Bruin-ou, where in the world would you find one? ‘Everywhere’
by Cornel Rayners
December 2003/January 2004
Searching for the genetic anomaly of the pure bred, the so-called Aryan, is not beyond the conception of man. In fact the history of man is wrought and written by the search for the genetic anomaly, may it be based on principles of economy, politics, tribalism, belief, ethnicity or ideas (delusions) of supremacy. With the intervening hand of science and social engineering a pure bred has been fabricated, several times over in the history of man at the expense of spiritual ethics and morals. A pure bred as concept, belief and reality occurring requires a masterful and meticulous inhumane plan. At this stage in human development the pure bred, a rarity, is truly an exception rather than a reality. History as a master teacher reveals that a quest for a pure bred is shackled to the marrow and bone to exclusivity and gross human violations stretching back to the beginning of recorded history. The pure bred should not only read genetic purity but also a quest for religious, economic, political, cultural and social homogeneity, in other words exclusivity in all spheres of life.
Show me a pure bred and surely a human being would be depicted, a bastard to be more precise. In South Africa this bastard is called colored, a true misconception. If my skin were not black then it would be colored for I am born of the fusion of many black nations or tribes, alas my genetics is mixed. If my skin were not white then it would be colored for I am born of the fusion of many white nations or clans, alas my genetics is mixed. If my skin were not white, black or even colored then it would be human for I am born of the fusion of many nations, tribes or clans. The bastard, the colored, the mix-breed, the mulatto or by any name exist is the human pure bred, Aryan. Their blood is richly mixed, the genes are bountiful and blessed, and the breeding follows a good strong line of a mixed culture. A culture, bountiful and blessed with the breeding of a richly mixed blood, genes, religion, tradition and social conventions following the sacred path of nature and life.
In Africa the indigenous people divided into tribes and developed naturally with varying and different cultural, political, religious, social norms, customs and languages or dialects. Inter-tribal marriages took place and the women would be obliged to take residence in the husband’s culture, clan or tribe. A bastard race slowly and silently shattered, littered across the length and breath of Africa. This story does not end here it is merely the beginning, control drama as this bastard race exists the world over, occurring within the white and black landscape of humanity aside from the cases where white and black blood has been mixed forging more unique individuals. With certainty this more unique individuals, these half-breeds were scorned, scourged, discriminated and ineptly labeled, eventually marginalized.
Throughout the colorful history of South Africa, various concepts and ideologies has been used to label, enforce, enslave and segregate. One such label, word is ‘hot-not’ and ‘bastard’, being of sound birth in the days of Jan van Riebeeck and his cronies, when they were unable to resist the alluring appeal of a fine native ass under an inviting African sky. And magically, as if some African voodoo played a part, the first coloured being of European and native Khoisan (Khoi-khoi and San) decent sprung forth from the Cape shores around the fortress. Growing defiance towards the British Empire and the discovery of gold in Transvaal and the Orange Free State, some European colonialists trekked through the length and breadth of South Africa, coming into close contact with the native blacks. Once again the African voodoo sang an enchanting lullaby under an African sky, yet again, another mix-breed being of European and native Black (Xhosa, Zulu, etc) decent – sprung forth from the Highveld and Lowveld. As South Africa became an important vestige and halfway house of trade between Europe and Asia, Africa also suffered the grunt of the slave trade. Firstly, the exporting of Africans as slaves to the America’s. During these days blacks were reduced to commodities and slaves. Secondly, the importing of Malayans as cheap and forced labor – as the natives was seen as lazy, untrustworthy and ignorant (to the ways of the European colonialists). The chanting of some foreign religious mantra to the drums of the African plateau lingered again spawning another masala-mix of European and Malayan decent.
This inter-pollination of genes was not only confined to fornicating, forced or with permission, to the whim of the European colonialists with the natives or the Malayans, but between all people of different ethnicity and cultures visiting South African shores, fuelling the growing numbers of an ethnical hybridization. Alas the number of the bastard offspring rose steadily; as these mix-breeds procreated among themselves naturally. Through the times and forces of urbanization, declining imperialism of the British Empire, the Boer war, the First and Second World Wars and the establishment of Boer Nationalism in South Africa, the mix breed grew significantly. In time and with certainty these more unique individuals, these half-breeds were scorned, scourged, discriminated and ineptly labeled, eventually marginalized. Offset with the introduction and legitimizing of apartheid by the national party in 1948 ‘Separate but equal’ and further entrenched with the group areas act, segregation, re-classification as coloreds (kleurling) and forcibly grouped together.
This term, concept and construct of colored was and still is very tenuous. Tenuous in the sense that the heritage of coloureds is shrouded in a veil of different languages, beliefs, cultures, prejudices, religious and social affiliations. Roughly this relates to the (in)visible hierarchy of imposed social class distinction between coloured people based on feature discrimination, economy, misplaced sense of class, religion/beliefs and ignorance; fostered and maintained by the Apartheid Republic. A social and people bigotry illuminated in the form of demeaning slurs as ‘hot-not’, ‘bushie’, ‘gam’ and ‘baster’ imposing a humanistic heresy that people are inferior to others.
