On June 30, 1991, the apartheid laws were abolished. A step towards the end of the regime that was definitely overthrown by the ballot box in April 1994. Among the younger generations, the story of the struggle against apartheid is blurred.
[En son: La mémoire de la lutte contre l’apartheid dans une famille de militants]
From our correspondent in Johannesburg,
“We were almost caught by the police there. One of the passengers in the car had a gun and was ready to pull it. I managed to convince him not to take out his gun and finally we were able to leave without worries “. The story is told with gusto in front of a wood stove. It is not a former United Democratic Front (UDF) activist who is speaking, it is his son, Yanos. From the couch in his residence in Johannesburg, he imitates his father walking on the past weapon.
At the age of 5 in 1994, Yanos Roussos de Vries has no direct memory of apartheid. The parents’ story falsified their knowledge of the struggle against the regime. “It’s like a post – war generation telling the story of their battles,” smiles this young thirty-something bottle-fed with the history of the gun, the car and the police. “Every time you pass the corner of this street in Cape Town, it is, it is gone, always the same story,” he says without reverence or admiration.
► To consult: our file on RFI Savoirs on apartheid
Half a century of oppression
The great story is the history of the National Party which gradually built up a racist and segregationist state from its takeover in 1948. Law after law, non-white populations (blacks, Indians, colored [métis]) are grouped according to their race. Places for life, travel, marriage are governed by texts written especially to organize the whites.
On the father’s side, Yanos comes from a family in Colored, Cape Town. In the 1960s, the government expelled the residents of District6 where his grandparents and father lived. They are being hunted down to turn the area into a home for whites. About 60,000 people were therefore forcibly expelled and driven back to less noble countries.
“A struggle, an enemy and cohesion”
Yanos is proud to know that both her parents fought against the apartheid regime. But it belittles the story of a generation that considers itself victorious. “There are still long and tedious fights to be waged and for which no one wants to get involved,” he laments. How about the cultural, material struggles, the fight against corruption and bureaucracy today?
The Yanos generation feels drowned in a fragmented society where evil has increased. The times are no longer as binary as they were in the 20th century. They no longer collide with ideological blocs as in the 1980s. “The [les anciens militants] everyone talks about “difficult times”, but with a bit of excitement. Most were in their twenties, there was a struggle to wage, an enemy and a lot of cohesion in societies, ”Yanos recalls.
► To read also: Apartheid, “crime against humanity”, agitates South Africa
“I want to move on”
“Times have changed,” said Mosima Nephawe without nostalgia. Dressed to meet the active life – brown jacket, black dress and matching square glasses – the 23-year-old communication student still draws a parallel between the battles. “We have no scholarships, no job … our parents also fought for it,” says Mosima. His father, Freddy, hid to join Umkhonto we Sizwe, the ANC’s armed wing. “I’m proud to say that my father was one of those who fought so I could sit here,” she says proudly from the terrace of a café.
Mosima is not an activist. She followed the latest student demonstrations on social networks. Every morning, when she wakes up, she goes to Instagram to “see if the people I want to look like have posted a new outfit or a new destination”, she writes for an essay about youth. Social progress is his struggle. “Where I come from, not many people travel. Their vision of democracy is to buy an apartment or a new car, drink beer while talking nostalgically about the path they have come ”. His father’s stories? “It’s earlier, I want to move on,” concludes Mosima.
“The luxury of not having to commit”
“To understand the problems of contemporary South Africa, it is important to know its past,” defends Nadia Meer. The granddaughter of Indian activist FatimaMeer, she observes with regret the surrounding pessimism. “I see how fatigue, upset and cynicism can come in. But my grandparents remained hopeful in the face of very strong adversity. They always thought that the world could become a better place through collective efforts, she reminds.
Against fatalism, Nadia builds on her childhood memories. The “happy and sunny” day at the end of April 1994 when his primary school in Johannesburg was turned into a polling station. The queue goes around the school and goes up to the surrounding streets. Nadia is nine years old and she accompanies her parents who will vote for the first democratic and non-racial election in South Africa. Years of armed resistance, international boycott and mediation were allowed to take place. It is won by Nelson Mandela, free since February 11, 1990 by decision of the last president of apartheid, Frederik De Klerk.
► See also our web documentary: Mandela, in the footsteps of a giant
Nadia, 35, now based in London, knows she is not in the best position to oppose the concerns of the born free generation. But there are still battles to be waged, Nadia Meer insists, “by supporting Palestine. It is the extension of a form of apartheid,” she said as an example. to demonstrate, “but I would exaggerate if I said that my activism is equal to my family’s.” Demonstrated fist demonstrations are not her daily life, she admits, “we live in a world where we have the luxury of not having to get involved. “
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