I was reporting on an event in Centurion and the project
owner and main speaker decided to speak Afrikaans throughout his speech. I asked
for English as soon as the speeches started and he said he won’t speak English.
Nevermind the fact that this project will be on the front cover of the magazine
that I’m representing, or the fact that the majority of people who will be
using the place are black people. Thoughts of my ancestors being violated
during the slave trade come to mind, where the white man only took what he
wanted and didn’t care about anything else.
I was very upset, I should’ve walked out, I wanted to walk
out but, I unfortunately, have a job to do and there can be no excuses of
discrimination for not completing the job (it’s a vicious cycle). So I swallow
the bitter truth and just stand there with my arms folded. My anger was stirred
when a black girl, also reporting about the event, started clapping her hands
when the crowd applauded. “Why are you clapping,” I asked. She shrugged and
said it’s the Pretoria way. I shake my head in disbelief.
All people involved in the project come up and speak in
Afrikaans as well. Even some black people followed suit, and that’s when I
realised that it’s accepted in this area to be excluded based on language
because the white dominate. Its 2017, we are way past just accepting
discrimination and turning the other cheek.
I recorded the entire Afrikaans dialogue and the event
organisers’ eyes almost popped out when I asked her who will translate for me.
After the speeches, his mom comes to me and apologises on
his behalf. “My boys didn’t learn English they grew up on the farms, but they
can speak fanagalo,” she says. I’m sitting there wondering, what the fuck is ‘fanagalo’
and since when is that the appropriate language to speak between black and
white people, especially at such events? His father also comes to me and tells
me that journalists should report facts without any agendas. Ok, thank you sir,
and how am I supposed to do that when your son decides to speak in a language I
don’t understand?
The speaker also comes to me to apologise. As he’s speaking,
one of his colleagues walks by and jokingly says “are you speaking in English
now?” I realise then that my request put him on the spot. Come to think of it, I
remembered seeing some of his other colleagues looking at me sideways when I
asked for English. Clearly what I did wasn’t the norm. Who am I to make demands
in a place where the cheek is turned against racist behaviour? He then goes on
to give me a nine minute interview ALL IN ENGLISH. And why exactly he didn’t
want to speak in English? I don’t know.
What is clear to me is that the speaker is racist, the
company hosting the event is racist because the organiser could have had a translator
as soon as I asked for English, but no, they continued as ‘normal’. And lastly,
the area is also racist. Being a Jo’burger, where ‘things are done differently’,
means nothing because racist behaviour shouldn’t be accepted anywhere. If what
I did was standing up to racism, then good. Times have changed and they are
still going to change. Living with racist bullshit must fall.
Comments
Post a Comment