I don’t write many letters these days. Who does?
I used to like writing and receiving letters in the time before email.
I didn’t keep copies of my own letters, but my mother did. In uploading photos to a new website today I discovered scans she had made of letters I’d written.
Here’s one, dated November 18, 1990 from Port Elizabeth in South Africa, just before I met Juliet:
A very interesting letter, Michael.
Actually my Mum was saying that she heard you on the radio (ABC Local Radio?) on Monday and that you mentioned your wife was from South Africa.
I have quite a strong interest in the history and politics of South Africa and the southern African region in general.
I don’t have any personal connections to this region, but I think my interest stems from the fact that I’m half-Fijian (indigenous Fijian) and I read a book many years ago, published in the 1980′s that was comparing the general racial harmony of multi-ethnic Fiji favourably with apartheid-era South Africa.
I’m not sure this favourable comparison would still stand, given the fact that South Africa is now considered something of an exemplar non-Western democracy and that the Fijian political situation has deteriorated considerably to say the least.
I think democracy in Fiji consists primarily of brief spurts between the re-current coups.
Michael said: ‘I still haven’t seen any evidence of apartheid …’.
It is interesting what you say regarding this; from my reading I have heard too that contrary to popular belief that apartheid was dismantled suddenly in the early 1990′s, it was actually slowly dismantled over many years, with great variations between different parts of South Africa.
For instance, in the more progressive, coastal urban areas, most forms of ‘petty apartheid’*, such as seperate public facilities were phased out in the 1980′s (Cape Town apparently started as early as 1975).
On the other hand in the more conservative, inland rural areas such as the Orange Free State (now the Free State), this did not occur until the 1990′s, with full integration of primary and secondary schooling not completely implemented until 1997/1998.
I suppose this difference in attitudes to race relations has always existed in South Africa even (or especially) before the Union of South Africa in 1910.
In the early 20th century, the Cape Colony had quite progressive racial policies (by the standards of its time), which could in some ways be viewed as more progressive than the race policies pursued in part of the US Deep South at the time.
* ‘Petty apartheid’ meaning things such as seperate public toilets and park benches. ‘Grand apartheid’ referring to the rights of non-whites to vote, etc.
Twitter: mgorey
says:
I was interviewed by AM regarding Breaker Morant after they read a post on this website. A transcript of the story is here: http://ax.lv/s
Looking back, I was in South Africa at an exciting time. De Klerk was dismantling apartheid and change was rapidly occurring.