A Legacy of Youth Violence Haunts Apartheid
Lloyd Vogelman & Graeme Simpson
The dramatic changes South African society has witnessed over the past year have the potential to fundamentally alter the political and behavioural landscape.
But euphoria turned to deep concern and pessimism as violence exploded around the country. For many, shock and confusion replaced expectations of a move toward national reconciliation. Why, they asked, was violence of such a brutal nature dominating daily life?
Today's violence is rooted in history – it is the ghost of apartheid come back to haunt its creators. One must look at that legacy to understand this upsurge in violence. It has bred social deprivation, fostering frustration and the potential for violence. This does not always take the form of political violence, but permeates society through increased crime rates, murder, rape, wife battery and child abuse.
In all societies the population grouping with the greatest investment in the future is the youth. Many of the young experience a sense of omnipotence, a feeling of enormous power to do things and escape the consequences of those actions. Youth is also a period of low frustration tolerance that views the world in terms of absolutes. Add racism and social neglect to this profile and the potential for violence increases dramatically.
South African youth have grown up with a culture of violence. They lived – and still live – their lives amidst dirty townships, in overcrowded housing with no sanitation, hot water or electricity. They are frequently the children of large families whose parents work long hours and give them little time or attention. Many lost parents to alcohol or workplace injuries. They have lived their lives without political rights, and parliaments and other institutions of peaceable change have little meaning for them. They have never known a formalised institution that could bring a better life to them and their parents through non-violent means.
These are also the children who had little schooling. They were part of the school boycotts of the 1980s. Without an education and with few skills, they have little to offer an economy that is more in recession than out. Their hunt for employment has ended in repeated rejections; for this generation of South Africans, the formal economy does not exist.
Such experiences do not build confidence or optimism about the world. They breed a view of the world as an uncaring place. For this lost generation of South Africans, South Africa is a place where others benefit and they do not.
This is a generalised picture, but it probably reflects the average emotional history of 60% of the black population who are under 20 years old. Apartheid has dehumanised their existence. In this culture of violence, calls for calm and condemnation of random brutal violence cannot solve the social problems that underpin the outbreak of violence. Indeed, on occasion, the stronger the call for restraint, the stronger the rebellion against it.
It is nearly impossible to restrain this violence; it may still be possible to reduce it. People are less prone to committing violence when the future has something to offer them. One of the ways to give people a stake in the future is to make it easier to fulfill their human potential. This means ending racism, and providing opportunities for jobs, education, and adequate housing. It means allowing – or creating – channels through which social contributions can be made and providing people with a real sense that they can influence political development – without resorting to violence.
A key step is establishing a democratic government. Social transformation cannot wait for the end of apartheid or a negotiated settlement; it is a process that must begin immediately. It is essential that the majority of South Africans are given a greater sense of control over their lives.
One of the most important steps would be to rebuild the local organisations that were largely smashed in 1987 because the government saw these street committees, civic, youth, and women's organisations as threatening. Ironically, it is only the respected township figures the government destroyed who can really win the confidence needed to assert leadership and bring calm.
Another important step is effective and unbiased policing. This has been virtually an impossibility in South Africa. Police violence, detention without trial, and hit squads alleged to have been involved in political assassinations have not done anything to inspire confidence in law enforcement. This makes people more inclined to take the law into their own hands. Informal revenge replaces formal policing with the inevitable consequence of excessive brutality. The only solution to this phenomenon is to develop an alternative police force, which will inspire confidence.
What of crime? South Africa has more than 32 murders per day. In Witwatersrand it is almost 10 per day. This is twice the average murder rate of New York City. Yet there is no substantial anti-crime programme in South Africa. Anti-crime programmes require long-term planning and short-term solutions such as a better police force, therapeutic and legal assistance for the victims, and prison rehabilitation.
South Africans need to recreate a non-violent culture. This will take a long time, but we must begin, now, with research, critical and self-critical evaluation, policy formulation and, above all, action. Great as the pain may be for South Africans now, the spiral of violence becomes less overwhelming if one can feel confident that the torment of the present conflict and what underpins it will end. It can end if we remember that we are not mere victims of our world – we can change it.
Lloyd Vogelman is a founder and former Director of the Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation.
Graeme Simpson is a founder and former Executive Director of the Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation.
In Psychology International, Vol. 2, No. 1, Winter 1991.
© Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation
