Moments in Apartheid South Africa that Changed my Life
The day I challenged the status quo changed me forever.
Apartheid was at its height in South Africa, and white South Africa lived its life as if all was just and well. Growing up in a family which actively supported the dismantling of apartheid, I knew of no other way. It was, therefore, inevitable that there would be times when something needed to be said, and I was the only one in that time and place who could say it.
Everything in the country was divided into various divisions. The beach would have whites only, Bantu only, coloreds only, Indians only, and so on. Naturally, the best beaches would be reserved for the white people. When a post office was built, it had one entrance for those who weren’t white and another entry for those who were. The ‘people of color’ had their own section of the post office and the white people had theirs. White people had areas where they could live; Indians, Malays, Africans, and other people of color had theirs. It was a brutal system, if convenient to some.
At that time, in the buses, ‘people of color’ could sit upstairs but not downstairs while Europeans (white people) could sit either upstairs or downstairs. So, one day, having finished my shopping, I boarded the bus and went upstairs. There was nobody there, and not wanting…
