Ever since Remembrance Day this year, I have had what my mother used to call “the blues” — much of it on account of what has become of the country of my birth. A country for which so many of my ancestors made the most incredible sacrifices. A country now 'ruled' by a man described as a “degenerate with five wives!” A country where, in many places, witchcraft is rampant. A country of unsurpassed violence.
What Few Remember
Before men like Hendrik Verwoerd came on the scene, South Africa was one of the most respected countries in the world. Now I’m reduced to tears by the contemplation of how the rest of the world has forgotten its contribution to the field of medicine, etc., and the prominent role it played in two world wars. (How quick Britain and the West were to isolate one of their greatest former allies! ) I cannot help blaming outside interference for actually providing a Dutch-born Prime Minster, Verwoerd, with an opportunity to leave the British Commonwealth.
Then came a nightmarish time when, while having to deal with the shock of imposed sanctions, and suddenly impoverished by the unexpected overnight withdrawal of all funds by the Chase Manhattan Bank—a procedure very quickly follower by all other leading banks—when South Africa was certainly not in a position to acquire the weaponry etc. required to fight the Cubans and other forces against which it did not have a grudge, South Africa was drawn into the Angolan War by President Ford. I shed tears whenever I think of how, as the principal of the school, I had to call a boy to my office the moment he turned 16 to sign the document for conscription — that in a country where, in every previous conflict, its people had been volunteers.
A Conundrum
During the thirty-plus years since I have happily and gratefully lived in Canada, I have often pondered a conundrum: How often is a country ruined by a leader who was not born in it? Napoleon, born in Corsica, was not French, Hitler was Austrian-born, not German, and the notorious Hendrik Verwoerd was born in Holland and not in South Africa.
Most people in the rest of the world seem to know that the world’s first heart transplant was performed in South Africa, but very few are aware of the fact that in the years before Mandela and the imposition of sanctions, South Africa provided some of the best Battle of Britain pilots. It was a country, one of whose prime ministers, Jan Christiaan Smuts, was among the architects of the League Of Nations, an association of countries established in 1919 by the Treaty of Versailles to promote international cooperation and achieve international peace and security.
Article comments
1 - Maisie Blaine
I am indebted to a friend who pointed me in the direction of this article, Bravo! it's time the tragic cost of the Angolan debacle was made known to the rest of the world. I have first-hand experience of a young life totally ruined - my son's!
2 - A very sad father
My son was not as young as some of those about whom you write, but he,too, has never been the same. Sometimes I almost dread it when he has to stay with us for any length of time " and the tragedy of it is that, after all these years since he came back from Angola, he still can’t help being so unpleasant. He came home to find all the good jobs gone (probably wouldn’t be able to hold one down for long, anyway) " and also gone was his wife!
3 - Marie Warder
I thank both you and Maisie (above) for your comments. I keep in touch with many of my former students, and I truly feel for their parents!
4 - Doyg Bissett
Angola was indeed South Africa’s Vietnam, but - if I might be permitted to say so " with one major difference. … Whenever the troops came back to their own country, they were very well treated. Almost cosseted.
I, too, am a South African expatriate, living in North America like you, and I recall that during periodic visits to my parents who had remained behind, I was struck by way people would set up tables laden with refreshments for soldiers, on street corners, there were pancake stands in shopping malls, and along even along the loneliest of highways and byways, there were clearly marked stops (like bus stops) where soldiers could wait, and few motorists ever failed to stop and give them a ride.
Sadly, however, this adulation could do little to alleviate PTSD for those who were afflicted!Nor could it restore marriages and missing limbs or heal obstinate physical wounds.
5 - Vic
Thank you for this. I was born in SA but have grown up in North America, where I have always been reluctant to make mention of that fact. I wish I had known these facts long ago, but at least I have them now, and plan to use them next time I have to write an essay.