A friend from abroad was recently stopped by the police on what was supposed to be a routine check on the roadworthiness of vehicles and whether drivers have legitimate licences, carry contraband and so on. She accepted this as a necessary, if annoying, practice to improve the culture of driving, road safety and responsible driving in South Africa.
Having been satisfied with her licence, the officer suddenly shifted his interest to her complexion. It was too dark, he seemed to think, to be that of a “black” South African. This was a black officer nogal. She was thoroughly grilled about her immigrant status. The attitude displayed by the officer was utterly demeaning, contemptuous and unprofessional. It remains to be seen whether she will recover from the trauma.
This is not an isolated incident. Experiences of this kind have been noted in the media in recent months. There was the case of a world-renowned Kenyan model who was harassed by police because she was too dark and, consequently, her credentials were deemed suspect. Even fellow South Africans are occasionally subjected to such bizarre antics. Many, many blacks, not only from other parts of Africa but also from the diaspora, are humiliated in this manner.
The troubling question is: Why? This is a cruel oddity in a country priding itself on being a rainbow nation. This oddity is serious as it suggests a deep psychological impairment or mental ill health of a massive scale as it manifests itself in many guises.
Part of the understanding of this self-hate phenomenon has to do with the total onslaught of apartheid. It was not only physical but also psychological: going to the source of identity that is the self. Among other things, the system instilled a sense of inferiority, lack of self-respect and appreciation of one’s personhood. Frantz Fanon characterised this aptly in his Black Skin, White Masks. Schooling did this through curricula that undermined African culture and elevated Western culture casting it as universal and eclipsing by far other cultural identities.
One of the mechanisms by which this was accomplished has recently been captured in an Human Sciences Research Council report entitled Textbooks for Diverse Learners. The report is based on a study conducted by Carolyn McKinney of a select sample of school textbooks. What it shows is that omission, character distortion, caricature, subtle and subliminal assaults are committed on the mind and selfhood. Outside the classroom the media have and still play a powerful role in purveying aesthetics, styles, tastes, and so on.
Between July and September last year we monitored two prominent newspapers in South Africa, the Saturday Star and the Sunday Times, to assess the images of fame and beauty they present. The majority of the images are of Americans and Europeans. During this period only five pictures of blacks appeared out of a total of 58. Ninety-three percent had the classic model-thin look with only one full-figured female. None of the images came close to representing the predominant hue in South Africa. Although we are not fans of the beauty and celebrity industries and concede the right of others to be card-carrying members, we do believe that the image representation is undemocratic and undermines the cultural sensibilities of many.
So we have powerful agencies that, to an incalculable extent, seem to be part of this manufactured state of mind manifested in the experiences of my friend. Pleading for self-redemption, Bob Marley, in his inimitable way intones: “Emancipate yourselves from mental slavery / None but ourselves can free our minds …”
We are not arguing for a narrow cultural purism for that is impossible in a world that has porous cultural boundaries and unprecedented hybridity. Rather, we argue against the uncritical wholesale consumption of cultural artefacts that, in the extreme, constitute a self-denial. Our police officer is one example of a pitiful state of affairs. Therapeutic engagement with the condition of mental slavery is in the best interest of all.
Mokubung Nkomo is a professor of education at the University of Pretoria and Ramodungoane Tabane is a PhD candidate at the University of Pretoria