The black community is cast into the shadow of time. We are stuck in the dark and this is the result of the apartheid system that governed our country less than a generation ago. Our communities were formerly bantu stans and labour reserves that were never intended for productive human existence. Even their setups do not inspire creativity which makes it extremely difficult for most people coming from there to flourish in life. There are no recreation parks, no relaxations spaces nor any social space open to all members of the community to allow for open social interaction. All we have are a lot of tarvens and churches; a space for the "unholy" alcohol drinkers and a space for the holy and faithful God fearers. The dichotomy found in the black community...if your father was a pastor, then you grow up in church and become a devout christian. If your father was a drinker, then your fate is set. No other options available in our communities. This also perpetuates a division within a community as there are no places where the people from each side can freely come together to socially interact.
On top of the religious and social division, we now have political structures which also seem to be causing more divisions and highlighting differences in individuals from party to party and from structure to structure. These divisions pose a challenge for the black community when people have to engage on ways to improve the community and offer platforms for those with ideas intended to build a better tomorrow for our children.
All of these divisions, all of the anger, the hate , the violence and fear are the legacies of apartheid. The after effects of a traumatic period from which no Black South African has fully recovered. No Black Community has fully rid itself from the negative emotions that were part of the daily experience in the townships during apartheid. People are going on about their lives hoping the memories of the past will stay in the past but they do not. The past has shaped our parents in ways that they are unaware of, subconciously influencing their every thought and decision. The fear and anger of the past is continuosly being fed into the hearts and souls of the next generation by their parents who sucked it from the breasts of their mothers.
How else would you explain the continous abuse of children by their parents and neighbours in the community? When a mother would beat up a 2 year old, full palm clap on the face for breaking a few eggs.
When a father takes out a leather belt and whips with all his might on the naked body of a 3 year old son who scratched his favourite record (CD).
Such acts of violence promote violence in the household and community and are a result of a violent background. These acts also instil fear in the hearts of the children, which further victimise and make them targets for more abuse such as molestations. When an abused child is molested, they feel they have no one to turn to. It is even more difficult when the same person molesting them is the head of the household whom is feared by everyone in the household. Sadly this is usually the scenario: the father, head of the household is a violent man who beats up his wife until she is round on the face. The wife, being abused takes out her anger and frustrations to the kids who are now afraid of her wrath. Now when the father starts molesting the kids, they feel they have no one to turn to as they are afraid of the mother and the mother is afraid of her own husband. Thus the kids feel that they are doomed.
The Black Chronicles puts all this into perspective and paints the picture to the reader and holds it up with the implicit question; do you think this is right? Do you realise how this abuse and violence is destroying our communities.
The book challenges the reader to reflect on their actions. Reflect on the nature and structures of our communities. Upon reflecting, the reader will then have to ask themselves if their contribution in their environment is life giving or life threatening. What role are you playing in the shaping of a better community for the future?
There is a scientific concept known as Enthropy that my scientist friend once explained to me. The concept of Enthropy states that everything is in a state of constant decay. This means that the nature of things, anything is constantly deteriorating and if we do nothing to maintain or improve it, it will only get worse. This is true for relationships. This is also true for our communities. If we do nothing to improve ourselves, our communities will not improve. If we do not make conscious decisions to improve, the subconcious ones will be made and they will be influenced by the hate, anger and fear that we have inherited from our parents who were broken by a syetem of hate.
The Black Chronicles says to the reader, before you punish your child for that infraction, think carefully if this decision is not influenced by an anger the child has nothing to do with. We need to deal with these emotions decisively but I am afraid I don't have any solutions to offer on how to psychologically deal with them. However what I do feel I am in position to offer is the advice that we consider our actions and constatly reflect back on the decisions we have made and correct where we find the decision was inspired by fear or anger. The old system and its emotional impacts has to end in this generation.
There is a section in the book titled: Black Progress. This section shows that there is hope that change is possible as long as our actions are geared towards creating that change. New rolemodels are made, champions are created and some light is coming to the dark side. The is a poem here titled The Chronicle. This poem encourages us not to allow our own struggles to become our children's struggles. We have the responsibility to deal with our own challenges until there is none of hem left when our children grow. That is improvement. The old one's may have failed in dealing with apartheid completely but they did their part, the laws and politics have changed. It is ours now to deal with the emotional impacts of it. The inferiority complexes, the anger and abuse that was planted in our communities. It is on us now to uproot them and get rid of them for good so our children start on a slade cleaner than ours
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