More race torture at Free State varsity

Letters written by black students of the University of the Free State have highlighted the shocking racial abuse they suffered at formerly white residences integrated at the beginning of the year.

Much of the abuse took place during ‘contact-initiation ceremonies” conducted by senior white students two weeks ago.

The letters were leaked to the Mail & Guardian. The latest, dated last week, was written to university authorities to reveal experiences and ask for help.

In one of the letters, seen by the Mail & Guardian at UFS this week, a first-year black student describes how he was forced to pay white students money to use the toilet, was choked, and that he and other black students were made to shout ‘Heil Hitler” and give Nazi salutes during initiation rites.

He says senior white students are often drunk while conducting these ceremonies.

One student complains of being ‘yelled at, jerked around by clothing, limbs, neck or head, being locked in smelly dark rooms, humiliated, degraded, tortured, profane language used”, while black first-years were continuously required to serve their white seniors.

Another black student recounts how he was locked in a cupboard with a sack of rotten potatoes after being forced to read a Freedom Front Plus poster. The M&G learnt that the black student has since left the campus.

A horrified JC van der Merwe, head of philosophy at UFS, said he had been told that first-year black students were so afraid of going to the toilet at night that that they kept bottles under their beds in which to urinate.

It is understood that the worst reign of terror took place at the Karee and Reitz hostels. It was at Reitz that the controversial video of black cleaners undergoing humiliating rituals was recorded.

Describing the rotten potato incident, the student writes: ‘He [name withheld] threw a [FF+] poster to me and he said ‘read!’ ‘Geforseerde Integrasie = Rassisme [forced integration equals racism]’ was written on the poster.

‘He asked me whether I’m for it or against it. I said that I don’t understand it. He told me that all the white students are against integration but the university is forcing them.

‘He asked me what I want in the white men’s residence since I’m black. I said I didn’t know that it’s a white residence, but that it’s good because I will make new friends and learn other cultures.

‘Then they locked me in the cupboard for more than three hours with a sack of rotten potatoes. They then asked me whether I was going to move out or not and I said I didn’t know.”

One of the letters seen by the M&G asserts that ‘no African culture can be enjoyed here … The only political society to visit [the hostel] was the Freedom Front Plus, which is an outspoken critic and in opposition to integration.

‘I consider this experiment [of integration] to be a failure. There’s initiation, which breaks down initiates because of the yelling, shouting, profanity and pure disrespect which goes hand-in-hand with racism.

‘During the yelling I was told to leave the residence: ‘I will deal with you until you fuck off’; while [name removed] was grabbing me by my neck and jerking me around and sometimes choking me.

‘Seniors told me and three other black students that we are the most hated. This doesn’t feel like home and it never will … The university is failing us.”

Another black student living in the same residence writes: ‘The seniors started yelling at me in Afrikaans. I replied that I didn’t understand. They told me I couldn’t use the passage because I’m black.

‘So since that day I don’t want to be here because nobody likes me. Now I fear that my academic level will drop because I am not fitting in well in their culture. I am not good at Afrikaans and they keep forcing me to speak it.”

Writes another: ‘Many human rights are violated during this initiation. They said there would be no physical contact, but two African guys and I were coming into the hostel whistling and a senior grabbed me by the T-shirt and said: ‘What the fuck are you doing?’ He pushed me backwards while hitting me with his fist on my chest and then after that he bumped me on my mouth with his fist. Then he said I must not be a sissy.

‘I request a quick response because what is happening is affecting us emotionally, mentally and academically.”

One of the black students insists that ‘only divine interference can save us … Delays in assistance may cause young, innocent dreams to be shattered”.

The hostels at UFS were open to all races in 1993 but segregated again in 1996 after intense racial conflict. In Karee a wall was erected to separate the two racial groups.

But in the wake of a government attack last year on UFS as an ‘untransformed island”, the university authorities announced that 30% of all students residing in formerly white residences had to be black, with the same proportion of white students moving into formerly black residences.

But no residence contacted by the M&G adheres to this policy. In addition, in terms of the university’s constitution, initiation ceremonies are not permitted and students may not be touched against their will or discriminated against.

Eighty percent of the SRC’s members are linked to the FF+, which opposes residential integration. The majority of resident committee heads are also FF+ members.

The M&G learned this week that a judge of the Supreme Court of Appeal, Joos Hefer, was at the forefront of the 70% of alumni who voted against the integration of residences last year.

Van der Merwe, who is taking over as the head of Karee hostel, said that the university’s language policy meant that students could complete a four-year degree without ever sharing a lecture room with a student of a different colour.

Racism on campus is not restricted to a handful of individuals, he said.

‘The academics, including myself, are also responsible, as well as the administration and university staff. We have created an environment in which we condone the making of that video. Our students are completely segregated and we’ve not addressed it.

Van der Merwe said he had ‘felt terrible” after sitting in on initiation ceremonies at which black students were verbally and racially abused.

‘I felt I was condoning this racist abuse and went to speak to the rector. The orientation of first years is no longer allowed, but it happens and we’ve been keeping quiet because we don’t want to tamper with traditions and cultural issues.”

Van der Merwe said that events at UFS reflected wider racism in South Africa. ‘Nobody calls themselves a racist any more, but the Afrikaners are now using their language as a euphemism for race.

UFS rector Frederick Fourie said developments on campus showed that ‘the rainbow nation is still under construction. Our attitudes and unconscious prejudices are what we’re facing here.”

He said that of the 25 000 students on the campus, only 3 000 are resident and only half of those are white males who opposed integration.

‘But white males here feel that their lifestyle, culture and who and what they are is under threat, and they have a sense of loss and feel bewildered. That’s why it’s so crucial that integration happens. They simply cannot continue living in such isolation.”

He also blamed the FF+ for much of the racial tension on campus.