By Thando Sipuye
Privilege
and proximity to whiteness speaks. A position of privilege and relative
proximity to whiteness not only gives you a voice to speak in this country, it
also provides you with an inter-national audience, ministerial interventions,
public outrage, debates and dialogues. And of course, you form part of the ‘national
narrative’.
The
recent protest by young Black girls at the Pretoria Girls High published on
(social) media is a clear case in point here. This incident exposes not only
the totality of white racism in South Africa, but also the disguised hypocrisy
of us Black people in dealing with it.
Yearly
in South Africa children of the RasTafari community and Black children who keep
dreadlocks for spiritual purpose like Intwaso
or Ukuthwasa are rejected, chased
away or suspended from (township & rural) schools for their dreadlock hairstyles
– which forms part of their spiritual-cultural heritage and philosophical
worldviews.
Yet,
dololo (absolutely no) Black outrage against this clearly age-old racist
practise which can be traced back to the advent of Black enslavement and the
later arrival of European Missionaries, and their subsequent demonization of
everything Afrikan.
The
stories of rejected, chased away or suspended Rasta children and those who keep
dreadlocks because of Intwaso or Ukuthwasa have been published and
circulated widely on all (social) media platforms in this country; and even
published in the country’s prominent newspapers, tabloids, radio and even
television news.
These
stories of dread exclusion and humiliation are also well recorded in some
documents and reports of the Department of Education, South African Human Rights
Commission, Equal Education and the Commission for the Promotion and Protection
of the Rights of Cultural, Religious and Linguistic Communities (CRL
Commission).
Earlier
in January this year, the Principal of SBC Serumula in Tembisa expelled Grade 9
student Palesa Mailane from school because she has dreadlocks. Palesa had been
admitted to the school the previous year in September, and the principal
immediately instructed her parents to cut off her hair.
Palesa’s
parents replied informing the school’s Principal that Palesa was a RasTafari
child and that keeping dreadlocks was part of her spiritual-cultural tradition
(religion). The parents sought help from Gauteng Education MEC Panyaza Lesufi’s
office, which assisted in getting the girl reinstated to school.
But
the Department of Education subsequently asked the parents to prove the
religious significance of the teenager’s dreadlocks, and later said that Palesa’s
dreadlock hairstyle did not comply with the schools code of conduct.
17
year old Anathi Marhe from Mfuleni High School also suffered the same
systematic and sanctioned racism earlier this year on 13 January when his class
teacher told him that boys are not allowed to have dreadlocks and he should cut
them.
Consequently,
when Anathi told the teacher he was RasTafari and that dreadlocks were part of
his religious faith, the teacher shouted back at him: “we don’t teach RasTafarians in the school, you will bring bad
influence”. This teacher literally refused to even teach the class while
Anathi was in attendance.
Then
there’s the stories of Odwa Sityata, Grade 8 pupil from Joe Slovo Engineering
High School in Khayelitsha - suspended because of his dreadlocks; Afrika Nazo
from the Alpha and Omega Christian Academy - chased away from school for
wearing dreadlocks for cultural reasons; Yola Makasi Grade R learner from King’s
College - denied learning because of his dreadlocks; Sikhokhele Diniso, Grade
10 pupil from Siphamandla High School in Khayelitsha - told not to come back to
school because of his dreadlocks; Palesa Radebe from Leseding Technical School
- routinely taken out of class and seated at the staffroom while her peers got
tuition because she has dreadlocks. After Palesa was reinstated to school, the
School Governing Body initiated a protest saying there would be no learning as long
as Palesa Radebe attended classes.
These
stories are countless and were widely published on prominent (social) media. So
why was the general Black public silent about the racism and humiliation
suffered by these Black children in township and rural schools? And in turn, what is it about the recent
incident at Pretoria Girls High School that warranted the kind of outrage and
reactions we’ve seen on (social) media from Black people?
The
only reasonable answer is that Black people are hypocrites and selective when it
comes to dealing with racism-white supremacy. I’m not a Marxist, but perhaps
this is a matter of class and privilege. The higher up the ladder of
socio-economic privilege, and the relatively closer you are to whiteness and
the status thereof, the more audible you are in a society that ensures the
permanent silence and invisibility of the underprivileged and excluded Black
majority.
