“Identify Yourself – The Story of Bruin-ou.com” Part I<\/h1>\n
<\/center> ![\"Charles](\"http:\/\/www.multiracial.com\/images\/columnists\/ash.jpg\")
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I have such fond memories of my primary school years. I have a young daughter now, and I often think about what her primary school experience will be like. The country seems to have changed so drastically since I was in primary school that I know for certain her experiences won\u2019t be anything like mine. I close my eyes and think back to the buildings, the lunch breaks, the ball games, yoyo season, marbles, soccer, chasing, stretcher, assemblies, walking barefoot in the rain\u2026 and I smile. I think about my family, all my teachers, all my friends\u2026and then I try to think of anybody from those formative years that was not Coloured. <\/p>\n
This was Ferndale Primary School in the mid 1980\u2019s, a medium sized House of Reps primary school located in a valley in Newlands East, Durban. I\u2019m often asked why I have such a strong sense of \u201cColouredness\u201d and I always trace the source to this place. Newlands East is a typical low-income, blue-collar, working class Coloured neighbourhood, fraught with all the usual social ills which commonly plague neighbourhoods of this variety.. Nestled between the Indian area of Newlands West and the Black township Kwa-Mashu, Newlands East to me represents that resilient island of Coloured insularity. <\/p>\n
One of my most vivid memories of primary school was when the school\u2019s deputy principal would stand o\u00adn the platform in front of assembly and get the students to scream in fever pitch unison, \u201cBRUIN-OUS ARE THE MAIN-OUS!! BRUIN-OUS ARE THE MAIN-OUS!!\u201d <\/p>\n
It was here that the seeds for Coloured identity were planted. I know some readers will be quick to chastise an authority figure for imposing their racial awareness o\u00adn kids at primary school level. But, you\u2019re forgetting that this was before the time of the Constitution or the Bill of Rights. Before the release of Mandela or the dawn of the new dispensation, when South Africa was in turmoil and identity politics was the order of the day (mmm\u2026. doesn\u2019t seem like much has changed really!?). In a country where social divisions of \u201cus\u201d and \u201cthem\u201d were the order of the day, I see a teacher who tried to make \u201cus\u201d feel good about ourselves. In a system designed for the social subversion of certain groups, I see a teacher who tried to make \u201cus\u201d feel special.<\/p>\n
As time passed and I became more socially aware, I began questioning and trying to find answers to some of my questions. The high school history syllabus was filled with mentions of great African leaders, tales of intrepid European explorers, Mahatma Ghandi and how the Chinese were brought to our shores\u2026but besides Adam Kok, where were the Bruin-ous? Whether by design or some monumental oversight, there was and is very little mention of Coloured people in South African history. Is it perhaps this institutionalised lack of agency in our country\u2019s history a factor in our current communal apathy and social inertia? <\/p>\n
Which reminds me, I need to register to vote.<\/p>\n