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by Anonymous |
Judith Marshall is OXFAM-Canada's Programme Development Officer for Southern Africa. She has recently returned from a tour of the area which included a visit to South Africa where the apartheid (separate development) system segregates people according to their race. In one of the Black townships outside Johannesburg, Judith was particularly impressed by the involvement of students in the FIGHT FOR RIGHTS against racism and oppression. In a letter she wrote to OXFAM from there, she said:
"I visited Soweto yesterday afternoon. On entering, we hastily turned down a side street to avoid a careening riot squad truck. Children fled in terror as it roared past. My student companions explained that those in it tended to 'shoot first and ask questions later'. We took refuge in one of the houses. 'This matchbox is where we live; myself, my mother and father, and my six brothers and sisters,' explained another student. There are 3 and 4 room versions of these houses, row after row of them, all identical. At night they are lit by candlelight. No electricity for Soweto with more than one million residents.
"In South Africa today there is little that is normal. These young people you see with me in the picture, for example, and as many as 198,000 older students, have all been out of school since June 1976. More recently their teachers have also resigned from the system. They have said 'no' to the Bantu Education that relegates them to the role of menial labourers, never able to be more than second or third class citizens in their own country. They have said 'no' to the complexes of inferiority engendered by such an education system. if there is one thing that 'Black Consciousness' means, it is a challenge to the myths of racial superiority, and a determination for dignity and action to end apartheid."
When Judith Marshall returned to Canada she had much more to tell. Many of the people she talked to have been arrested. She says there are more than 1000 students now in South Africa's jails.
She asked students and teachers in South Africa, "What can we in Canada do to help?" Their reply was that economic pressure could be put on the South African government.
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"Get your government and companies to stop doing business with South Africa. Boycott South African products. Campaign against Canadian bank loans to South Africa." |
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OXFAM Canada is inviting you to become involved in the FIGHT FOR RIGHTS in Southern Africa.
There are three things that you can do:
(1) Learn about the struggles of Southern Africans to regain their rights as human beings with dignity in their own countries.
(2) Find out about Canadian links to Southern Africa: trade links, companies and banks which invest in apartheid; and organizations like OXFAM, churches, and others who give support to those trying to change the unjust and illegal systems.
(3) Raise money to help OXFAM Canada fund projects like a fishing cooperative or a community education centre among Southern Africans who are trying to develop themselves.
To get your SOUTHERN AFRICA INFORMATION KlT, write to:
OXFAM -Canada
175 Carlton Street,
Toronto, Ontario
M5A2K3
or phone (416)961-3935
©1999 TG Magazine/Le Magazine TG
tgmag@tgmag.ca