Or
perhaps, as Steve Biko once stated, this Black silence and the general non-responsiveness
to these stories is an explicit manifestation of the deep-seated, internalized
self-hatred Black people suffer from; a white induced psychosis of some sort.
But
Christine Qunta argues in her book ‘Why We
Are Not A Nation’ that the condition Black people find themselves in is
much more complex than self-hatred, arguing that “self-hatred is only one part of a complex set of symptoms of a
psychological disorder that has become chronic throughout the Black world”.
The
general response of some Black people to these stories has been to condemn the
parents of these children, vilify them for backwardness or being ‘dirty’, or
try to ‘advise’ (actually instruct) them to cut off the hair of their children
in order for them to access the basic human right of education. In all the above
stated cases most Blacks sided with the schools, slurring at both parents and
children for breaking schools ‘codes of conduct’.
What
is it about Afrikan hair, Afrikan hairstyles and Afrikan culture that breaks
school ‘rules’ and ‘codes of conduct; do the kinks and knots on Afrikan hair
bind and incapacitate Afrikans from thinking?
Historically
all Afrikan slaves, male or female, were shaved bald by the slave-master. And
later, all converts to Christianity - people who had denounced their own
culture, history and philosophical worldviews and accepted the concept of a
white Jesus and the religion of their oppressors - were shaved bald and given
new European clothes to wear, and European (Christian) names.
And history
also records that the first schools in this country were colonial schools
established by white missionaries for the training of the newly converted
Blacks. Today, most township and rural schools continue functioning in the
tradition of colonial schools and institutions, negating indigenous knowledge
systems, systematically oppressive to Afrikan children and Afrikan culture.
All
of this was done by Europeans as part of the process of breaking down the
Afrikan, completely severing the spiritual and cultural ties that consciously
bound them to their ancestral memory and identity.
Thus,
many Black schools today accept, and even encourage, that Black pupils use
dangerous hair-straightening chemicals called ‘relaxers’ on their hair to look ‘beautiful’.
And at worst, these schools systematically force Black boys and girls to
completely shave their heads bald as a rule, like prisoners really.
These
schools really operate more like prisons, where Black students are treated like
incarcerated inmates and the teachers are the wardens who keep them in check, ‘disciplined’.
And here ‘disciplined’ means in line with and obedience to whiteness. This is
the same slave-and-master relationship training which begins at a very early
age, reserved strictly for Black children.
And
yet, there has never been any outrage from the general Black public against
these institutional and structural racist practises, ‘rules’ and ‘codes of
conduct’ which are administrated and enforced by Black principals and teachers
(in township and rural schools).
But
when children from privileged white schools located in the lofty suburbs of
Pretoria speak, when children situated in close proximity to whiteness raise
their voices, the whole nation erupts in public outrage, protests, debates and
dialogues about racism and aesthetics in South African schools. Why?
The
RasTafari Movement has always articulated the Afrocentric position that the
dreadlocks on their hair bear a spiritual and political significance – a revolutionary
symbol of cultural resistance against societal imposition of Eurocentric beauty
standards and styles as the basic norm.
Traditional
Afrikan spirituality and people who keep dreadlocks because of Intwaso or Ukuthwasa also articulate a clear position about the spiritual
significance of dreadlocks in their cultural expression and communion with
Ancestors.
But
these voices have remained largely marginalized, ridiculed, muted, silenced,
unheard by neither the government, department of education, nor the Black
public that is now erupting against what has recently happened at Pretoria Girl’s
High. As though some Black people’s hair (afro) is more important or better
than other Black people’s hair (dreadlocks).
Christine
Qunta clarifies for us that: “if skin
colour is the important signification of beauty in a white supremacist world
view, the real dividing line between those who are ‘the chosen’ and those who are
not is hair”.
While
we support fully the struggle of the young Black girls at Pretoria Girls High
in principle and solidarity, we must however realize that there is a degree to
which some Black people are complicit (consciously or subconsciously) in the
continued administration, enforcement, reinforcement, defence and perpetuation
of structural and institutional racism, racist attitudes and racist stereotypes
against other Black people in this country.
These
are the kind of Blacks that Steve Biko said needed to be reminded of their
complicity in the crime of allowing themselves to be misused and therefore
letting evil reign supreme in the country of their birth.
All
in the name of advancing outdated ‘progressive’ white-supremacist, colonial and
neo-colonial school ‘rules’ and ‘codes of conduct’.
