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Campus News
Maki Mandela Gives Vivid Account on Apartheid
Black Ink
Soweto USA returns (photo by Reubena Whitted)
In her vivid account of the oppressive
conditions inflicted upon the 24 million
black South Africans, Maki Mandela,
daughter of imprisoned South African ac
tivist Nelson Mandela, gave a more harsh
and realistic depiction of apartheid.
As the 32 year old Fulbright Scholar
at the University of Massachusetts
walked onto the Memorial Hall stage
November 10 to deliver her speech, she
was greeted with a standing ovation from
an approximately 1,500 member
audience.
In her speech, sponsored by the
Carolina Union Forum Committee and the
campus Y’s Human Rights Week,
Mandela began to talk about the restricted
social conditions between black and white
South Africans.
“It is a crime in South Africa to visit
white areas, to have white friends. You
can be thrown into prison, fined and de
tained,” she revealed.
However, it was at the age of 9 when
Mandela first experienced racism. Her
love for children prompted her to kiss a
white baby, for which she was slapped
and firmly pushed to the ground.
“How does a mother explain to a 9
year old about apartheid?” inquired
Mandela.
According to Mandela, all the black
South African parents want is to bring
their children up to show “love, compas
sion, and respect” for all human beings.
But the separation of blacks and whites
begins “from the cradle to the grave.”
Mandela further discussed the poor
hiring conditions for the black South
Africans. She particularly focused on her
hometown, Soweto where the blacks live
in matchbox houses. Also, they must have
a housing document with the names of all
the occupants in each house. If a black
South African were staying with a relative
and the white South African police invad
ed the house, the visiting South African
could be throwned in jail because his or
her name was not on the housing
document.
“They (blacks) live in constant fear
of being raided by the police,” said
Mandela. “They live in fear of what
might happen to their children, relatives,
and friends.”
Since the South African government
doesn’t fund housing for blacks, the pro
fits from beer halls provide the money ac
cording to the National Beer Act of 1908.
Education for black South Africans
represents the most oppressive conditions
of apartheid. Mandela said it has been one
of their (the South African government’s)
major tools.”
‘ ‘They educate blacks just enough to
fulfill the demands for the South African
economy,’’said Mandela.
Mandela described the educational at
mosphere for black students as the “most
inferior.” Black students are taught in
fragile buildings under asbestos without
laboratories or any other science equip
ment. Additionally, there are overcrowd
ed classrooms with very few teachers. All
the text books contain an emphasis on
white superiority. Blacks have to pay for
these books along with the uniforms and
other fees whereas the education for
whites is free.
“Very few families are able to cope
with financial fees because of low wage
fees,” revealed Mandela. This is why on
ly one percent of blacks graduate from the
twelfth grade.
In summing up the deprived educa
tional system Mandela revealed that “the
education of black Africans was never in
tended to produce responsible indivduals
who could find work in any country. It
is only to produce good servants for the
white men.”
Mandela has always kept an op
timistic view about her father. Nelson
Mandela, who has been in prison for 24
years.
“1 know he will be released,” she
stated earlier in a press conference. She
also described her father as being "much
more stronger, much more determined.”
Even though her father was depriv
ed from his fight for racial integration in
the parliament and education and a peo
ple’s free society, he has never showed
any remorse.
‘ ‘My father does not and has not for
one minute ever regretted giving up his
life, his child, his wife for the African
people. He knows it has not been in
vain,"explained Mandela.
Mandela commended some of the
anti-apartheid efforts made by Americans.
"I think the (college) students have
helped a lot in shaping the opinion of apar
theid,” said Mandela. As for black
Americans she added, “I think black
Americans are trying in an effort to speak
and act out against apartheid but they have
their home problems.”
She feels that divestment is “just
playing acting on their (businesses’) part”
and will not help the blacks. “What do
blacks have to lose?” Mandela asked.
"They (blacks) are not fighting white
people. They are fighting the racist apar
theid system,”she adamantly explained.
In relation to the Civil War and the
1960’s era, oppressive conditions bring
about an undesired reaction.
"Those people who make peaceful
change impossible make violent change
unavoidable,” Mandela said.
She believes that the present reaction
in South Africa will eventually make that
peaceful change but it will be "a long war
before blacks achieve their goal.”
Yvette Cook, Staff Writer
Date Rape Is A Serious Crime
If your friend claims that she has been
raped, the first thing you should do is
believe her, said an Orange County Rape
Crisis Center lecturer Wednesday night,
Nov. 12, at the Upendo Lounge.
About 55 people attended “Can’t
Slow Down,” a program co-sponsored by
Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity and Universi
ty Housing to inform people about the
definition, penalties, reactions and
prevention of date rape.
Bob Loddengaard, of the rape crisis
center, lectured the group, which discuss
ed good dating experiences and com
munication between dating partners.
“Should a person be direct about
sex?” Loddengaard asked. According to
Loddengaard, people would like to be
more direct about sex, yet many are reluc
tant to and find it difficult to talk about.
Loddengaard presented the audience
with a situation in which a girl says ‘no’
to a guy but doesn’t resist when the guy
forces himself on her.
“Is it rape?” he asked.
Many people in the audience respond
ed by saying that it was not rape.
A lot of times girls say ‘no’ and don’t
mean ‘no’,” said a member from the
audience.
Yet a lot of females disagreed.
“When a girl says ‘no,’ she means
‘no’,” said Alicia Jackson.
Stuart Scott, of Alpha Phi Alpha,
said, “Females don’t have to put up a
struggle to resist.”
Loddengaard agreed. “If she says
‘no,’ that’s rape,” he said.
Loddengaard also stressed the impor
tance of not blaming the victim. He said
that rape was not necessarily a sex act, but
was an act of power and control.
“Sex is an agreed upon act between
two people,” he said.
Loddengaard also mentioned that
alcohol plays a major role in date rape.
Alcohol is usually involved in the situa
tion 90 percent of the time, he said.
Loddengaard also informed the au
dience of the penalties for rape.
According to Loddengaard, first
degree rape is punishable by life in prison;
second degree, up to 40 years; and an at
tempt to rape, by up to 10 to 20 years in
prison.
About 70 percent of all rapes are
premeditated, said Loddengaard. Only 20
to 50 percent of all rapes are reported, he
said. And only about two percent of those
are false.
He also stated that one of every 12
women will be raped in their lifetime.
One problem that rapists and rape
victims have, is admitting to themselves
that they have raped someone or they have
been raped, Loddengaard said.
According to a study conducted at
Auburn Universtiy, 50 percent of the
males surveyed had raped someone. Yet
zero percent admitted on the survey that
they had raped anyone.
Of the females surveyed, 85 percent
said that they had experienced some form
of sexual agression against them and 20
percent had been forced into intercourse.
Yet zero percent of these women said they
had been raped.
Some of the reactions stemming from
a female being raped include feelings of
guilt, fear, aloneness, dirty, betrayal, un
trustworthiness and loss of self-esteem.
Rape victims should go in search of
safety, medical care, police, a helpline,
the Orange County Rape Crisis Center,
and your personal support, he told the
audience.
Loddengaard works as a lecturer and
companion for rape victims at the Orange
County Rape Crisis Center at 967-7273.
Sheila Simmons, Co-Editor