Nelson Mandela (C), the President of the South African African National Congress
and South African President Frederik de Klerk (R) displaying their
Nobel Prizes after being awarded jointly for their work to end apartheid
peacefully during a ceremony in Oslo on December 10, 1993. PHOTO |
GERARD JULIEN | FILE
AFP
Monday, December 09, 2013
The sidewalk
blackboard
outside the pizza parlour in South Africa's quaint seaside village Kalk
Bay, inhabited mainly by whites, changed for the first time in months
on Friday.
"RIP Tata Madiba", it read the day after the
aged liberation leader's death, using Nelson Mandela's clan name and
the affectionate "tata" (daddy).
The other side carried a quote from Mandela encouraging people of different racial groups to love one another.
The thoughtful homily was a variation on the usual trite inspirational offering: "A day without wine is a day without sunshine."
This portrays the respect "new" South Africa's whites harbour for the revered statesman.
But
it also glosses over historical distrust of the "terrorist" imprisoned
for 27 years, then suddenly lauded for a lifetime of peaceful struggle.
It didn't fit with the image white authorities had sketched of Mandela during apartheid.
Outside the nearby Holy Trinity Anglican Church,
which dates back to early colonial days, the beautiful lychgate was
adorned with posters with images of Mandela and some of his famous
sayings.
On the main street women in short shorts
jogged past antique shops and fashion boutiques, while in the background
could be heard the whump of cannon fire from the nearby Simon's Town
naval base.
It was a practice, but a reminder that South Africa has not always been as peaceful as it is today.
And
residents' words betray a divergence in views between older generations
who once voted in favour of white-minority rule, and young people who
have known only all-race democracy in their lifetimes.
"I'm really sad," said fashion design student Philip Heijnan, 22, outside the church.
"Mandela was the country's best president. I don't think there is any one person in this country who doesn't like him."
Born
in 1992, two years before the country's first democratic elections that
ended apartheid, Heijnan plans to live out his life here, even though
he could join relatives in New Zealand.
"I'll stay in South Africa, if it still stays as great as it is."
'Whites thought he was the devil'
But down the road a dour shopkeeper had a different take on Mandela.
"While
he was in jail for 27 years whites thought he was the devil. Now they
think he was God," she said, asking not to be named because her remarks
were so out of tune with public sentiment.
A 76-year-old man painting a sign outside a pub came close to confirming her prognosis of the white psyche.
"He was a statesman, not an ordinary politician," he told AFP.
"But
you have to obey the law of the land and if he had grown old without
his punishment I don't think he would have been talking to anybody. Jail
made him, and the country."
Though South Africa today
is doing is "better generally" since the end of apartheid, corruption in
government made him doubt that "the blacks are better off".
He
cited recent security upgrades worth $20 million on President Jacob
Zuma's private home which raised a national outcry -- an meanwhile
around two million black South Africans live in shacks.
Well-to-do Kalk Bay is not necessarily representative of South Africa, which has one of the world's highest inequality rates.
It
is a stunningly beautiful place, with mountains dropping sharply down
to the sea, a small working harbour full of colourful boats, and trendy
restaurants and shops.
But it shows a South Africa that would not be recognised by those who grew up in the apartheid years.
One
restaurant owner drew decor inspiration from Cuba, the socialist island
whose soldiers he battled during the apartheid regime's Cold War
campaigns against regional neighbour Angola.
A barefoot
barman, Michiel Peters, 19, is part of the group of people born after
democracy and comfortable with staying. The descendant of initial Dutch
settlers has no plans to leave South Africa.
"I am an Afrikaner, quite traditional. I want to buy a farm."
But Mandela went to great lengths to include whites in his dream of a new world.
That
vision was based on the "Freedom Charter" of his party the ANC, which
opens with the words "South Africa belongs to all who live in it, black
or white".
This won over many distrustful whites.