book starts on the morning of this incredibly important matchday. At this point you can read a similarity between South-Africa and Belgium. For the first time in years, people are looking forward to common goal. The rugby world championship final. Without spoiling, this final is a very important moment in the history of South-Africa. The togetherness the people had that day (both black AND white people), is quite similar to us as the national team of Belgium does a good job in football. Sports really van unite a nation. In South-Africa it happened after a period of apartheid which makes this moment extra special. Taking a look on the topic discrimination again, you'll see that there are some similarities as well. Also here people from other cultures and/or with other nationalities don't alwas have the same oppertunities in their development as a 'born Belgian'. Think about less oppertunities at school and on the labor market. The article which you can find in the link below, tells about unequal chances in our country.
Difference: reading the book I was quite surprised how the government dealt with Nelson Mandela as a prisoner. I am referring to his last 4 years (after Robbeneiland) in prison. I read that the prison guards and their superiors allowed Mandela to go out of prison to speak with people. These people weren't just people. While he was in prison he spoke with the president of that time, P.W. Botha. It was also his own merit because he spend his whole time in prison to get people on his side. With my limited knowledge of our legal system I don't think this kind of situations are possible in Belgium. Either you're guilty and stay in prison or your behaviour is that well they offer you an early release. In this article (it's written in Dutch), you can read that talking with prisoners can be really valuable. Espacially for the possible consequences that can show up after a prisoners gets released. The article describes that the recidivism rate is quite high. That's a contradiction looking to the fact that we want people to come out of prison better than that they were before. You can find the link to the article here:
https://www.klasbak.net/bakberichten/politici-vergeet-de-gevangenissen-niet
Similarity: Belgium is a democracy, such as South-Africa became in 1994. The strategy Mandela used is a strategy politicians in Belgium (and certainly in Holland...) use as well. (although they probably not as good as Mandela was). Politicians here also try to convince people to take over their visions and ideas so they will vote on them. Mandela showed the capacity that he to use this strategy in corrupted and unevenly divided country. The psychology behind his strategy (using the dialogue), is the same as politicians use here in our country.
Difference: the diversity between the population in the history of South-Africa. In Belgium is this diversity not particular a part of our history. But nowadays there are more and more different cultures
Similarity: this brings me directly to the similarity with Belgium now. There are more nationalities in Belgium than there were in the past. The way Mandela dealt with the diversity is simply amazing. I think Belgium can learn from this approach to steer their country in a positive way on this topic. Cultural diversity is, after all, a contemporary topic these days.
Questions related to what we've discussed in class:
- What is, according to you, a reason that inequality is
so stubborn for a population? Maybe you're able to make a connection with the terms
nature and nurture education...
possible answer: when you grow up with the thoughts that you're inferior, (nurture) it will become a part of your identity. It's very hard to get rid of it and you'll carry this thought along with you for your whole life. Next to that the people surrounding you keep threating you like inferior so you're in a negative circle. - In which way can you connect 'the danger of a single
story' with the way the white people looked to the black African people? How would you feel if a whole population sees you as inferior
just because you're black.
Possible answer: They keep thinking from the same point of view and are not willing to see another perspective. Keep looking this way won't make a change. They see black people just as an inferior population. In the book there is a passage about Francois Pienaar, the captain of the national rugby team back in 1995. This passage shows that white people don't even think about the different circumstances the black people live in. It was completely normal for them that black people live in small houses, in poor townships. When no one is willing to see another perspective, you'll not be able to change a thing. - How can you make a connection between the movie
'schooling the world' and the fact that a character in this book, Justice
Bekebeke had no chances to attend education after he turned 15. Knowing that
this was because a minister (Hendrik Verwoerd) decided that black people did
not deserve a chance to develop their selves because they didn't have the right
to achieve the same status as white people.
Possible answer: developmental opportunities are not equal for everybody. In the movie we saw that people form the countryside have less chance of quality education - Which consequences can you name of the racism from the
government towards the black population? What does this racism with the development
opportunities for these people?
Possible answer: no self-confidence, frustration, no (or at least less) development opportunities and so on. - Name some examples of empowerment in which Mandela
developed himself during his time in prison. He used this to convince his
friends and enemies to choose his side.
Possible answer: think for example about which strengths, strategies, psychologic skills he used to convince his friends and enemies to join his vision/plans/ideas. (like conversation techniques, being patient, listening and so on.