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Monday Mar 19, 2007

'One of us'

So, slightly more than a week has passed, again...

A lot has happened as always, but I've decided to pick out a not-too-happy story to relate, because it shows a lot about Namibian society today. At school I was partnering the kids up for PE, putting them boy-girl to make them less raucous, when one boy started kicking up a fuss. Putting on my stern teacher voice, I told him that he could either be her partner or stay inside.

Hurt, he looked up at me and explained, “No no, I want to do PE, I just don't like being partners with black people.”

I'm not one for hating things about yourself that you can't change. I'm the only white teacher in the school, which is perhaps why he looked at me with such conviction in his eyes that I would understand; I'm one of us, not one of them. It's strange that the words of an 8-year old boy could make me feel ashamed of my race, but it was the way he said it like he knew at least I, if no one else, would sympathise.

I gave him the worst telling-off but it seemed pointless. He cried but he wasn't sorry because he purely did not understand why I was angry.

I know this is a minor example of racism, but for something to be already so firmly embedded in the mind of a child emphasises how hard it is to change views of an entire nation. The laws of apartheid have been struck from the national constitution, but it takes a lot longer to remove them from people's minds.

For all I've said, things are immeasurably better than they once were, and are improving still. So it's not all bad.

Posted by Lucy Hayes ( 8:48 PM )
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