ABOUT THE BOOK
The greatest gift we can give to our children, and the future South Africa, is our own healing. South Africa may have moved beyond apartheid, but not beyond racial polarisation. Virtually every problem we face in this country is touched by our legacy of systemic racism and the psychological trauma it has caused to people of all races.
Racial healing is not a new and woke talk shop. It is also not a “how to” guide for do-gooders. On the contrary, racial healing requires diverse people of all ages to embrace the unique and challenging complexity of racial diversity and to forge a human bridge between multiple opposing truths that can peacefully co-exist. Only a sober admission of this complexity can help us to heal from the open, festering wound of racism that has left South Africa with the unenviable distinction of being the most unequal country in the world, a wound not necessarily unique to South Africa, but also the reason behind the violent conflict seen around the world.
The Human Bridge challenges every South African to educate themselves to become more aware of race-related issues, read, research, watch, learn, unlearn, enlighten, understand, explore, unpack, overcome and interact with people from different race groups and to start having difficult conversations about racial healing.
EXTRACT
Healing from racism is when you start to unlearn the stereotypical racial messages that you internalised about your own race and the race of others. It means that you as an individual, regardless of your race, recognise the wounds that racism has created. It means that you open your eyes to the cost of racism and start to actively reverse the beliefs that were designed to favour some people and not others.
In virtually every sphere of the economy and society the problems we face in this country are touched, in one way or another, by our legacy of racial inequity, discrimination, and injustice. In a country that seeks to be united in our diversity, our pursuit of social justice and nation healing should be among our top priorities, and yet they stand largely invisible on the list of critical plans for building a society that is prosperous, just, and equitable.
To begin this journey, we need to look no further than the preamble to our Constitution:
Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996 — Preamble
We, the people of South Africa,
Recognise the injustices of our past;
Honour those who suffered for justice and freedom in our land;
Respect those who have worked to build and develop our country; and
Believe that South Africa belongs to all who live in it, united in our diversity.
We therefore, through our freely elected representatives, adopt this Constitution as the supreme law of the Republic so as to
- Heal the divisions of the past and establish a society based on democratic values, social justice and fundamental human rights;
- Lay the foundations for a democratic and open society in which government is based on the will of the people and every citizen is equally protected by law;
- Improve the quality of life of all citizens and free the potential of each person; and
- Build a united and democratic South Africa able to take its rightful place as a sovereign state in the family of nations.
May God protect our people.
Nkosi Sikelel’ iAfrika. Morena boloka setjhaba sa heso.
God seën Suid-Afrika. God bless South Africa.
Mudzimu fhatutshedza Afurika. Hosi katekisa Afrika.
Our Constitution, and How We Have Failed It
Leon Wessels, Former Deputy Chair of the Constitutional Assembly, remarks in one of the essays in this book that the conclusion of the constitutional negotiations in 1996 gave us a set of ringing phrases in the Preamble and Foundational values.
Yet there is no common understanding as to what they mean. What people still fail to understand is that the end of the constitutional negotiations did not herald the end of constitutional dialogues. These need to continue unabatedly to ensure that the constitutional ideals can be realised.
For example, our Constitution emphasises the non-discriminatory and equitable future that we should strive for. The fact that we are still one of the most unequal societies in the world is a dark stain on our country.
It is well-documented that South Africa set a good example to the world back in the 1990s when the Nationalist government saw the writing on the wall, just in time, thereby averting a potential bloodbath. South Africans initiated the process of change from within by abolishing apartheid and negotiating a democratic dispensation guided by its leading light: our Constitution. It can even be said that South Africa did better than several other countries of the world currently caught in the grip of unrelenting racial and ethnic intolerance.
However, having peacefully negotiated the Constitution, and coming out of it (relatively) unscathed at the time, is not where the process should have ended. Our Constitution can’t be shelved simply because we have it. It must be lived. And that is our failure. Instead of creating a deliberate process of racial healing, the longer-term psychological damage and trauma of centuries of systemic racism have largely been neglected.
In the words of Chief Justice Ngcobo, our Constitution recognises that systematic racial discrimination, started in colonial times and more recently entrenched by the apartheid legal order, cannot be eliminated without positive action being taken.
As much as South Africa needs economic empowerment, it also desperately needs psychological empowerment. No new social compact can be reached and no fruitful social dialogue with the various stakeholders in the country, including government stakeholders, can be achieved without healing the wounds of our past and reversing the entrenched polarisation.
