Stop running after whites
TELEVISION coverage of the shocking story of the person killed in the University of Johannesburg stampede showed thousands of people thronging to UJ to register at the former whites-only Rand Afrikaanse Universiteit.
This incident reflects the negative feelings and perceptions we have about ourselves as black people that display self-hate, self-disrespect, an inferiority complex and a propensity to believe in anything from whites.
Slavery, colonialism and apartheid seem to have conditioned black people that we are inferior and that whatever is ours is inferior to what is associated with our former "masters" and "guardians", the whites.
One of the main causes of the UJ stampede is that many blacks flock to previously whites-only institutions in the hope of getting a better education. Many black people also believe that it is prestigious and status-enhancing to move into former white residences.
But why do we have to always follow the whites? Don't we have our own lives, values, institutions and systems that we can build up and improve on?
Why are we unable to do our own thing? Since blacks took over political power in 1994 there has been no new town or city planned and built from scratch. How many new universities have been built since 1994?
My submission is simple: Let us build new towns and cities that we can proudly own and name after our icons. Let us build new schools and universities where we can proudly teach and learn our own history, heritage and values. Stop running after the whites. Let us reverse the negatives about ourselves by respecting and loving ourselves and by taking our values, culture and history seriously.
Tlou Setumu
Makgabeng, Limpopo
Mgebe
I don't only regard your article as stupid, bt it essentially lacks the logic of someone who actually has a grain of sense.We cant help running after whites since its their institutions that are putting out employable graduates. You know as well as i do that a graduate from the UCT will be given first preference to one from the WSU with their strike record and all.
Suggesting that we wait for the governement, which has a good rack record of making empty promises to build tertiary institutions is nothing but a pipe dream considering that they cant even eradicate mud schools.
So before you put finger to keyboard get your facts straight since you end up coming across as an idiot.