A shared culture, defined as a shared heritage, tradition, socially entrenched customs, beliefs, language, and vision, between coloureds have been forged through the Union Years, the PACT years, the Apartheid years, the Equality years in the guise of a shared rejection, oppression, discrimination, poverty and escalating social issues like gangsterism, alcoholism, abuse and affirmative action. An unique feature of a coloured culture is that it is not based in conventional and traditional (Western, if you like) precepts, definition or description of culture. A broad definition of colored culture is based on a stereotype that coloured people are untrustworthy, lazy, drunkards, thieves, gangsters, murderers, drug peddlers, abusers, con artist, you name it… still ring through the corridors of society. The presumed nature and defined characteristics, ‘the colored commandments’, of life as a coloured is based on stereotypical assertions maintained by political, social and economic exclusion. Either colored people have failed to rise above their conditions or circumstances created and maintained by the Apartheid government of which their identity as an insular group have been traumatized and is in state of paralysis or in denial; or the present government has failed to make significant contributions to alleviate the plight of the so called colored people; or the present government and coloured leadership has inadvertently embarked to maintain and sustain the racial landscape immorally legitimized by the Apartheid government; or simply we as people have failed to see and meet each other as people. By law we are free and equal but still, in shackles and chains mentally. Servants and subordinates to the ‘Separate but equal’ Apartheid government premise.
A major factor in the fickleness of a race and the stereotypes thereof lies entrenched in the dogma of Apartheid (separate development of the races). Race as a social construct is based on a premise of homogeneity, discernible features and traits, where racial distinction is seen as a biological fact, that can be used to label an entire community or group of people. This practice is a farce upon the human race when confronted with the simultaneous racial duality that is the hallmark of coloured people. The impact and repercussions of race fascism should not be underestimated on the psyche of people. An aftermath can be seen in the struggle some people have with the notion that coloureds are seen as black under a new dispensation, as a matter of political convenience or a quick-fix to a community afflicted with an social and cultural identity crises.
Having black blood pumping through your veins and living with the struggle does not colour you black. Even though the people of mixed racial decent are labeled as being black by the international community. Having white blood pumping through your arteries and sharing white culinary habits does not taint you white. The nature and history of South African society dictates that people of mixed racial decent were always categorically separated from blacks and whites.
Succumbing to the popular MTV-type opinion that decrees that if you are not white, then you are automatically black is not an option. Whether this is some covert ploy to maintain the integrity of institutionalized binary race thought of there being only two sides to the race coin or possibly, an effort to avoid addressing the connecting fiber of a seemingly white and black world – people of colour can only stake their tenure of the future by accepting their diverse cultural and genetic imprints. Coloured people are neither black nor white. If coloured people are white or black, then the apartheid government has certainly succeeded in robbing us of our identity. If black and white is the only two sides of the coin, then surely the colored is the coin.
In South Africa, the coloured identity is much more established and insular than in any other part of the world. This semblance of a coloured identity is just enough for the way forward. Bruin-ou, a concept of racial deconstruction with the aim to dissect the precepts and borders of racial thought that continues to artificially divide. This patronizing concept of colouredness, a vestige of white supremist creation, only serves to alienate people of mixed heritage in terms of unity, self-respect, self-worth and vision.
Obliviously this genealogy of a colored people could be a valid account but it is irrelevant. It is irrelevant as it can just easily be the genealogy of so-called white and so-called black people. Show me a pure bred and surely a human being would be depicted, a pure mix-breed. The stigma of being white, black or colored and colouredness has tainted and stunted the development of mankind. Tainted once but now the colorful collage are no more the derelicts of society but the ilk of a new and better tomorrow.
Being exclusive and supremist is the way of the past, the future holds that we meet each half-way at all cost to prevent another undue bloodshed. Any form of militant and radical belief in a dogma is proof enough of the rape and pillage of freedom. Freedom at the hands of bloodshed is the way of the past, freedom of the future lies with you, saying ‘no more segregation of any sort’. We as people, as individuals have to choose to re-address the prejudices and economic disparities that are still rife in our society.
No more segregation forged in the trenches of a currency. The bartering of the human race at any cost is not permitted. The trade in humans led to slavery, to fuel ancient and modern economies, which ultimately is cornerstone of many basic human rights violations. For every human right there is a corresponding discrimination that is either legitimized or practiced somewhere in the world. An ism that divides either along racial, economic, social, religious or political lines which directly impacts in the way people respect and treat each other. Racism, for the lack of a better word, is 99% in the mind and 1% reality. Racism confined to color is a fallacy. Racism in truth is based in economics, but manifest in ethnic, cultural, regional and spiritual (to name a few) exclusions. History proves this over and over. Being American, being South African, being British is not only about identity or nationalism but another form of racism.
Economics attached to a deviant trait of man, wanting to control others, are responsible for the poor relations between mankind. There is no suggestion that the economic system should be abolished or abandoned, on the contrary it should be revisited by a world truth and reconciliation council investigating the intention of man in relation to principles of fair economics and racial profiling; and how the practice of past economic (and foreign) policies or treaties have lead to war and division between man; and ultimately draw up an international economic and foreign charter. A desired result would be that the laws that protect the rich from the poor, and the poor from the rich would be re-written to protect mankind. A classless society I hear you shout in dismay. Yes and No! Yes, as man has allowed economics to destroy and decay the moral fiber upon which his existence depends. And no as your conception of a classless society, is based on a prior knowledge of class. If the concept class did not exist in the first place, you would not have known about class. Then truly we all would be free and equal.
Copyright © 2003 Cornel Rayners. All rights reserved.