Racial Trauma
Jean Cooper in his blog ‘Heal the Beloved Country’ wrote: ‘South Africa is in trouble. Our society is traumatised, and the trauma continues. Colonisation, war, apartheid, and poverty, among other factors, have contributed to a historical cycle of perpetual trauma. Today, violent crime, rampant corruption, gender-based violence, substance abuse and unemployment continue to keep the traumatic cycle in place.
‘Simultaneously, we are experiencing a collapse of the institutions that are meant to provide the physical and psychological support needed to facilitate healing, economic growth, transformation, and the restoration of human dignity.’
We have become a traumatised society, and the advent of democracy and freedom has only scratched the surface of healing that trauma.
In her book Healing Racial Trauma, Sheila Wise Rowe records that according to a report on the Impact of Racism on African Americans in the USA, the effects of racial trauma can include fear, aggression, depression, anxiety, low self-image, shame, and substance abuse.
In a widely published study on race and psychological distress by The South African Stress and Health Study conducted in 2002-2004, the first large population-based mental health epidemiological survey in South Africa, the average psychological distress and anger/hostility scores for Africans, coloureds and Indians were found to be significantly higher than for whites.
These findings were found to be consistent with general patterns of resource inequality in South Africa researched by Statistics South Africa 2004. It would not be unrealistic to assume that the picture will not look much better now.
Indeed, a 2022 study published by Wits/Medical Research Council Developmental Pathways for Health Research Unit shows that South Africans suffer much higher rates of probable depression and anxiety than other countries such as the US, Germany and Australia, but that only a quarter of those receive treatment. It also found that those with little to no education are at an increased risk of probable depression and anxiety.
According to the researchers: ‘These findings correlate with another recent study on the intergenerational transmission of depression in South Africa. Due to the historical exclusion of certain racial groups from quality education during the apartheid era, many young South Africans continue to bear this burden with the effects felt on their mental health.’
Despite the good efforts of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), South Africa’s traumatic history has not been fully acknowledged, nor has the psychological damage and trauma been meaningfully addressed, and no amount of inattention will ever wash it away.
Everyone is affected by racial trauma. Not only the victims of racism, but also the perpetrators and beneficiaries.
The Human Bridge is published by Tracey McDonald Publishers. Extract provided by JDoubleD Publicity.
EXTRACT | ‘The Human Bridge: Racial Healing in South Africa’ by Ian Fuhr with Nina de Klerk
The greatest gift we can give to our children, and the future South Africa, is our own healing. South Africa may have moved beyond apartheid, but not beyond racial polarisation.
ABOUT THE BOOK
The greatest gift we can give to our children, and the future South Africa, is our own healing. South Africa may have moved beyond apartheid, but not beyond racial polarisation. Virtually every problem we face in this country is touched by our legacy of systemic racism and the psychological trauma it has caused to people of all races.
Racial healing is not a new and woke talk shop. It is also not a “how to” guide for do-gooders. On the contrary, racial healing requires diverse people of all ages to embrace the unique and challenging complexity of racial diversity and to forge a human bridge between multiple opposing truths that can peacefully co-exist. Only a sober admission of this complexity can help us to heal from the open, festering wound of racism that has left South Africa with the unenviable distinction of being the most unequal country in the world, a wound not necessarily unique to South Africa, but also the reason behind the violent conflict seen around the world.
The Human Bridge challenges every South African to educate themselves to become more aware of race-related issues, read, research, watch, learn, unlearn, enlighten, understand, explore, unpack, overcome and interact with people from different race groups and to start having difficult conversations about racial healing.
EXTRACT
Healing from racism is when you start to unlearn the stereotypical racial messages that you internalised about your own race and the race of others. It means that you as an individual, regardless of your race, recognise the wounds that racism has created. It means that you open your eyes to the cost of racism and start to actively reverse the beliefs that were designed to favour some people and not others.
In virtually every sphere of the economy and society the problems we face in this country are touched, in one way or another, by our legacy of racial inequity, discrimination, and injustice. In a country that seeks to be united in our diversity, our pursuit of social justice and nation healing should be among our top priorities, and yet they stand largely invisible on the list of critical plans for building a society that is prosperous, just, and equitable.
To begin this journey, we need to look no further than the preamble to our Constitution:
Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996 — Preamble
We, the people of South Africa,
Recognise the injustices of our past;
Honour those who suffered for justice and freedom in our land;
Respect those who have worked to build and develop our country; and
Believe that South Africa belongs to all who live in it, united in our diversity.
