Bonus:- What does Rainbow nation mean in South Africa?

Send us a textI had the pleasure to answer a few questions for a Rainbow nation mini documentary for SACAP & here is how it went. Hear many voices speak about their views on what a rainbow nation means, does it really exist?Subscribe on show link for more content. Support the showSubscribe and Follow us on all social media platforms.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:08

Is what is the concept of rainbow nation means to you? For me, it means people from different background living together in one space. In South Africa, we've got different um races, different cultures, people eat different food, they enjoy different things, but yet we are able to coexist and just live in one space, live happily.

SPEAKER_03 0:37

I was told about the Rainbow Nation. I only maybe understood it as time went by, but post-apperthird era in 1995, I was in grade one, and we could then now be integrated with white students in schools. So I went to school in Binoni, um, starting my grade one, and we were told that we could, you know, be included, inclusive within the school, and learn like all the white students, and but to our surprise, that was not true. But because I didn't know better, I was told of a rainbow nation. But every time I went to school, we still were separated. White kids learned by themselves, and black kids learned by themselves, so separate classes, separate separate blocks uh within the school. Until a young um young grade one learner also uh came from the United States of America and joined our class, and he was white, but he didn't join um the other white um students of the school or pupils of the school, so he joined us black people because firstly he was not African speaking. So we then realized that there was a problem, but we didn't speak, and um during our break times we were segregated, we only ate after the white children, and only until one student fell sick and the mom came to pick her up, that's when she realized there was a problem. They spoke of an inclusive post-apathead era um rainbow nation, but still we were still as oppressed. So if you ask me what is the concept of what a rainbow nation means to you, I'll tell you that I've been told about it, but I've never experienced it.

SPEAKER_04 2:43

I think from a perspective coming from our diverse family, um I guess not not it like there's no unity but I don't know yeah like we are a very diverse country being the neighbor random nation but I think we I think we are focused too much on our differences instead of recognizing what we all have in common and we're all striving for the same thing. Um and that thing you said we but we all um unified by the struggle you know the trauma load load shedding the cost of living low income you know we're all united in that we're all angry about the same things and then when we get talking about that, then we all together, then we believe everything. Yeah, as a look basically as a collective, we thrive on our trauma and the issues that's we're dealing with.

SPEAKER_00 3:52

I just feel like it's great to have so many different people here, especially when my friends go to other countries or a lot of my friends from other countries come to visit and tell us about how, like, oh, there's so many, like, for example, so many black people, but not just black people, but oh, there's so many different races. Like, oh wow, there's so many Indian people, wow, there's quite a few East Asian people, etc. etc. etc. And I'm a huge fan of that because I don't know, when everyone's the same, I get bored. So I feel like diversity-wise, we're definitely there across the country, but a lot of spaces are still rampant with a dominant group, and normally the better spaces, the ones with better facilities, resources, etc., are still predominantly the white population. And in terms of unity, I feel like it's there at times, there's definitely some more solidarity than I'd say there would have been, you know, after colonialism and like apartheid, etc. But I still think there's a lot of old runes that need to be addressed.

SPEAKER_03 4:59

Um I think I've faced more challenges than I did successes because I only got to notice that working in corporate. I worked for a company where there was 500 white people, 30 blacks, two colored, and maybe three Indians. And yet we call it a diverse South Africa in a country where majority is black and minority is white. So I would say more of a challenge than it is a success. Having to work in a role with somebody who is my white counterpart and they get to earn more than I do, but we do the same job. So is it really a unified, diversified country? Because still I feel like a minority within a country in which I was born in. I still have to seek employment in a country in which I am born in. I still earn less than my white counterparts in a country that I call home, in a country that uh diversity and inclusion and a rainbow nation exists. So there's not really any successes that the rainbow nation has given me or shown me, and I'm not saying that um, you know, we point fingers at those that are the minority and the life they live. No, but I'm trying to paint a picture of what is a rainbow nation and how it looks on a picture or on a frame. Because right now, how it looks is smoking mirrors, it's just all a facade. We sold a dream and we think we live in it, but we're still a majority who live like a minority.

SPEAKER_00 6:54

I've personally experienced and witnessed like a lot of challenges related to the Rainbow Nation, and I'd say some successes as well. Um, I mean, successes I think are very um subjective, but I was privileged enough to go to um one of the top schools in the country. But the challenges that came with privileges like that were the fact that it was predominantly white, and predominantly white spaces are normally very suffocating towards people of color. I experienced a lot of racism, there were slurs, there were mistreatment from students, from parents, a serious lack of inclusivity as well, and just having to experience being surrounded by people who don't necessarily only see themselves as better than you, but definitely see you as someone or something beneath them, regardless. And that's just like a very difficult thing to grapple with, especially because of the relationship you start to form with your identity as like a person of colour. But I think in a lot of ways, though, especially again when it comes to the people I've seen, given everything that South Africa has been through, the racial integration now, as subpar as it is, still far exceeds time periods, such as apartheid. So it's definitely a step towards the right direction. I just think there's a constant presumption that we're further along in the direction than people admit.

SPEAKER_04 8:30

I think in schools we need to focus more on you know, I know history is important and learning about tribes and and about the Khoisan and the history of South Africa. Koisan. Koisan, sorry. Um, but life orientation can also be more focused on orienting orientating the kids to life. Have days where you expose to one another's cultures, you know, current cultures. We are so separate as one. Yeah. It's not supposed to, it doesn't work that way. So that kids kids can understand about Ramadan and other kids can learn about Christmas or Hanukkah and Easter. There's just so many opportunities for kids to learn and learn about traditions that various families have. So various mannerisms that show respect in cultures as well. And basically everything is the same thing but different in degree and perspective. So, but people just don't ask one another what it's about, like tell me about you. I think people don't ask themselves what it's about. That's a thing. Got no relationship with self, how can you have it with others?

SPEAKER_01 9:45

For me, Gan is um through education. You need it's through word of mouth, through educating people about something that they don't know. I am an adult every day. I learn so much from being a teacher, and that that open-minded, that openness to learn from somebody who's young old actually makes me to be more inclusive in that particular order, and then also just allowing myself to be vulnerable through um education, allowing myself to be able to be taught, allowing myself to receive information and also allow myself to give out the information that I know about um a certain topic or um share information about something that I am aware about in terms of um educating people about what an exclude inclusive South Africa is.

SPEAKER_04 10:58

I think we're done.

SPEAKER_02 10:59

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