The Sowetan – Jumping the Border for Water

The Sowetan - Jumping the Border for Water

The Sowetan newspaper reports Botswanan women routinely jump the border with South Africa in order to collect water for their families.  You may be able to access it here at The Sowetan e-edition: http://www.pressdisplay.com/pressdisplay/viewer.aspx

This is an artificial border first erected in 1933, which divided a community called Mabule in Botswana .  Now half of Mabule is in South Africa, but the other half is still in Botswana. And they need water. They cross the barbed wire border every day to get it. 

I don't remember hearing about this in The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency.   

As you may know, during the European colonisation of Africa, many artificial borders were set up and they often divided communities. There are people in Mabule in Botswana who are now living in a different country from their relatives – all because of an artificial border.

Similar things have happened all over Africa. And this is still affecting people to this day.

Think about the devastation that is being wrought by Boko Haram in Northern Nigeria and reflect on how much of this can be traced to the fact that areas which are now banded together nationally as Nigeria were once separate territories, with their own poitical and economic systems. These existing systems were either eroded or destroyed in order to facilitiate the agendas of the European colonisers. For more about this, check out my blog post:  Invasion 1897.  

For more about the devastating long-term effects of the European colonisation of Africa, see: Black People in the First World War. 

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Remembering Sharpeville and Sophiatown

According to the UN, "The International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination is observed annually on 21 March. On that day, in 1960, police opened fire and killed 69 people at a peaceful demonstration in Sharpeville, South Africa, against the apartheid "pass laws". Proclaiming the Day in 1966, the General Assembly called on the international community to redouble its efforts to eliminate all forms of racial discrimination (resolution 2142 (XXI))".

Thank you for this information, Aberjhani.

On the 21st of March 1960, 5,000 or more South African people gathered in Sharpeville. As an act of passive resistance, they did not carry passes. This demonstration had been organised by the Pan African Congress, who reasoned that the police could not arrest that many people.

South African police fired on this group of unarmed African people, killing 69 and wounding more than 200. It was later shown that the police had shot people in the back who had been running away.

The Sharpeville massacre was just one shameful day in the shameful history of racism, racial discrimination and apartheid.

The culture of Sophiatown was very rich and vibrant. In 1960, the film Come Back Africa was secretly filmed in apartheid South Africa. It depicted daily life in Johannesburg and Sophiatown. To read more, see Come Back Africa. See also: The End of the Dialogue.

Beginning in 1955, the apartheid government began forcing the people of Sophiatown to relocate to Soweto. The authorities piled people's belongings into trucks and sent people off to live in Soweto, as was depicted in the BBC's recent film about Winnie Mandela.

The struggle continues.

I have recently added several South African museums to my list of African museums.