We therefore, through our freely elected representatives, adopt this Constitution as the supreme law of the Republic so as to
May God protect our people.
Nkosi Sikelel’ iAfrika. Morena boloka setjhaba sa heso.
God seën Suid-Afrika. God bless South Africa.
Mudzimu fhatutshedza Afurika. Hosi katekisa Afrika.
Our Constitution, and How We Have Failed It
Leon Wessels, Former Deputy Chair of the Constitutional Assembly, remarks in one of the essays in this book that the conclusion of the constitutional negotiations in 1996 gave us a set of ringing phrases in the Preamble and Foundational values.
Yet there is no common understanding as to what they mean. What people still fail to understand is that the end of the constitutional negotiations did not herald the end of constitutional dialogues. These need to continue unabatedly to ensure that the constitutional ideals can be realised.
For example, our Constitution emphasises the non-discriminatory and equitable future that we should strive for. The fact that we are still one of the most unequal societies in the world is a dark stain on our country.
It is well-documented that South Africa set a good example to the world back in the 1990s when the Nationalist government saw the writing on the wall, just in time, thereby averting a potential bloodbath. South Africans initiated the process of change from within by abolishing apartheid and negotiating a democratic dispensation guided by its leading light: our Constitution. It can even be said that South Africa did better than several other countries of the world currently caught in the grip of unrelenting racial and ethnic intolerance.
However, having peacefully negotiated the Constitution, and coming out of it (relatively) unscathed at the time, is not where the process should have ended. Our Constitution can’t be shelved simply because we have it. It must be lived. And that is our failure. Instead of creating a deliberate process of racial healing, the longer-term psychological damage and trauma of centuries of systemic racism have largely been neglected.
In the words of Chief Justice Ngcobo, our Constitution recognises that systematic racial discrimination, started in colonial times and more recently entrenched by the apartheid legal order, cannot be eliminated without positive action being taken.
As much as South Africa needs economic empowerment, it also desperately needs psychological empowerment. No new social compact can be reached and no fruitful social dialogue with the various stakeholders in the country, including government stakeholders, can be achieved without healing the wounds of our past and reversing the entrenched polarisation.
Racial Trauma
Jean Cooper in his blog ‘Heal the Beloved Country’ wrote: ‘South Africa is in trouble. Our society is traumatised, and the trauma continues. Colonisation, war, apartheid, and poverty, among other factors, have contributed to a historical cycle of perpetual trauma. Today, violent crime, rampant corruption, gender-based violence, substance abuse and unemployment continue to keep the traumatic cycle in place.
‘Simultaneously, we are experiencing a collapse of the institutions that are meant to provide the physical and psychological support needed to facilitate healing, economic growth, transformation, and the restoration of human dignity.’
We have become a traumatised society, and the advent of democracy and freedom has only scratched the surface of healing that trauma.
In her book Healing Racial Trauma, Sheila Wise Rowe records that according to a report on the Impact of Racism on African Americans in the USA, the effects of racial trauma can include fear, aggression, depression, anxiety, low self-image, shame, and substance abuse.
In a widely published study on race and psychological distress by The South African Stress and Health Study conducted in 2002-2004, the first large population-based mental health epidemiological survey in South Africa, the average psychological distress and anger/hostility scores for Africans, coloureds and Indians were found to be significantly higher than for whites.
These findings were found to be consistent with general patterns of resource inequality in South Africa researched by Statistics South Africa 2004. It would not be unrealistic to assume that the picture will not look much better now.
Indeed, a 2022 study published by Wits/Medical Research Council Developmental Pathways for Health Research Unit shows that South Africans suffer much higher rates of probable depression and anxiety than other countries such as the US, Germany and Australia, but that only a quarter of those receive treatment. It also found that those with little to no education are at an increased risk of probable depression and anxiety.
According to the researchers: ‘These findings correlate with another recent study on the intergenerational transmission of depression in South Africa. Due to the historical exclusion of certain racial groups from quality education during the apartheid era, many young South Africans continue to bear this burden with the effects felt on their mental health.’
Despite the good efforts of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), South Africa’s traumatic history has not been fully acknowledged, nor has the psychological damage and trauma been meaningfully addressed, and no amount of inattention will ever wash it away.
Everyone is affected by racial trauma. Not only the victims of racism, but also the perpetrators and beneficiaries.
The Human Bridge is published by Tracey McDonald Publishers. Extract provided by JDoubleD Publicity.
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