https://www.facebook.com/jabu.khuluse/posts/10156241396438166
South African activist Mandisa Mashego has refused to shy away from the truth: European colonizers violently stripped South Africans of their lands. Just four years later, the nation’s parliament is in talks of redistributing the land to whom they once belonged.
During an appearance on Robinson Regstreek’s show in 2014, Mashego noted the history of colonialism in South Africa and the arrival of Europeans. She argued the only way for white and Black South Africans to foster a positive relationship today is if they accept this history, namely the fact that Black lands were taken by force.
“It was stolen from us,” she said. “In fact, stealing might even be mild because our people were killed. Our people were murdered.”
Regstreek tried to downplay the theft by Europeans, arguing that other tribes “arrived” in South Africa and fought and stole with one another. Mashego soon set the record straight, however, noting that those people were native to Africa. Europeans weren’t.
“I can’t engage with you on that level because the same people you talk about were Africans,” she explained. “The same people didn’t ‘arrive’ here. They are Africans. They were here. This concept of Africans having arrived somewhere within the borders of Africa is wrong.”
See more of heir exchange above.
